If artificial intelligence only a few years ago seemed like a sci-fi concept and in some ways disturbing, today this technology is increasingly becoming a part of various aspects of our lives and, with the arrival of ChatGPT, has also begun to affect the world of SEO and anyone involved in content creation.
But more specifically what is ChatGPT, and why there has been so much talk about it related to SEO recently.
What’s is ChatGPT about?
ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a chatbot launched in November 2022 by OpenAI, whose estimated value seems to hover around $30 billion, which has caught the attention for its ability to give detailed answers in many subjects, although still not in a perfect way.
This chatbot is based on a large language model made to understand human language and generate responses based on large amounts of data in a way that emulates the responses of a real human being.
One of the reasons for the popularity of ChatGPT is that, unlike many other systems, this chatbot, in addition to providing more detailed and accurate answers, is realized to be able to learn from the various conversations by adapting to the style of the various users by giving them personalized answers.
ChatGPT and SEO: benefits and disadvantages of its utilization?
Considering the capabilities and the large amount of information it is able to handle, it is logical to consider ChatGPT as a useful tool for making content that is accurate for users and high-performing from an SEO perspective. Yet, the system still has limitations so it is not advisable to use it for content realization for the purpose of indexing improvement activities.
Even though complex, ChatGPT is still considered an unsuitable system for the creation of certain types of text, especially since, by having a system that tries to predict the next word after the one entered in a text on a given topic, it is at the risk of creating inaccurate and decontextualized elaborations in relation to certain topics. The only way to decrease the risk of incorrect content creation is to provide the tool with extremely detailed instructions.
In addition, at present the chatbot, as it has not been updated with content made after 2021, may be useless for creating texts regarding certain topics.
Although ChatGPT currently has many limitations that scale back its value for content creation, this does not mean that it cannot be used for SEO-type activities. For example, the system can currently be considered very useful for search and source analysis activities or, in relation to SEO, Meta Description optimizations as this practice does not seem to be against Google’s guidelines.
The difference in using ChatGPT compared to a search engine is to have answers to one’s questions in a clear and concise way, instead of having in return a list of Web pages to which, however, successive manual work of research and evaluation must be associated.
It is also important to know that since the texts produced by ChatGPT, as well as by other AI-based content generators, are made according to specific algorithms, they appear to be detectable by complex systems, such as search engines, through the use of certain algorithms.
As an example: here is a short paragraph written by the chatbot regarding the role of ChatGPT in writing SEO content
“ChatGPT, which stands for chatbots based on GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) technology, can play an important role in SEO. Thanks to their ability to generate relevant responses and content, these chatbots can improve the user experience and increase engagement on the site, factors that can positively influence search engine rankings. However, there is also a risk of relying too much on chatbots and neglecting the creation of original and quality content. Additionally, automatic text generation could lead to errors or inappropriate content, which could damage the site’s ranking on search engines. Therefore, it’s important to use GPT chatbots judiciously and integrate them into a broader SEO strategy.“
Google’s opinion on artificially generated content
On Wednesday, February 8, 2023, Google published a document entitled “Google Search’s Guidance about AI-Generated Content” in which it expresses the company’s opinion on how, in relation to SEO, artificially generated content will be considered.
At the moment, Google seems to choose to consider primarily the quality of the content and the purpose for which it was published, regardless of how it was created.
The company itself, within the document confirms the importance of automation also for the production of useful content for users, such as “sports scores, weather forecasts, and transcripts” recognizing it as a “fundamental instrument to help people create quality content for the web.“
Specifically, in accordance with Google’s guidelines, even with the advent of artificially generated content, content that is considered interesting and innovative will continue to be prioritized at the expense of content that is just poor or made merely to manipulate rankings.
Final evaluations
Our recommendation at the moment is to be careful in using artificial intelligence to create content, prioritizing the use of these for search activities.
At the present time, given also the fact that Google is working on Apprentice Bard, its own chatbot made to function in a similar way to ChatGPT, a real race between giants seems to have begun regarding technologies concerning the creation of artificial content that is useful for users.
As a result, it is likely that before long these tools will become increasingly capable of creating accurate and trustworthy content and consequently help both users and the visibility of sites that will decide to use this content for their sites (as long as it is considered quality content).
Sources:
https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2023/02/google-search-and-ai-content?hl=it
https://www.wallstreetitalia.com
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