Hiring an SEO expert that uses AI - Heads up!
- Thread starter Talktime
- Start date
@Talktime I posted this on another thread, have a read
www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk
How do we get Backlinks?
@MilesWeb - that’s not correct. Great content that answers a search query is the best way to rank a website. All the inbound link does is validate the content. Which means it needs to be relevant and authoritative. Google has said guest blogging for SEO won’t work. So don’t do it.
www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk
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I get a lot of business from this site. Its up to you but I think you will gain from maximising a membership here
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You'll probably get a better range of replies if you post a new thread here:
www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk
Website Reviews & Testing
Business Members can post your website here if you would like some honest feedback from the community.
www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk
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I would never ever use AI content on my own website. The AI cant know more about my business than I do so I will alwyas write my own content.
I do my own SEO, but I do outsource guests posts and other stuff which are clearly AI but if they're cheap enough I'd go with it. Some seos will say chatgpt content doesnt penalise your site, others will say they do.
here's my take on it if I was google. Why would you give an credence to a site that uses AI content. What benefit is there to the end user? it takes 10 seconds to generate an article using chatgpt. So every tom dick and harry in your niche is going to by generating the same exact content and posting it on their blog farms and blog networks...
well done you have the same content on your homepage as a blog farm. identifcal content!
I do my own SEO, but I do outsource guests posts and other stuff which are clearly AI but if they're cheap enough I'd go with it. Some seos will say chatgpt content doesnt penalise your site, others will say they do.
here's my take on it if I was google. Why would you give an credence to a site that uses AI content. What benefit is there to the end user? it takes 10 seconds to generate an article using chatgpt. So every tom dick and harry in your niche is going to by generating the same exact content and posting it on their blog farms and blog networks...
well done you have the same content on your homepage as a blog farm. identifcal content!
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Guest posts for SEO have been disavowed for some time. Google regards them as advertising and ignores the links. If the ports bring in traffic then crack on. If not, it's not worth the bother (and expense).
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Please do not comment on the website. Website reviews of any type are only permitted in the website reviews forum.
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in that case I dont think that incident is what killed your sites rankings. this industry is heavily scrutinised by google. just like covid "remedies" but not to the same extent. If youre giving debt relief advice the website will need to be vouched for very highly. Google sees debt relief talk to be quite sensitive and people are vulnerable so it wont send to sites that dont look credible.
If they are just using chatgpt to proofreead (I do this sometimes) or just to make my writing a bit more readable (I do this too), then it wont be the reason wihy the site is nixed.
there's been a major reshuffle on Google and a lot of sites were hit hard. many sites got de-ranked below some 404 pages from other sites. Big deal about it on r/seo
If they are just using chatgpt to proofreead (I do this sometimes) or just to make my writing a bit more readable (I do this too), then it wont be the reason wihy the site is nixed.
there's been a major reshuffle on Google and a lot of sites were hit hard. many sites got de-ranked below some 404 pages from other sites. Big deal about it on r/seo
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- Original Poster
- #57
I have never used Chat GPT to write my website articles. However, I did explore it yesterday after someone suggested my writing on this forum sounded like a bot. While ChatGPT's output does resemble a bot, I must admit that I have been using AI, specifically Grammarly (paid subscription), to check my documents, emails, and content writing.
My website was created before the advent of Grammarly and AI, so all its content is purely my organic work.
Grammarly cannot create content from scratch, but I am considering rewriting my website content. Could anyone provide insights on using Grammarly to check and correct my content?
My website was created before the advent of Grammarly and AI, so all its content is purely my organic work.
Grammarly cannot create content from scratch, but I am considering rewriting my website content. Could anyone provide insights on using Grammarly to check and correct my content?
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But they aren’t going to call unless they are confident you can help.
I’m not suggesting you create massive pages of content but you do need something more than the confusing and unhelpful content you currently have
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Are you suggesting churning out AI created guest posts on sites like medium actually help ranking?
I agree that properly curated posts on authoritative and relevant sites can help but that not what was being suggested in this thread.
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Firstly, sympathies, as this sounds like a torid situation to be in.
What I would say is that SEO and AI can co-exist. Frankly, if you have someone undertaking SEO, and they arent leveraging AI to assist them, they probably arent making great use of their/your time. That of course doesnt mean your site should be riddled with AI written content.
I'm sure that you have concsidered this, but the instant decline of your rank honestly doesnt sound like puerly AI written content was the issue. Are you sure that proper redirects were put in place, so that any changed URLs directed to the most relevant new page? If not, it would certainly constribute significantly to the problem you described.
It also would be odd to replace good ranking content with AI content. Its hard to know exactly what was done without more info, but it seems a really odd strategy for them to take good ranking pages, and choose the time of a new website launch to completly re-write/meta those pages.
You mentioned that this all happened faster than you can say "algorithm." If thats the case, then it probably isnt algorithm related. I'd be looking very closely at 2 things;
1. Search console. What are Google saying about your site, and your appearance in serps, and how does that differ from pre-launch.
2. The volume of page-not-found hits in google analytics (or whatever tracking tool you use). Did that increase during the site launch.
There is a serious excercise to be done from an SEO perspective when you launch a new website, to replace an existing one. It sounds like into that has been combined a new seo strategy (and person), and the dots havent been connected.
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My experience with AI content and SEO is very different.
For example, search Google for "small business AI consultant UK" or similar intent phrases.
You will see downtoearthai.co.uk on page 1 of results for most search queries.
I generated that website 100% using AI.
There is not that much competition tbh, but you get the point.
Google does not care whether your website is AI generated, it cares about the quality and focus of your content, it cares whether your content provides value to your visitors and it cares about who you are, your topical authority and the overall focus of your website.
AI is great if you use it to amplify - NOT replace - human skills & capabilities for creating great content (and doing great SEO).
Ref your SEO catastrophe, I believe your SEO "expert" may have re-written content that was already ranking, forcing Google to re-index your website pages. If you restore the original content from archive.org you will regain your original rankings in approx 3-6 months.
You can then try improving your page content ONE PAGE at a time - NOT full rewrites, but improvements to the existing page content to enhance the topical coverage of the page and thereby increase the page authority.
Good luck!
For example, search Google for "small business AI consultant UK" or similar intent phrases.
You will see downtoearthai.co.uk on page 1 of results for most search queries.
I generated that website 100% using AI.
There is not that much competition tbh, but you get the point.
Google does not care whether your website is AI generated, it cares about the quality and focus of your content, it cares whether your content provides value to your visitors and it cares about who you are, your topical authority and the overall focus of your website.
AI is great if you use it to amplify - NOT replace - human skills & capabilities for creating great content (and doing great SEO).
Ref your SEO catastrophe, I believe your SEO "expert" may have re-written content that was already ranking, forcing Google to re-index your website pages. If you restore the original content from archive.org you will regain your original rankings in approx 3-6 months.
You can then try improving your page content ONE PAGE at a time - NOT full rewrites, but improvements to the existing page content to enhance the topical coverage of the page and thereby increase the page authority.
Good luck!
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Yeah ... nah. Try something vaguely competitive. That's a really bad example to try to make point with.
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Correct, but that is exactly what I do so it makes sense to be on page 1 when people search for an AI consultant for their small business.
I will be adding additional pages such as; "AI process automation", "Intelligent process automation" and "AI business process automation" . All topics I want to rank for this year.
Will be interesting to see how they perform...
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But are they looking for an AI consultant? It’s more likely they are looking for more leads, better ranking, increased profit, lower costs and so on. That’s what you are selling. AI is just one of the tools you use to achieve this.
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Point taken, there are not yet that many searches for "small business AI consultant". Yet...
I will also be targeting some additional business AI business automation search phrases to see how they perform.
It's a future play really for when small businesses begin to think about using AI for automating mundane and repetitive tasks to save a ton of time. Most small businesses are not yet aware how much time they can save but I expect search volumes to pick up substantially as small business demand for AI services increases.
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When I have time I will start a blog to target all of the pain point and solution keywords.
The first task was to get the site up and let Google index and categorize it.
tbh, most businesses are not yet aware that they can have the equivalent of a 24/7 polymath PA working for them completing all of their mundane and repetitive tasks - as well as augmenting unique tasks.
I do not think the popular AI search phrases of the future are easy to guess in advance. But I expect the initial focus will be around AI copilots, AI business process automation, and AI receptionists/AI customer service.
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- Original Poster
- #72
Jeff, I am relieved to hear about your experience. It's important to understand that AI is a tool that enhances our content creation process, but it's not a substitute for our knowledge and expertise. AI cannot be used to create complete articles straight from the prompt and post them online as is. Google will almost certainly treat the content as spam. I first write the article from my knowledge, then use AI, such as Grammarly, to refine it. This way, I can demonstrate my expertise and ensure the site content is unique, which is crucial to avoid being flagged as spam.
My concern is search engines using AI to generate articles instead giving search results.
My concern is search engines using AI to generate articles instead giving search results.
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That their ultimate aim. To deliver a solution in the SERPs without you ever needing to visit a website.
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The image of a snake eating it's own tail springs to mind...
AI creating articles for the search engines which are then scraped by AI to create articles etc etc
I noticed your site offers legal advice. This is a special case when it comes to SEO; the importance of ranking factors shifts.
If you can get some links to your website from official or reputable legal websites this will do your rankings a world of good by improving your website trust factor.
Linking from your Linkedin page directly to your website will help too. As will creating a Google business profile and linking to your site from the profile.
It might also be worth considering using a free legal services Wordpress theme for your website to ensure responsiveness on mobile and prevent Google penalizing your website.
Legal SEO is a whole different kettle of fish
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I like your comparison with the snake, although I don't fully agree with it, I can understand your point of view.The image of a snake eating it's own tail springs to mind...
AI creating articles for the search engines which are then scraped by AI to create articles etc etc
I noticed your site offers legal advice. This is a special case when it comes to SEO; the importance of ranking factors shifts.
If you can get some links to your website from official or reputable legal websites this will do your rankings a world of good by improving your website trust factor.
Linking from your Linkedin page directly to your website will help too. As will creating a Google business profile and linking to your site from the profile.
It might also be worth considering using a free legal services Wordpress theme for your website to ensure responsiveness on mobile and prevent Google penalizing your website.
Legal SEO is a whole different kettle of fish
Also I've never heard of "kettle of fish", I think Imma add it to my vocabulary
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A few years ago I decided to use a more generic domain name. Without my knowledge the website designer outsourced the SEO to some snake on Fiver for backlinks etc. Months later I find out that my domain got blacklisted by Google. It was a nice domain name but is now worthless to me. Lots of dodgy characters out there in the SEO/Web design space unfortunately. Very difficult to know who to trust.
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I feel your pain.
I think the main question when considering AI for any kind of content generation is this:
"Do you want to read and consume AI Generated content?"
Or perhaps more accurately
"Would you prefer to read content created by a human being or AI?"
I think the vast majority of people would prefer to read human-generated content.
Now what is google's business model? How do they succeed? And let's face it they succeed very well. They have a very simple product offering which is something like this
"We will deliver to our users the content they are looking for as quickly as possible."
Off the back of that simple value proposition, they can flog all their advertising, making billions. Living up to that value proposition is quite difficult and google are in a constant war of attrition with marketers trying to game the algorithm and get their content to the top of google, regardless of whether it's actually the most relevant to the person doing the search.
So, given that people have a very strong preference to have human-generated content delivered to them and given that Google's immense success derives from being able to deliver what people want from their search you can bet your boots that the google algorithm will be looking for AI content and differentiating it from human-generated content. Human-generated content will be preferred by google and as AI-generated rubbish starts to flood the interwebs I suspect that human-generated content will actually give people more of a competitive advantage in search algorithms. In a pile of AI generated rubbish the nugget of "real human created content" will, by virtue of the google algorithm, float to the top of the pile.
The irony being that google will actually use AI to catch, spot, and down rank, AI content. Which is kind of fun thing to imagine, AI's trying to outsmart each other in a continual war over google rankings......... what could go wrong!
I think the main question when considering AI for any kind of content generation is this:
"Do you want to read and consume AI Generated content?"
Or perhaps more accurately
"Would you prefer to read content created by a human being or AI?"
I think the vast majority of people would prefer to read human-generated content.
Now what is google's business model? How do they succeed? And let's face it they succeed very well. They have a very simple product offering which is something like this
"We will deliver to our users the content they are looking for as quickly as possible."
Off the back of that simple value proposition, they can flog all their advertising, making billions. Living up to that value proposition is quite difficult and google are in a constant war of attrition with marketers trying to game the algorithm and get their content to the top of google, regardless of whether it's actually the most relevant to the person doing the search.
So, given that people have a very strong preference to have human-generated content delivered to them and given that Google's immense success derives from being able to deliver what people want from their search you can bet your boots that the google algorithm will be looking for AI content and differentiating it from human-generated content. Human-generated content will be preferred by google and as AI-generated rubbish starts to flood the interwebs I suspect that human-generated content will actually give people more of a competitive advantage in search algorithms. In a pile of AI generated rubbish the nugget of "real human created content" will, by virtue of the google algorithm, float to the top of the pile.
The irony being that google will actually use AI to catch, spot, and down rank, AI content. Which is kind of fun thing to imagine, AI's trying to outsmart each other in a continual war over google rankings......... what could go wrong!
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Informational sites and affiliate are basically dead, Google has killed them.
However, real business websites are very much alive and kicking, and for these types of websites it does not matter if AI is used to generate the content, as long as AI is used to AUGMENT content creation versus AUTOMATE.
Businesses can use AI to generate content around the topic of the products and services they offer, targeting the information their potential clients/customers are searching for.
AI generated content can and will replace most human writers over the next 1-2 years as businesses begin to realize they can customize AI to write in exactly the tone and style they require, enabling them to increase website visitors, sales, and revenue.
Google ranks high quality AI generated content at least as highly, if not higher than average Human written content, IF, the content is non-generic, and exists on a website which has the expertise, trust, and authority (EAT) required due to being an actual real business.
Small local businesses have the most to gain from AI and the Google algorithm update, as traditionally, they do not usually have time for content creation and so miss a huge opportunity to increase revenue through SEO.
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Let's see how it pans out, we are only at the start of this.
My feeling is that over time, human-generated content will be preferentially treated by Google because that is what other humans (the customer) wants to read. And Google has always been very good giving its customers what they wanted.
I agree that AI can be a useful tool for helping to write content but it also, as you say, makes it much easier to do so. As such, written content becomes less valuable because now everyone can do it at a low cost. The AI revolution will flood the interweb with content on all manner of topics because, now, every small business can chug out tonnes of AI generated or assisted content. Whereas before the capacity to do so was limited by resource constraints (mainly time)
So, what seems like a boon to small businesses i.e. that they can now suddenly create loads of content easily. Will, I think, end up biting small businesses in the arse at some point. Once the market is flooded with content no one will have an advantage everything will just be lost in a sea of mostly drivel. So, how will google decide which content to prioritise? My suspicion is that Google will spend a lot of money trying to give humans what they want, which is, non AI generated content. That will be a valuable resource.
In order for any resources to convey long-term strategic value it must be VRIN, that is,
Valuable
Rare
Inimitable
Non -substitutable
Good content on specialist topics used to fulfill this criteria. As and example for my specialist spray nozzle business, I have written probably 100,000 words of content and made 100 or so video's on very specialist engineering topics (sprays and their various industrial application). This is Valuable to my potential customers (it educates them), it's rare (not many people in the world know as much about spray nozzles as me! A fairly sad claim to fame I know!), it's inimitable (very hard to copy this as it takes a huge amount of effort to make), and there is not really a substitute for good technical content. So all this content is a good strategic resource and we have the sales growth to prove it.
The problem with AI is that it destroys the inimitability of content. It makes something that is difficult and time-consuming to produce quite easy. Whilst this might seem like good news it has a sting in the tail being that the strategic value of content is now diminished. Its like if everyone in the world suddenly was given 1 tonne of gold. We would all be rich beyond out wildest dreams.............until we realise that a huge part of golds value is that its rare and now it isn't.
BUT I think this is only temporary because people will get sick and tired of AI generated crap and will want to read stuff written by real humans with real expertise. Google I think will realise this (and if they don't a competitor search engine will), and start to take great steps to serve up real content. This will then restore the inimitability of genuine expert content. And thus balance will be restored to the universe.
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