In the digital world, AI content is everywhere. As a content marketer, I’ve seen it rise in our industry. While it has many benefits, it also brings unique challenges for business owners and marketing agencies. Let’s look at how to strike the right balance between AI efficiency and human creativity.
AI Content
AI has made content creation lightning-fast and cost-effective. Human writers can’t match that. It can churn out loads of text quickly, saving time and money. However, AI content often lacks the subtlety and originality that human writers bring.
Problems with AI Content
In my experience, AI content is often bland and repetitive. It lacks the human touch that readers connect with. More importantly, search engines may penalise it if they detect it as low-quality or spammy content.
Google: Do they care about AI Content?
In the ever-changing world of SEO, there’s been much debate about Google’s stance on AI-generated content. Let’s investigate based on Google’s own words and industry observations.
Quality over Production Method
Google’s focus is on content quality, not how it’s produced. Their ranking algorithms reward original, high-quality content that demonstrates expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). Whether it’s written by a human or AI, if the content meets these standards, Google will rank it accordingly.
The real problem: Low-quality, spammy content
Google needs to take issue with the flood of low-effort, spammy AI content designed to game search rankings. This type of content often:
- It lacks originality, just rehashing existing content
- Contains factual errors or misinformation
- Is not relevant to the user’s search intent
- It uses unnatural language that’s AI-generated
- Is mass produced with no human oversight
The Human Touch Still Counts
To avoid problems and meet Google’s quality standards, you must use AI as a tool, not a replacement for human writers. Best practices are:
- Having humans review, fact-check and edit AI drafts
- Adding original insights, examples and analysis to AI-generated text
- Optimise for readability and user experience
- Diversify traffic beyond Google search
The bottom line? Google doesn’t mind AI-generated content, per se. What they care about is the outcome—is the content high-quality, original, authoritative, and helpful to users? As one SEO expert put it, “Google will penalise poor content, whether a human or a robot wrote it.”
By using AI smartly and combining it with human expertise, you can create content that meets Google’s requirements and provides real value to your audience. And that’s what matters in the end.
Human Oversight
Human involvement is critical to AI content meeting quality standards. Let me give you an example. Last month, I reviewed an AI-generated article for a client. The facts were correct, but the tone was all wrong for their brand. It took a human eye to spot and fix this.
- Quality Control and Creativity
Human editors can ensure accuracy and relevance and add unique perspectives that AI can’t replicate. We bring emotional intelligence and cultural understanding to the content, making it more readable for the audience.
- SEO and Ethics
With human oversight, we can optimise content for SEO and avoid ethical problems like plagiarism or misinformation. This balance is crucial to your brand’s online reputation.
Humanising AI Content
Turning AI-generated content into something that feels human requires a mix of art and science. Let’s get into some techniques.
Writing Style
To make AI content feel human, we focus on the following:
- Removing unnecessary padding: AI overexplains, so we strip back. We cut out redundant phrases and simplify complex sentences. For example, instead of “due to the fact that,” we might just say “because.” It’s about being concise and direct, like a human writer would be.
- Varying word choices and sentence structure: AI gets into patterns. We break them up by introducing more varied vocabulary and short, punchy sentences with longer, more complex ones. It creates a natural flow like human writing.
- Mimicking writing styles: We adjust the tone of blog posts or white papers. For B2B content, we might add industry jargon or conversational elements, while for a lifestyle blog, we might leave it as is.
- Adding imperfections: Humans aren’t perfect writers; sometimes, those little imperfections make writing feel human. We might throw in the occasional fragment sentence or colloquialism to add character.
Human Rewriting
While AI provides a good base, human rewriting services add a layer of polish and humanness. Here’s why:
- Subtle editing: Human writers can pick up on the subtleties that AI might miss so the content fits the brand voice and target audience.
- Creative flair: Humans can add surprises, humour or emotional depth that AI can’t replicate.
- Cultural awareness: Human editors can navigate cultural references and localised content that global AI models miss.
- SEO finesse: Experienced writers can weave keywords and phrases in a natural way that follows SEO best practices.
Human rewriting adds cost and time, but the quality can improve. It’s about finding the right balance for your needs and budget.
How to Combine AI and Human Effort
- Contextual Prompting
Giving AI detailed prompts can make a big difference in output quality. Roleplaying in prompts helps set the tone and style. - Human Editing
This is where the magic happens. We add human touches, fact check and refine the content. It’s like turning a rough sketch into a work of art. - Personal Stories and Examples
Real-life examples make content more relatable. For example, I used an AI-generated outline for a client presentation. The outline was good, but it was my personal industry stories that really resonated with the audience. - Ethical and Practical Considerations
We need to use AI responsibly. As AI detection tools improve, trying to pass off AI content as entirely human-written can backfire. We see AI as an assistive tool, not a replacement for human creativity.
Get the Best of Both Worlds with AI and Human Expertise
AI efficiency and human creativity are the keys to producing great SEO content. At Content Hype, we’ve developed ways to use AI while maintaining the human touch that readers and search engines love.
Are you struggling to find balance in your content strategy? As a Melbourne-based content marketing agency, we can help. Contact Content Hype for a free consultation on humanising your AI content. Let’s create content that ranks and resonates.
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