AI Created Content Not The Answer for Small Business SEO

AI Created Content Not The Answer for Small Business SEO – Yet

In the world of SEO, we have heard for years that “content is king”. Creating great, and unique, content is the best way to target users and keywords for SEO. More importantly, content that helps provide the best answer to users’ searches. I have talked about “information gain” in the past for SEO. Providing new and helpful information on top of the standard terms everyone knows should show up in content about your topic. Relating it to your geographic market and adding extra information that you can provide as being an insider in your market.

Content is King

Because of the importance of content and because this always happens when things are important for ranking in SEO, industries pop up to try to “cheat” at it to some extent. That is happening now in the world of content creation with AI. Now I should be clear that if your content is unique, well written, helpful, and shows expertise in the topic area, it is not cheating. The problem is that AI isn’t there yet. No matter how tempting it would be to buy a program that writes those blog posts or pieces of content for us, it just isn’t the answer. At least not yet. In fact, Google has come out and stated that AI or machine-generated content is not high quality enough for good SEO yet. Adding more bad content to your site will actually hurt your overall credibility. So not only will jumping on the AI content bandwagon right now not help you. It will likely hurt you in your SEO plans. If your agency is selling AI content to you, stop accepting it. It will hurt you in the long run.

Humans Writing for Humans for SEO

At the end of the day, despite everyone trying to rank in the Google algorithm, your content is for your users. Google is getting better at looking at ranking from a user’s perspective every day, so you are better off pleasing users than pleasing machines. As AI gets better at understanding that, it may be an option down the road. However, I’m even skeptical of that, as most standard content writing machines are going to start writing essentially the same content, which will result in a lot of the same stuff. Add your own expertise and personality to what you write. I know many business owners are nervous about writing, but you know your business best. If you need a little help structuring that knowledge into great writing, that is ok. But for now, stick with the humans.

About the Author: Jeremy Skillings

Jeremy Skillings has been helping small and mid-sized businesses with search engine marketing since 2006 through his company, The SEO Helpdesk and You Can Be Found. Jeremy has worked with businesses of all types from eCommerce to professional, medical, and service businesses. Jeremy is a published author, a member of the board of directors for the Better Business Bureau of New Jersey, and a regular attendee and former speaker at SMX Advanced, one of the premier search marketing conferences. He regularly attends the leading conferences in the industry to stay on the cutting edge of the latest tactics and trends to help his clients. He has also spoken for the New York City Department of small business Services and more locally for the MODC and SCORE. His company is an A+ BBB and averages over 4.9 stars in Google reviews. Jeremy Skillings grew up in Wyalusing, PA, and then went on to attend Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh for a business degree. After several years of seasoning in the corporate world including developing a global reporting system for the leading HR consulting firm in the world, he went on to start his own business with the intent of helping small businesses compete. Jeremy specializes in SEO, Google Ads, local search, and all other aspects of digital marketing, including Google Analytics and display advertising. He has a passion for helping the little guy compete with the larger corporations by competing with more intelligence and flexibility.

AI Created Content Not The Answer for Small Business SEO – Yet