The Future Of AI Content & Beautiful, Strategic SEO: Are You Ready?
The quote unquote, “war against the machines”, that Sarah Connor warned us about back in 1991 when Terminator 2 hit our cinema screens is upon us…and it’s not all post-apocalyptic lazer beams, advanced cybernetic assassins and killer AI systems sent back in time to obliterate the almost 8 billion (and counting) living human inhabitants on earth.
Defined as far back as 1956 as, “the construction of computer programs that engage in tasks that are currently more satisfactorily performed by human beings because they require high-level mental processes such as: perceptual learning, memory organization and critical reasoning”, AI is much more than a far out, futuristic movie plot.
It’s the 61% of businesses worldwide using sophisticated monitoring systems to ‘watch’ what a chunk of 4.5 billion plus active social media users are saying about their (and their competitors’) brands, products and services 24 / 7 / 365. It’s the half a billion of us welcoming always-on, smart listening devices such as Alexa into our homes like a digital member of the family. The 40 million self-driving cars that’ll be essentially chauffeuring us everywhere by 2030. And not forgetting the 15.3% of the US population alone who own or have ‘connected with’ an out of the box, ready to rock sexbot.
The list of everyday AI examples goes on…and on…and on…right down to the sophisticated AI-powered writing tools out there that can bang out a blog post much like this one in minutes – on anything from ‘The Top 20 Everyday Examples Of AI In 2023’ to ‘Are Sexbots As Good As The Real Thing?’ – whatever the topic(s) may be.
One thing’s for sure – AI’s here to stay.
Question (or questions) is…
As AI continues to completely transform once solely human-driven, human-centered content development processes – what does it mean for SEO?
How will Google handle AI-generated content going forward?
Can the creatives and the computers work together in harmony to produce perfect content like never before?
Or will the so-called, “war against the machines”, come for the jobs of countless highly skilled, professional content developers worldwide?
Are you ready?
Serp Logic discusses…
You’re Being Consistent, Posting Frequently & Being Relevant? Big Whoop-de-doo!
Since 2011, creating concrete, long-term partnerships with ethical SEO agencies and services providers who require a fine-tuned, one-stop outsource solution has been our bread and butter.
Throughout those 12 years, we’ve embraced change and adapted like chameleons to stay two steps ahead of the ever-changing SEO landscape out there. Believe us when we say we’ve seen and heard it all when it comes to teaching clients how to swim alongside their big shark competitors in the fast flowing, 2023 SEO sea.
In helping those we work with truly value just how vital it is to have their website ranked higher than a giraffe’s testicles on Google, we’ve learned that it’s simply not enough to just recite tired, generic information on all things being consistent, posting frequently and being relevant when it comes to beautiful, strategic SEO.
At this point in the game, it goes way beyond the basics and buzzwords.
Think Giraffe’s Testicles…Not Worm’s Nipples
Thanks to endless reams of confusing, conflicting information and factually inaccurate tripe out there – we’ve been asked all the questions like, “are we penalized on Google for the AI content we have (or post) on our website?”, more times than we’ve had hot dinners.
In years gone by, our immediate answer would have been, “YES! ABSO-F**CKIN-LUTELY!”.
However, that ever-changing SEO landscape we watch like hawks indeed changes almost as fast as some of the leading AI technologies out there can spit out content.
Just last year, Google’s Search Advocate, John Mueller, announced that AI-generated content was considered spam and against their guidelines. Once confirmed by the big noises at Google, businesses worldwide who up until that point had used any means of AI whatsoever to generate content didn’t know if their decision to bring ‘the machines’ into their content development processes had in turn done more damage to their SEO health than good.
If we knew one well established SEO agency or service provider who at the time almost spontaneously combusted when Google’s announcement dropped, we knew hundreds in the exact same boat.
Blink…and it’s a year later. Not eight months ago – February 2023.
And Google’s official stance on AI-generated content changes.
They release a short but informative blog post – entitled, “Google Search’s guidance about AI-generated content” – that shares information on how AI-generated content fits into Google’s, “long-standing approach to show helpful content to people on Search”.
We read that they have, “long believed in the power of AI to transform the ability to deliver helpful information” – and learn that their focus on, “rewarding high-quality content, however it is produced”, has helped them, “deliver reliable, high quality results to users for years”.
Excellent news from the search engine GOATs!
But how exactly are Google now ranking shit quality content from high-quality content in order to, “present the most relevant, useful results, all in a fraction of a second”?
Well, by using automated ranking systems that, “look at many factors and signals about hundreds of billions of web pages and other content”, in their Search. They also boast a helpful content system that was, “introduced last year to better ensure those searching get content created primarily for people, rather than for search ranking purposes”. Not to mention their being well-equipped with sophisticated spam fighting systems such as SpamBrain and, “many years of experience dealing with automation being used in an attempt to game search results”.
Touching on their ranking systems for the purposes of this blog – anyone in SEO and their mothers must take note. Your content (no matter how it’s created or generated) is now subject to rigorous testing and evaluation from said Google ranking systems – that, “aim to reward original, high-quality content that demonstrates qualities of what we call E-E-A-T: expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness”.
We take from these publications, detailed ‘how it all works’ pages and our years of first-hand experience in the game that it’s now clear cut-case out there of…
‘If your content isn’t E-E-A-T friendly…you’re putting shitty content out there that’ll rank lower than a worm’s nipples on Google’.
Think giraffe’s testicles…not worm’s nipples.
“High-Quality Content” & “E-A-A-T” What Now?!
We’re not going to go all balls deep into the fancy BERTs, MUMs, deduplication systems, exact match domain systems, spam detection systems and review systems (and the rest) that Google use to, “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”, as per their mission statement. That’s a massive, tech-heavy topic for a different blog…or five.
We know that content is king – and that behind quality, shit-hot content is (traditionally speaking) a quality, shit-hot creator. And it’s very clear from Google’s recent blog post that they’re all about helping creators who are considering (or actively using) AI-generated content.
Happy days!
And we quote…”however content is produced, those seeking success in Google Search should be looking to produce original, high-quality, people-first content demonstrating qualities E-E-A-T.”. An established system well-documented by Google via various ‘Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content’ help pages and thought-provoking ‘Who, How, and Why’ writeups.
For years we’ve proofread blog drafts, spent full sprints perfecting the right image or infographic, went back to the drawing board countless times with video productions and everything in between to ensure our final releases are just right.
Self-assessing your content and ensuring it demonstrates, sings and dances what Google’s ‘E-E-A-T thing’ now ranks as, “high-quality, people-first content”, is no different whatsoever.
Stop losing sleep thinking about all the AI acronyms and tech talk out there. For now.
Start eating, sleeping and shitting every fiber of E-E-A-T and Google’s Search quality rater guidelines before you ‘man make’ or computer generate another single piece of content.
Don’t wait for AI to come bouncing through the middle of your workplace to do it for you.
That Said…
So it’s Google official. “Appropriate use of AI or automation”, is not against Google guidelines.
Assuming said AI or automation practices are, “not used to generate content primarily to manipulate search rankings, which is against our spam policies”.
With that in mind, and considering estimates from some experts that, “as much as 90 percent of online content may be synthetically generated by 2026”…
Is AI going to completely take over and look after the whole…entire…end-to-end “high-quality content” development lifecycle without any human necessity whatsoever?
Will automated systems that handle everything from content generation to ‘doing all that new Google ranking and E-E-A-T friendly stuff’ become the done thing?
Are businesses going to one day completely ditch now seemingly old school efforts of producing blogs, videos, animations, marketing materials etc for automated alternatives?
Is AI going to take your job and be able to do it better than you – or any number of highly skilled professionals and specialists around the globe – can?
It’s F**king Happening Out There
There aren’t enough pages on Google Docs for us to document every good, bad and ugly neverending story about ‘the machines in the workplace’ we’ve experienced over the years.
But if a few true tales spring to mind, it’s those of:
Cost-conscious CEOs tasking their trusted, crack teams of long-serving code junkies to develop internal ‘writing machines’ that could (in theory) eat and digest chunks of text – and sh*t out consistently well-structured, well-written content in the form of everything from UI messages, user manuals, online help guides, press releases, blog posts and social content.
The many an automated, Google Translate-esque online translation tool that’s made its way into many a tight-knit Technical Writing team’s content localization strategy – pitched by management as a much quicker, cheaper alternative to paying experienced, fluent speaking (i.e. actual humans) content translators who, “do all that translation stuff”.
Or the countless highly skilled Illustrators, Graphic Designers and L&D Content Developers alike out there who’ve spent years exploring every inch of the powerful, creative maze that is the (expensive) Adobe Creative Cloud – only to be asked by their pen clicking, decision making management teams to dig through the depths of the Internet and fine some free image editing tools they could use to make their graphics and learning content look, “all fancy”, instead.
Have we seen AI come knocking on the doors of thriving techy, creative office environments and take peoples’ jobs?
Yes. It’s f**king happening out there.
But no matter how many mind-boggling, deep learning algorithms, ‘insert what a human writer would write here’ lines of code, ‘look at the keywords in this content and do it like that’ commands or ‘it must be like this to be Google E-E-E-A friendly now’ technologies AI developers will absolutely continue to fine-tune and plug in to their products and services…
Do we think all-singing, all-dancing AI content will one day read, resonate and rank up there with a piece of content not just generated by computer – but put together, pruned and polished by a skilled, human creative hunched over a laptop screen and lukewarm coffee mug somewhere?
Do we f**k…
Shit-Hot, Quality Content Needs That Human Touch
Remember that 15.3% of the US population we mentioned earlier who own or have ‘connected with’ an out of the box, ready to rock sexbot?
Stay with us here.
We’re all adults. We don’t need to go into the many myths and mechanics of lovemaking here. But if we had to make an ‘educated’ guess – we’d imagine that sharing your most intimate, sensually stimulating moments with a fully functional, fully charged robotic companion cannot possibly be as good (or as real) as the real thing. Not now…not ever.
It doesn’t matter what everyday name comes printed all over her packaging and paperwork, how many extendable attachments, apps and interchangeable ‘parts’ he comes with, how they move and respond to certain voice and touch commands, how realistic their hair, skin and ‘stuff’ feels or where you stick your charger before each use.
No top of the range sexbot will ever truly give ‘users’ – above all the intimate, sensually stimulating moments in the world – the ‘full f**king package’. Pun intended.
May loud, strategic marketing efforts forever claim their battery powered beauties come closer than ever before to the real thing – AI-lovers will never totally capture our hearts and minds – or become our soulmates…our swans…lifelong partners…husbands…wifes – in the same beautiful, for life ways a real, living, breathing person can bring to one’s life.
Why? Because automated, remote-controlled loving lacks one huge unreplicatable quality.
That human touch.
And that’s exactly how we look at shit-hot, quality content.
We’re well aware that Google is littered with links to powerful AI ‘machines’ out there that are working for ‘the man’ – programmed like never before to generate content quicker than one can hit their nearest McDonald’s Drive Thru for their dinner. Content they claim may as well have been crafted by the real, human deal. Bless their cotton socks.
Take this blog, for example.
Within thirty seconds of booting up a browser and searching for ‘AI Content Writers’, we could have entrusted any number of easy-to-use automated tools on Page 1 of Google with the task of giving us a blog on ‘The Future Of AI & Beautiful, Strategic SEO’ for little to no cost or effort, bar us telling said tool what we want from it.
Minutes later…that same tool could have been around the Internet twice…pieced together what it’s been programmed to pass off as a solid chunk of content that says everything we need it to say…and notified us that it has a post ready and waiting for us.
A ‘solid’ chunk of content that we could have quickly glanced over, maybe corrected the odd comma and full-stop or changed a few buzzwords here and there – and assuming it done what it said on the tin – would have taken us all but twenty minutes to copy and paste over to our CMS and pump out all over our blog and socials.
But when compared side by side with the proud work of a budding wordsmith somewhere – does what AI could give us in a matter of minutes read letter for letter, word for word, sentence for sentence, paragraph for paragraph identical…or better?
Never in a month of Sundays – because it’ll always lack that human touch.
If you’re looking for consistently quality content that’s injected from beginning to end with a natural, genuine human tone. Content that brings a page to life, paints the real pictures and tells the true tales of a particular hot topic(s) or theme – without all the bullsh*t. Content that’s been baked beautifully using just the right balance of carefully measured spoonfuls of fact spitting wit, honesty, genuine empathy and emotion, up-to-date statistics, informative but humorous hooks and thought-provoking prompts…
Think quality over content.
Remember that shit-hot, quality content needs that human touch.
Give the job to the right creatives…not to the computers.
And thank us later.
Come With Us If You Want To Live
That quote unquote, “war against the machines”, may not be upon us just yet.
But AI content is moving through our workplaces, workflows and working days like the wind. And it will continue to do so.
We don’t unfortunately have the skills, experience and know-how to protect you from post-apocalyptic lazer beams, advanced cybernetic assassins and killer AI systems.
However, when it comes to helping businesses with all things beautiful content, equally as beautiful SEO, high quality backlinks, more traffic, more engagement and more conversations – we’ve got your back.
Come with us if you want help with integrating (or working without) AI content in your workplace, creating real, high-quality content that readers (and Google) love – and everything you need to be ready for the future of AI content and beautiful, strategic SEO.
