With the advent of AI technologies, the SEO industry is experiencing a seismic shift. The proliferation of AI-content generators, such as ChatGPT, and their ease of use means that anyone can churn out content, resulting in an influx of AI-generated content cluttering up the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
This surge has led to a primary focus on the quick improvement of rankings, overshadowing the core intent of delivering quality content that resonates with real users.
However, the solution isn’t to shun AI entirely. Integrating E-E-A-T principles into AI-driven content ensures that your content ranks in SERPs and resonates with real human interests and needs.
In this article, we’ll explore how AI can complement your content creation using Hallam’s data-driven examples.
What is E-E-A-T, and why is it important in content creation?
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It’s Google’s standard for assessing content quality, crucial for combating fake news and spam while providing users with relevant, high-quality content. You can find more about Google’s content quality guidelines in this 168-page paper publication.
E-E-A-T guides Google’s quality raters to evaluate how well a page achieves its purpose. High E-E-A-T scores typically align with content that satisfies user intent and delivers informative experiences.
Beyond ranking, content with strong E-E-A-T is crucial as users tend to trust and engage more with sites offering reliable, insightful information, making it vital for a positive brand experience.
Crafting content with AI & E-E-A-T: A step-by-step guide
In general, we split the process into four core parts:
1. Start with a content audit
When we initiate our content creation process at Hallam, we begin with a thorough content audit to ensure our website embodies E-E-A-T principles. This involves essential checks like showcasing author bios and evidencing expertise, laying a solid foundation for our content.
We also ensure our website aligns with its central theme or product and that our content is relevant and fulfills user intent. For instance, if we focus on beverages, our content remains pertinent to that subject.
2. Understand your target audience
At Hallam, we conduct an audience audit to identify the ideal funnel for our audience and determine the types of content they seek throughout their journey.
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We first need to identify our client’s audience to conduct this audience audit. We usually interview our clients during onboarding, ensuring alignment when we pencil down their primary personas and objectives. If the client does not know (which is quite often), we can help them understand.
Why AI content misses the mark, and how do you fix it with E-E-A-T in mind
While AI can produce content en masse, it often lacks the personal touch and depth that E-E-A-T demands.
Here are the pitfalls of unguided AI content and how to avoid them.
Problem 1: Lack of personal experience
AI-generated content often lacks the personal touch and real-world experience that makes high-experience content. It may provide correct information but needs more nuanced understanding from actual involvement in the topic.
The fix: Demonstrate experience
Experience reflects the author’s practical understanding and personal experience of the topic. It’s about showing that you are knowledgeable and have real-world experience in the subject matter.
You can demonstrate with content that includes personal anecdotes, case studies, or practical tips.
Problem 2: Questionable expertise and authoritativeness
While AI can mimic authoritative writing, it doesn’t have real expertise or credentials. This results in content that fails to replicate the depth of knowledge and credibility of an expert’s work. It’s often just regurgitating existing content, offering nothing new or fresh.
Remember, as outlined in their content quality documentation, Google values fresh content.
The fix: Demonstrate expertise and authoritativeness
Expertise is your knowledge and skill in a specific field. This is important for Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) topics, where accurate and expert advice is essential. You can demonstrate expertise through well-researched and accurate content, often showcasing your qualifications or unique insights. You can also show expertise by providing the author’s name and bio.
Meanwhile, authoritativeness is the credibility of the website and content creator. You can establish authoritativeness through credentials, external reviews, links from reputable sites, and recognition in the field. You can also showcase your authority by building well-cited sources, expert endorsements, and content that aligns with the consensus in the field.
What does Google say about AI content?
Google’s stance on AI content, unofficially and through its algorithm updates, emphasizes rewarding quality and penalizing superficial content. Recent updates, including the Helpful Content, Freshness, and Review updates, all reinforce E-E-A-T principles, with AI content mentioned in the latest Google Quality Rater Guidelines.
Officially, Google has published some articles discussing its opinion about AI content and how it views it:
Final thoughts: Prioritize quality, expertise, and the user
Ultimately, the true measure of your content’s success is based on how well it serves your users. Strive to deliver content infused with E-E-A-T qualities, offering vital information and unique perspectives. Finally, use AI to complement, not substitute, human insight and expertise
read more info: https://moz.com/blog/ai-content-for-eeat?
