In a recent episode of Google's Search of the Record podcast, team members teamed up with Gemini to create SEO-related content.
However, their experience relying on AI tools without proper vetting raised concerns about factual errors.
In this discussion, Lizzie Harvey, Gary Allies, and John Mueller take turns writing sample social media posts on technical SEO concepts using Gemini.
As he analyzed Gemini's output, Ellis highlighted a common limitation of all AI tools:
“My biggest problem with all creative AI is realism – you always have to fact-check whatever they're spewing. That kind of scares me now that we're going to read it directly, And maybe we will say things that are not even true.
Old SEO advice debunked
The concerns arose from an AI-generated tweet suggesting the use of rel=”prev/next” For pagination – a technique that has been deprecated by Google.
Gemini suggested posting the following tweet:
“Pagination causing duplicate content headaches? Use rel=prev, rel=next to guide Google in relation to your content. #technicalSEO, #GoogleSearch.”
Harvey immediately dismissed the advice as outdated. Mueller confirms rel=prev and rel=next are still unsupported:
“It's over. It's over. Well, I mean, you can still use it. You don't have to finish it. It's just ignored.”
Earlier in the podcast, Harvey warned that information from old training data could result in errors.
Harvey said:
“If there's a lot of myth circulating or a certain idea about something or even outdated information
Much has been blogged about, it could possibly come up in our practice today.
Sure enough, it only took a little while for the old information to surface.
Human monitoring is still critical.
While the Google search relations team saw the potential of AI-generated content, their talk emphasized the need for human fact-checking.
Illyes' concerns reflect a broader conversation about responsible AI adoption. Human oversight is essential to prevent the spread of misinformation.
As the use of creative AI grows, remember that its output cannot be blindly trusted without verification from subject matter experts.
Why SEJ cares.
While AI-powered tools can potentially aid in content creation and analysis, as Google's own team has made clear, a healthy degree of skepticism is warranted.
Blindly deploying generative AI to create content can result in the publication of outdated or harmful information that can negatively impact your SEO and reputation.
Listen to the full podcast episode below:
Frequently Asked Questions
How can invalid AI-generated content affect my SEO efforts?
Using AI-generated content for your website can be risky for SEO because AI can contain outdated or inaccurate information.
Search engines like Google favor high-quality, accurate content, so publishing unverified AI-generated content can hurt your website's search rankings. For example, if AI promotes outdated practices like using rel=”prev/next” tags for pagination, it can mislead your audience and search engines, damaging your site's reputation. And authority can suffer.
AI-generated content must be carefully vetted and validated with experts to ensure it follows current best practices.
How can SEO and content marketers ensure the accuracy of AI-generated output?
To ensure the accuracy of AI-generated content, companies should:
- Conduct a thorough review process involving subject matter experts.
- Have experts check that content follows current guidelines and industry best practices.
- Fact-check any data or recommendations from AI against trusted sources.
- Stay abreast of the latest developments to identify outdated information generated by AI
Featured Image: Screenshot from YouTube.com/GoogleSearchCentral, April 2024.