Blogging with ChatGPT and Generative AI
In the two years since their introduction, ChatGPT and other generative AI technologies have forever changed the world of content creation. While many changes have been positive, disruptive technology always introduces new challenges. Publishers of all sizes, from national organizations to individual business bloggers, are racing to capture the benefits of generative AI while avoiding the associated pitfalls.
Strategic blogging can still drive traffic, build relationships with potential customers, and improve search engine results. Generative AI can improve the blogging process by introducing new ideas, helping to refine content, and speeding up the content creation process.
Your business should not publish articles directly from ChatGPT or other generative AI engines. Using generative AI content as is could negatively impact your search rankings, fail to engage customers, and deliver duplicate content to your website.
This post will discuss AI-assisted blogging, best practices, and challenges.
Business Benefits of Blogging
Even in the age of Artificial Intelligence, a consistent and well-planned blogging strategy could significantly benefit your business, sparking audience growth and engagement. Below is a sampling of blogging benefits.
Grow Authority and Expertise
A carefully curated blog could help solve problems and provide insight for potential clients. With each interaction, your readers will learn more about your business and could learn to trust your insights and instructions. When your blog readership needs your service, they could be more likely to view your organization positively.
Beyond your content’s impact on its audience, a blog could also improve your expertise. The Latin proverb Docendo Discimus states, “By teaching, we learn.” The process of researching, writing, and publishing a blog will help your company improve the critical skillsets necessary for serving your customer base.
Improve SEO Rankings
Your blog, especially when included as part of a comprehensive keyword strategy, could propel your website up search engine rankings. Including relevant keywords in blog content and titles will help search and AI engines better index your content and position your website as a relevant source of information for your priority search terms. Search algorithms will attribute more authority to your website as other authoritative sources link to your articles.
Additionally, blog posts could increase the total number of search-indexed pages on your site, and internal links could feed traffic to other website pages.
Increased Traffic and Conversions
As search engines refer more users to your blog and visitors find relevant content, your site’s traffic and likely customer conversion could also increase. You could include calls to action or response forms on your blog pages to make it easier for potential customers to contact your sales team.
Feed Social Media Channels
Many potential customers may find you on a social media outlet rather than via your website. By linking your blog posts on social media, you feed fresh, original content to your social media pages and invite social followers to your website.
What is Generative AI
Generative AI takes human or data input and creates new content in the form of traditional text or even images. AI models such as Open AI’s ChatGPT scour incredible quantities of online content and implement machine learning to return contextually relevant content. AI tools can write computer code, chat with humans, create long-form content, and more.
While AI can be a powerful content tool, it has limitations. Since generative AI relies on existing online sources, it cannot create original authoritative source material and has produced factually inaccurate responses.
Despite the drawbacks, AI provides a powerful new asset for your blogging toolkit. When used correctly, it can help you develop more insightful content in less time.
Blogging with Artificial Intelligence
With some practice, generative AI could transform your writing process and help you create comprehensive and engaging content more efficiently. AI can change how you write, from idea generation and content outlines to drafting content and proofing posts. Some practical applications of AI for blogging are listed below.
New Content Ideas
Anyone who has created content knows the struggle of staring at a blank screen, not knowing what to write about or where to begin with a specific topic. Generative IA excels at generating new ideas and outlining possible talking points for a blog post.
To identify various potential topics for your blog post, ask your AI tool for a list of ideas. For example, I requested that ChatGPT provide a list of possible web development and design blog topics. The AI tool responded with 20 potential blog titles, including progressive web apps, SEO best practices, web design for e-commerce, and more. Each identified subject could become an idea for multiple posts or a blog series.
Automatic Content Drafts
After selecting a blog topic, AI tools can generate a content outline or draft article. Your AI assistant could then update the draft based on your preferences or vision for the final product.
For example, when writing this post, I asked ChatGPT to write an article about how AI could help with blog post creation and some potential drawbacks. After several iterations and additional input, AI created a content structure with an entirely written draft copy. This final article completely retooled and rewrote the initial AI draft, but the ChatGPT feedback expedited the writing process by providing a viable starting point.
While I don’t recommend posting AI content directly to your blog, generative resources will improve and expedite the content-creation process.
Refining and Proofing Content
Choosing ideal phrasing and sentence structure can stump even a veteran copywriter. Fortunately, there are many AI tools to help construct the perfect prose. While most document editors provide basic spell and grammar checks, other tools take content creation to the next level.
Once ready to start writing a blog article, AI tools can help with phrasing and refining content. Grammarly, for example, offers alternative phrasing and proofreading for real-time grammatical errors. ChatGPT and Google will analyze an awkward paragraph and provide alternatives and suggestions for clarity, structure, and grammar.
Checking for Originality
Once satisfied with an article, you can utilize various tools, including Grammarly, to check your content for plagiarism and AI-generated content. Ensuring your post doesn’t borrow content from other online sources or automated content improves your odds of growing search engine ranking, earning links from authoritative sources, and maintaining your blog’s unique voice.
Your published original content could eventually feed the generative AI algorithm for future content creators.
Pitfalls of Generative AI in Blog Posts
You can ask ChatGPT and other tools to create complete blog posts from start to finish. Using only a short description, you could even compile a 1,000-word-plus blog post in seconds. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should, however. Over-relying on AI could limit the eventual reach and impact of your publication.
Lack of Originality
While generative AI’s ability to create human-readable text improves almost daily, it still lacks human authors' originality, depth, and nuance. Relying exclusively on machine-generated content could negatively impact your blog’s user engagement and satisfaction.
Online tools can differentiate between original human-created and AI content. Since the introduction of generative content, search engines have updated their algorithms to prioritize original authoritative content.
Adding a human touch to the content equation will help ensure your content maintains its unique voice and differentiates itself from the onslaught of automated content flooding the Internet.
Content Accuracy
Since generative AI’s machine learning model relies heavily on existing online content, there is no reliable method for ensuring that it returns accurate information. If an AI’s machine learning algorithm feeds from erroneous online sources, it could propagate online inaccuracies.
To protect against unreliable AI-generated content, ensure that posts are written and reviewed by legitimate content-matter experts. Publishing misinformation could jeopardize your business’ credibility.
Ethical Considerations
Most blog posts include their author’s name, and most blogs infer ownership by the posting organization. Your blog or publication should disclose when generative AI entirely or significantly produces content to avoid misleading visitors.
SEO and Generative AI
Since Google launched more than 25 years ago, businesses and publishers have prioritized climbing search rankings to drive traffic to their businesses, blogs, and publications. While many publishers have focused on publishing high-quality content, others, many others in fact, have instead attempted to manipulate Google’s search algorithm.
Long before generative AI, Google had implemented policies against automated systems designed to impact search results. The advent of generative AI created another tool that spammers could exploit to manipulate search results.
Ranking High-Quality Original Content
To combat AI spam and other challenges, Google updated its search algorithm to reduce spam results and promote high-quality original content.
While Google is committed to combatting unoriginal copy, it does not necessarily disallow AI-generated content. The company’s policy focuses on content quality rather than how publishers create content.
In short, your generative AI can help improve your search rankings when you use AI tools correctly and create original and valuable content.
Copywriters and AI
Many businesses and agencies outsource blog copywriting to third parties, usually freelance writers or content companies. You can protect your blog from unoriginal content by scanning any third-party content with an originality checker. Many online tools will check for plagiarism and AI generation, and most copywriters will revise their content if your review identifies duplicate or machine-created content.
Generative AI is a formidable tool that helps your publication or business create original, helpful, and exciting content. You can utilize AI tools to identify potential blog post ideas and content structure, and online tools will help refine and proofread your content. Publishers should be cautious about the danger of creating unoriginal content lacking a human touch.
Since Generative AI technology is certain to improve and change quickly, it’s important to stay current with industry changes and trends.
