{"id":2467,"date":"2024-02-06T11:11:33","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T11:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/ai-content-is-short-term-arbitrage-not-long-term-strategy\/"},"modified":"2024-02-06T11:11:33","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T11:11:33","slug":"ai-content-is-short-term-arbitrage-not-long-term-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/ai-content-is-short-term-arbitrage-not-long-term-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"AI Content Is Short-Term Arbitrage, Not Long-Term Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>For a few hundred bucks, you can hit the big red \u201cpublish\u201d button and use generative AI to write every article you\u2019ve ever wanted to write. It\u2019s sorely tempting.<\/p>\n<p>But beyond the short-term dopamine hit of publishing a thousand articles at once, for most businesses, the negatives of AI content will very quickly outweigh the positives.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewbox=\"0 0 14 14\" style=\"\"><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\"\/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style=\"\"\/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"There\u2019s a small chance of a big Google penalty\" data-section=\"google-penalty\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a id=\"post-171834-_tx9sq6goef8j\"\/>There\u2019s a small chance of a big Google penalty<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>First up\u2014there is precedent for getting a <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/google-penalties\/\">Google manual action<\/a> for publishing AI content at\u00a0scale.<\/p>\n<p>Back in November, the founder of an AI content tool tweeted about their \u201cSEO heist\u201d. They exported a competitor\u2019s sitemap, turned every URL into an article title, and used AI to publish 1,800 articles:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"\/>\n<p>In some ways, this is part of the cat-and-mouse game of SEO. A website identifies a traffic opportunity, their competitors follow suit. But in the month following the tweet, the site\u2019s traffic tanked to virtually zero:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1052\" height=\"379\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-1-1.png\" alt=\"Graph of organic traffic falling from 700k to 0.\" class=\"wp-image-171843\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-1-1.png 1052w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-1-1-680x245.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-1-1-768x277.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1052px) 100vw, 1052px\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>Most of the site\u2019s rankings plummeted into non-existence, courtesy of a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jakezward\/status\/1747496421748523367\">manual action<\/a>:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"626\" height=\"818\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-2-1.png\" alt=\"List of lost keyword rankings and traffic.\" class=\"wp-image-171844\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-2-1.png 626w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-2-1-325x425.png 325w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 626px) 100vw, 626px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"626\" height=\"818\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-2-1.png\" alt=\"List of lost keyword rankings and traffic.\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-171844\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-2-1.png 626w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-2-1-325x425.png 325w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 626px) 100vw, 626px\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>Crucially, I don\u2019t think that publishing AI content means an automatic penalty. AI content detectors don\u2019t work, and even if they did, Google is <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/blog\/2023\/02\/google-search-and-ai-content\">apparently agnostic to AI use<\/a>\u2014but it is not agnostic to bad content or bad actors.<\/p>\n<p>And AI makes it very easy to make bad content:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1148\" height=\"902\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-3-1.png\" alt=\"Annotated screenshot of low-quality AI-generated content.\" class=\"wp-image-171845\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-3-1.png 1148w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-3-1-541x425.png 541w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-3-1-768x603.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1148px) 100vw, 1148px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1148\" height=\"902\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-3-1.png\" alt=\"Annotated screenshot of low-quality AI-generated content.\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-171845\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-3-1.png 1148w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-3-1-541x425.png 541w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-3-1-768x603.png 768w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1148px) 100vw, 1148px\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>I think the penalty happened because:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They published 1,800 pages of low-quality content, with no images, virtually no formatting, and <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jmkeep\/status\/1729224726860706136?s=20\">many errors<\/a>, and<\/li>\n<li>They tweeted about it and caught Google\u2019s attention.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Even if you don\u2019t tweet about your AI content efforts, the precedent matters: publishing tons of AI content with no oversight is penalty-worthy. For any business building its traffic and audience for the long term, even a small risk of a catastrophic outcome (like a penalty) should give pause for thought.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewbox=\"0 0 14 14\" style=\"\"><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\"\/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style=\"\"\/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"AI content is extremely, scientifically, mediocre\" data-section=\"mediocrity\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a id=\"post-171834-_p1vkilla7u22\"\/>AI content is extremely, scientifically, mediocre<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>AI content is, by its nature, mediocre. Mediocrity should not be the end goal of your content strategy.<\/p>\n<p>LLMs, like ChatGPT, work through a kind of averaging. Words are chosen based on how often they appear in a similar context in the model\u2019s dataset, generating \u201cnew\u201d content based largely on what everyone else has already said. As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/britneymuller\/\">Britney Muller<\/a> explains in her <a href=\"https:\/\/datasci101.com\/what-are-llms-part-2\/\">guide to LLMs<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"small\">\n<div class=\"quote-content\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cInstead of randomly drawing a word out of a hat, an LLM will focus only on the most probable next words\u2026 It\u2019s like a musician reading sheet music, moving through the notes one at a time. The goal is to figure out what the next word is likely to be as the model processes each word in the sentence.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"quote-info clearfix\">\n<div class=\"quote-photo\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Britney Muller\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/1651016231331.jpeg\"\/><\/noscript><img class=\"lazyload\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Britney Muller\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/1651016231331.jpeg\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>To borrow a phrase from Britney, AI-generated content represents the literal <em>\u201caverage of everything online.\u201d <\/em>That\u2019s useful for topics where there\u2019s a single, objective answer (\u201cwhen was Abraham Lincoln born?\u201d), but less useful for any topic that benefits from nuance, or differing perspectives, or firsthand experience.<\/p>\n<p>You can play with different prompting strategies to alter and shape the structure and style of AI content. But even assuming you go to that length (many AI content tools don\u2019t offer that freedom), you can\u2019t escape a few realities of AI content:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>It contains no information gain<\/strong>: it can\u2019t conduct research, or share personal experience, or vocalize a defensible opinion.<\/li>\n<li><strong>It gets things wrong<\/strong>: it suffers from hallucinations and regurgitates common mistakes and errors.<\/li>\n<li><strong>It doesn\u2019t understand you or your business<\/strong>: try getting AI content to tactfully showcase your product in your content (like we do at Ahrefs).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u2026and this is before we worry about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.animalz.co\/blog\/risks-of-ai-content\/\">leaking sensitive information<\/a>, accidental copyright infringement, or the million ways in which unsupervised content could perpetuate bias and misinformation.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s easy to look at traffic graphs for AI content and think that \u201cmediocre\u201d content is good enough. But returning to the example of the \u201cSEO heist\u201d, most of their (now lost) rankings were limited to very low competition keywords (as measured by <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/keyword-difficulty\/\">Keyword Difficulty<\/a> in Ahrefs):<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"688\" height=\"910\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-4-1.png\" alt=\"List of keyword rankings and their low keyword difficulty.\" class=\"wp-image-171846\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-4-1.png 688w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-4-1-321x425.png 321w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 688px) 100vw, 688px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"688\" height=\"910\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-4-1.png\" alt=\"List of keyword rankings and their low keyword difficulty.\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-171846\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-4-1.png 688w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-4-1-321x425.png 321w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 688px) 100vw, 688px\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>Mediocre content might perform well in uncontested SERPs, but it isn\u2019t enough to compete in SERPs where companies have invested actual effort and resources into their content.<\/p>\n<p>And crucially, it leaves a bad impression on the living, breathing people who read\u00a0it:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Nailed <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JHTScherck?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@JHTScherck<\/a>. I\u2019ve been a customer of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CausalHQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@CausalHQ<\/a> for a while and while I\u2019m no CFO, I do a ton of forecasting and modeling\u2014and it has consistently been a letdown every time I\u2019ve happened across one of their articles.\u00a0\/:<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Skyler Reeves \ud83d\udea2 \ud83c\udff4\u200d\u2620\ufe0f (@being_skyler) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/being_skyler\/status\/1730406788363698380?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 1,\u00a02023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewbox=\"0 0 14 14\" style=\"\"><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\"\/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style=\"\"\/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"You can\u2019t build a brand with AI content\" data-section=\"no-brand\"><a id=\"post-171834-_n3jtfg86m1e2\"\/><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">You can\u2019t build a brand with AI content<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Let\u2019s assume your AI content works. You publish hundreds of articles and generate thousands and thousands of visits. Is that really the boon it sounds like?<\/p>\n<p>For most companies that pursue SEO, blog posts quickly become the primary source of website visitors. For an extreme example, look at the pages that generate the most <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/how-to-increase-organic-traffic\/\">organic traffic<\/a> for Zapier\u2014they are almost entirely blog\u00a0posts:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"842\" height=\"898\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-5-1.png\" alt=\"List of Zapier's top pages by organic traffic.\" class=\"wp-image-171847\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-5-1.png 842w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-5-1-398x425.png 398w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-5-1-768x819.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 842px) 100vw, 842px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"842\" height=\"898\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-5-1.png\" alt=\"List of Zapier's top pages by organic traffic.\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-171847\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-5-1.png 842w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-5-1-398x425.png 398w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-5-1-768x819.png 768w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 842px) 100vw, 842px\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>This is estimated organic traffic (and doesn\u2019t include traffic from other sources), but the point is clear: most of the interactions people have with your company are mediated by content.<\/p>\n<p>Many visitors won\u2019t ever see your carefully crafted homepage or product landing pages. Their entire perception of your company\u2014its ethos, beliefs, quality standards, helpfulness\u2014will be shaped by the blog posts they\u00a0read.<\/p>\n<p>Are you happy with AI content making that first impression?<\/p>\n<p>Think of the time and effort that went into your core website pages: endless variations of copy and messaging, illustrations and visual design, tone of voice, rounds of review and finessing\u2026 and compare it to the effort that goes into AI content, published en masse, unread, unedited.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s easy to think of content as \u201cjust an acquisition channel,\u201d but in reality, your 800 AI-generated SEO posts will have a bigger impact on the public perception of your brand than your latest product landing page.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewbox=\"0 0 14 14\" style=\"\"><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\"\/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style=\"\"\/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"People don\u2019t buy from junk content\" data-section=\"no-sales\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a id=\"post-171834-_plu1binsuq3f\"\/>People don\u2019t buy from junk content<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The point of content marketing is to help sales. Everything you create should, in some way, help people to buy your product or service.<\/p>\n<p>The types of keywords AI content is good at ranking for are typically low commercial value and unlikely to lead to a sale. By way of example, here\u2019s the estimated traffic value for the \u201cSEO heist\u201d site\u2019s organic traffic, at its\u00a0peak:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"716\" height=\"417\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-6-1.png\" alt=\"Graph of traffic value: $117k from 590k pageviews.\" class=\"wp-image-171848\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-6-1.png 716w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-6-1-680x396.png 680w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 716px) 100vw, 716px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"716\" height=\"417\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-6-1.png\" alt=\"Graph of traffic value: $117k from 590k pageviews.\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-171848\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-6-1.png 716w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-6-1-680x396.png 680w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 716px) 100vw, 716px\"\/><\/figure>\n<div class=\"sidenote\">\n<p>Sidenote.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/help.ahrefs.com\/en\/articles\/1012028-what-is-traffic-value-and-paid-traffic-cost-in-site-explorer\">Traffic value<\/a> measures the equivalent monthly cost if a site\u2019s traffic from all keyword rankings was paid for through PPC advertising\u2014so it acts as a good proxy for the commercial value of a keyword (a high traffic value means companies think the keyword is lucrative enough to bid\u00a0on).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>And here\u2019s the Ahrefs blog, with a similar amount of estimated organic traffic\u2026 and a traffic value <em>six times higher<\/em>:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"720\" height=\"416\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-7-1.png\" alt=\"Graph of traffic value: $721k from 570k pageviews.\" class=\"wp-image-171849\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-7-1.png 720w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-7-1-680x393.png 680w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"720\" height=\"416\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-7-1.png\" alt=\"Graph of traffic value: $721k from 570k pageviews.\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-171849\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-7-1.png 720w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-7-1-680x393.png 680w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>Most of the benefit of AI content boils down to <em>lots of traffic, fast\u2014<\/em>the quality and purchase intent of that traffic is a distant second.<\/p>\n<p>Great, if your entire business model is <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/affiliate-marketing\/\">monetizing mountains of traffic<\/a> through affiliate links or ad networks. But for every other type of business, traffic is only half the battle. In order to help sales and grow the business, content also needs\u00a0to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Leave a lasting impression <\/strong>and help readers remember your company.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Encourage people to visit again and again<\/strong> (and not bounce forever on the first\u00a0post).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Build trust in and affinity for the real people<\/strong> behind the\u00a0brand.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here\u2019s another AI content example. How well does this guide to \u201cRemoving Dashes from ISBN Numbers in Excel\u201d tick those\u00a0boxes?<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1144\" height=\"911\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-8-1.png\" alt=\"Example of AI-generated content\" class=\"wp-image-171850\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-8-1.png 1144w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-8-1-534x425.png 534w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-8-1-768x612.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1144px) 100vw, 1144px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1144\" height=\"911\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-8-1.png\" alt=\"Example of AI-generated content\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-171850\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-8-1.png 1144w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-8-1-534x425.png 534w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/word-image-171834-8-1-768x612.png 768w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1144px) 100vw, 1144px\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>AI content is good for generating traffic but bad at building trust. There\u2019s no recognisable voice, no firsthand experience or narrative, and no real person behind the writing (unless you take the Sports Illustrated route and also create <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-us-canada-67560354\">AI-generated authors<\/a> for your content).<\/p>\n<p>At best, it\u2019s like reading a Wikipedia page: even if you help the reader solve a problem, they won\u2019t remember you for it. While traffic is great (and more traffic is usually better than less), it can\u2019t come at the expense of <em>trust<\/em>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewbox=\"0 0 14 14\" style=\"\"><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\"\/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style=\"\"\/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"There\u2019s no moat for AI content\" data-section=\"no-moat\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a id=\"post-171834-_mwrk1xpgcvk3\"\/>There\u2019s no moat for AI content<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Here\u2019s the most important problem with AI content: there is no barrier to entry. Anyone can do it, virtually for free. If it\u2019s easy for you to publish 1,000 articles, it\u2019s easy for your competitors to do the same, and their competitors, and their competitors\u2026<\/p>\n<p>So even assuming you get good results from AI content\u2014how long will those results last?<\/p>\n<p>At best, AI content is a form of short-term arbitrage, a small window of opportunity to build <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/how-to-increase-organic-traffic\/\">tons of traffic<\/a> before a competitor, or a dozen competitors, decide to do the same. With most AI-generated content being pretty similar, there will be no \u201cloyalty\u201d from readers\u2014they will read whatever ranks highest, and it will only be a matter of time before your content is challenged by a bigger fish, a company with a bigger budget and better SEO\u00a0team.<\/p>\n<p>Over time, you will be outcompeted by companies able to put more effort into their articles. So just skip right to the end of the cycle and create content that has a defensible moat:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Interview real people<\/strong> and share new information that other publications haven\u2019t covered,<\/li>\n<li><strong>Collect original data<\/strong> in the form of industry surveys, polls, and data analysis,<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tell personal stories<\/strong> and share the unique, firsthand experiences of the topic that nobody else\u00a0can.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Or put another way:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The promise of most AI content folks is \u201cwe can get so much traffic\u201d but they don\u2019t stop and consider \u201chow will it help the business?\u201d <\/p>\n<p>if Causual wrote one good resource that FP&amp;A folks used &amp; shared, I\u2019d wager it would generate more pipe than all their AI SEO efforts to\u00a0date.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 JH Scherck (@JHTScherck) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JHTScherck\/status\/1728912338928177211?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 26,\u00a02023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a id=\"post-171834-_kyewrngib5jq\"\/>Final thoughts<\/h2>\n<p>There are <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/chatgpt-for-seo\/\">plenty of good use cases for LLMs in SEO<\/a> and content marketing. You can brainstorm keywords and titles, generate metadata and alt text at scale, write regex queries and code snippets, and generally use LLMs as useful inputs into <em>your<\/em> creative process.<\/p>\n<p>But for most businesses, hitting the big red \u201cpublish\u201d button and publishing thousands of AI-generated articles is a pretty bad use of LLMs, and a pretty bad idea overall. And even if AI content gets good enough to render most of these objections irrelevant, we will still have the problem of zero barrier to entry; if it\u2019s easy for you to do, it\u2019s easy for your competitors.<\/p>\n<p>AI content is short-term arbitrage, not a long-term strategy.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/ai-content-is-short-term-arbitrage\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For a few hundred bucks, you can hit the big red \u201cpublish\u201d button and use generative AI to write every article you\u2019ve ever wanted to write. It\u2019s sorely tempting. But beyond the short-term dopamine hit of publishing a thousand articles at once, for most businesses, the negatives of AI content will very quickly outweigh the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}