Prepare for the AI-fueled duplication epidemic

Billie says: “Prepare for the duplication epidemic caused by AI content generation.

We’ve all seen how AI has become the lifeblood of digital content; everyone’s using it at the moment. It’s now getting to a point where the AI is getting dumber, according to many tests. That’s because it’s using the same data source to generate content for different websites, recrawling that content, finding it again, and then generating more content online.

It’s creating a big cycle of slightly dumber/more misinformed content based on a potentially old data source. The more this is happening, the more we’re going to see a mass duplication issue, which we’ll need to treat like an external cannibalisation project. Everyone’s creating the same content on the same topics, and we’ll need to rein that in at some point.”

Is it Google’s job to deal with duplication?

“Yes, but if everyone’s applying the same tactics and not enough people are creating unique and helpful content, then some of that duplicated content is going to rank.

We often see lesser information appearing highly in Google search. At some point, it needs to become an SEO’s responsibility. Otherwise, it will become a mass project for us all and we’ll no longer be worrying that SEO is dead because we’ll be so busy trying to fix the quality of our clients’ content. It’s better to future-proof yourself from an early stage and generate helpful human content.

I’m not 100% against AI (it’s very helpful) but, if you’re creating something for an expert or anyone within a specific industry, it needs to have real insight to still be successful.”

What should and shouldn’t AI be used for?

“I use AI to generate outlines and for generic pieces of information/facts that aren’t going to change massively. I will get AI to generate some content for me, but it would then be edited by a human, and have insight from a human added.

Try to include, ‘This was my experience doing this work/using this product’ or ‘This is why the product was created/how it was created/who it’s for.’ Adding those real insights that only a business owner or someone who works within that niche could have is what will set you aside from generic AI content.”

What should an SEO do if their website is filled with generic, bland AI content?

“I wouldn’t recommend removing the content completely because it can still be beneficial. Depending on when you started using AI and how successfully it’s been implemented, you could have generated a lot of backlinks. That content piece may have been successful at some point, so you wouldn’t want to get rid of it.

It’s about optimizing it further and going back to the SEO basics. Do your research, look at what your competitors are doing, identify the extra insights you can provide, and determine how you can make your content better than what it’s competing with. However, you need to be a human to be able to see that.

There are all sorts of tools and checklists out there that can give ideas for what you can do to improve content and make it stand out from other AI content, but it needs that human aspect. It’s really important that we bring that back. For an SEO practitioner, the fantastic thing is that the people who don’t consider SEO best practice from the onset are the ones using AI for everything. That could be category work, product pages, B2B pages, SaaS websites, blog content, etc.

Such a wide spread of content is now being diluted by mass AI generation. In a year or so, we’re going to be very busy fixing this and it’s going to be interesting to see that breaking point when we get there.”

Are there tools for identifying which pages on your website are too similar to other pages that are out there?

“Yes and no. There are tools for identifying whether a page has been generated with AI but they’re not great. I’ve been testing quite a few and I’ve literally written content myself, using Grammarly, and it’s convinced that it’s AI content. They’re very hit-and-miss.

We’ve had tools for a very long time, but there’s nothing I’ve come across that can do it en masse. You’d need a massive web scraper to actually be able to do that, and you could be breaching Google’s guidelines if you’re trying to scrape content at scale like that.

There are also plagiarism tools out there, which have been used by universities and schools forever. They’re very handy for running a piece of content and seeing how many other pages it matches and how much of it appears to be plagiarised. There are several steps to it at the moment. Hopefully, some very smart person out there will come up with a solution.”

Can automated tools mislabel your content as being written by AI when it’s not?

“That is a concern, and I don’t think there’s anything smart enough to be able to teach that at the moment. With AI, we’re learning to do certain things. If I see an article that’s really long and has a conclusion at the end, my brain automatically assumes that it was written by AI. That is not a set rule, of course, because lots of people end with a conclusion.

If we’re not 100% able to identify AI ourselves, it’s going to be really hard to create a tool that can reliably do it for us.”

How can EEAT help ensure that your content is better than the competition?

“Again, it’s about adding that human experience. Talk about who the product is for, why it helps, and how it was made. Bring in things like how you’ve used it and specific use cases for it. That will add experience and trust in the product.

A lot of people have found ‘helpful content’ and EEAT stressful because Google’s not 100% clear about how that works within their guidelines. They are creating these algorithms and talking about them across so many niches that they can’t go into much detail.

However, if you take a look at the Google Search Quality Raters guidelines, they show examples of EEAT. It’s not a secret sauce or anything, and it’s not telling you what you need to do, but they’ve got several niches and examples. It’s very easy to access that information and apply it to your own strategies. If that’s what they’re telling their raters to look for, it’s definitely going to be helpful for us.”

How can you generate unique content ideas using client data?

“Go on Google Search Console and Google Analytics and look at live data that’s trending. You could also look at what’s being searched on your website. Has something started being searched one day that’s come out of nowhere? Search that, have a look on social media, and try and figure out the reasons why this has suddenly become successful. Potentially, you can start generating content about that topic yourself.

That way, you can stay ahead of what’s happening and be much more reactive with your SEO. SEO is often seen as a long-term strategy, and link-building and digital PR are more reactive. Really, we can use the same research tools they use to create data stories to generate content. We can examine why something is popular, talk about it, and then try and dominate by optimizing the products and category pages and creating blog content about whatever the trend is. There’s so much opportunity within the live data we get from a client.

This also works on a seasonality basis. If you know something becomes really popular once a year, start generating content and creating hype for that.”

How do you take these trending concepts and turn them into pieces of content?

“Let’s say you’re Lush, the soap shop, and you have a shower gel called Snow Fairy that comes out every single Christmas. You know this is one of your most popular products and there’s going to be a lot of data there. It’s going to be successful, and people are going to be searching for that term.

What you can do is start generating additional hype. You can create additional content around that topic so that you stand out and don’t get caught in the mass cannibalisation that’s happening outside of your website.

You’re a big brand, you’re a leader in the industry, and a lot of businesses try and duplicate what you create. There are candles with the same scent as this shower gel, and other shower gels too. You’re going to rank reasonably well because of your brand name and branded terms, but people are selling these duplicate products year-round while you only sell them at one time of year.

You need to think about how your content shows that you are more than just a brand name. Talk about why this was created, why your product is better than the rest, and what people’s experiences with it are. Bring in reviews – because you’re a big brand and people love this cult classic product, there are lots of reviews. You’re not just talking about this product; you’re talking about the experience that comes with the product. It shows that you are the owners, the experts, and the wave maker for this thing.

Anyone can talk about a product. Instead of just saying, ‘This is a glittery, pink marshmallow-scented shower gel’, you can tell the user everything. You can tell them it’s vegan and cruelty-free and you can tell them how loved it is. It’s about building a bigger story. It’s not just saying what you do, it’s showing what you do. Then, you’re going to rank better.”

If an SEO is struggling for time, what should they stop doing right now so they can spend more time doing what you suggest in 2024?

“Stop worrying about certain rich results like knowledge panels. I’m seeing a lot of demand for (and a lot of SEOs promising) people to get a knowledge panel for their name. Not everyone deserves a knowledge panel for their name. Susan, who lives five doors down and walks her dog at the park, does not need a knowledge panel. SEOs started to develop the attitude that anyone can achieve them. It’s not something that needs to be sold right now. A knowledge panel should belong to notable figures, and a lot of time and energy is being spent on these, and other rich results. There are many more beneficial things that are going to benefit your client quicker.

It depends on the client. If you’re working on someone’s personal consulting site, they probably should try and build out their online portfolio. However, the owner of Claire’s Pet Shop probably doesn’t need it.”

Billie Geena is an SEO Consultant, and you can find her over at Uptake.Agency.