There has been an enormous amount of buzz recently about the potential of using AI to create written content. From businesses needing website content to students crafting written assessments to aspiring authors even publishing entire novels created by AI, people all over the world are discovering the “easy way” to deliver written copy or other content with minimal (if any) effort, in the shortest space of time – and even for free in many cases.
A deeper look into the reality behind AI-generated content, and the ramifications of using it for business, however, clearly demonstrates the limitations of AI and the ongoing importance of using professional human writers to create content – especially for SEO and other marketing purposes.
AI-Generated Content…
AI-generated content is copy written by a machine – including marketing materials, articles, blogs, product descriptions, social posts, and more. The human user inputs topics, questions, keywords or phrases, and the AI trawls the internet for information and creates copy to suit the requested format. Existing content is reformatted and it can be transformed to suit other mediums.
Some people like the idea of using AI for this purpose as it purportedly saves time, speeds processes, and, for businesses, saves money. It also, usually, manages to pass online plagiarism checkers.
There are already more than one hundred online AI writing tools available, and a lot of commentaries online are currently promoting its use as a simple, cheap, and effortless way to deliver content of all kinds. For some sectors, AI-generated content has already become very popular – including chatbots, image generation, and more.
It can be difficult to delineate an AI image from a genuine photograph or AI text from a human-written text. But while it might seem like a no-brainer to adopt AI and save time, money, and effort on content creation, there are some significant problems with this new evolution…
Programs such as ChatGPT may seem like the new go-to for brands and businesses to streamline their processes and cheaply fill their need for website content, blog articles, social media posts, and more. The quality of the content produced is often, on the surface level at least, not bad at all – and certainly can be better than what is often delivered by non-professional or inexperienced, unskilled human writers, or those from overseas whose services are cheap and for whom English is not their first language.
But for all the apparent benefits, there are many disadvantages to using AI-generated content. These may not be obvious to all audiences from the outset, but they are very real.
AI Limitations and Why Human Content Writing is So Important
AI-generated content, no matter how good it seems, will never read in the same way as quality human-generated content will. Human writers are essential for not only delivering the content with a human “voice” but also mastering the message so that it is on-brand, tailored for its unique target audience, and properly researched.
In terms of SEO, using human content is critically important. Copy written for SEO purposes must not only meet the needs of a human audience but also of the search engine ranking algorithms. Just as the search engine’s human workforce and algorithmic bots can quickly identify and punish the use of plagiarised content, so too can they quickly and easily identify and punish the use of AI-generated content. This can diminish your search engine ranking and render your online presence invisible.
Put simply, Google and other search engines are aware of the increasing use of AI-generated content – and using it will place your SEO efforts and online visibility at risk as the use of AI grows and serach engines are forced to take it into account.
Should AI Have Any Role in Content Creation?
AI is nowhere near able to deliver as high a quality of content as even a moderately good copywriter, let alone a professional, experienced writer. Unlike AI, humans are natural storytellers – we can create emotional connections with audiences. AI can’t do this.
The best AI-creation tools (such as ChatGPT) have well-reported drawbacks:
- Human intervention is always required to polish/edit the copy.
- AI is not effective for writing more than a few short paragraphs – and is unsuitable for long-form content.
- AI completely lacks human emotion, nuance, creativity, expression, personalisation, and empathy – and it can’t replicate these. It also can’t develop ideas, understand audience personas or tone, choose the most compelling words, or convey authenticity.
- Information provided by AI may be contradictory or factually incorrect.
- AI-generated content can be hit-or-miss – and for every good-quality, short-form piece delivered, there is at least one of very poor quality.
- AI content is, in a nutshell, generic – and it can never be anything but.
There are some scenarios where AI has a role – it is generally good enough to produce simple, short sentences and provide basic inspiration to overcome writer’s block. It can be valuable as a writing “assistant” – but little more.
Professional Content Writing Services at an Affordable Price
The key to effective website writing, SEO writing, blogging, social media posts, and creating other relevant business materials is to work with an experienced, professional, expert human writer!
SEOcycle, alongside our web development, web design, and SEO expert services, offers professional content and copywriting services.
Our rates for writing services are very competitive.
Our head writer Alana is a co-owner at SEOcycle and has been writing full-time since 2013, for our SEOcycle clients as well as on a freelance basis and for several other digital marketing companies in Australia and internationally. She provides website content and ghost-blogging for many clients across a vast number of industries, as well as posts for social media marketing for SEO. Tertiary-educated in the medical field and holding several other qualifications, including a certificate in professional editing and proofreading, she is an Australian-born, native-English speaker.
Contact us now for help with effective, high-quality, human-written website copy or blog content.
