Audit and refine AI-generated content

Rule Details

While AI tools can assist in the writing process, the final output still has to satisfy Google's Search Essentials (opens in new tab) and deliver the depth expected from high-quality content that genuinely helps the reader.

Code Example

While there's no "code" to detect AI, you can signal human involvement and expertise in your metadata and bylines.

<article>
  <header>
    <h1>Advanced TypeScript Patterns</h1>
    <div class="meta">
      <span>By Jane Smith, Senior Engineer</span>
      <span>Fact-checked on October 20, 2023</span>
    </div>
  </header>
  
  <p>In this article, we'll explore patterns I've used in production at ScaleTech...</p>
</article>

Why It Matters

• Quality Standards: Google's guidance on creating helpful, reliable, people-first content (opens in new tab) targets low-value automation that does not add original insight.
• Accuracy: AI can hallucinate facts; human verification is essential for YMYL content, where bad advice can cause real harm.
• Uniqueness: Prevents your site from becoming a "carbon copy" of other sites using the same AI prompts.
• User Experience: Human-edited content is generally more engaging, nuanced, and better at solving specific user problems.

If a draft feels generic, unsupported, or too close to what a model would produce by default, review it alongside thin-content risk before deciding it is ready to publish.

Exceptions

• Necessary utility or compliance pages can be intentionally brief and should not be judged by the same editorial-depth expectations as ranking-focused content.
• AI-assisted drafting is not a failure by itself; flag unsupported claims, missing editorial review, or low-originality output instead.
• When a page has both trust-signal issues and crawl/index problems, make the page eligible to rank first and then improve the content quality signals.

Standards

• Use these references as the standard for the final search-facing HTML, metadata, and crawl behavior.
• Check the implementation against Google Search Central: Search Essentials before treating the rule as satisfied.
• Check the implementation against Google Search Central documentation before treating the rule as satisfied.

Verification

Automated Checks

• Inspect rendered HTML and HTTP headers to confirm the expected metadata or crawlability signal is present.
• Test the affected URL with Google Search Console or equivalent tooling where relevant.
• Re-crawl a representative page set after deployment.

Manual Checks

• Confirm the change does not create conflicting canonical-url, robots, or structured-data signals.