Is AI Content the Future of SEO?

Today’s artificial intelligence (AI) technology is transforming the way we live. From smartphones autocorrecting our texts to Alexa answering our every question, AI is all around us. In healthcare, it’s already helping with administrative tasks and diagnostic processes, and as a more recent development, AI is creating content for websites.

With the potential to create more scalable content at a lower cost for their practices, many medical and dental professionals are considering the use of AI tools for search engine optimization (SEO). But is the auto-generated content convincing, and can it rank well in search engines?

The Recent Surge of AI in Search Engines

With the progress made in AI technology — like OpenAI’s recently launched ChatGPT — the potential for AI to assist in plastic surgery practices’ SEO efforts is undeniable. ChatGPT is an online chatbot designed to create content similar to what a human would write. Built from the GPT-3.5 large language model, ChatGPT uses an initial prompt to do everything from conversing with a user to writing entire articles. With its unprecedented capabilities, ChatGPT is taking the world of online search by storm.

In addition to practices utilizing AI to write content, search engines are taking advantage of the latest advancements as well. In fact, Bing has plans to release a version of its search engine using ChatGPT, and Google is constantly improving upon its own advanced AI technologies. As AI products continue to evolve, they’ll no doubt transform how search is used and, therefore, how SEO is performed.

How Google Ranks AI-Written Content

Although AI content is better than that of content farms, Google still considers it auto-generated content, treating it as spam. In its recent “Helpful Content Update,” Google further emphasized the importance of writing for people first, not search engines — something AI isn’t capable of doing. However, since AI programs like ChatGPT can write original content, how well can Google identify this auto-generated text?

As it continues to develop its own AI, the search giant has become more skilled at detecting auto-generated content. To avoid getting penalized, some people take advantage of AI content detection tools. This software looks for patterns and inconsistencies that may indicate AI use, signaling areas to adjust. While helpful, this adds another step to the process and isn’t failproof.

Why AI Can’t Replace Humans in SEO

If having AI write content for medical and dental websites sounds too good to be true, you may be right. While programs like ChatGPT seem to communicate like a human, its content quality is still lacking. AI can’t develop new ideas or offer the human perspective — it simply regurgitates what already exists. This leads to concerns such as:

• Plagiarizing other websites, which doesn’t add much value, not to mention duplicate content can hurt your rankings
• Not sounding natural, because despite learning language patterns, AI is ultimately machine-based
• Spreading misinformation or biases, which can be especially harmful for healthcare-related content
• Failing to communicate expertise, since it can’t understand human search intent or offer expert insight
• Getting flagged as spam, causing the page to drop from search results

How to Use AI in the Content Creation Process

AI has the ability to write for healthcare practices, but with the amount of reworking needed, this likely wouldn’t be cost effective. Rather than using AI to write your content, view it as a tool to assist in the creation process. By utilizing AI to understand how people search, you can more effectively optimize your content. Practical ways AI can help with plastic surgery and dental SEO include:

• Generating highly searched topic ideas
• Creating outlines based on user metrics and other websites
• Finding missing information within existing content
• Speeding the content creation process

Should a healthcare practice utilize AI to generate content, it’s essential to enlist a professional to review it. This not only ensures accuracy, but also a natural sound that incorporates the doctor’s unique point of view.

AI has enhanced many areas of life, and with the right precautions, medical and dental professionals can utilize this cutting-edge technology to improve their website’s SEO. While tempting to have it completely take over content creation, AI is more beneficial for aiding the research process, allowing you — the industry expert — to determine what is most helpful for prospective patients.

To learn how you can make the most of your content marketing and SEO efforts, contact our team at Rosemont Media today!