Over the past year, the presence of AI-generated content has exploded across platforms like Google, including everything from generative fill to social media posts to blog articles. With numerous programs available to users, plenty have benefited from meeting today’s content marketing volumes.
Despite the technology’s growing presence, Google implemented an algorithm update in March that’s taken the conversation in an entirely different direction by penalizing AI-generated content. We’re taking a deeper look at the new spam policy and how you can still utilize AI while avoiding its effects.
Why has Google suddenly decided to penalize AI-generated content?
It’s the question many marketers are asking after finally determining their comfort levels with AI while embracing the cultural push to incorporate innovative technology into their work. At the heart of the update, though, is not Google’s moral concern for AI, but a deeper desire to enhance the user experience by minimizing low-quality, unhelpful, and unoriginal content. By targeting internet fluff, including AI-generated content, Google believes it is helping users connect with the valuable resources they seek rather than providing articles that exist solely for SEO purposes.
Google explained the update through two lenses. The first prioritizes better page rankings for relevant, helpful information. Before the update, these entries were overshadowed by mass influxes of promotional materials. The second involves tighter spam policies that will bar expired websites, unoriginal content (either plagiarized or AI-generated), and low-quality content from appearing at the top of Google search results.
In a statement, Google explained its first concern as “site reputation abuse.” The search engine entity noted how many reputable websites currently host low-quality materials that are typically created by third parties for the benefit of “capitalizing on the hosting site’s strong reputation.” Similarly, Google is also targeting “expired domain abuse.”
Admittedly, the new policy addresses a growing issue in content marketing. Though many advertisers champion the phrase “content is king,” they tend to focus on quantity rather than quality. As the pressure to continuously produce content like social media, blogs, and websites has grown, many brands have turned to AI content generation for materials meant to enhance their Google presence. As positionists, we don’t condone unoriginal and undifferentiated content. The new spam measure still packs on the pressure for brands by challenging them to create in a new way.
How is this update affecting you?
The algorithm update went into effect in March, and since then, Google reports there has been a 45% decrease in irrelevant content. The impact of the update in filtering search results has placed even today’s biggest brands under a tight microscope that’s resulted in noticeable losses in visibility and lower search rankings despite meeting today’s SEO standards.
After using AI-generated content, one user reported this startling website performance difference to Google Search Console Support in the days following the update.
“My website has been impacted by the Google March 2024 Core/Spam AI content updates and is no longer visible on the SERPs,” he wrote. “Despite ranking on the first page for all keywords, the visibility has drastically reduced.”
The same reality check is hitting hordes of other brands that are trying to maintain or grow their online presences. And even after replacing AI-generated content, these businesses are not automatically restored to Google’s good graces. Even after replacing it with human-created material, the same user reported no difference in the performance, meaning this update carries lasting consequences.
Wait — don’t throw out AI quite yet!
These ramifications may sound like a death sentence for AI generation, but rather than ditch it entirely, here’s how you can still experience its benefits while meeting Google’s latest content requirements.
- Create Valuable Content: The purpose of the Google spam update is to prioritize original and valuable content as opposed to internet fluff. By focusing on content that adds to existing conversations or provides deeper industry expertise, you can rest assured your original content won’t be flagged. With this approach, AI can still assist with any research, ideation, or support to help make your content as relevant as possible.
- Add a Personal Touch: In cases where you’d like to incorporate AI-generated content, a review and a round of thorough personal edits can be a reliable way to pass through Google’s spam detection measures. With careful consideration, you can ensure articles, responses, and blogs carry your personal voice and possess a more human quality.
- Share a Fresh Perspective: Similar to keeping content pertinent, it’s equally beneficial to introduce fresh perspectives, especially when utilizing AI-generation tools. Providing unique observations and opinions differentiates your content from others’ and showcases the qualities Google hopes to offer users. It also capitalizes on the creativity that can only be expressed through the human mind, leaving AI as a tool rather than the primary contributor.
At the core of these suggestions, though, is the decision to make a strategic effort in creating high-quality content. Rather than focusing on schedules and SEO tactics, the Google spam update reinforces the purpose of generating online content — to offer helpful answers to user questions and curiosities. As content creators, marketers, and business owners, it’s an important reminder to use technologies like AI as tools. And while we can use them, we should focus on content that communicates meaning.
Here are a few more tips to consider when using AI:
- Use AI for research. You can still use AI, but try to utilize it during the initial round of research and content outlining. Consider it like using a search engine without the need for dozens of individual searches to support your thesis. From there, mold the content to inform your perspective along with some heavy editing.
- Double-check with an AI analyzer: At the agency, we like to use ZeroGPT to determine if the “bots” see content as AI-generated. This tool even highlights the specific parts it believes are AI-generated. One critical thing to note though: even a tool like Grammarly can trigger a program like ZeroGPT’s AI-generated content sensors, so be careful, even with grammar assistants.
- Make content unique. We point along these lines in our suggestions above. The biggest challenge with AI-generated content is that it doesn’t typically produce content that is unique to your brand. Therefore, if you use AI-generated content, it’s likely someone else asked the same question to get approximately the same content. Google despises duplicate content, which has resulted in policies like the spam update to remove it.
- Avoid copyright questions. AI-generated anything (i.e., copy, images, videos, audio) is not copyrightable. By using AI-generated content on your website, you run a high risk that someone else will take it and use it as well, which causes challenges like the duplication problem.
Google punishes users for AI … but gives itself a pass?
Interestingly, as Google pushes against AI-generated content, the search engine reportedly is giving itself a pass. Reports have been circulating about a covert Google initiative known as Project Jarvis, an AI agent that will be hosted on browsers and assist users with typical tasks like purchasing goods, booking flights, and more.
The new program will streamline typical user functions on the internet, and despite the innovative approach, Google isn’t the only tech company giving AI the green light. Microsoft Copilot Vision, Apple Intelligence, and Anthropic’s Claude all automate a wide range of typical user functions for a simplified web experience.
Even with concerns ranging from AI dependence to data security, the potential for Project Jarvis is emblematic of another issue: Google’s contradictory stance. On one hand, Google is restricting AI-generated content for the sake of better user experiences, yet in the same breath, is using it to enhance user experience. And when the world’s leading search engine and central source of ad space seems wishy-washy, it easily creates trepidation among users and creators alike.
Let positioning guide your next steps
It’s no surprise to us that these factors have only continued to overburden plenty of businesses and brands. And while the absence of the AI crutch may spur higher-quality content creation, it doesn’t solve the issues that led to the massive flow of lower-quality content in the first place. Though many brands will need to adhere to a new AI approach, there’s still the challenge of many teams’ limited bandwidth. Along with tighter policies, creators are also faced with the reality that they are beholden to industry giants like Google, who have the power to make (sometimes unexpected and unpredictable) brand-altering decisions on a daily basis.
Today, as Google and others make determinations on content marketing strategies like AI-generation features, there’s never been a stronger need for brands to adopt positioning strategy. When your marketing is fueled by a strategy that starts with meaning that sets you apart from your competition, your content will inherently reflect that difference, whether AI-assisted or not. Not only will your content become more relevant, higher quality, and more original, but it will also protect you from the decisions of major platforms like Google.
Are you concerned your marketing may be affected by the Google spam update? Contact us today to learn how partnering with America’s #1 positioning ad agency can safeguard and enhance your content.