How Google Treats AI-Generated Content In Search

With the buzz evolving around generative AI in search, Google has gone on to record and given clarifications about AI-generated content. In hindsight, Google is not bothered by who or what content is written till the point content is there to help people and not manipulate the search results.  Google is of the opinion that you choose AI and automation for developing useful and relevant content.

For long automation has been of help to generate quality content in the form of sports, weather forecasts or be it transcripts. They are also of the view that with AI you can craft content in a better way.

AI possesses the ability to empower new levels of creativity and expression. It works out to be a vital tool in helping people to formulate content on the web.

The onus has to be on people-centric content

The focus has to be on how the content is produced and whether the content is useful for people. The objective is not to obtain rankings on search engines. Google has provided guidance around the helpful content guide

In the last year, the helpful content guide was introduced to ensure better those search content primarily obtains content designed for people and not for search ranking purposes. Once the content is produced, those who are looking to obtain success in Google search need to produce high-quality, engaging content demonstrating qualities E-E- A-T

Who, how and why

 Google has gone on to incorporate a new section to the people’s first documentation on evaluating your content on the basis of Who, how and why. It is a way to remain on course on what systems seek to reward. Google then went on to explain what they meant by who, how and why. To be clear this is not a requirement but a guidance provided by Google based on E- E- A- T.

Who is the content creator?

 It is something that is of help to understand the  E- E- A- T of content is when it is clear how created it.  This is the Who to decide. When you develop content there are some Who-related questions that you need to answer

• Would it be self- evident to your audience on who authored the content
• Do the pages incorporate a byline where one may be expected

If you clearly specify on who created the content you are likely to align with the concepts of E- E- A- T and on a path to success. It is strongly recommended that you provide accurate authorship information like bylines where the readers would expect it.

How( the content is created)

It is of help to readers on how a piece of content was developed. This is the “ How” that we need to include in our content.

An example is with product reviews a degree of trust can be developed with readers where they have an understanding on the number of products that are being tested. What were the results and how the tests were conducted all of them accompanied by the work involved like photographs.

Some of the content tend to have a “ How” component attached to them. This may include AI assisted content , AI- generated content. Once you share details about these processes this is going to help the readers and viewers understand any useful or unique information that they may have.

If automation is used to substantially generated content there are a few questions to ask

• In the use of automation include AI- generation self-evident to visitors via disclosures and other ways.
• Do you intend to provide the background about how much automation or AI- generation was used to create content
• Are you keen on explaining why automation or AI is useful to produce content

Overall, AI or automation disclosures, are useful for content where someone would think, “ How this was created”. You may consider adding all of them when it is reasonably expected.

Why was the content created

Why is one of the most important questions that needs to be asked about your content. You need to figure out Why it was created in the first place

The why should be focussed on creating content that helps people. it has to be useful to the visitors when they visit the website. if you do this then you are complying with E- E- A- T generally and what the core ranking systems intends to reward.

If the why of content creation is to mainly attract search engines, then it is not aligned with what the systems seeks to reward. If you are using automation that includes AI- generation in producing content that is to manipulate the search engines. Then this is a violation of the spam policies.

Do you think AI written content has  the experience

The question was posed to Google and the reply was not all content need to showcase, trust, authority , experience or expertise. It is evident that not all the content will be able to tick all the boxes.

Google is pretty clear on their part that trust is of critical importance in – E- E- A- T as mentioned in the coverage of new quality raters’ guidelines. Google has gone on to update this part of the page to incorporate this section.

The other factors also contribute to trust but content does not have to showcase all of them. An example is some form of content may be useful in terms of the experience it demonstrates, whereas other content may be useful due to the expertise it provides.

To conclude if the goal of AI is to explore creative ways to incorporate further context and information to help your readers this is great. On the other hand, if you are using AI in finding ways to index your content on Google then it is not a great option. Google will be able to figure out the difference with the aid of content farms.

According to Google most SEO firms have been calling themselves an SEO, formulating content for the people and being rewarded. Now the content that is written does not matter.

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