Over the last few years, AI has made large strides especially when it comes to the topic of content generation. Advancements in language modeling have allowed multiple AI products to successfully communicate in a variety of styles. Because of this, there has become a common question about whether or not it would be beneficial to use generative AI to write content for the explicit purpose of improving SEO rankings online. While Google’s stance on AI is that they will not punish websites purely because they use ai-generated content, the deeper philosophy of SEO is to focus on high-quality content. With every year, Google’s algorithm updates aim to prioritize content that is beneficial to their end users. An unfortunate recurring side of SEO strategy is hoping for some magic exploit or strategy that can quickly impact a site’s online rankings. Unfortunately, there is no quick and easy solution for SEO. SEO is highly competitive and relies on research, iteration, and most importantly a human-centric strategy. In the end, if a website produces content that is highly valuable to users of search engines, the search engines will be inclined to rank that website. Here is a quick guide on writing content that is human-centric.
Google’s EEAT & Helpful Content Algorithms
Two algorithms that are constantly being updated and are extremely relevant for content writers are EEAT and the Helpful Content algorithm. EEAT is an acronym that aims to identify the pillars of valuable content. It stands for experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. Simply put, if you were to go to a professional chef or an AI chat bot and ask for a recipe, you would be more willing to trust the chef because you know they have experience. The chef would also more likely speak with authority. AI chatbots almost always equivocate in their writing styles because they are aware that they are not actually a source of real information but are simply reorganizing and summarizing content they find online. For that reason, they will often write indirectly or in a way that is non-authoritative.
The helpful content algorithm aims to penalize websites that are inherently not human-centric. Content that is difficult to parse through or that is trying to rank for searches that it is unrelated to is being devalued. If an article is about answering a specific question, the answer to that question needs to be front and center, it needs to be authoritative, and it needs to be supported. Many content writers often write content that is intentionally poor quality in an attempt to game the system. For example, if we go back to cooking, we will often see recipe websites where there are thousands of unrelated stories before the recipe. Part of the reason is that these sites make money off of ads that are nested throughout the content, so longer content means more real estate for ad space. But this is an inherently negative experience for a user. If a user is looking up a recipe they want the ingredients and steps to be front and center, and not a long diatribe about someone’s recent European vacation. To be clear, with each year and algorithm update Google aims to push content writers towards making content that is valuable to humans and not to robots. This is great news because writing content that helps Google’s users is often parallel to creating a website experience that reflects positively on your business. Instead of annoying end users with strange SEO tactics, we can focus on making a website that is valuable to humans.
Content Writing and SEO Strategy For Businesses
Boston Web Marketing works with businesses throughout a variety of industries to help them with their digital marketing strategies. Our team of content writers can help create content that not only helps you rank organically on Google but also encourages your traffic to interact with your business. For more information, contact us for a free website audit.