Decoding Google’s Algorithm: Unraveling the Impact of AI on Web Content Rankings

Examining The Influence of AI in Web Content Ranking

A recent revelation brought to light by Digital Sunbird, addressed the concept that ‘Google News is increasingly promoting sites that use artificial intelligence to create content at a rapid pace’. Danny Sullivan, Google’s SearchLiaison, has provided an official response to this claim, but it does not entirely clarify why some domains have a higher ranking than others in the news ecosystem. This article aims to dissect the reasons behind such rankings, providing useful SEO tips for publishers, journalists, and reporters who aim to improve their standing in the search results.

Algorithmic Content Promotion

Contrary to what may be inferred, Google does not manually propel specific pieces of content to the top of search results. Instead, the Google algorithm uses distinct ranking factors to decide which content warrants a spot at the beginning of search results.

Considering examples mentioned in the Digital Sunbird report, here are some insights into why AI-generated content, syndicated content, duplicate content, content aggregators, and content plagiarists occasionally outrank the original news sources.

AI-Generated Content: Recency Advantage

According to Google SearchLiaison, one of the reasons for AI-generated content ranking higher than other publishers is the novelty of such news content when sorted by date. Let’s take two websites that surface as the top stories in the news for a specific topic, outranking even established sources because of their recency. The content scanner from Originality.ai confirmed that one site’s content was AI-generated. Note that the difference was detected in the confidence percentage of AI generation among the compared sites.

Other Search Engines and AI Content

While the role played by AI-prolific content in ranking is investigated, comparisons with other search engines yield interesting comparisons. For instance, on Bing’s primary search results, it was noticed that an AI generated site appears further down the page in Bing’s search results, but not in the news section. This raised questions about the extent of influence of AI-generation on search engines.

Interplay Between Relevancy and Domain Metrics

Scrutinizing the metrics of the domains, it was perceived that one domain has a stronger authority and visibility in Google Search. However, this dominance does not always translate into a higher ranking in organic traffic and keywords over the years. While recency plays a part, relevancy becomes a paramount factor in search results when they are not sorted by date. Notably, websites that republish your news articles could potentially outrank you given they have contextual information that is more relatable to the user’s search query than your site’s.

Is AI Content on Google’s Radar?

A recurring theme in search over the past years is how Google would treat AI-generated content. While Google initially stated that automatically generated content – including content created with generative AI tools – is against Google Search guidelines, a change in stance was observed. In 2023, Google stated that it would reward high-quality content, regardless of how it was produced. Disclosures about generative AI content are “useful” when “reasonably expected.”

SEO Tips For Outranking AI-Generated Content

Irrespective of whether the website outranking you in search results is an AI-generated content farm or an established news agency, that website is essentially competing against you in search. The below tips are useful to gain a competitive advantage:

• Make use of Google’s tips, tools, and advice to troubleshoot technical SEO issues.
• Prioritize link building to improve ranking.
• Interlink your content and ensure active attention to link building.
• If your content has been plagiarized without proper accreditation, take effective steps to get credit for your work. DMCA Takedown requests can be sent to such site owners if they refuse to remove our content.
• Use screenshots to share uncredited mentions of your work on other sites without actually linking to their site.

In conclusion, the rapidly evolving search environment with continuous updates in algorithm and the emerging role of generative AI necessitates website owners to keep tabs on their site’s visibility in search results. As Google’s affinity towards high-quality content irrespective of AI usage becomes apparent, optimizing the website content for search, social media, and additional traffic sources is vital for staying ahead.