Google’s AI-generated content guidance

With the rise of artificial intelligence and generative content, Google has issued some guidance on the space.

Google’s blog post notes that the company believes in the power of AI to “transform the ability to deliver helpful information.” However, there are concerns that AI-generated content could begin to replace original content created by humans. Therefore Google shares some insight on how AI content will fit into Google’s search engine.

The main point made in the post is that high-quality content will always remain at the top, regardless of who or what is writing it. Google’s ranking system works by accessing the qualities of E-E-A-T: expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

Search optimisation

Google reflects on changes it made a decade ago when people saw a surge in mass-produced but human-generated content. In response to this, Google adapted its algorithm; while many may not have noticed the changes, this alteration impacted 11.8% of queries. These changes meant low-quality content would rank lower in the search and helpful content would come out on top. This same algorithm will apply to AI.

Guidance from the company states that using automation, which includes AI, to generate content which intends to manipulate search rankings is deemed a violation of its spam policies. For years, Google has had to combat the issue of automation spam and if AI-generated content were to go down the same path, Google is ready to deal with the problem using tools such as its SpamBrain system.

AI-generated content

This does not mean AI-generated content can’t be used or won’t rank well on the search engine. All high-quality content can rank well on a Google search so long as it possesses E-E-A-T qualities. Using AI or automation is not against any rules and Google states that AI can create content in new exciting ways. 

The real focus comes down to quality, and while AI-generated content is likely to become more prevalent, Google has had to combat poor-quality content for years, whether from AI or humans. Tackling poor quality is something that Google is already doing daily and its current systems will be able to determine how helpful a piece of content is. Google also notes that disclosing when artificial intelligence has been used to create content may be something to consider. This way, a user will always know what a person wrote and what is AI-generated.

So rest assured, AI won’t suddenly find a convenient way to rank highly on Google searches, and on the flip side, Google won’t disregard it altogether. Google seems content on assuring people that searches will continue to provide the best quality content regardless of if a human or AI wrote it.