SEO and AI-Generated Content: The Do's and Don'ts in 2025

The world of SEO has changed. We see it in the SERP results. We feel in traffic results. For none now live who remember the time before AI-generated content on the internet. This J.R.R’s quote from his book The Lord of the Rings was most opportune to paint a clear picture — AI-generated can help you with your SEO. However, you need to play your cards right. This blog will tell you about SEO and AI-generated content and how to combine the two for maximum results. 

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What Is AI-Generated Content and How It Works?

AI-generated content refers to content produced by advanced AI systems, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, and others. These systems are known as Large Language Models (LLMs). LLMs are trained on vast data from diverse datasets, from books and articles to web content — you name it. Their purpose is simple — to produce coherent and contextually relevant content to users’ prompts. What allows them to do so is the natural language processing (NLP) ability — the power to understand and manipulate human language. 

Open AI’s launch of GPT3 in 2020 was a significant breakthrough in NLPs, forever changing how people get information. Over the years, LLMs have enabled real-time web browsing, giving users access to up-to-date information without using search engines. 

This feature has tremendously impacted SEO, especially search rankings, content creation, user behavior, and keyword strategies. 

Since users are now getting responses to queries directly from AI-powered search assistants, website clicks have declined. Research company Gartner predicts a 25% drop in search traffic by 2026 due to AI chatbots and similar systems. 

Additionally, Google’s AI overviews, which show AI-generated summaries at the top, continue to reduce organic traffic, arguably one of the most important metrics for success in SEO. 

However, this doesn’t mean SEO is dead. It’s actually evolving. Websites with well-structured data (schema markup, FAQs) have better chances of appearing in Google's featured snippets, which are summaries at the top. Now, more than ever, creating relevant, original, and in-depth content with actual value for users is the key to performing well on Search and getting into those snippets. 

Google’s Guidelines for AI-Generated Content

Google’s guidelines on AI-generated content clearly state that no matter how content is created, including using AI systems, it will rank on Search as long as it shows qualities outlined in their ranking system called E-E-A-T. (expertise, experience, authoritativeness, trustworthiness)

AI-Generated Content and Google’s E-E-A-T Guidelines 

Showing high-quality content to users is Google’s no.1 priority, which is why the company has created E-E-A-T guidelines for automated ranking. Content that is people-focused and provides original information substantiated with evidence is what ranks on Google. Content that sets the stage for a smooth user experience by answering all the questions visitors may have is what should be the goal of all publishers. This type of content usually comes from human writers. That’s the catch. 

People have been using automatically generated content to manipulate rankings in search results, which directly violates Google’s spam policies. That type of content lacks originality and insightfulness and is, therefore, not seen by Google as anything of value. Most of the time, content creators use it with the sole purpose of ranking, completely disregarding the users and their search queries. 

Still, this is not to say SEO and AI-generated content can’t go hand in hand. As long as you make that content valuable and able to meet the users’ search intent — you can have your content ranking, even with AI-generated text. 

How AI Can Be Used to Create Helpful Content

Even with Google saying that not all AI content is inherently wrong, the key is getting useful, high-quality information that meets E-E-A-T requirements. Easier said than done, but not impossible. 

Some types of content, such as sports scores, match summaries, financial reports, and even weather reports, are naturally more inclined toward automation. Automation can help when the content is focused on data rather than a personal experience. 

Additionally, content writers who use AI to outline articles and simplify complex information are better able to create user-friendly and valuable content. 

The Do’s and Don’ts

Let’s look at what you should and shouldn’t do when trying to forge a link between generative AI in content marketing and SEO. 

The Do’s

• Focus on Quality — Ensure your content features up-to-date information about the product, service, or feature you are detailing. Quality arises from an actual experience with whatever you are talking about. Your content should include examples and visual items, such as screenshots and infographics, that summarize the message. Everything must be presented in a way that interacts with the users. That’s where AI tools can be of great help. 
• Provide value — Content value is directly proportional to the author’s knowledge of the subject. The more you know, the greater the value you can deliver. As the author, you can source additional information from AI systems and use them to help you get even more data, find a better way to present the findings, and compare them with other available information. ‍
• Fact-check thoroughly —  AI systems are known to hallucinate, offering incomplete and inaccurate information. Make sure to fact-check the information ChatGPT and other systems generate. ‍
• Use AI as a tool, not a replacement — By blindingly copying and pasting the information from AI chatbots, you can’t hope to create anything unique. However, if you use AI as a tool to gather information and learn, then you can be in a position to inform and educate others. ‍
• Adhere to E-E-A-T principles — Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — holy words in SEO content optimization. If you simply take the content from AI bots and put it in your text, you can kiss all of them goodbye. Remember, without personal experience from a relevant source of information, be it an expert or a user, AI tools will regurgitate the information already there. ‍
• Rely on thought leadership — AI should supplement, not replace, human expertise. Thought leadership is all about content that is original, insightful, and authoritative. By integrating expert opinions and industry trends, AI-generated content becomes more valuable and credible and in a position to rank.  ‍
• Monitor performance — You must regularly evaluate AI-generated content to ensure it meets audience expectations. By reviewing engagement metrics, such as time on the page and session duration, you can identify weaknesses and opportunities for improvement. This way, you will know what needs refining, improve readability, and make AI-driven content more relevant. ‍
• Optimize for user intent — Having AI put the right keywords in your text is never the answer. If anything, it’s just a shortcut for keyword stuffing and Google penalizing your page/website. AI content must align with what users actually seek, not just focus on keywords. The intent can be informational, navigational, or transactional — and understanding the goal behind every search helps you structure content effectively. 

The Don’ts

• Avoid spammy content — With AI-generated content, it’s easy to fall into that trap that’s spammy content. Let’s take a conversional page that aims to get the users to click on the link and activate a free trial as an example. If you go on throughout the text, highlighting the advantages of the product and inserting call-to-action buttons without mentioning a single downside, Google can consider that to be spammy content.
• Don’t publish unreviewed content — AI can make mistakes. Remember the hallucination thing? Publishing content without human oversight is a pathway to errors, biases, or misinformation slipping through. Continually review and refine AI-generated material to ensure accuracy and coherence. 
• Steer clear of plagiarism — AI-generated material can very well be a reproduction of existing content. After all, that’s how it gets trained. Run the results through plagiarism detection tools and have it cite the sources used to get the information to check if it featured original insights or not. 
• Don’t overload with keywords — Keyword stuffing is one of the segments from Google’s spam policies guidebook. It hurts readability and, therefore, the user experience. Google’s crawler bots are getting smarter and can understand context, so even if you don’t use the exact search team people are using, your content can still rank. 
• Avoid generic or fluffy content — AI-generated content can sometimes feel robotic or overly broad. For example, starting sentences with sentence modifiers and using a lot of gerunds can be a clear signal of AI-created text. 
• Don’t ignore context — AI-generated text can sometimes misunderstand context and deliver text that doesn’t quite hit the tone or feature awkward phrases as a result. Even inadequate conclusions are a possibility. That’s why fact-checking is a must. 
• Avoid misleading content — Hallucinated facts or deceptive statements are pain points for AI systems. Publishing false information can harm trust, misinform users, and lead to penalties from Google and other search engines. Double-check everything before you hit the publish button. 
• Don’t forget accessibility — Accessibility is more in the domain of Google’s crawl bots that go over your page to understand what it’s about. That’s why you need to insert alt text for images and use clear formatting and readable language for crawlers and users. 

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Conclusion

The rise of generative AI in content marketing and SEO changed the game. However, instead of becoming a shortcut to overnight success and top rankings, it demonstrated the need for more focus on quality, originality, and user intent. 

Flow Ninja can help you strategically integrate relevant content into your Webflow website while maintaining SEO best practices. Our team specializes in crafting high-performance content that aligns with Google's E-E-A-T principles, putting your site in the best possible position to rank well, engage users, and drive conversions. Get in touch with Flow Ninja today to discover how AI and SEO can work together and how to make them work for you.