Does Google 💙 or ❌ AI content?

Have you ever noticed how Facebook ads prey on your hidden insecurities?

For instance, I’m constantly seeing cosmetic ads for (ahem) “mature” women who want to look better on Zoom. It’s like Facebook hears me when I complain how I can look great when I look in my bathroom mirror — but the unforgiving Zoom camera tells another story.

It’s like that with AI-generated content ads, too.

I constantly see ads for Jasper (previously Jarvis), the AI content firm that calls itself “the future of writing.”

(Um, what?)

For $99, you can purchase 100,000 words a month on the Boss Mode plan and make all your long-form content dreams come true! If you’re not “whistling with joy” (yes, their words) after five days, you get your money back.

At first glance, the pricing and offer feel like a no-brainer. If a company has the choice of spending $1,500 on a professionally written long-form post — or $99 for a Boss Mode plan, spending under $100 a month sounds like an amazing deal.

Is it any wonder why so many SEO writers are freaked out about robots taking their writing jobs?

I get it.

Maybe I’d be worried too…but I always go back to the wise adage of “you get what you pay for.”

It seems like Google “feels” the same way about AI content.

In fact, Google’s John Mueller has warned that machine-generated content is not high quality.

Here’s his tweet:

And he’s right. As I’ve discussed before, the key to Google positions isn’t writing more content. The key is creating quality content that informs, delights, and motivates your readers.

You can’t have that with cheap and fast content. Especially when the content is machine-generated.

Here’s the Search Engine Roundtable article if you want to learn more. Plus, another article hit the streets discussing how, according to Google,  AI-generated content is spam.

(Google has since softened this stance since ChatGPT, but does stress that AI content should be edited by humans and not mass-produced for rankings. Here’s more information about if ChatGPT will take your writing job.)

Sure, it may sound awesome to score 100,000 words for just $99 a month. But, to me, that’s $99 you’d be throwing out the window. Every single month.

It would make more sense to save that money and spend it on one excellent blog post.

Otherwise, you may get something like this (and yes, Burger King did create a commercial based on AI text). If you’re ever feeling bad about your content skills, you’ll want to watch this for a laugh:

Is AI a good option in certain content situations? Possibly — I wrote about AI a few years ago and discussed how it could be useful. Sometimes.

In fact, as I was writing this newsletter, this article about using AI to write video descriptions popped up on my feed.

But will AI take our jobs? It’s doubtful.

There will always be clients who see $99 for 100,000 words as a steal — not a huge red flag.

Those are not your clients.

Instead of worrying about the bots, know that clients will always be willing to pay for quality content. These folks know that creating content that grabs eyeballs and makes the conversion magic happen is a valuable skillset.

One that costs way more than $99.

So, you’re safe from the content robot uprising. Are you safe from those annoyingly-specific Facebook ads? Well, that’s a different story…

What do you think?

Does the thought of machine-generated content keep you awake at night? Head over to the SEO Writing Tips group and share your story.