The Use of AI in SEO: Help or Hindrance?

Shea Keaveney June 26, 2025

Is using AI bad for SEO? It’s a question we get asked constantly. But the answer is a complex one, and guidance around artificial intelligence (AI) from Google isn’t exactly crystal clear. That’s why, in our latest article, we’ve dug a little deeper into the topic of AI in SEO to finally offer a definitive answer on whether AI is bad for SEO or not.

Is AI content bad for SEO?

The official line on AI from Google states that high-quality content will be rewarded, regardless of how it is produced. According to Google, “AI has the ability to power new levels of expression and creativity, and to serve as a critical tool to help people create great content for the web.” 

However, before you inform your content team that they’re no longer needed, Google also states that, “Using automation—including AI—to generate content with the primary purpose of manipulating ranking in search results is a violation of our spam policies.”

Given the conflicting statements above, it’s easy to see why opinion is divided on whether AI is good or bad for SEO. If you’re worried about AI damaging your rankings, keep Google’s golden rule in mind: focus on people-first content. This means creating content that is designed to offer value to human users, not search engines.

If you want to understand how not to use AI in SEO, we can look to Google’s updates for some more guidance. The Panda update of 2011 aimed to cut down on thin, poor-quality content. But ask AI to write an article for you without a detailed prompt, and this is exactly what you’ll get.  

Then we’ve also got the E-E-A-T update of 2022. This informed everyone of four of Google’s most important ranking factors: experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. These factors relate to the source of the information; does the article come from someone with experience and expertise? And do they possess authority and trust within the topic they are writing about?

Again, it doesn’t really go hand-in-hand with AI-generated articles, especially if you are producing content around areas such as finance, health or law. In these areas, Google loves to reward experienced authors and authoritative figures for offering their expertise. 

It’s also important to consider that AI massively relies on information that already exists, using information on the web to put together responses to queries. While plagiarism and duplication have long been seen as a no-no in the SEO world, it appears originality is about to become even more important as we move forward in the era of AI.

In February this year, Google’s Gary Illyes said, “Originality is something we’re going to be focusing on this year. That’s going to be important.” Again, while AI is great for many things, originality isn’t one of them, given that it must use past data and existing information to generate its responses. 

At this moment in time, there’s no right or wrong answer when it comes to AI in SEO. Some will argue it’s great for SEO, while others will tell you in no uncertain terms that using AI is bad for SEO. 

Pros of AI in SEO

Speed

The most obvious benefit of using AI to generate content is the speed at which it can do so. While the jury is still out on the quality of AI-generated articles, there’s no denying the speed. Tools like ChatGPT and Gemini can spit out a 500-word article in under a minute, a feat that no human is capable of.

Cost

If you’re considering using AI for your business, it’s only right to consider the financial cost. Small businesses, in particular, might be drawn to use the likes of ChatGPT, Gemini and Jasper to write blogs and social media posts due to the simple fact that they are completely free to use. 

Feedback

Producing content is often a team effort. While one person may be responsible for producing the bulk of the content, tasks such as initial research, proofreading and editing may be done by other individuals, delaying the process. AI is capable of working alongside human writers to provide instant feedback, creating a more efficient content creation process.

Cons of AI in SEO

Accuracy

While AI has made enormous strides in the last couple of years, it still cannot be relied on to produce content that is 100% accurate every single time. Inaccurate or outdated content is extremely bad for SEO, and as a result, a human should always sign off on a piece of content that has been produced with the help of AI.

Lack of human touch

Most people would agree that it’s quite easy to spot a piece of content that has been written by AI. Common signs of an AI-generated piece include an overly formal vocabulary, repetition of certain phrases and robotic tone, all of which come from a lack of human touch. By contrast, human-written content often brings passion, a more conversational tone and even a touch of humour (apologies about the lack of the latter throughout this blog!).

Unorginal

Perhaps the biggest factor that makes AI bad for SEO is its lack of originality. As already discussed, AI relies on information that already exists, which can often lead to regurgitated information. With the amount of AI-generated content flooding the web, content that offers that covers an unexplored topic or provides unique insights is expected to perform far greater going forward.

How to use AI in SEO

Titles

A strong title is one of the most important parts of SEO writing. A captivating title will encourage readers to click through to a webpage, while an unoriginal one will leave users scrolling down to the next result. While using AI to write full articles is generally bad for SEO, prompting it to write attention-grabbing titles which include certain keywords can be a great way to use AI for SEO purposes.

Idea generation

Every content writer or copywriter has suffered from writer’s block at some stage, and sometimes it just takes one idea to spark a flurry of other thoughts. Thankfully, there’s no chance of AI suffering from writer’s block, so you can lean on the various platforms to generate content ideas based on your needs.

Keyword research

Identifying new or low competition keywords is a crucial part of SEO, and getting this right can have a huge impact on where your content ranks on SERPs. While AI won’t be able to give you search volumes, it will be able to suggest keywords which can then be put through more helpful tools, along with completing additional research based on their competitiveness. 

Planning content

While it’s easy to spot a piece of content that has been entirely generated by AI, the same can’t be said for articles or blog posts that have been planned by AI and then put together by a human writer. If you’re looking to speed up your writing process without relying too much on AI, you could try asking AI to produce an initial plan.

Proofreading

It’s easy to miss the odd spelling or grammatical mistake when reading over a 2,000-word article for the final time, not to mention how long it takes. Trusting AI for tasks like this is considerably safer than using it to generate content, and can help to speed up the process of publishing content. 

If you think AI is bad for SEO and want to benefit from using a fully-human team of experts to write your content, reach out to us at Red Cow Media, and we’d be delighted to tell you more about our process.