Google’s March 2024 core algorithm update is penalizing sites made with AI generated content and it’s a fact that AI-generated content cannot meet the quality standards that Google’s various documentations outline. But there is still a way to use AI in a way that results in high quality content.
Why AI Cannot Meet Google’s Quality Thresholds
Several ranking systems, including the Reviews and the Helpful Content systems explicitly have quality standards that inherently make it impossible for AI authored content to satisfy.
The addition of an extra E in E-A-T (for experience) should have been a signal to content creators that using AI carried risks.
Examples of SERP Features, Quality Signals and Ranking Signals That Inherently Exclude AI Content
The writing on the wall about AI content has always been in plain sight.
Here are some qualities that Google’s documentations say are important that rule out purely AI-generated content:
- Experience
- Published reviews must be hands-on
- Google News emphasizes human authors in Google News SERPs
- Google Perspectives, announced in May 2023 emphasizes human authors (hidden gems) found in forums
- Author page (expertise questions)
- Author background information (expertise questions)
- Author About page (expertise questions)
Concepts Of Quality
Google published Self-Assessment Questions to help publishers identify if their content measures up to Google’s standards of quality.
These questions don’t list specific ranking factors. They only list concepts of things that in general reflect what high quality websites tend to show.
If AI-generated content cannot fit into those concepts then it’s likely that the content does not meet quality standards, regardless if the publishers try to fake the outward signs of quality like author pages and so on.