Generating a blog article takes just a dozen or so seconds today. It is no wonder that many companies are wondering whether to replace their copywriter with an AI chat. The question we hear most often is: does Google penalise texts written by artificial intelligence?

The short answer: not for the mere fact of using AI. The long answer is more interesting – and it is what determines whether your content will help your website or harm it.

What does Google say about content created with the help of AI?

Google’s position has been consistent for several years: the search engine rewards high-quality content regardless of how it was created. What matters is whether the text is helpful, reliable and written with people in mind.

At the same time, Google treats as spam the mass creation of content whose main purpose is to manipulate search results rather than to help users. In the guidelines, this is called scaled content abuse – and it makes no difference whether it is done by a human, a program or AI.

In practice, this means that the problem is not the tool, but the way it is used.

Where does AI really help with SEO?

• Research and organising knowledge – gathering the questions customers ask, compiling the topics to be covered.
• Planning the structure – suggesting headings and an order of sections, which an expert then verifies.
• Editing – shortening overly long sentences, improving readability, catching repetitions.
• Title and meta description variants – quickly preparing several versions to choose from.
• Structured data and minor technical tasks – e.g. preparing a draft of FAQ markup.
• Draft translations – as a starting point, which a native speaker then corrects.

Where does AI most often do harm?

Generalities with no added value

A language model creates text based on what already exists on the internet. If you do not add your own knowledge, you will get an averaged-out version of hundreds of similar articles. Such content rarely wins in search results and is almost never cited in AI answers.

Factual errors and made-up facts

Models can state non-existent statistics, regulations or names with complete confidence. In topics relating to health, finance or law, such errors can cause real harm to readers – and to the company’s reputation.

Mass-produced local subpages

Generating a hundred “service + city” pages that differ only in the name of the town is a classic example of content created at scale without any real value. Instead, it is better to prepare fewer subpages that describe your actual business in a given place. More: content localisation for the Tricity.

Hidden junk in the code

Text copied from a chat window often carries hidden code into the editor – extra tags, classes and attributes. These can break the appearance of the page, e.g. make headings invisible. Before you publish a text, paste it as plain text or check the code in the editor.

A safe process: how to create content with the help of AI

1. Start with the customer’s questions – determine which specific questions the text is to answer and at what stage of the decision the reader is.
2. Gather your own material – examples from completed projects, figures, photos, typical customer mistakes, the answers you give over the phone. This is an advantage that AI does not have.
3. Use AI as an assistant – for the outline, the draft or editing, not as the sole author.
4. Verify every fact – data, dates, regulations, names. If you cannot confirm something, remove it.
5. Add an expert perspective – an opinion, a recommendation, “what we do in such a situation”.
6. Optimise for SEO – headings, key phrases, internal links, meta data. More: SEO copywriting.
7. Read the text as a customer would – after reading it, do they know what to do next? Does the text sound like your company?

Do you have to disclose that a text was created with the help of AI?

Google encourages you to consider “who, how and why” created the content, and to provide information about how it was created where readers might expect it. In the case of AI-generated images and videos, some platforms – e.g. Instagram or YouTube – require such material to be labelled. With company texts, however, the most important thing is that a real author or team who has checked the content is responsible for it.

Pre-publication checklist

• Does the text answer a specific customer question?
• Does it contain something that other articles do not – an example, data, experience?
• Have all the facts been checked?
• Does the text have clear headings and links to related pages?
• Is the HTML code clean?
• Is there a clear next step for the reader at the end?

Summary

Artificial intelligence is a great tool – provided that it works for the expert rather than instead of them. The best results come from combining the speed of AI with the knowledge and experience of your company. This is how we create content as part of our content marketing services. If you want to check whether the content on your website is helping or harming it, order a free SEO audit.

Read also: AI Overviews and AI Mode in Google, Black Hat SEO techniques.