According to a report by Graphite Percent, the amount of AI-generated content being published on the internet surpassed the human-written content being published in November 2024, and it’s only going to have increased since then.
It’s got to a point where Google itself has stepped in with a core update that appears to tackle part of the issue head-on, (albeit only for Discover, the search giant’s social / news feed), highlighting that the world of ‘AI slop’ is just going to get worse without intervention.
That’s not to say AI content isn’t acceptable. In fact, it’s often quite good, especially if the piece is designed just to give information. There’s no harm in getting AI to write something to help out readers if it just tells people how to do something… after all, that’s what AI does best right now (as long as you check it’s, you know, accurate).
However, if that’s the case, how are you supposed to elevate your content, given everyone has the power to write this piece to the same standard?
The answer is straightforward (if not easy). Throughout my career I’ve always strived to write in a way that readers can instantly recognise the brand and person behind it. This mentality isn’t just useful for publishers – anyone creating content can use it to stand above the slop.
Enhancing the human voice has benefits for SEO, sure – E-E-A-T thrives on real, expert content – but it’s more than that.
Like an AI voiceover, it’s clear when something doesn’t feel right when an article is structured by an LLM – so unlocking your passion and unique angle will create amazing content that properly stands out.
So what do readers enjoy?
Audiences want to connect with the articles or videos they’re seeing, and content brimming with experience, expertise and personality can only be produced by real people. Sure, you could prompt it into an AI piece, but quickly that will have taken longer than it would take to just create it yourself.
Having written and edited thousands of articles during my career, I’ve always had to have performance in the back of my mind. That means studying each piece’s impact on sessions, dwell time, Google News, Discover and ranking penetration, through to social shares and engagement.
When you spend that much time finding out ‘Huh, so that’s what helps drive traffic…’, it shows you how to take writing beyond just ‘good’ and to a point where an audience feels connected to it.
Sadly, it’s not a simple answer. There’s the speed needed to get news to perform well, the depth required to get a review to rank well on Google and the headline nuance that can get an article to fly on Discover.
The process takes time, revisions, and honing the craft to understand how your site performs on different platforms.
Think of any time you’ve read someone writing an authoritative and interesting article on a topic you love: you engage because the writer’s appreciation for the topic oozes through and creates prose you can’t help but respect.
Livin’ la vida live blog
One of the key things to do is create content that people feel viscerally connected to.
It just… works. I’ve seen it in many forms over my career, with the iPhone launch event live blogs at TechRadar one of the best examples.
While we had to cram in a huge amount of information to a huge audience desperate to know what was happening, it was as important that we inject humor and personal experience into the feed. We wanted people to say ‘I enjoyed that’ and show we shared their enthusiasm and perspective, as that creates a connection.
I knew Apple CEO, Tim Cook, would tweet the morning on an Apple launch, so building up to that tweet would become its own mini event in the live blog – repeated structures are key to people feeling part of a community.
I’d also source the opinion and insight of the TechRadar team – our computing, phones, AV, and wearable experts – to add further authority and expertise to the article (and help give people something useful to read when nothing new was happening, other than our editor-in-chief getting lost on the Apple Campus).
These types of entries brought the blogs to life, with a human at the wheel not only relaying the key information, but providing entertainment at the same time.
It wasn’t just the iPhone launch – we’d consistently run live blogs for major events, a strong signal to Google that we were authoritative and timely with our coverage.
The result was prominent placement in Top Stories boxes in search, high engagement from push notifications, and tens of thousands of sessions for each piece. We’d check dwell times to ensure people were connected, and the ‘live’ experience meant it was strong.
Most sites don’t have an audience that expects a live blog, which means it’s pointless to spend time worrying if you should (or even can) do one – but spending some time thinking about what your audience is looking for and how you can offer it in the simplest, but most interesting, way will pay dividends on any content strategy.
Enjoy being opinionated (in the right way)
Then there are opinion pieces and experiential articles that can’t help but show there’s a person behind the words with real, lived and relatable experiences.
I’d always look to create articles from people that could offer the most impact – if there’s a worldwide GPU shortage, a computing expert telling you how to improve your current gaming rig becomes critical information.
The insight of a gaming editor to the first Switch 2 trailer shows the world that you know what you’re talking about, and elevates your content above the sites that are writing about Nintendo’s new console because it’s appeared on Google Trends.
By focusing on writing on the same topics regularly (largely phones and cars in my case) I’ve been approached to appear on TV and speak at international events – these organisations want people they can trust, and regularly opining on the same topics is a great way to showcase that.
Spending some time in your teams thinking about what your organisation is good at, talks about regularly and has insight that most don’t is a good route to success – especially if you’ve got ideas that others might not have considered.
One of the most powerful, but difficult, pieces to write is the opinion-based editorial (or op-ed). I’ve seen these articles generate tens (at times, hundreds) of thousands of views and sizable social interaction – especially when an author goes against the status quo.
Now, taking a controversial angle is tricky – I’ve been pitched lots of articles where someone is being contrary for the sake of it – but get it right and it ends up changing the reader’s own viewpoint thanks to a well-balanced argument filled with expertise and personality.
Testing to failure
A personal favourite of mine are reviews. I love getting into the detail of a product, and putting it through its paces in the real world.
Manufacturers make bold claims about their products, so taking them out of a controlled lab environment and into the real world leads to the answers readers really want… and it’s a fun experience too.
One example: I couldn’t help but wonder if a robot vacuum’s stair detection feature really worked in a house where there are obstacles, people and pets milling around.
Death-defying feats of top-step overhang are nerve-racking to test, but exhilarating to provide the results on – especially if it ends up taking an unfortunate tumble.
Processes like these allow the author to inject personality and experiential insight into the review as they’re able to talk about the results of their testing, something AI will get wrong as it can’t physically test a product or have an emotional reaction to something.
The rise of influencer content shows us that the human story behind anything is incredibly powerful – people are far more likely to trust someone’s insight if they know they’ve used (and, sometimes, abused) the thing they’re hoping to buy but don’t want to waste money on.
Even the seemingly more repetitive content – such as Black Friday deals – can be made engaging.
I’ve led large, global content teams during sales periods and my focus has always been to focus on the deals where someone can validate their recommendation with either lived experience or expert insight – there’s as much value in telling people what not to buy as there is highlighting a good deal.
Thinking about the areas of overlap between what your organisation does day to day and what your audience is interested in knowing about is an excellent way to create content they’ll engage with, and give you the chance of getting loyal, repeat customers.
Once your audience can feel the human voice behind content, the positive knock-ons for a brand are many. These include increased traffic as you build loyal returning fans, higher revenue as you build trust, and greater brand recognition and reach as your authority swells
So spend some time thinking where you can add value, and you can leave AI content (and that worrying feeling that your piece is exactly the same as your competitors’) behind.
With additional reporting from Gareth Beavis
Image credit: photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash