AI Generated Content Is Spam According To Google's John Mueller

AI - Artificial Intelligence
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#1

Before you get all excited about ChatGPT and using it to quickly, cheaply, and easily creating your real estate website content (if you’re hoping to EVER rank for SEO) you need to read this quote from Google’s John Mueller:

“For us these would, essentially, still fall into the category of automatically generated content which is something we’ve had in the Webmaster Guidelines since almost the beginning.

And people have been automatically generating content in lots of different ways. And for us, if you’re using machine learning tools to generate your content, it’s essentially the same as if you’re just shuffling words around, looking up synonyms, or doing the translation tricks that people used to do. Those kinds of things.

My suspicion is maybe the quality of content is a little bit better than the really old-school tools, but for us, it’s still automatically generated content, and that means for us it’s still against the Webmaster Guidelines. So we would consider that to be spam.”

There are a LOT of so-called experts out there (and some real estate coaches who know nothing about AI or real estate SEO at all) who are jumping on the AI / ChatGPT bandwagon and telling people you can win the search engine optimization game by generating thousands of AI content pages.

AI is SUPER useful (and we’re going to cover exactly how to safely use it in your real estate marketing)

However! Using pure AI to generate your content pages (according to Google) is spam, and can mean an extremely painful (and potentially irreversible) manual penalty or action against your website.

So before you start using AI and creating all these pages of content, take a minute. Read this quote (and Google’s spam guidelines) and then stop what you’re doing.

Because if you use pure AI to generate your content, it might help you for a minute, but it can hurt you for a lifetime!

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#2

I get the fake backlinks issue that Google has. But content? Really!

The best content written by humans or AI should win. And it is easy to determine. The more visits a site gets due to content, the more engagement it gets due to content; it should win. No matter if I didn’t write the content.

What is the difference between me, you, sally down the street, or ChatGPT doing the writing? It’s content. And the people consuming the content should have that choice if it’s spam or not. Not Google.

That’s why I believe what John is saying is an attempt to motivate content creators to stay in line.

1 Like
#3

You’re right - quality and user-experience should come first, and Google has said as much in some recent statements clarifying their position on AI-generated content.

But these just drive home why Morgan is right. Using AI to simply generate a lot of content or using AI-generated content without oversight are both likely to get bad results because the ranking factors that Google looks for probably won’t be there.

As Morgan said: AI is super useful, but using it safely requires some know-how.

There are no magic-bullets in the SEO game - all the same hard work and expertise still apply!

#4

Seems silly to be honest. If a human or an AI generates the content it is still content. AND the content the AI generates is from researching (in an instant) 100’s or 1000’s of HUMAN written content and putting it together. So just seems silly to me its frowned upon.

Seems to me if you have a 1500 word write up from an AI and then just clean it up a bit to make it look more “natural” would this prevent being flagged from Google?

#5

Hi Mike

Here’s my take on why Google might want to discourage AI-generated content.

I think Google’s concern has to do with a few things, including quality, user-experience, and trust.

(Note: I’m trying to think like Google here. Our concerns can be quite different)

First, while AI-generated content can pass as human, if the aim is to escape detection instead of producing good content, then its likely that some quality will be sacrificed. Google is both trying to pick that up with its algorithm and discourage it generally.

Second, by collating a lot of human-written work together in the way that it does, AI writing tools can produce work that is a bit generic. And even if the quality of the output improves, the sheer amount of content that AI could potentially produce only means that the bar for what counts as “generic” goes up. If well-written natural-sounding text proliferates because it’s easy to produce, then that content becomes “bad” simply by being the default. This is especially important if you want your content to rank. Google may try very hard to discern quality objectively, but at the end of the day, search rankings are relative.

And finally, Google is probably wary of a content landscape where what appears on a site is disconnected from the human authors affiliated with the site. Such a landscape would be A) more prone to scams or dishonest practices, and B) make it harder to discern true expertise and authority from the rest.

So those are some reasons why I think Google is worried about AI content.

At the moment I don’t think they will penalize content simply for being AI-generated (although, as per Mueller’s statements, they reserve the right to, and may also do so at some point in the future), unless they get some signal that it’s being used primarily as a way to game or manipulate rankings.

Until then, I think they will continue to naturally rank content based on all the current ranking factors.

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#6

:point_up_2: This, all of this! But also, I truly believe Google values authenticity over perfection. People want to connect with other real people. A perfect robot is not always what we want, even if they are technically correct.

1 Like
#8

Davvie - First of all, welcome to the forums!

In your opinion, what will be the most popular (non spammy) use of AI in real estate in 2023?

And as a follow on - do you think it will be all ChatGPT? Or will things like Google Bard have a shot at market share?

#10

Interesting, I haven’t seen that. Sounds cool. Do you have an example?

#12

Using floor plans, AI can generate a 3D model of the property, including its layout and dimensions. The AI can then use image processing algorithms to map textures and details onto the 3D model, such as colors, textures, and lighting. With the resulting 3D model, buyers can take a virtual tour of the property, exploring each room and space in detail, as if they were there in person.

Virtual tours created with AI technology can greatly enhance the property viewing experience for buyers, allowing them to explore a property from anywhere in the world at any time. This can save time and effort for buyers who are unable to physically visit the property or who want to preview a property before deciding whether to schedule an in-person viewing.

Overall, the use of AI to create virtual tours of properties has the potential to revolutionize the real estate industry, making the property viewing experience more immersive and accessible to buyers.

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Midjourney is a company that specializes in creating photo-realistic images of architectural spaces using 3D modeling and rendering technology. The idea behind a photo-realistic image created by Midjourney is to provide a highly realistic and detailed representation of an architectural space that is indistinguishable from a photograph.

To create a photo-realistic image, Midjourney uses advanced 3D modeling software to create a digital model of the architectural space. The digital model includes all the details of the space, such as lighting, materials, textures, and furniture. The model is then rendered, or processed, using powerful computer algorithms to create a high-resolution image that looks like a photograph.

What sets Midjourney’s photo-realistic images apart is the attention to detail and the level of realism achieved. The images are designed to accurately represent the space, including how light interacts with the materials and textures used in the space. The end result is a highly detailed and immersive image that can help architects, designers, and real estate professionals to visualize and communicate their designs to clients and stakeholders.

#14

I watched a video yesterday where they described chat GPT as an enhancement tool. When it’s used to enhance a piece of original content google will have no problem with it. But if you asked the ai to write a blog about you’re amazing from scratch google will spot it a a lie/ not original. The same way google puts emails into your spam.

#15

Interesting - Do you have a link to the video or remember where you saw it?

#16

Hey Aidan, here you go… Combining ChatGPT & SEO for Real Estate Marketing Domination - YouTube

#17

Some good points in that video for sure, plus some good practices for generating and boosting content.

Although I think their point about spotting AI-generated content wasn’t that it’ll get automatically penalized, rather that it will be penalized if it doesn’t have those real world or “original content” connections that you mentioned.

I think if you follow the practices outlined in that video, you’ll do well, because it’s about making helpful, original content that highlights your experience and expertise (and using AI to help you do so).