Theres no denying that AI generated content can be a massive help to a busy tradesperson, freeing up valuable time previously spent pondering what to write for this week’s blog post. But is your AI generated content actually helping your business? Or is it just filling up space? Here at My Local Trades we specialise in developing websites for tradespeople. We are here to offer you some advice about how to use AI properly.
How does AI generated content work?
An AI works in a similar way to a human researching an unfamiliar topic. Once given a subject to write about, for example “parts of a fuse board”, it goes off on a virtual journey to learn more about that assigned topic. The AI content generator does this by searching its archive of source material for anything that fits the description it was given. It then pieces together text using the snippets it finds. The text it creates will generally be keyword heavy, as it prioritises material from popular and SEO optimised content.
How do I use AI generated content?
As a tradesperson, you’ve probably had to deal with the aftermath of some enthusiastic DIY jobs. The ones where the homeowner had all the fancy kit going but not the skill or experience to use it properly. The outcome probably wasn’t good. Poorly directed AI generated content is the equivalent of this, it will produce a sloppy result that doesn’t best represent you or your business. You should consider AI content generators as a helpful tool but one that still requires a skilled hand to guide it. Noone expects an apprentice (or a DIYer!) to be able to use their kit as well as an experienced tradesperson, it takes time, training, and familiarity to handle any tool effectively. AI generated content is the same, the initial output is likely to be a little rough around the edges and will definitely need some extra work before it’s presented to your customers!
Our top tips for honing your AI generated content:
Read it through – so often we see AI generated content that makes little sense, contradicts itself or is just plain wrong! Take the time to read your content through, what would your customer make of it? Is it accessible to layperson? Is it engaging? If you are struggling to make it through, then your customer is unlikely to do anything but click away.
Think about your keywords – AI can come up with some fancy titles for your blogs and they can sound quite impressive! But ask yourself, is that something my customer would actually ask? Would that title entice them to read further? Overly complicated or highly specific titles can be off putting to a layperson looking for simple answers. The keywords in your content must be things that are key to your business. If there is no mention of an actual service you perform, or a location you cover then you aren’t targeting your ideal customer, you are just talking to the void.
Think about your audience - Who are you talking to? Is your AI generated content accessible to the average human? AI content can often be very repetitive and the text quite beige. If the same information or phrase is being repeated over and over, it will appear dull and uninformed. Since the content will be presented as yours, this is definitely not the impression you want to make on your customers!
Do search engines like Google recognise AI generated content?
The short answer here is yes and further to that Google may penalise your content if it is purely AI generated. Why? Because as we have just discussed, unedited AI content isn’t very appealing. Google works on the concept of E-E-A-T (Experience-Expertise-Authoritativeness-Trustworthiness). A key part of this is trust. AI content can be little more than spam if it is not properly directed, just a collection of keyword phrases with nothing useful to say.
We hope that this blog has given you some pointers on how you can best use AI generated content for your business. If you have any further questions, do get in touch. We’re a friendly bunch and we love to talk about how tech can help you to grow your business. We’ve been offering our successful web development service to tradespeople for over 15 years and not only do we talk Googles language, we talk yours too.
