By now you’ve probably heard of ChatGPT or perhaps are already using it in your business. If you’re not familiar with it, ChatGPT is an advanced artificial intelligence model developed by OpenAI that utilizes machine learning techniques to understand and generate human-like text. It operates by processing enormous amounts of data, learning patterns and structures in human language, and generating text that mirrors those patterns.
While it may sound scary and just a tad bit too futuristic, ChatGPT can serve as a powerful assistant to help out with your SEO and copywriting efforts. It can generate SEO-friendly content, brainstorm article ideas, draft product descriptions, or help create engaging ad copy. The AI’s ability to generate high-quality, relevant, and keyword-optimized content can significantly lighten the workload of copywriters, giving them more time to focus on strategy and creativity.
The Power of AI in Content Creation
Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the landscape of content creation. Using a tool like ChatGPT, you can quickly create content for blog posts, write product descriptions for new items, and fine-tune ad copy with minimal human input. AI models like ChatGPT use machine learning to understand the context of a prompt and generate meaningful and relevant content.
Using AI for blog post creation allows you to create highly targeted and personalized content that’s perfect for your audience. Similarly, AI-generated product descriptions can be customized to highlight specific product features and benefits appealing to specific customers. We all know the importance of having unique product descriptions, so this is where AI can really shine!
In the example below, I asked ChatGPT to write a product description for a new chocolate bar and provided a few details about the bar’s ingredients.
While I don’t see anyone running out purchasing this very unique, fictional chocolate bar, you can see that by providing some simple direction, the AI content is generated which you can then use, edit or further refine. As you experiment with AI, you’ll learn how to create complex prompts and unleash the tool’s amazing power.
Google’s Perspective on AI-Generated Content
Google’s view of AI-generated content has evolved and will continue to evolve as AI gets better and better over time. The search giant once considered it as low-quality content, but with improvements in AI technologies like GPT-3 and GPT-4, Google recognizes the potential value of AI content in helping users find relevant information.
As always, Google wants to see you take a balanced approach. AI-generated content should provide value to the reader and be in line with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, which emphasize the importance of creating original, valuable, and user-focused content. It should not be used as a way to manipulate search rankings, as that is definitely against Google’s policy and will come back to harm you.
Keep in mind that Google’s algorithm is designed to reward quality, relevant content, and if AI-generated content meets these criteria, it should not harm your SEO efforts.
AI-Generated Content and eCommerce
AI’s capacity to generate large volumes of high-quality content can be particularly beneficial for eCommerce store owners. It can help in creating detailed, compelling product descriptions or helping you create more blog posts (isn’t that on everyone’s to-do list?), which definitely helps with your overall SEO efforts.
However, it’s vital that you ensure that AI-generated content meets the expectations of both your audience and search engines. Quality over quantity remains key, and AI should be seen as a tool to augment human creativity and insight rather than replace it. Leveraging AI wisely can undoubtedly give a boost to your SEO efforts and ultimately your bottom line.
The evolution of AI, and specifically models like ChatGPT, presents new opportunities for SEO copywriters and eCommerce store owners. As AI technologies continue to advance, their role in SEO and content creation will only become more pronounced. However one thing will never change – the focus should always be on providing value to the end-user, regardless of the tools used to create the content.
Scott Sanfilippo began his eCommerce journey in 1994 by co-founding one of the Internet’s first online retailers, TheFerretStore.com, which was acquired by PetCo in 2006. In 2001, he co-founded the eCommerce design and marketing firm Solid Cactus, which was acquired by web.com in 2009. Today, Scott is the General Manager of Your Store Wizards and lives in Delray Beach, FL. Scott can be contacted at scott@yourstorewizards.com.