Duplicate Content and AI

August 12, 2023

Using AI tools for content creation is certainly quicker, but make sure you're not causing other problems for yourself.

Duplicate content is never ideal and can create several SEO issues, including cannibalisation, which can dilute your rankings.

Duplicate content can occur in several ways, and we have to be especially conscious of this when using AI text-generation tools.

Creating Content with AI

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of Chat GPT and similar tools, and I do use them to help with some tasks, but the problem is when others start to use them to generate blog content.

We have a client who recently used AI to produce entire blog articles for their website. While the content was undoubtedly quicker to produce, the statements made in the content were factually inaccurate, the spelling was American (they are a UK website targeting a UK audience), and the quality of the writing was poor.

On top of all of this, there was nothing unique about the content, and a quick Google search showed other articles with the same information.

Can I Use AI to Generate Content?

If you use these AI text generation tools to help with your content, please make sure you do your due diligence before uploading them to your website.

Content must be unique to avoid issues like cannibalisation and help your content rank organically in search results.

If search engines discover several websites all with the same information and it cannot determine who is the “original” source, they may decide not to rank any of the websites for those keywords related to that piece of content.

Avoiding Duplicate Content with Text Generation

AI is helpful, but it is important not to get complacent. Use it to help make tasks easier and not get lazy with our work.

Personalisation, unique content, and sharing human experiences within our onsite content will only get more important in the world of automation.

If you take one piece of advice away from this, let it be the following: Use AI wisely and logically.

Nikki Halliwell

Based in Manchester, UK, Nikki is a freelance Technical SEO Consultant. She has worked at several agencies and in-house and has worked across the health, hospitality and fashion industries and more. Nikki enjoys working with eCommerce websites and beyond to ensure that websites are easy to find, load quickly and work efficiently.