Google: If You’re Using AI To Write Your Content, It’s Going To Be Rehashed From Other Sites

Google’s John Mueller had a nice one-liner on Reddit again, this one he said: “By definition (I’m simplifying), if you’re using AI to write your content, it’s going to be rehashed from other sites.”

This means that AI is basically learning from what is already out on the web and uses that knowledge to write based on what already exists. In short, it will rehash what it knows and create something based on that knowledge. But that knowledge is not new because it is learned based on what is available on the web.

Do note that Google has been okay with using AI to help you write content if it is done for people, not for search engines.

John also said in this Reddit post, “Great content isn’t automatically going to rank well, but making terrible content rank well is much harder.” So it is not enough to have great content anymore.

Here is what he posted fully:

You’re starting from a bad place, imo. Great content isn’t automatically going to rank well, but making terrible content rank well is much harder. Starting with this kind of an anchor pulling you down, in an area where there’s already a lot of reasonable, perhaps even great, content out there is a recipe for failure.

If you want people to link to your site, you need to make it linkworthy, recommendation-worthy. If you want search engines to send folks your way, you need to provide something that’s not the same as on other sites (and of course, do a lot more than just have that content). By definition (I’m simplifying), if you’re using AI to write your content, it’s going to be rehashed from other sites.

None of the technical details matter when a site doesn’t have a clear purpose, a value proposition that’s focused on what users are missing, and that delivers. Use technical details & scores to improve your craft, making technically great sites is not going to hold you back, but you first need that foundation of purpose.

Forum discussion at Reddit.