Does Google Penalize AI Content?

We have observed a reverse impact on the SERP after Google’s content health update policies in May 2024. Google ranked down and removed some content, marking them as spam and explicit. While many researchers and writers depend on AI to produce content faster, they are worried about this as an aftershock. So, does Google penalize AI content similar to spam content? Or can Google deindex a fully optimized website just for using AI content? 

No, Google will not penalize AI Content. Questions like this arose from various communities and users on the internet. The tension is high because Originality’s survey says 11.5% of content is AI-generated. After watching this, we surveyed 2500+ top-ranked websites and found that they used AI content for their everyday posts. If you are one of the AI-content users, we will show some case studies and our clarification in this article with some evidence so that you know whether Google penalizes AI content. Let’s get started!

AI-generated content means the text, image, or other audio-visuals are made by artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT, Jasper AI, Google Gemini, etc. AI software relies on stored data and human-written sources to produce content. It can understand what you want and provides a universally acceptable copy in an average format. 

For Google ranking, we need to publish text-based content like articles, descriptions, service pages, blogs, etc. AI can generate these forms of content after getting the user instructions about the topic and format. Once given, AI digs in the suitable narration that suits your content format.

How Does AI Generate Content?

AI generates text content through Neural Processing of Language and Natural Language Generation. When you give your prompt, AI will analyze the main words and your demand, then search the database to find similar data that can answer each of your queries.

How Does a Top Quality AI-generated Content Look Like?

AI content is perfect. In February 2024, writer Giovana Penatti provided a guide on how to detect AI-generated content with clear instructions. But this whole content was written through AI, performing better on SERP! One of the top reasons is that she excluded many words from the AI content to give a human touch, whereas a generic AI-written blog is nearly perfect in sentence crafting. The problem is we do not act perfect in real life as readers. There should be:

• Random expressions and reactions
• Less use of emojis and dictionary words
• Grammatical mistakes
• Missing and forgotten parts

Therefore, most AI content may seem lifeless to us (the readers) for using inappropriate slang, tone, and adjectives. For example: a foreigner is speaking local slang without real emotion. Feeling weird, right? 

Likewise, the content may be limited if the database has no resources. That’s where human-written content rules! Humans can make up something in a realistic way quickly.

Yes, Google can detect AI content if you do not change anything. AI services use a similar pattern to write each sentence. The main intention of AI is to help you, so it does not apply unique writing tones like an original human author. Google and other third-party software can identify the tone easily. Besides, AI content has some issues.

How Google Detects AI Content?

Google’s neural Large Language Model (LLM) identifies the writing tone, repetition, understandability, and EEAT of any content before marking the content as AI-generated content. If you observe 3 or 4 ChatGPT written content, you will find the same factors.

• Writing Tone: The writing tone is on point but lifeless. AI content does not have enough emotions and phrases we use in our real lives. An author uses special jargon and dialects in his sentences when writing something. But AI only provides a definitive answer in complex structures.
• Repetition: AI relies on resources available on the internet to know about a topic. If no resources are available, it will only repeat the same thing repeatedly. This process kills the content value and information depth.
• Understandability: In the September 2023 content update, Google notified that they would prioritize content for people rather than written by humans. It accepted AI content clearly. But when AI writes universally to provide information, it does not make the information interesting and understandable to the target audience.
• Missing E-E-A-T: AI content lacks Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, unlike a real author and his personal portfolio page. If Google cannot trace the author and his previous contribution on the internet, it won’t find the content trustworthy.

Google loves authenticity and user engagement in content; that’s why trusted Reddit users’ comments are ranked on Google for any topic these days. This type of comment does not have well-optimized keywords, but they came up on top for their authentic stories and experiences.

AI Content That Google Won’t Penalize

When you write content according to Google’s guidance about AI-generated content, Google will keep you out of the de-indexing list. The safety protocol only applies to content with well-defined segments, user perspectives, and a higher level of authority. These three qualities make the foundation of ‘user-generated content.’ like human-written content.

1. Well-defined Content: Tricky SEO writers stuffed keywords so that Google bots can crawl and detect them. However these contents have no direct answers to the search queries. That’s why Google introduced people-first content policies. People won't get value if the content cannot provide valid answers related to the keywords. If you write using AI, ensure the content is well-defined for the readers.
2. Showing User Perspective: Demonstrate expertise to avoid penalization. For instance, if you write a review on something, do not just include the benchmark scores randomly. Write how you felt about having that product on hand. You can use AI so that your content gets enough information about the product from your view. The expertise must be authentic to the readers.
3. Adding Authority and Proof: You can build up authority for your content and website using data or statistics from relevant sites. Usually, AI provides direct information to help your research without using references. But AI-written content with credible reference links can still rank on Google for authoritativeness.

Google announced it will prioritize helpful content over anything, and the process has evolved since 2022. In 2023, there were billions of AI-written content ranked on Google after this statement. That clearly speaks out for AI content only if that meets the quality. You can depend on two ways to retain the quality of AI content and transform it from generic content to helpful content:

1. Labeling & Editing Content

Bank Rate published a guide on “Financial Liquidity,” which is ranked on Google. They claimed that some part of the content is written using AI. Many of us wondered why Google didn’t take it down. Then, we found out that they edited on experts’ observations and labeled AI content to build trustworthiness. Google has a language model. It understands the context, so it didn’t find any misleading answers to the queries and ranked the content even after using AI.

2. Building E-E-A-T for Content

Google’s search guidance about AI content claimed that they are “Rewarding high-quality content, however it is produced.” Here, high quality comes from the E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness). If you make AI content with E-E-A-T and without the intention to manipulate the search rankings, your content may be valuable to readers and Google both.

After the March 2024 content health update, blogger Ibtissam El Azami complained about the website disappearance problem, but later, everyone found out there were no penalties for anything. Google does not penalize AI content directly after AI detection. Instead, it penalizes poor content. So, AI-written articles are totally usable on Google. 

But, they have higher chances of getting detected as poor content if made less carefully. Ultimately, it will be cut off from ranking lists. Even there is a higher chance of getting deindexed from Google. But our case study will shock you.

How VISER X Team Experienced Google Penalty in Using AI Content (Case Study)

In 2023, we launched a website called sArticle to test AI content ranking. We published content from ChatGPT following all the criteria, and the website performed well. We even marked the checklist of RankMath SEO Analyser for headings, meta titles, meta descriptions, slugs, and so on. But when we started publishing in mass amounts (i.e: 10 articles per day), the editing process was excluded, and Google marked the contents poorly. Then Google blacklisted the website temporarily. The reasons behind deindexing and blacklisting were:

• Short-form content without rich information
• Lack of uniqueness in title and body
• Missing author information page
• Too many meaningless bullet points
• No “Natural Language Processing” pattern
• Repeating style and tone in content body

How will Google Handle AI Content in 2024?

Google's March 2024 content health update is a standard for improving search results by reducing low-quality content. They updated ranking systems to favor original, helpful content and revised spam policies to remove irrelevant sites. This doesn't target AI specifically, but low-quality AI content that lacks depth and expertise often gets flagged.

When your content is extended to cover the topic and subtopic of the context/keywords, it is categorized as rich content. All you need to do is erase parts that contain adult or explicit texts, images, or common generic points. Remember that Google will not rank the same content from the same website. You must insert extra points on your other content on a related topic.

Doing so, the content will have more possibility to rank higher whether it is written and arranged by AI. It is always best practice to research with AI, list the outlines, and then edit and insert your own thoughts inside the content.

As we are clear, Google does not penalize AI content; they would rather reward good content made with AI or human touch. So, it is possible to write using AI for your websites. But to keep the quality of writing, you need to master the art of writing information-rich AI prompts or proofreading AI-generated content. 

Method 1: Editing AI Content

When you write something using AI, do not forget to edit and check the sentence structure and content duplicity by yourself. Check and match any mathematical input manually, and put reference links with suitable anchor text. If you know how to edit AI content, your content may have more trustworthiness and readability. So, the content will meet the Google SEO criteria and act as natural content.

Method 2: Providing Information in Prompt

Make your own version of any content, like an essay or paragraph. Then, write in prompts of the AI assistant and tell it to rewrite it in a reader-friendly format. This way, AI will decorate your information with the right headings, paragraphs, and bullet points. What’s your benefit? Your information will be accurate and there will be no extra robotic touch by the AI.

Are you trying to avoid all the unfortunate events regarding your content? AI-written content is usable, but there is no guarantee that the next Google content health update won’t blacklist it! Whereas, human-written content will always rule on the search engines for the sustainable business policy of Google. Remember, AI is a trend; it’s not an example of utmost satisfaction. In fact, satisfaction comes from different contents from different human perspectives.

At VISER X, we provide high-quality content writing services for all types of businesses and industries. Highly educated content writers craft compelling articles containing all the qualities needed to rank on Google. We also provide multiple types of content writing to meet your needs. 

You will get the following types of content from us without using AI.

• SEO blogs with optimized links and keywords
• Technical blogs and documentation for product tutorials
• Story and scripts for video production
• Advertisement copies for social media and pages
• Features articles for magazine and newspaper columns

Our content is grammatically correct and completely audience-centric. You will get compelling headlines, storytelling, and a consistent brand voice simultaneously. 

We check the SEO score, readability score, credibility, and so on before delivering the content. Globally popular business brands like ShareTrip, BRAC, and HATIL have been our loyal clients for the exceptional quality of content and other digital marketing services.

Overall, we can say that you need to understand the content health update and the purpose of the content to know why normally written AI content is in the danger zone. AI or human, the total ranking and de-ranking are connected to the relevancy of the content. 

Google may penalize your website for technical issues, content spam, and other tricky stuff. But when you provide exact information related to the keywords, no way Google will de-rank you for that. Hence, knowing how to make engaging content is the key to your ranking success. You can follow our guide on producing SEO content using AI for your improvement.

Can you get penalized for using AI?

You will not get penalized for using AI content. But you will definitely get penalized for using poor and spammy content. It has been observed that, general people use AI and make blogs without keen examination. That’s why their AI-generated content gets penalties. But Google will rank intentful AI content.

Does AI content rank in Google 2024?

AI content will rank on Google as long as it will act as the direct answer of the searcher. Google’s March 2024 content health update stated that any content that meets the “people’s first” criteria would be considered authentic. That means it could be human-written, AI-written, or forum discussion.

Is AI content bad for SEO?

Currently, AI content is not bad for SEO when your content meets all the criteria of “helpful content”. But poorly written AI content lacks depth and trustworthiness. These types of AI content bring negative results, often resulting in de-indexing or de-ranking. 

Will Google penalize ChatGPT content?

Google does not classify ChatGPT as any special tool. You can use any AI or ChatGPT to produce content faster. There is no possibility of getting penalized for using ChatGPT content. But when you do not cross-check the information in ChatGPT content, Google will find it “poorly written, and your content could be flagged as spam.