Future of SEO: AI-Generated Content vs. Authenticity of Human Content

SEO agencies’ common strategies are to optimize genuine human-made content for end-users or focus on technical shortcuts and generated content for Google optimization. Right from time, Google’s guidelines also have always prioritized human inputs where accurate, reliable, and relevant content is everything.

Now that artificial intelligence and machine learning technology have become one of the hottest topics of discussion in different industries, there are bound to be some digital marketing space impacts.

Machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence contribute tremendously to improving content relevance for the searchers. It’s increasing on the internet that there’s almost no way to differentiate between the generated content and the human content.

Even though intelligent technologies introduce a revolutionary change in the fundamental strategies, it shouldn’t be difficult since the digital marketing space already has a history of adapting effectively to new technology changes.

From simple optimization of websites to the complex and nonstop evolving process of creating and enhancing the contents to meet its target users on various platforms, the last decade has recorded some Search Engine Optimization changes.

These evolutions have imposed changes on content marketing, social media marketing, user experience, and mobile optimization. Simultaneously, some other basic tools like the keywords, link building, and meta tags optimizations remain unchanged.

While considering that a move towards prioritizing AI-generated contents over human content could mean gathering reliable information in no time, you also need to know that actualities depend on Google and its strategy.

Before adopting these new technologies to your strategy as some sort of advantage to stay on top of the game, there are predictions on how the automatically generated content can influence the future of search engine optimization.

Google’s Actions against Manipulation and Spamming

Right from time, Google’s focus has mainly been on the users. However, since many consistently try several means to manipulate their algorithm for their benefits, Google has launched several updates.

At first, Google searches were based on the page rank algorithm, where a website’s quality depends on the quality of websites that directs to it. This then means that the site’s rank is based on the credibility given to them by the other website, making it difficult to manipulate the algorithm.

Regardless, some SEO specialists found ways to counter the system and increase their ranking by spamming websites, especially the comment sections with backlinks. This technique could have worked, only that it spreads links all over the internet.

The relevance and page ranking depend on the query’s main keywords compared with the words present on the page. Easy enough, several website managers tried to fill their pages with keywords and rank higher. Google found out about this practice and introduced an update to the algorithm in 2003. This way, websites that have pages stuffed up with keywords were penalized.

There is also another update – Google Panda to target those domains that relied on duplicate content, irrelevant links, and link farming, which put a lot of pressure on the SEO profession.

Their moves towards removing the shortcuts with these two updates indicate that Google prefers content to be unique, authentic, and credible. With a background like this, it’s safe to say that Google continues to prioritize the relationship of trust, credibility, and reliability with the user and the content creators, which defines the human aspect of the internet.

Google Prioritizing Human Values and Inputs

After Google lost their initial algorithm due to the marketer’s moving ranks with false signals, they found a way to upgrade their technology and improve search results. Only the highest-quality content gets a top ranking.

Even though Google will continue to value human content’s authenticity, they have also invested a lot in progressing the machine’s efficiency and how it benefits the algorithms.

The introduction of the Hummingbird algorithm update redefined the overall context of search queries by understanding the intention of the users instead of displaying only pages that included the word they typed. Using information such as the domain, idea, or location of the query analyses the concepts and interprets longer and more complex queries.

In 2015, the RankBrain’s update went further into implementing deep learning to understand better and predict new queries in the search engine. For instance, “boot” is footwear in America, and in the UK, it means the trunk of a car.

The algorithm teaches itself to deliver precise results to the user’s queries and use details from the user’s engagement, such as click rate and read time, to know the relevance of these results.

Without relying on backlinks or semantic content, the algorithm uses information from the content’s engagement value to expose Google to the user’s satisfaction level and precise value of the content.

How AI-Based Content Affect the Authenticity of Human Content

From the several kinds of artificial intelligence, search engines require the aspects of AI machine learning that finds and displays SERPs. This kind of intelligence enables the technology to teach themselves, adapt, generate and respond to data without explicit programming.

With this, you only need to give a few keywords, and the AI uses the information they find from online data and create unique content. Search engine administrators may not be ready to face this, but the machine learning targets towards giving them less direct control over results.

Recently, AI has been used to generate data. One of the interesting ones is the GPT-3 (an AI language model developed by OpenAI) that Guardian in 2020 allowed to write an essay on its purpose as artificial intelligence.

Although the algorithms still lack relevance, structure, global semantic understanding, and some results are not yet as convincing as expected, there are anticipations that these technologies will soon evolve to the point where users and google would find the content indistinguishable.

Knowing the efficiency of this learning machine and the predicted impacts on content creation, the AI will soon generate their own responses to searches without requiring extensive developer input.

After investing in developing updates that fight against spamming robots, we likely see Google admitting to content automation’s growing power and applying changes to its human content policy. Since some AI-generated articles seem more readable with lesser jargon of bloggers and journalists, this may just be enough reason for Google to change its perspective.

The Future of SEO

Artificial intelligence has come as a huge factor in search engine optimization. As machine learning and word vector programming improve, there are bound to be consequences for your content. The impact right now may not yet be so relevant, but it introduces a path to reconsidering your content creation strategy to stay on top of your game.

With the changing environment of voice searching, smart device, and user’s demand for relevant content from quick queries, SEO specialists have to adapt to the machines and AI updates. However, up-to-date, the authenticity of human content still provides the value and result that an average user might require.

As the number of SEO specialists continuously increases, machine learning will eventually accelerate the market’s battle. It presents ways to save time, increase your productivity, and give a step above your competitors.

As good as this sounds, artificial intelligence is still in an evolving process, and it’s interesting for only redundant types of contents like match summaries and essays. The technology is not yet a perfect replacement for in-depth and valuable articles.

With this, you have to balance the time saving of automation and the authenticity of human content. In the end, the future of SEO may adapt to a marketing approach where human cause and the intentions behind it may be all that’s left.

What lies ahead for SEO?

Will the future of SEO AI-generated content bring an end to the need for human content and its authenticity? Should content creators roll over in defeat and cede their works to the robots? Not quite.

Optimization strategies may change, but by creating long content that is efficiently optimized to focus on voice and visual searches, the system will remain valuable. Human-created content will most likely keep its value long past the generation of AI-based technology.

How SEOs Can Adapt Better with AI Technology

Artificial intelligence keeps improving and adapting better with search engines. Now SEO strategies need to follow the process and adjust as well. Voice and visual searches in long-quality content keep the hopes of optimization currently, but there certain demands of this changing medium.

1. Optimizing your site for voice search

Now that there are smartphones and assistants such as Siri, Alexa, Ask Google, and others, the convenience, and popularity of voice searches are changing the way we think about SEO. Studies show that a continuously increasing number of users are adapting to voice searches, which makes optimizing your website for the voice search essential.

Queries made via voice search tend to be conversational and concise, more like conversing with an acquaintance. Having a phrase or a sentence as a response to questions instead of typing seems like a better choice to most searchers. Optimizing your site for voice search will require your content to be unique, valuable, and have a more natural language such that it’s easy to find and understand.

2. Optimizing visual content

The adaption of AI enables the search engines to predict, label, and connect visual content based on the AI platform’s historical data. This means the search engines are getting better at knowing what images, audio clips, and videos are about.

Contents creators should consider the importance of SEO in their work. There are already aspects of SEO in visual content creation, but using factors like descriptions, video length, and keyword tags help to have video rank in search and gain traffic on visual content sites like YouTube and others.

As the AI gets better, photos and video analysis will improve such that visual contents will be compared based on their relevance, quality, and value to website visitors. Content creators now have to adjust specific visuals to suit this development.

3. Quality is a priority

Quality content is already one of the essential factors in effective SEO. With better AI-powered search engines, the need for quality content is now more important than ever since the AI finds and bypasses weak content with poor readability and a high bounce rate.

Optimizing experts have to consider putting more effort into creating content and backlinks that are more relevant and valuable to users. As the AI gets smarter, SEO would depend more on quality and increased standards for website content, email targeting, social media, and digital marketing campaigns.

Only websites with authentic, consistent, and relevant content will rank high. They need to have engagement features and vital personalization that keeps the consumers interested.

The necessities of an Improved AI in several ways improve the SEO strategies that marketers can implement. Considering everything from the creation and structuring of the content, chatbots, and email correspondence, just to mention a few, the AI and machine learning techniques represent a future where AI is prevalent in SEO.