In the ever-evolving world of digital marketing, staying ahead of the SEO trends is among the most important things for content creators. But, recent developments from Google have sent ripples throughout the content creation and SEO landscape.
A while ago, Google took a stand on AI not having room in the content creation realm. They firmly believed that content should be crafted by real people, for real people – something they described as “content written by people, for people.” However, in a more recent status update, Google said revising its own rules to recognize the growth of artificial intelligence. The search giant has announced a seismic shift in its SEO playbook, focusing on the quality of content rather than its origin, be it human or AI-generated.
This paradigm shift does raise some questions about the future of content creation and SEO strategies.
In this article, we want to take a closer look at Google’s new guidelines, and what it means for content creators worldwide.
Google’s New Update
In the most recent update to Google Search’s “Helpful Content Update,” we noticed that the company dropped the term “written by people”. According to an article by Stack Diary, these words have been substituted with a declaration that Google continuously evaluates “content crafted for human consumption” to determine site rankings on its search platform.
If you’re wondering what this change of language means, the updated wording on the site indicates Google’s acknowledgment of AI as a crucial content creation tool. So, rather than distinguishing AI from human-generated content, the prominent search engine aims to emphasize valuable content. Google’s new update underscores the search engine company’s commitment to content quality.
Google Is Incorporating Artificial Intelligence
In the meantime, Google seems to be all in on the AI craze, so to speak. The search giant is investing in its own AI products, ranging from a news generator to their own chatbot, Bard.
So, it’s only fitting that they’re giving their guidelines a makeover. It makes a lot of sense when you look at it that way. This update to their guidelines is Google’s way of making sure their house rules sync up with their grand plan for the AI-powered future.
While this is a game-changing move, Google says it will continue rewarding content that’s both original and genuinely useful.
How Do Google’s New Guidelines Affect SEO?
Just in case the term is new, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to the strategies that are implemented in order to improve a website’s rankings on a particular search engine, or in this case, Google.
The higher the rank, the greater the traffic and site visibility.
Because Google hasn’t changed its SEO guidelines to reflect the AI trend too, the use of low-quality AI-generated content will harm SEO by a long shot. As such, writers should play a role in ensuring that the content is SEO-optimized, useful, and relevant to the user. While AI-generated content can be a valuable tool, it too has to meet Google’s quality and relevance standards.
AI-Generation vs. AI-Detection Is Still A Never-Ending Battle
As always, Google penalizes the use of AI for tasks like summarizing other articles. The company has its own way of detecting AI-generated content.
In a statement, Google said that the process uses a machine-learning model. That implies that there aren’t any human reviewers looking through each piece of content line-by-line, but rather AI that can tell good content from bad content.
Still, detecting AI-generated content is becoming challenging as time goes on, mostly because it relies on imprecise detecting tools.
A while ago, OpenAI removed the AI-detecting tool from its roster after acknowledging that the tool was inaccurate. Because model creators train AI writers to write human-like or natural sentences, AI detection gets more and more challenging. So, it’s a never-ending battle between content generation and AI content detection and discrimination.
What We Think About Google’s Updated Guidelines
Google is clearly placing more emphasis on the user experience and the relevance of content. The company is not focusing on whether it’s human-written or AI-generated. This will have significant implications for content creators and marketers.
As we said before, the digital marketing landscape is constantly evolving. And so is SEO. Search engines frequently update their algorithms to provide better search results. This shift towards valuing quality content aligns with Google’s ongoing efforts to improve the overall search experience.
The bottom line is that all Content creators and SEO professionals should stay updated with Google’s guidelines. By doing so, they will continue prioritizing creating content that not only offers quality but is also relevant.
Source: Google
Image Credit: Image by Javier López from Pixabay
