Well, I guess that settles it! (image credit Florian Schmetz)

The questions around what Google really thinks of AI content has been the cause of a few sleepless nights for many content creators. After all, you can’t improve your customers experience if your AI content doesn’t rank well. Checks on post rankings, index status, plus obsessing over AI detection scores have become part of the AI content landscape.

This state of affairs is understandable, because Google’s position on AI content hasn’t always been clear.

Google Policies for AI Content

 Google has always been at the forefront to ensure that users get the best possible experience when searching for online content.  So when AI content became popular it didn’t take them long to outline their initial policies.

In 2019 Google published the blog post “AI content in search results”. This article was ambiguous and unclear on whether AI content was  eligible for ranking or indexing. How well AI content could be searched seemed to corelate with how non robotic the content was. 

 in other words, AI content was ‘bad’ and human content was ‘good’. And what that actually meant was quite subjective.

Like Water in a Desert (image credit Austin Chan)

New Polics for AI Content

But AI driven content writers have come a long ways since 2019. In March 2023 Google published an updated policy in their Google for Developers blog titled “Google Search’s guidance about AI-generated content”. 

This time, the new policy explicitly states that Google will not penalize AI content simply because it was created using AI.

• Content must be high-quality and meet Google’s other guidelines. 
• Google will not rank or index AI content that is spam or low-quality.
• Google’s policies on AI content are still evolving, but the company is committed to providing a fair and equitable ranking system for all content, regardless of how it was created.

That’s great news for content creators! After all, the line between human and AI driven content is getting fuzzier every day. But before we toss those AI detectors let’s take a look at how Google defines high quality.

Google Adds an Extra ‘E’ to E-E-A-T

E-E-A-T (formerly E-A-T) stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It is a set of criteria that Google uses to evaluate the quality of websites and content. Websites and content that demonstrate EEAT are more likely to rank higher in Google Search results.

• • Experience: Google considers the extent to which the content creator has the necessary first-hand or life experience for the topic. For example, a website that provides medical advice should be created by a doctor or other medical professional.
  • Expertise: Google considers the level of expertise that the content creator has in the subject matter. For example, a website that provides financial advice should be created by a certified financial planner.
  • Authoritativeness: Google considers the reputation of the content creator and the website. For example, a website that is published by a well-known university is more likely to be considered authoritative than a website that is published by a small, unknown organization.
  • Trustworthiness: Google considers the overall quality of the website and content. For example, a website that is well-written, free of errors, and up-to-date is more likely to be considered trustworthy than a website that is poorly written, contains errors, and is out-of-date.

You can read more at the Google Search Central Blog post “Our latest update to the quality rater guidelines: E-A-T gets an extra E for Experience”: https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2022/12/google-raters-guidelines-e-e-a-t

Google Whisperer – Just a Little of That Human Touch 

We have Google’s green light on AI content complete with their high quality guidelines. Now we can move forward with confidence by keeping a few points in mind.

• • You’re an editor now: Think of an AI content writer as a writing assistant rather than the writer. And think of yourself as the editor who was just handed a first draft.
  • Human touch required:  It may be tempting to rely solely on AI content generators for your work. However Google’s algorithms are designed to identify and penalize articles that do not tell your own unique story.
  • Edit Your Content: Avoid publishing unedited or poorly edited text. Use an editing tool like Grammarly to ensure your article is free of errors.
  • Create Unique Titles: Your title should be engaging while accurately describing what readers can expect from the article. 
  • SEO: Hopefully you are already using an SEO tool on your website. If so you’re likely aware of the overlap between SEO and optimizing for quality content. More on this in a later blog post. In the meantime, if you’re looking for a quality SEO tool that’s affordable, check out SEO Surfer.
  • More Optimization: Google still has most of the same quality standards that have driven article optimization as we know it. Quality still means images / videos, internal and external links, Meta descriptions, etc.

The good news is that a number of AI content writing platforms are no longer just a prompt where you make content requests. They are adding features and integrations that assist you with the entire publishing process. 

More on what that looks like soon. Subscribe here if you’d like to stay updated!