Using artificial intelligence, AI, to generate textual content has recently created considerable buzz across industries. AI can now pass for a human in text, which has far-reaching implications for students and professionals alike. Chat GPT is all the rage, and people have started experimenting with potential roles for this technology when developing blogs and papers.
Let’s break down what you need to know as a website owner and the potential role of generative AI in marketing in the near future.
What is generative AI?
Generative AI refers to artificial intelligence that can produce text and images based on prompts and input from existing material it can ‘learn’ from. The technology calls upon machine learning to determine word choice. Models can receive additional training when users provide the bot with more source documents or train it to specialize in a particular subject area.
Why does it matter?
This technology can significantly impact how businesses produce website content and client engagement. While this technology does not signal the end of human involvement in the creative process, it can signify a shift in people’s role in generating this new material.
For example, the bot’s content on a single subject or query can differ depending on how the prompt is phrased. Therefore, businesses may have to try several prompts before they receive desirable and accurate material. Humans would be responsible for testing the different prompts, developing the phrasing, and providing the background information to produce the desired content.
However, note also that Google and the major search engines have been watching the development and maturation of this generative AI equipment and will also work to preserve the importance of the experience of online users. Therefore, you need to pay attention to the impact of this technology on websites and Google’s response to ensure your content continues to work for the betterment of your website.
How does it impact websites and SEO?
These capabilities can theoretically change the strategies many businesses use to create website content. However, to use it successfully, it is important not to view the technology as the center point of the content creation process.
Early adopters have reported that using these capabilities makes it easier to dedicate time to research and strategy. They still need quality information and background that allows the technology to produce the desired content. Even after the content is created, it needs to be reviewed to be sure it follows brand guidelines, creates accurate and helpful information, and uses the language the brand wants to provide users. Feeding poor communication into the bot can produce poor content, and no one wants to publish inaccurate information on their site.
How does it impact customer engagement?
AI can help businesses take client engagement technology, like chatbots and email messages, to the next level of personalization and responsiveness. For example, this opens the door for you to exponentially improve the ability of your chatbots to respond to customer inquiries. Feedback from customers based on responses can help the technology provide increasingly helpful answers, allowing you to give immediate information to customers.
The technology can also improve your ability to provide personalized, responsive email messages to customers. Providing the bot with ample examples of how you reply to different types of inquiries and respond to various customer triggers can help you direct the bot to produce email content responding to customers’ needs and interests in a personalized, on-brand way. Monitoring how customers respond to emails can help you further tune your material to improve engagement and response.
How will Google respond to generative AI?
With the potential for brands to start using an AI generator to produce a considerable amount of content for the web, Google has taken an interest in this technology and its impact on the user experience. Google recently announced changes to its Quality Rater Guidelines, which provide essential insight into Google’s priorities. The user guidelines can help marketers see what Google wants to target with their algorithm and the areas of the webpage that they consider the most important.
At the end of 2022, Google released new guidelines that shed some light on what Google will look for on web pages to ensure that customer needs continue to be met and the web does not get flooded with generic, bot-based material.
Specifically, Google has introduced E.E.A.T. E.A.T has been around for a while now, with the acronym telling webpage owners that the search engine wants to see pages that reflect Experience, Authority, and Trustworthiness. However, they have now added an additional E, which stands for experience. In other words, the search engine algorithm will want to see content that reflects the personal experience of the content producer. Google has also centered its ‘trust’ factor within the factors, emphasizing the importance of trust with consumers.
The new QRG wants to target the owner of a website and the content creator personally when determining the level of trust a website earns. The search engine giant wants to see originality in the content and the effort used to create the material.
Specifically, here is what the search engine giant had to say about the importance and role of effort in content development.
“Effort: Consider the extent to which a human being actively worked to create satisfying content. Effort may be direct, such as a person translating a poem from one language to another. Effort may go into designing page functionality or building systems that power a webpage, such as the creation of a page that offers machine translation as a service to users. On the other hand, the automatic creation of thousands of pages by running existing freely available content through existing translation software without any oversight, manual curation, etc., would not be considered to have human effort.“
When considering the originality of the content, Google had the following to say:
“Originality: Consider the extent to which the content offers unique, original content that is not available on other websites. If other websites have similar content, consider whether the page is the original source.”
These two factors help to target the potential pitfalls of over-relying on generated content.
What should businesses do about generative AI?
Milestone POV
We recommend that interested businesses use AI in a collaborative context. For example, it can be used to add to existing content in the form of FAQs. You might also employ it to make your content creation process more efficient, helping you to build your segmented emails.
If the potential of AI-generated content interests you, you are not alone. Many companies have started experimenting with the possibility that this technology offers, including Milestone. We have tested AI content capabilities for several years to see what the technology can produce. If you want to see how content generators can work for your business, reach out to us today. We can help you uncover possibilities for incorporating this technology while reviewing the material produced to ensure it lives up to your standards.
To know more about how Milestone can assist with your website on content and how to begin using AI-generated results, contact us at [email protected] or call us at 408-200-2211.
