AI Content and SEO: What Google Says About Text Written with AI

Google does not lower a page’s ranking just because artificial intelligence helped write it. What counts is the quality and usefulness of the content. How it was written does not matter. On the question of AI content and SEO, the deciding word is Google’s post on AI content, published on Google Search Central on 8 February 2023. I am writing this guide for owners of stores and websites built on WordPress, WooCommerce or PrestaShop. Do you want to write product descriptions and blog posts faster without losing visibility? Then read on.

AI content and SEO: what position did Google take in February 2023?

Google looks at quality, originality and whether the text was written for people. How it was produced is not its concern. Ranking systems are meant to reward original, high-quality material, meaning content that meets the criteria grouped under the E-E-A-T acronym. Google itself has used AI for years and does not treat it as an enemy. The line lies somewhere else. The problem is automation designed to manipulate search results. Not the tool someone used to put together a valuable text efficiently.

What is E-E-A-T and why does it matter more than the tool you write with?

E-E-A-T is the set of qualities Google uses to recognise valuable content: experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. The first one is the hardest to fake. How would a language model know what customers ask about most often? Which sizes keep coming back as returns? How the product holds up after six months of use? It doesn’t. The seller has that knowledge.

In an online store you see this right away. A description with specifics (material, how it is mounted, an honest note on who the product is not for) builds trust. A generic text generated in a few seconds sounds correct enough, but says nothing at all. Trustworthiness also means verified specifications. A made-up battery capacity or a wrong dimension does more harm than an empty description.

Helpful content: text written for people, not for rankings

Helpful content is material created first and foremost for the reader, and Google rewards it through a separate mechanism. The helpful content system was introduced in 2022 so that searchers land on pages written for people, not for rankings. The red flags are fairly obvious: texts built solely around keywords, mass-produced subpages that add nothing new, and rewrites of other people’s articles.

Before publishing, I recommend going through a few check questions:

• Does the text answer a real question that customers ask?
• Does it add something you won’t find on ten other pages?
• After reading, does the reader know what to do next: pick a variant, order, install?
• Has a person checked all the facts and specifications?

When does Google treat AI text as spam?

When it is used to artificially inflate visibility instead of informing people. Simple as that. Google has been fighting automation aimed at manipulating results for years, and SpamBrain works the same way whether the spam was written by a person, a script or a language model. What is risky? Hundreds of near-identical product descriptions. Posts generated in bulk and published without editing. Articles targeting keywords that have nothing to do with what the store sells.

Misinformation is a separate issue. A model can state a wrong standard, a non-existent certificate or an incorrect composition with a straight face. And the responsibility for that kind of error always falls on the publisher. Not on the tool.

How to use AI safely for store and company blog content?

In my view, when writing content with AI, the most sensible approach is to treat AI as a drafting assistant and leave decisions about facts and tone to a person. In practice, a simple division of work does the job:

1. AI prepares a draft, a heading structure and suggested wording.
2. A person is responsible for the facts and cuts anything that cannot be confirmed.
3. Product specifications are checked against the manufacturer’s data sheet or warehouse data.
4. The seller adds their own experience: customer questions, common mistakes when choosing, reasons for returns.
5. Editing brings the language in line with the brand’s tone and cuts repetition.

It is a good idea to add an author byline under the post and say who is responsible for the content. Google also reminds publishers that appear in Google News to use bylines and author information. Oh, and variants and categories need their own descriptions too, not one template copied everywhere. And if the WordPress or WooCommerce admin panel lacks a tool for this kind of work? A custom plugin can be built by K4.pl, the plugin shop run by Web Systems, a software house from Łódź.

In short: when it comes to AI content and SEO, there is no trap as long as a person has the final say. AI speeds up writing, but rankings depend on whether the text is helpful, original and trustworthy. Where to start? Review your current product descriptions with E-E-A-T in mind and add the knowledge that only the seller has.

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