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Last year, a lead/potential client called us panicking. They'd been using ChatGPT to write blog posts for six months and suddenly noticed their traffic dropping. "Did I mess up my SEO?" they asked. It's a question we hear almost weekly now.
After working with dozens of businesses using AI content, we've learned that ChatGPT generated text hurting your SEO isn't a simple yes or no answer. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't. Let me share what we've discovered through actual testing and client results.
We decided to run our own experiment. We created two identical websites. One using traditional content writing, another using ChatGPT with minimal editing. Both sites targeted similar keywords in the web design space, and we waited for both websites to get past Google's sandbox period of 6 to 9 months.
The results surprised us. The AI-heavy site didn't get penalized, but it didn't perform as well either. Traffic was about 40% lower, and bounce rates were higher. People just didn't engage with the content the same way.
But here's where it gets interesting. When we started heavily editing the AI content; adding client stories, local examples, and our own opinions, performance improved dramatically. Some posts even outranked our traditionally written content.
Most articles about this topic just repeat Google's official statements. But we dug deeper. We analyzed ranking patterns, talked to other agencies, and tested different approaches.
Google's Danny Sullivan has said they don't automatically penalize AI content. That's true. But their algorithms have definitely gotten better at spotting generic, unhelpful content. Whether that content comes from AI or a human writer doesn't matter much.
What matters is value. Does ChatGPT generated text hurt your SEO? Only when it doesn't help users solve real problems.
We've seen AI-generated product descriptions rank well because they were accurate and useful. We've also seen AI blog posts get buried because they said nothing new and just added noise to the plethora of other AI-generated blog posts out there.
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Most AI content sounds like it could've been written by any business anywhere. We tested this with local restaurant content. The AI-generated "About Us" pages all sounded identical – friendly staff, quality ingredients, family atmosphere. Boring.
The restaurants that took those AI drafts and added specific details, like "our gumbo recipe came from owner Marie's grandmother" or "we're the only place in Metairie that makes fresh beignets after 10 PM"; those pages performed much better.
AI excels at summarizing existing information but struggles with original thinking. We wrote two articles about website design and development. One was pure AI. The other started with AI but included our predictions based on client requests we'd been getting.
The second article got twice as many backlinks and ranked higher for competitive keywords. People don't share generic information. They share new perspectives.
AI often makes confident statements without backing them up. We found AI-generated content frequently claimed things like "most businesses see 200% traffic increases" without providing sources. Google's algorithms seem to flag this type of unsupported claim.
When we added proper citations and linked to studies, those same articles started ranking better.
One of our e-Commerce clients needed product descriptions for 500 items. Writing them manually would've taken weeks and a very large budget. Instead, we used AI to create first drafts, then spent time customizing about 20% of them with unique selling points and customer feedback.
The result? Their product pages started ranking for long-tail keywords we hadn't even targeted. AI helped us cover more ground while our human input made the content valuable.
ChatGPT is fantastic at gathering and organizing information. When we were creating a comprehensive guide about search engine optimization, AI helped us structure 50+ optimization techniques into logical categories.
But the explanations, examples, and recommendations came from our experience helping local businesses. That combination worked well.
Sometimes you know what to say but can't figure out how to say it. AI breaks through that barrier. We've used it to rephrase complex technical concepts in simpler terms, especially when explaining why certain website audit recommendations matter for business owners.
Here's something most agencies won't tell you: AI content is particularly risky for local businesses. ChatGPT doesn't understand your community, your competitors, or your customers' specific needs.
We tested this with two landscaping companies in different parishes. The one that used mostly AI content couldn't rank for local keywords. Their content mentioned generic problems like "brown grass" instead of specific challenges like dealing with hurricane damage or clay soil.
The company that took time to add local context; mentioning specific neighborhoods they serve, local weather patterns, and common landscaping challenges, did great in local search results.
When we help businesses in the areas we serve, we always start with local knowledge that no AI possesses.
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If you can swap your company name with a competitor's and the content still makes sense, it's too generic. We see this constantly with AI-generated service pages that could describe any business in any city.
People can usually tell when content feels artificial or unhelpful. We've noticed that purely AI-generated pages tend to have higher bounce rates, which can signal quality problems to Google.
Other websites rarely link to generic AI content. If your content isn't earning organic mentions and links, it might not be providing enough value.
If you're constantly correcting AI mistakes, you might be spending more time than you're saving. We've worked with clients who spent hours fact-checking every AI article because the tool kept making small but important errors.
This one's tricky because correlation doesn't equal causation. But we've seen several sites lose rankings after publishing large amounts of unedited AI content. Usually, improving content quality fixes the problem.
We aim for about 70% human input and 30% AI assistance. AI helps with research, first drafts, and organization. Humans provide expertise, local knowledge, and personality.
Before touching AI tools, we figure out what unique value we can provide. What do we know that others don't? What questions do our clients ask that we can answer better than generic articles?
Every AI-generated sentence gets reviewed. We check facts, add examples, and rewrite anything that sounds robotic or generic. This usually means changing about half the content.
We track performance differently for AI-assisted content. We look at engagement metrics, not just rankings. Content that ranks but doesn't convert isn't helping anyone.
Google's algorithms keep getting smarter. They're better at identifying thin content, whether it comes from AI or content farms. But they're also getting better at recognizing genuinely helpful content, regardless of how it was created.
We expect the gap between good AI-assisted content and purely human content to keep shrinking. But the gap between generic content and valuable content will keep growing.
AI tends to structure sentences similarly throughout an article. We've learned to vary sentence length and structure when editing AI drafts.
Humans make small mistakes and have distinct voices. AI often produces technically correct but soulless content. We intentionally add some conversational quirks and personality.
AI rarely goes deep on any topic. It provides broad overviews but lacks the specific insights that come from real experience.
AI loves vague examples like "a small business owner" or "a typical customer." We replace these with specific scenarios from our client work.
Instead of asking for "a blog post about SEO," we provide detailed briefs including target audience, specific points to cover, and examples of the tone we want.
After getting AI output, we add case studies, client quotes, and insights from our actual project experience. This transforms generic advice into valuable guidance.
We verify every statistic and claim. AI sometimes combines outdated information or misunderstands technical details.
Search engines and readers value perspective. We make sure every piece includes our professional opinion based on real experience.
Look at your content performance over time. Check bounce rates, time on page, and organic traffic trends. If these metrics decline after publishing AI content, you might need to improve quality.
Google doesn't require disclosure, but being transparent with your audience builds trust. We sometimes mention when AI helped with research or initial drafts.
We wouldn't recommend it. AI works best as part of a larger content strategy that includes human expertise and oversight.
Publishing it without editing. Raw AI output almost never performs as well as content that's been reviewed and enhanced by humans.
Probably, but so will Google's ability to evaluate content quality. The focus should remain on creating genuinely helpful content rather than trying to outsmart search algorithms.
So, does ChatGPT generated text hurt your SEO? It can, but only when you use it incorrectly. The businesses we work with who've found success treat AI as a powerful tool, not a replacement for human knowledge and creativity.
We've helped companies save time on content creation while maintaining quality and search performance. The secret isn't avoiding AI – it's using it strategically while keeping humans in control of strategy, editing, and final approval.
The companies struggling with AI content are usually those who publish it without adding their own expertise and local knowledge. The ones succeeding use AI to amplify their existing knowledge rather than replace it.
If you're concerned about your current content strategy or want help creating AI-assisted content that actually performs well, we're here to help. We've tested these approaches with real websites and real results.
Our SEO checklist includes guidelines for AI content that we've developed through trial and error. We can review your existing content and show you how to improve both quality and search performance.
Don't let uncertainty about AI tools hold your business back. With proper strategy and execution, you can save time on content creation while actually improving your search rankings. Let's figure out what works best for your specific business and audience.
About The Author
Peyton Tilloton
Peyton started TMS Web to fix a common industry issue: agencies overcharging but failing to deliver. He focuses on modern, responsive websites and white-hat SEO that drives real growth.
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