The Risks of Relying on ChatGPT for SEO
Whether or not you work in marketing, odds are you’ve seen the discourse about a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool called ChatGPT: Launched in November 2022 by OpenAI, it exploded in popularity early in the new year with growth that has even outpaced thriving social platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
This take-off in usage comes from the wide variety of applications this content-generating platform has. From crafting emails, to drafting snappy social media captions, to writing legitimate code, all it takes is a simple prompt to create a new piece of content—but that doesn’t mean there’s not a down side. In fact, using ChatGPT comes with its fair share of risks, especially when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.
Why There Could Be Risk
Regardless of its potential, any new technological tool has an associated learning curve, both for the technology itself and for the people who use it. During this time of learning and improvement in ChatGPT’s infancy, there are more than a few risks to consider when applying the tool to your SEO process.
You Might Skip Quality Guidelines
In order to ensure the most relevant content gets delivered through the search engine, Google is constantly updating its algorithm. One of the most important updates made was Panda in 2011, which began aggressively demoting content that was of lesser quality (such as AI-generated content) or that used “black hat” SEO tactics like keyword stuffing.
Google has developed a system known as E-A-T, or expertise, authoritativeness, and trust. New to the acronym is a second E for experience: E-E-A-T now represents the criteria for which pages and sites are evaluated:
Experience refers to whether the content creator has the relevant first-hand or life experience to be able to wisely address the topic.
Expertise addresses the actual skill and knowledge required to explain the topic.
Authoritativeness is, essentially, whether the content comes from someone considered a go-to source for the topic.
Trust is the most important component of Google’s evaluation criteria, as it’s the area where experience, expertise, and authoritativeness overlap.
While Google isn’t entirely against the use of ChatGPT, it does warn that it must be used sparingly because, at its core, AI-generated content doesn’t meet E-A-T criteria. Google rewards quality content, mostly because it’s what users themselves would appreciate and trust the most.
While ChatGPT may create content that sounds as though it were written by a human, Google’s algorithm is increasingly sophisticated and adept at identifying AI-fueled work.
There are Privacy Concerns
As soon as ChatGPT started gaining steam, alarm bells sounded for the potential issues with using this type of platform while handling private data. Since ChatGPT uses the information it receives to further learn and develop its content, everything that is entered into the platform gets recorded. This led to swift regulatory action in Italy, and continued conversation about when it’s safe to use ChatGPT.
Even if you are not dealing with sensitive medical records or billing information, remember that anything you put into ChatGPT can eventually come back out. As much as you might want to customize your content, this isn’t the platform to share trade secrets or customer data.
Human Judgment Isn’t Used
Even Google has admitted that there can be some use for AI-generated content, but one of the biggest holes in ChatGPT’s overall capability is its lack of human judgment. After all, it is generally understood that AI is not sentient, meaning it cannot feel emotions or sensations in the way that humans can. With that, ChatGPT doesn’t have the capability to make decisions with respect to human judgment and ethics.
One example of this is the representation of ChatGPT-generated content as completely original work, particularly within educational settings. More and more universities are needing to reevaluate their policies for what constitutes plagiarized work, and this translates to the world of SEO in that content ripped from a variety of sources fails to establish the true uniqueness of your brand and the innovativeness of your ideas.
It Can Generate Misinformation
ChatGPT sources its content from a variety of different channels, meaning it can pull from a wide breadth of text to generate its responses and predicts what should come next in a string of text based on historical data. However, some of the sources of content include sites like Wikipedia where information is collectively verified by the general public, and websites that use inflammatory language or even hate speech.
This means the platform comes with a risk of publishing misinformation, or “facts” that are just plain incorrect. If you publish content created by ChatGPT without verifying what it returns to you, you could potentially leave your customers in the wrong direction, or worse, break their trust forever. ChatGPT is iterative and learns based on the information that it is fed, and unfortunately, not all of the information on the internet is published with the best of intentions.
How You Can Use ChatGPT
As much as there might be internet buzz about “AI coming after our jobs,” many experts agree that we shouldn’t be too quick to label ChatGPT as our enemy. After all, it’s a tool that can be used to help humans perform their duties more efficiently. Here are a few ways you can consider using ChatCPT as a jumping off point to enhance your creative efforts.
Keyword Research: If you need support with developing ideas for keywords that relate to your business, ChatGPT can be as helpful a tool as Google Keyword Planner in sparking your creativity. Use it to generate lists of keywords to consider in your content.
Content Outlines: We all get writer’s block sometimes, and ChatGPT can be helpful in building a framework for your content as you work out the arc of the narrative. It might deliver ideas you hadn’t thought of, but that you’re confident you can run with!
Topic Brainstorming: If you have an idea for a topic you’d like to address with your content, but aren’t sure how exactly to “tie it all together,” ChatGPT can be a resource that helps you connect the dots.
Think of using ChatGPT in a vacuum like working on a school project and simply submitting the CliffNotes as your book report. While you may have saved time, it’ll be clear the work is unfinished and not your own.
Creating Optimized Web Content
ChatGPT can be a fantastic resource when it comes to brainstorming ideas and building out a content framework as a guide for your original content, but it can be harmful to place your full trust in the tool to optimize your website successfully. As with any other type of tool you use to enhance your marketing efforts, it’s critical to establish a balance that ensures you’re simultaneously staying true to your business’s values while remaining on the good side of the platforms that host your content. For those who aren’t careful, it can do more harm than good.
If you’re interested in how you can utilize new technologies to build and monitor your SEO efforts, the Doukas Media team is here to help you stay informed and advise you on how to ethically use the tools to your advantage in business. Contact us today to learn more about our full portfolio of SEO services.