SEO
Google’s Revamped Documentation Shows 4 Reasons To Refresh Content
![Google's Revamped Documentation Shows 4 Reasons To Refresh Content Google's Revamped Documentation Shows 4 Reasons To Refresh Content](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Googles-Revamped-Documentation-Shows-4-Reasons-To-Refresh-Content.jpg)
Google significantly revamped its documentation about ranking pages that contain video content. While the changelog lists three areas that changed, a review of the content provides a case study of four considerations for digital marketers and publishers when refreshing content to improve relevance for site visitors—and Google.
What Changed
The documentation that was updated relates to ranking web pages that contain videos. The purpose of the documentation is to communicate best practices for optimizing videos for higher visibility in Google’s search results.
Google’s changelog indicated that there were three major changes to the Video SEO best practices page.
- Clarified video indexing criteria
- Updated technical requirements
- Added a new section about dedicated watch pages for each video
This is what the changelog shows what was changed:
“Improving the Video SEO documentation
What: Overhauled the video SEO best practices. Notably, we clarified the video indexing criteria and technical requirements, added a new watch page section, and expanded our examples.
Why: Based on feedback submissions, we revisited our video SEO guidance to clarify what’s eligible for a video result and how site owners can make it easier for Google to find their videos.”
Four Reasons To Refresh Content
There’s a common misinterpretation that encourages changing content annually because “Google loves fresh content,” which is a gross misunderstanding of the Freshness Algorithm. Content shouldn’t be changed without purpose—otherwise, it’s just “rearranging the furniture” instead of truly “redesigning the space.”
Google’s reasons for updating the content offer a mini case study of three things publishers and businesses should consider when freshening up their content.
These are the three reasons for changing the Video SEO content:
- Remove Outdated Content
- Improved Information Density
- Add Fresh Information
- Update For Brevity And Clarity
1. Remove Outdated Content
The old version of the documentation was written when video as web content was a “growing format” and the changes reflect that the times have changed, rendering the old content out of date.
“Video is a growing format for content creation and consumption on the web, and Google indexes videos from millions of different sites to serve to users. “
Videos in content are not a growing format. The editors of the web page were right to remove that passage because it no longer made any sense.
Takeaway: Always keep up to date with how your readers perceive the topic. Failure to do this will make the content look less authoritative and trustworthy.
2. Improved Information Density
Information density in this context describes the ability of content to communicate ideas and topics with the least amount of words and with the highest amount of clarity.
An opening sentence should reflect what the entire topic of the web page is about but the original opening sentence did a poor job of communicating that. It referenced that “Video is a growing format” which is a statement that absolutely did not reflect the web page topic.
This is the new opening sentence:
“If you have videos on your site, following these video SEO best practices can help more people find your site through video results on Google.”
The new sentence accurately describes the topic of the entire web page is about in only 23 words. Here’s something really cool: The second sentence remains exactly the same between the old and revised versions.
Takeaway: The lesson here is to revise what needs to be revised and don’t make changes when the original works just fine.
3. Add Fresh Information
An important change that all publishers should consider is to update content with fresh content that reflects how topics evolve over time. Products, laws, how consumers use services and products, everything undergoes some kind of change over time.
Google added content about tools available in Google Search Console that enable publishers to monitor the performance of their video content pages.
4. Update For Brevity And Clarity
The third reason for changing some of the content was to make it more concise, easier to read with simplified language. One of the subtle changes they made was change the phrase “landing page” to “watch page.” This seemingly small change clarifies the meaning of the sentence by making it super clear that they are referring to a page where videos are watched. Previously the documentation made zero references to watch page and now it makes 21 references to that phrase, introducing consistency in the message of the web page.
Many Reasons To Update Content
Every publisher should consider reviewing their content on a daily basis, whether that’s once a year for a smaller site, or chunking it up and tackling different sections on a monthly basis, a content review is a great way to keep content relevant to users and to discover new topics for content. Sometimes it’s better to break out a topic from a web page and create a dedicated page for it.
Read the updated documentation:
Video SEO best practices
Compare it to the old documentation at Archive.org:
Video SEO best practices
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Cast Of Thousands
SEO
Is Value-Based Bidding Your Ticket To Higher Quality Leads?
![Is Value-Based Bidding Your Ticket To Higher Quality Leads? Is Value-Based Bidding Your Ticket To Higher Quality Leads?](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Is-Value-Based-Bidding-Your-Ticket-To-Higher-Quality-Leads.png)
For lead gen marketers, we know it’s not just about generating leads; it’s about attracting the right leads – those that are most likely to convert into valuable customers.
Value-based bidding is a strategic approach that allows businesses to focus on optimizing campaigns for conversions that truly matter.
We’ve seen value-based bidding work for online sales and brick-and-mortar businesses as well, but here we’re going to focus on using it for driving higher quality leads.
This is the first of five articles I’ll be sharing weekly to delve in deeper and build on each episode of our new video series on value-based bidding for lead generation.
As you’ll see in this first video below, each is short enough to take in over a quick coffee break.
We’ll start from the beginning and cover what it is and whether value-based bidding could be the right strategy to elevate your lead generation efforts in Google Ads.
The Power Of Quality Leads
Not every customer brings the same value to your business. High-quality leads are more likely to engage with your brand, convert into paying customers, and contribute to long-term business growth.
Value-based bidding is particularly beneficial for businesses that typically need to nurture relationships with customers between an initial online conversion and a final sale.
By focusing on quality leads, you can streamline your sales funnel, improve conversion rates, and ultimately boost your bottom line.
So how can you do that with value-based bidding?
Bidding To Value
Value-based bidding allows you to prioritize specific value goals that align with your business goals.
These goals could encompass sales, revenue, profit margins, or even the lifetime value of a customer.
With this strategy, Google’s AI uses billions of combinations of signals along with your first party data to identify conversions that are most likely to deliver on your defined value objectives.
It then optimizes bids to focus your ad spend on reaching those higher value customers.
The Basic Mechanics Of Value-Based Bidding
Value-based bidding offers two primary pathways to optimize your campaigns by bringing values into Smart Bidding:
VALUE-BASED BIDDING | |
Maximize conversion value with a target ROAS Drive as much conversion value at a particular ROI. |
Maximize conversion value (no ROAS target specified) Get as much value within a set budget. |
- Maximize conversion value: If you’re working with a fixed budget, this option focuses on extracting the maximum lead conversion value from your campaign within the constraints of your budget.
- Set a ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) target: This option enables you to optimize for conversion value at a specific target ROAS to help ensure your ad spend generates a desired level of return. When you set a ROAS target, the system will optimize to find as much value as possible on average at your target. There are data thresholds to using target ROAS which we will cover later in this series, but this is the preferred strategy when you want to achieve specific ROAS goals and be able to respond dynamically to shifts in demand. Target ROAS is available for single campaigns or a portfolio strategy applied to multiple campaigns.
Value-based bidding will maximize the conversion value based on budget constraints and ROAS targets where applicable, so higher value customers will be prioritized over volume alone.
Keep this in mind when comparing target CPA performance, which optimizes for conversion volume irrespective of value.
While the emphasis will be on attracting high-value customers, it’s important to note that you might still see some medium to low-value customers depending on the dynamics of the ad auction.
When using ROAS targets, the higher your target, the fewer auctions your ads are likely to enter. In other words, ROAS targets are your lever to make your ads more or less likely to enter the auction.
Is Value-Based Bidding The Right Fit For Your Business?
Value-based bidding has seen success across a spectrum of industries, but whether it’s the right fit for you depends on your specific business needs and capabilities.
Before embracing this strategy, you’ll need to address these key questions:
Can You Assign Meaningful Values To Your Conversion Actions?
You are likely already differentiating your customers’ value in some facet, formally or informally.
You’ll need to set a concrete value to each conversion, whether through static proxy values like lead scores or dynamic economic values such as total profit. (We’ll cover proxy values more in the third article in this series.)
Do You Need To Strike A Balance Between Volume And Value Goals?
Bidding to value means your campaigns likely will not generate the same volume of conversions as they would using Maximize conversions with an optional target CPA bid strategy. This strategy is designed to return a higher total value of conversions. Bid simulators can help you to understand this tradeoff.
If you want to maintain a certain level of traffic, use the Smart Bidding bid simulator to help you gauge the optimal ROAS target that will yield your desired volume of leads while maintaining a focus on quality.
Lowering your target ROAS will increase your reach, and raising your target ROAS will decrease reach while seeking out higher value conversions.
Are You Able To Measure And Connect Your Value Data To Google Ads?
Access to accurate and comprehensive value data is a must for implementing value-based bidding effectively. To start, this means having proper site tagging to track conversions.
Feeding the right first-party data values into Google Ads is key to training the system to identify and differentiate predicted customer value for each auction.
If your value objective is sales value, for example, you’ll need to be able to measure and connect that data back to your Google Ads account. We’ll cover how to do that later in this series.
Reaping The Rewards Of Value-Based Bidding
The initial setup of value-based bidding typically requires some effort up front, but don’t let that intimidate you.
You can start with a more basic set up and adopt more sophisticated approaches that have more technical requirements, such as optimizing for margin or lifetime values for example, later if you wish.
Value-based Smart Bidding gives the system the flexibility to set each bid based on the predicted value of the conversion and target higher value conversions. Over time, it learns which users are more likely to be higher value and more profitable, then bids accordingly.
Bidding to find the most valuable customers can deliver incremental revenue uplift and profitability. Businesses that have found success with this strategy report a marked improvement in lead quality.
On average, advertisers that switch their bid strategy from a target CPA to target ROAS can see 14% more conversion value at a similar return on ad spend.1
Beyond The Basics
While we’ve covered the foundational aspects of value-based bidding, we’re just getting started.
In the upcoming articles in this series, we’ll dive deeper into this strategy, including how to identify and leverage the right data and values for your business, and how to share your value information with Google Ads.
By aligning your campaigns with the conversions that truly matter most to your business objectives, you can optimize your ad spend, maximize your return on investment, and achieve sustainable business growth.
Up next week, we’ll talk about figuring out the right data and values.
SOURCE: Google Internal Data, Global, March 2021
More resources:
Featured Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock
SEO
What Makes a Good Website? The Only 2 Things That Matter
![What Makes a Good Website? The Only 2 Things That Matter What Makes a Good Website? The Only 2 Things That Matter](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1724822767_What-Makes-a-Good-Website-The-Only-2-Things-That.jpg)
Two things make a good website: content and functionality. Looks are nice to have but come last.
Focus on these two areas to create a website that people will want to visit, return to, and tell their friends about. If the site offers the type of content that people need and makes that content easy to find and interact with, people will overlook even the ugliest designs. Case in point: Hackernews.com — a site with 5M monthly users (source) that looks like this:
This article covers the essentials of building a successful website, focusing on creating valuable content and ensuring strong functionality (checklist included). You’ll also learn how to avoid common pitfalls and see which tools can help you get started.
Website content includes all the information and media provided to visitors, such as text, images, videos, products, and their descriptions.
No matter how good the design is, poor content will drive visitors away. Conversely, high-quality content can compensate for design shortcomings.
Just look at some top sites. They prioritize simple, clean layouts that highlight their content, like Canva and Seeking Alpha.
![What Makes a Good Website? The Only 2 Things That Matter SImple layout example: Canva](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1724822765_635_What-Makes-a-Good-Website-The-Only-2-Things-That.jpg)
![What Makes a Good Website? The Only 2 Things That Matter SImple layout example: Canva](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1724822765_635_What-Makes-a-Good-Website-The-Only-2-Things-That.jpg)
![What Makes a Good Website? The Only 2 Things That Matter SImple layout example: Seekingalpha](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/What-Makes-a-Good-Website-The-Only-2-Things-That.png)
![What Makes a Good Website? The Only 2 Things That Matter SImple layout example: Seekingalpha](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/What-Makes-a-Good-Website-The-Only-2-Things-That.png)
And I think you’d be surprised by how effortless Slack’s website looks — that company recently sold for $27.7B (source).
![What Makes a Good Website? The Only 2 Things That Matter Website design example: Slack.](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1724822765_378_What-Makes-a-Good-Website-The-Only-2-Things-That.jpg)
![What Makes a Good Website? The Only 2 Things That Matter Website design example: Slack.](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1724822765_378_What-Makes-a-Good-Website-The-Only-2-Things-That.jpg)
But you won’t make it with just any content — you need quality content. Quality content can mean different things to different people but in general, you can’t go wrong if you follow these simple rules:
- Relevant to your audience. Content should be tailored to what your audience cares about, making it more likely they’ll find it useful and engaging. One of the ways you can find relevant topics is with keyword research.
- Uses simple language and is well-organized. Make your content easy to understand, avoiding complex jargon or technical terms unless absolutely necessary.
- Unique: The content should offer something new or present information in a fresh way. Unique content helps you stand out from the competition and has a bigger propensity to reach more people through recommendations and SEO.
- Valuable to your business. Last but not least, if your site is business-oriented, the content on your site should help you run that business. It should either show how your product/service can help solve relevant problems or help earn more using another monetization method.
I’d like to pause for a moment on that last point and emphasize that content is not just about giving people something to read or watch. It’s also a great way to introduce your product or service.
At Ahrefs, we use a product-led content strategy. We create content that solves problems using our product, targeting topics with search potential to attract consistent, relevant traffic.
For example, our guide on “SEO friendly websites” ranks #1 in the US, bringing in users interested in practical tips and introducing them to our product.
![What Makes a Good Website? The Only 2 Things That Matter Example of product-led content ranking in top 10.](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1724822765_101_What-Makes-a-Good-Website-The-Only-2-Things-That.png)
![What Makes a Good Website? The Only 2 Things That Matter Example of product-led content ranking in top 10.](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1724822765_101_What-Makes-a-Good-Website-The-Only-2-Things-That.png)
![What Makes a Good Website? The Only 2 Things That Matter Example of a product-led content piece.](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1724822765_958_What-Makes-a-Good-Website-The-Only-2-Things-That.jpg)
![What Makes a Good Website? The Only 2 Things That Matter Example of a product-led content piece.](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1724822765_958_What-Makes-a-Good-Website-The-Only-2-Things-That.jpg)
People find us on Google and click to get the content, not to admire how the blog looks. If you want to see how product-led content works in action, watch this video:
Website functionality refers to how smoothly a site operates, ensuring users can easily navigate, interact, and achieve their goals with it. This includes quick page loading, responsive forms, and intuitive navigation.
If visitors can’t easily find what they’re looking for, or if the site is slow and frustrating to use, they won’t stick around to enjoy that content. That’s why the bounce rate on sites (it’s when a user quickly exits a site after opening it) increases so rapidly with every second of page load delay.
Functionality matters to search engines as well. The technical side of your site can impact its visibility for related keywords. When ranking pages, Google takes into account such technicalities as loading speed, mobile friendliness, and whether it uses the HTTPS protocol.
Tools like the free Ahrefs Webmaster Tools make it easy to ensure your site is technically sound. With automated regular site audits, the tool identifies issues on your site and provides advice on fixing them. You will also get an overall health score for easier progress tracking.
![What Makes a Good Website? The Only 2 Things That Matter Health score in Ahrefs' Site Audit](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1724822765_506_What-Makes-a-Good-Website-The-Only-2-Things-That.jpg)
![What Makes a Good Website? The Only 2 Things That Matter Health score in Ahrefs' Site Audit](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1724822765_506_What-Makes-a-Good-Website-The-Only-2-Things-That.jpg)
This straightforward checklist breaks down the core elements of a good website. You can use it yourself or show it to the person responsible for your website.
Content strategy | Have a plan for what kind of information and articles you will post on your site. Use our guide. |
Analytics tools | Use tools to track how visitors use your site and how your site performs in Google, so you can understand what works and what doesn’t. |
SEO error-free | Make sure there are no technical errors that prevent search engines from finding and indexing your site. You can do it for free with Ahrefs Webmaster Tools(AWT). |
Good Core Web Vitals (CWV) | Ensure your site loads quickly and responds well to user interactions. Test right inside AWT or Google Search Console. |
Accessible | Design your site so that everyone, including people with disabilities, can easily use it. Use a tool like Accesibility Checker or WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation |
Mobile-friendly | Make sure your site works well on smartphones and tablets, not just on computers. You can test that right inside AWT (usability and performance section in the All issues report). |
Uses HTTPS | Secure your site to protect user information. You can get a certificate for free here. |
Uses on-page SEO best practices | Optimize each page with relevant keywords, proper headings, and meta descriptions to help search engines understand and rank your content. Use our guide. |
Consistent layout | Use the same colors and fonts throughout your website to create a cohesive and professional look. |
Up to date | Keep your content current and relevant. |
Tested on users | Show the website to a few people and ask them to use it as they normally would. Encourage them to be honest about what they find confusing or difficult. |
Building a website is an exciting process, but it’s too easy to fall into common traps. Let me share the ones I’ve seen over the years with a bit of advice on how to overcome them.
- Design by committee. Too many conflicting ideas can lead to a confusing and unfocused design. Try to limit decision-makers and focus on a clear vision. Prioritize decisions based on what’s good for the user.
- Selling too hard. Overly aggressive sales tactics can alienate potential customers. Build trust by providing helpful information rather than pushing aggressive sales tactics (AI tools can help with that).
- Unclear language. Ambiguous or complex wording can confuse users and obscure your message. Tools like the Hemingway app, Grammarly, or ChatGPT can help.
- Poor SEO practices. Fortunately, SEO good practices are easy to follow, and over-optimization easy to avoid.
- Not keeping the site up to date. Failing to regularly update content and features can make your site appear neglected and out of touch. Even something as simple as setting a monthly reminder to review your site will do the trick.
- Not testing and iterating. Start by trying different things on your site to see what gets the best results. Pay attention to what your visitors like and respond to the most. Once you find what works well, focus on doing more of those things. This is how you go from a “good” site to a “great” site.
Just as it’s exciting, building and managing a site can get overwhelming quite fast. But the right tools can make the process smoother and more efficient. Here are some essential tools to help you get started (all can be used for free).
- Ahrefs Webmaster Tools. A free tool for analyzing your website’s performance in Google. Use Ahrefs to check for SEO issues, track keyword rankings, and see who is linking to your site.
- Wix. A website builder that allows you to create and design a website without needing to code. Choose from customizable templates and drag-and-drop elements to build your site quickly and easily. If you need a bit more control over your design and you’re not afraid of coding, you can use one of the web design frameworks like Foundation or Semantic UI.
- Google Search Console. A free tool from Google that helps you monitor and maintain your site’s presence in Google Search results.
- Google Analytics. A free tool for tracking and reporting website traffic. Set up Google Analytics to see how visitors interact with your site, which pages are most popular, where your traffic is coming from, and more. Use this data to make informed decisions about how to improve your site (Matomo is a good alternative).
- Hubspot. A platform offering tools for marketing, sales, and customer service, along with a content management system (CMS). Use HubSpot to create and manage content, capture leads, and track customer interactions.
- Microsoft Clarity. A free tool for analyzing user behavior on your website. Set up Microsoft Clarity to see heatmaps, and session recordings to understand how visitors interact with your site.
- ChatGPT. An AI language model that can assist with every website building and management task. Use ChatGPT to brainstorm content ideas, and generate text and code for your website.
Final thoughts
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that the visual side of the website doesn’t matter at all. As the artist Max Kolomatsky demonstrates in this Instagram video, design can greatly improve the perception of a business.
The visual design of a website, while important, isn’t something to lose sleep over. Your site will achieve success more quickly and sustain it longer if you start with a good-enough design — such as a customized template — and focus on delivering real value through your content and functionality.
Visual design is also something easy to “overdo.” When trying to make a website look appealing, it’s common to add too many elements, colors, or effects, which can overwhelm visitors and slow the site down. A website is one of those things that need to be usable, and there’s hardly better advice than Dieter Rams’s “good design is as little design as possible.”
Got questions or comments? Find me on LinkedIn.
SEO
So You’ve Been Asked To “Humanize” AI Content
![So You've Been Asked To "Humanize" AI Content So You've Been Asked To "Humanize" AI Content](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/So-Youve-Been-Asked-To-Humanize-AI-Content.jpg)
Searches for “How to humanize AI content” have grown 943% over the last 12 months.
More people are trying to “pass the human check”, either to make AI content suck a little less or to blag AI content detection tools.
The process of “humanizing AI content” has become the de facto content strategy of growth-hungry companies.
I see stifled writers sprouting up everywhere, asking for advice on how best to navigate this content headache.
And I know just how soul-destroying it can be, because I’ve got the t-shirt.
Here’s why it’s a doomed effort from the start.
We all know the big glaring problems with AI content (and if you don’t, you can read about them here), but I don’t believe anthropomorphizing the bot is the solution.
In fact, I’d argue that humanizing the long-form content churned out by AI is an inherently flawed process.
The whole point of using AI is to drive speed, scale, and efficiency; getting humans to edit, and essentially rewrite, long-form AI prose completely undermines that value proposition.
By the time you’ve researched and added in the “rich” human element, you may as well have created the content from scratch yourself.
And the process of running “humanized” AI content through a detector is nonsensical – you’re literally getting an AI to validate humanity.
I’d spend hours editing the AI content I’d been saddled with so it could pass the human check, only to be gaslit into thinking my content was AI… by an AI?!
And I’m not the only victim. In a LinkedIn post, content consultant Kiran Shahid shared that AI detector tools would only verify her humanity when she wrote in first-person – a style of writing that clients are unlikely to sign off on.
![So You've Been Asked To "Humanize" AI Content LinkedIn post from Kiran Shahid on issues with AI Content Detectors](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1724799365_305_So-Youve-Been-Asked-To-Humanize-AI-Content.png)
![So You've Been Asked To "Humanize" AI Content LinkedIn post from Kiran Shahid on issues with AI Content Detectors](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1724799365_305_So-Youve-Been-Asked-To-Humanize-AI-Content.png)
I have seen similar experiences being shared in the Women In Tech SEO community…
![So You've Been Asked To "Humanize" AI Content Women In Tech SEO post highlighting issues with AI Content Detectors](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1724799365_176_So-Youve-Been-Asked-To-Humanize-AI-Content.png)
![So You've Been Asked To "Humanize" AI Content Women In Tech SEO post highlighting issues with AI Content Detectors](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1724799365_176_So-Youve-Been-Asked-To-Humanize-AI-Content.png)
And on Reddit…
![So You've Been Asked To "Humanize" AI Content Subreddit post highlighting issues with AI Content Detectors](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1724799365_952_So-Youve-Been-Asked-To-Humanize-AI-Content.png)
![So You've Been Asked To "Humanize" AI Content Subreddit post highlighting issues with AI Content Detectors](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1724799365_952_So-Youve-Been-Asked-To-Humanize-AI-Content.png)
Having human writers gussy up AI-generated content, only to have AI evaluate their humanity, is not just bizarre — it’s a flagrant waste of talent.
When I was required to “humanize AI”, my workflow looked something like this:
- Receive batches of 100% AI content to edit
- Make sure each article was at least 50% “human” in AI detection tools
- Turn all the circles green in the SEO traffic light tool (pro tip: keyword stuff. Apparently it works wonders in 2024!)
The AI articles sent over to me were so off the mark I basically rewrote them (but with the added pressure of an unrealistic deadline) and, even then, the end results were subpar.
When you’re shoehorning in examples, opinions, and insights which could have shaped the article if only they had been included from the beginning, the content’s flow is inevitably going to be compromised.
At this point, I want to make something clear. I’m not anti AI. I use it every day for ideation, structure, outlines, and repurposing – my number one workflow is improving the pacing and readability of content I’ve written in “flow”. Used like this, AI can be incredibly efficient.
But the process of “humanizing AI” — where you start with 100% AI-generated content and animate it like you’re Mary Shelley breathing life into Frankenstein’s monster — is one of the most menial tasks and beyond demotivating for writers (despite how cool I’ve just made it sound).
If you’re the one enforcing this kind of strategy, you should also know that it is a great way to haemorrhage talent.
Humanizing AI content is unsustainable and inefficient, but some companies will make you do it anyway.
If you’re in this situation, one way you can make your life a little easier is by training AI on your content from the outset.
This means, whenever you’re handed a batch of AI generated articles to “humanize”, you can run them through your self-trained AI model and get them up to a more passable level of humanity, before going back in with your own edits and additions.
Training an AI model is a smart move because it improves the AI system itself; otherwise, it’s just laborious manual work, and you might as well have written the content to begin with.
Tools like Claude allow paid users to create shared “Projects” containing up to 200,000 words of training documentation, while ChatGPT’s customGPTs let you train on up to 20 files, each with a maximum size of 512 MB.
Nishkarsha Kotian, SEO Specialist at Channel Engine feeds examples of her brand guidelines to a customGPT, and sets out rules for the bot to follow.
![So You've Been Asked To "Humanize" AI Content Nishkarsha Women In Tech SEO post highlighting use case for training AI content](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1724799365_445_So-Youve-Been-Asked-To-Humanize-AI-Content.png)
![So You've Been Asked To "Humanize" AI Content Nishkarsha Women In Tech SEO post highlighting use case for training AI content](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1724799365_445_So-Youve-Been-Asked-To-Humanize-AI-Content.png)
Similarly, Melissa Popp, Content Strategy Director at RicketyRoo, trains her customGPTs on knowledge documentation, and adopts a process of “few shot prompting” by providing examples of her best content.
![So You've Been Asked To "Humanize" AI Content Melissa Popp Women In Tech SEO post highlighting use case for training AI content](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1724799365_583_So-Youve-Been-Asked-To-Humanize-AI-Content.png)
![So You've Been Asked To "Humanize" AI Content Melissa Popp Women In Tech SEO post highlighting use case for training AI content](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1724799365_583_So-Youve-Been-Asked-To-Humanize-AI-Content.png)
Given that AI tools have a “memory”, you can also practise “iterative refinement” while chatting with them.
In other words, you can train them bit by bit, using advice and examples to improve the overall content output. Digital PR Expert Gini Dietrich describes AIs as “digital interns” in this respect.
The thing is, training takes up a lot of time, and even with all the context in the world, if you don’t have a clear vision of what you want from your digital intern you can easily get trapped in endless prompt loops.
So, training an AI model can lighten the load a little, but it’s far from foolproof.
Melissa Popp notes that customGPTs only get her 40-50% of the way there, and the effort expended in training often undermines the benefits.
![So You've Been Asked To "Humanize" AI Content Melissa Popp Women In Tech SEO post highlighting use case for training AI content](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1724799365_242_So-Youve-Been-Asked-To-Humanize-AI-Content.png)
![So You've Been Asked To "Humanize" AI Content Melissa Popp Women In Tech SEO post highlighting use case for training AI content](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1724799365_242_So-Youve-Been-Asked-To-Humanize-AI-Content.png)
It can be tricky to question “efficiency” strategies like humanizing AI – especially if they’re dictated on high.
Those making the decisions often don’t understand the reality of the work, and are only concerned with turning spreadsheet numbers green.
But it’s your job to make that reality impossible to ignore.
In my case, I took these steps:
- Regularly fed back on issues I faced during the process of “humanization” in meetings
- Tracked the time I spent “humanizing” AI in a collaborative spreadsheet to prove time-sink
- Outlined the risks of pushing out subpar AI content with examples of brands that tanked in the SERPs due to manual or algorithmic penalties
One approach I didn’t look into, but you could try, is guiding stakeholders towards AI content that doesn’t need as much of a human touch, like:
- Glossaries
- Product descriptions
- FAQs
- Wikis
If the ultimate goal is traffic, you could also consider proposing non-AI initiatives that have been proven to drive traffic at scale.
In Ahrefs’ recent research on the 50 Bootstrapped SaaS Companies Dominating SEO in 2024, the brands driving the largest YoY traffic growth had embraced three core strategies:
- “free tools” creation
- programmatic content
- content localization
Non-AI projects don’t have to be time intensive either. Zapier, for example, created thousands of feature-based landing pages programmatically, and then outsourced the page copy to partners during onboarding.
This kind of traffic-play is far more likely to satisfy a client/higher-up’s need for quick-win growth, giving you time back to focus on your job of creating quality content.
Final thoughts
Humanizing AI generated content is unsustainable and – contrary to what many people think – inefficient.
AI should be used for ideating, planning, and drafting from the outset – not ghostwriting.
In the words of Moz’s Senior Content Marketing Manager, Chima Mmeje:
AI content is not the problem. The problem is when the content is so poorly written, I can tell it was AI-generated. AI detectors are trash. If you hire a writer and you’re passing content through a detector as proof that it’s engaging or authoritative, then you should not be working with writers. Writers, I’m begging you to stop using AI to create entire content. Please use it as a guide to help you flesh out ideas, complete a thought process, or even clean up your writing, but that first draft should be 100% your work.
If you’re reading this and you have the power to dictate strategy, do away with the soul-destroying process of humanizing AI content.
Trust your humans to write content for humans.
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