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In the ever-evolving world of SEO, content remains king. As businesses and marketers strive to climb in Google rankings, the value of content has never been greater. While much debate exists between what kind of content the ever-changing Google algorithm favors, AI-generated or human-generated content, the answer is not simply one or the other. Increasingly the answer is – both.
AI-generated vs. Human-generated content
In official statements made by Google in 2024, the company says it aims to “reward original, high-quality content” in search. So what does this mean? It means the typical marketing agency is no longer going to be able to crank out massive amounts of AI-generated content and use secret SEO tricks only talked about in back alley Reddits to climb the search results. Instead, AI-generated content + human editing becomes more important than ever to maximize results in the Google algorithm.
The way I see it, there's three types of SEO content that exist in Google-land:
AI-generated content
Human-generated content
AI-generated, human edited-content
Types of SEO Content
While AI tools have made impressive strides in generating content, they often still fail to use proper grammar, let alone meet the criteria for Google’s “E-E-A-T: expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.”
In a perfect world, a world my nerdy, journalism-loving heart still believes may someday exist, human-generated content would be the obvious choice. Not just any human-generated content, but the kind of content journalists have been trained to produce for decades. Content that is well-researched and where the information presented comes mainly from primary sources, experts in their field interviewed to share the knowledge and expertise only they truly understand.
In the real-world, however, that content is still seen by companies and marketing agencies as too expensive and unrealistic to produce outside of the newsroom. Instead of investing in such content, they turn to the “quick-fix.” SEO content that they can churn out quickly and in mass amounts so Organic traffic numbers increase quickly for the client and metric reports are held up as proof of the content’s “working.”
The future of SEO is more than a quick-fix
But what if, over time, it stops working? What if Google stops favoring these “quick fix” content pieces more concerned with jamming in semantic keywords than writing readable, well-researched, user-focused content?
Hint: that time is already here.
Sure, Google says it’s not favoring human-generated content, but rather “user-focused content” but what does that look like, in reality? What if, instead of stuffing stats sections to look credible to Google, the content we wrote as SEO content creators was actually {gasp} credible? What if instead of only focusing on SEO briefs and keywords, we hired qualified writers and editors who could seamlessly integrate credible secondary sources with authoritative primary sources in a readable way? (Cough cough, journalists).
The truth is, the kind of writing Google is asking for is journalistic writing. There are journalists across the country trained to give you the content you need to truly rank under Google’s E-E-A-T. Sure, they might not have fully grasped everything behind the SEO process, but they know how to interview expert sources, write with authority and in active voice (something AI-generated content can't seem to do consistently, no matter how many times it's prompted). They know how to produce quality content people want to read, and they understand the steps to the editorial content management process in a way most never will.
What if, the true content king, isn’t AI-generated or human-generated, but rather a hybrid version of AI-Generated, Human-edited content, with real human primary sources thrown in for good measure.
That is what Google is looking for. That is the “future of SEO.”
So, you want content that ranks now – and in the future? First, hire an SEO expert. Then, hire a journalist. That combination of SEO experience and editorial management skills is the only thing that will stand out in Google’s era of “original, high-quality content.”
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At Simple SEO, our team is made up of journalists who are trained in SEO. We pair decades of writing and editing experience with our SEO content strategy. Our goal is not just to create content that ranks highly on search engines, but to produce engaging, readable material that captivates and retains your audience's interest. With Simple SEO, you receive more than optimized content—you receive high-quality, compelling SEO content that resonates with readers and drives meaningful interactions on your site. Contact us today to see how we can help you rank in Google search results.
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