SEARCHENGINES
Google Guidelines On AI Written Content With Bankrate AI Content Writer Gains Attention
Over the last few days or so, Bankrate has been gaining a lot of attention in the SEO space. They are using AI to write a lot of content and not hide it. With that, Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, responded to the SEO community about Google’s stance on such AI-generated content.
Tony Hill posted the example on Twitter that was viewed almost 80 thousand times and retweeted close to a hundred times. He said, “http://BankRate.com, one of the largest finance sites on the web has now started using AI to write some of its content. A big moment in web publishing and SEO.”
He shared this screenshot where you can see Bankrate saying, “this article was generated using automated technology and thoroughly edited and fact-checked by an editor on our editorial staff.”:
Danny Sullivan replied on Twitter referencing the previous comments they said about using AI to write content. He said, “As said before when asked about AI, content created primarily for search engine rankings, however it is done, is against our guidance. If content is helpful & created for people first, that’s not an issue.”
Danny added that the “key to being successful with our helpful content system — and if it’s not helpful content, the system catches that.” Then he references the Google spam policies where he said, “Our spam policies also address spammy automatically-generated content, where we will take action if content is “generated through automated processes without regard for quality or user experience.”
Finally, he goes to the new EEAT guidelines and writes, “For anyone who uses *any method* to generate a lot content primarily for search rankings, our core systems look at many signals to reward content clearly demonstrating E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness).”
Here are all of these tweets:
As said before when asked about AI, content created primarily for search engine rankings, however it is done, is against our guidance. If content is helpful & created for people first, that’s not an issue.https://t.co/3rs3Yrrrk1https://t.co/TlFEbdXGAphttps://t.co/Yl9XWr5CAN pic.twitter.com/gFTE2C2wq1
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) January 12, 2023
Our spam policies also address spammy automatically-generated content, where we will take action if content is “generated through automated processes without regard for quality or user experience” https://t.co/Yl9XWr6aql pic.twitter.com/oBQXXvvma1
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) January 12, 2023
For anyone who uses *any method* to generate a lot content primarily for search rankings, our core systems look at many signals to reward content clearly demonstrating E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness). https://t.co/NaRQqb1SQx pic.twitter.com/JDWjQguaTR
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) January 12, 2023
Again, Google wants content by the people, for the people but you can use AI for ideas and help you along the way.
I did ask Google on Mastodon if they may want to think about a new tag to identify such content for them, I doubt it but hey, we have nofollow.
Glenn Gabe called what Bankrate is doing a bold move:
Super BOLD. Must be nice to have high levels of E-E-A-T to take the risk! With tools like Content at Scale, we’ll see the web flooded with more of the same content. Logic tells me at that point signals related to site & author reputation and UX may need to be dialed up
— Tony Hill (@tonythill) January 10, 2023
People have been using machines to help write content partially or fully for at least 20 years now but now the machines are very good at writing the content – that is the difference. In fact, John Mueller said on Mastodon last night, “spammers have been doing that for 10-20 years now. Some are friendly and nice people, creativity smart and creative, but the results are often hair-raising.”
And by the way, SISTRIX dug into these AI written content pieces and said it is ranking well on Google – for now…
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Source: www.seroundtable.com
SEARCHENGINES
Mikhail Parakhin Confirms He Is No Longer Working On Copilot At Microsoft
Mikhail Parakhin, the former head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising at Microsoft, confirmed he is no longer working on the Copilot project. He stepped down as the head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising weeks ago after Microsoft hired Mustafa Suleyman as the CEO of AI at Microsoft.
We knew Mikhail Parakhin was planning to work on something new but now Mikhail Parakhin confirmed that he is no longer working on Copilot.
He said on X, “Not working on Copilot anymore, onto new things.”
I did follow up and asked if “onto new things” means new things within Microsoft or new things at a new company but I did not hear back on that. His LinkedIn profile still shows he is at Microsoft.
Here are those posts:
I know, those were the best 🙂
— Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin) May 9, 2024
Not working on Copilot anymore, onto new things.
— Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin) May 9, 2024
I am super interested in what Mikhail is working on now and I suspect he will tell us soon.
I deeply miss his transparent and frequent posts about what Microsoft is working on with Copilot and Bing Search…
Forum discussion at X.
SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: May 10, 2024
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google says site reputation abuse is not about links, it is about content. Google Local Service Ads ranking removed proximity as a ranking signal. Google Shopping may soon tell searchers how many shoppers purchased at your e-commerce site. Google Local panels now can show the owner of the business. Mikhail Parakhin from Microsoft confirmed he is no longer working on Copilot. Plus, I posted the weekly SEO video recap.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
-
Google: Site Reputation Abuse Isn’t About Linking
Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, made it crystal clear that the site reputation abuse policy has zero to do with linking. This means that who you link to and/or who links to you has no impact on this new policy that Google began enforcing with manual actions earlier this week. -
Google May Show How Many Shoppers Purchased On Your E-Commerce Site
Google has sent some Google Merchant Center e-commerce site managers notifications that a new annotation may begin to show up in the search results next to their site’s listing that shows how many searchers purchased on your site. It may read, “1K shopped here recently.” -
Google: Proximity Not A Relevancy Factor For Local Service Ads
Google has updated its Local Services Ads help document on ad rankings to remove the line around “proximity to potential customers’ locations” is a ranking factor for those ads. Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, said the document was updated but there was no recent or “sudden change to ranking considerations” to LSA rankings or positions. -
Google Local Panel With Owner Attribute
Google can show the owner of the business in the local panels in the Google search results. I suspect this is not new but I don’t believe I’ve seen this before, where Google will add an “owner” attribute to the local panel. -
Mikhail Parakhin No Longer Working On Copilot At Microsoft
Mikhail Parakhin, the former head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising at Microsoft, confirmed he is no longer working on the Copilot project. He stepped down as the head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising weeks ago after Microsoft hired Mustafa Suleyman as the CEO of AI at Microsoft. -
Google Ads Cyclone Money Machine
I found this photo funny. It is one of those cyclone money machines that money flies around in, and a person inside is supposed to try to grab as much money as possible. Well, there is a Google Ads logo on this one. Oh, the irony of this photo… -
Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Search Ranking Volatility, Site Reputation Abuse Enforcement, Pichai On Search Quality, HCU Recovery & More
Google may have had two search ranking algorithm updates, one around May 9th and one around May 3rd. Google began its site reputation abuse policy enforcement this week with manual actions, and it is not about linking. Google said sites may recover from the helpful content update. Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, responded…
Other Great Search Threads:
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
Search Features
Other Search
Feedback:
Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Search Ranking Volatility, Site Reputation Abuse Enforcement, Pichai On Search Quality, HCU Recovery & More
For the original iTunes version, click here.
Google may have had two search ranking algorithm updates, one around May 9th and one around May 3rd. Google began its site reputation abuse policy enforcement this week with manual actions, and it is not about linking. Google said sites may recover from the helpful content update. Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, responded to search quality issues in an interview. Google is now hiding the number of search results under the tools menu. Google will remove the disavow link tool at some point. Gemini stopped linking to sources. Google renamed AI Answers back to AI Overview. Google is testing a new Notes button in Search. Google SGE said you should drink urine to pass a kidney stone. Google has product review summary labels. Google may show searchers how many people purchased on your e-commerce site. Google Ads new Performance Max for marketplaces. Rumors of 25% of Google Ads accounts being audited are false. Bing is testing clearer distinctions between free and paid search results. Google LSAs ranking help document removed that proximity is used for ranking. Google Local Business Profiles is testing a new review listing. Google Search is testing showing only local results for near me queries. Google Analytics gained Google Ads conversion performance beta reporting. Statcounter said Google didn’t lose market share, it was a bug in the reporting. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.
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