Things To Consider Before Using AI To Write Blog Posts

Using AI to write blog posts for SEO purposes has exploded in popularity over the last few years, largely thanks to platforms like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Add in Google’s increasing focus on content freshness and user experience, especially with updates like the Page Experience and Core Web Vitals. These updates pushed marketers to create more relevant, timely content that engages users and performs well in search rankings.

While AI-generated content has become a powerful tool for scaling content production, some marketers have lost the plot by prioritizing quantity over quality. The focus shifted to churning out as many posts as possible to meet Google’s demands for freshness without paying enough attention to the actual value provided to the reader. This approach was largely driven by the desire to rank higher by producing more content — often without fully considering whether that content actually met the user’s needs.

While AI can certainly help scale up content production, the key is not to let quantity overshadow quality. It’s best used as a tool to enhance your writing process, not to replace the need for helpful, user-focused content.

When used correctly, AI can help you create longer blog posts faster and with higher quality than you can on your own. In this blog post, we’ll offer guidance on how to use AI to write blog posts that perform better with users and search engines alike.

How Does Google Feel About Using AI to Write Blog Posts?

In 2023, Google published an article offering guidance on AI-generated content. Essentially, using AI to create content is acceptable as long as the content is helpful, reliable, and made for people, not just to improve search rankings. Google has always valued and prioritized quality content, so as long as you do the same when using AI to assist your writing, you shouldn’t be penalized for using it.

Common Mistakes When Creating AI-Generated Blogs

While you won’t be penalized for using AI, you might run into trouble if the content you generate with AI is low-quality or designed solely to target certain keywords. The key is to make sure your AI-generated content is helpful, relevant, and truly valuable to your readers. Here are some common mistakes people make when creating blog posts with AI and how to avoid them:

Not Refining the Output: AI-generated content often needs editing to sound more natural and easy to digest. Plus, AI often overuses phrases, and people are starting to be able to spot AI content easier.
Over-relying on AI: Relying too much on AI can result in content that lacks personality or actually helpful insight.
Ignoring SEO Best Practices: AI may produce content that sounds good but doesn’t optimize for search engines or address user intent.
Failing to Fact-Check: AI can sometimes provide inaccurate or outdated information, so always verify facts before publishing.
Not Focusing on the Target Audience: AI might not always align the content with your specific audience’s tone, needs, or interests.
Skipping Originality: Overusing AI-generated text without adding your unique perspective can result in generic content. If you don’t add anything original to the mix, how do you expect to out-rank blogs that give the same information as yours and were here first?
Using AI for Spammy or Low-Quality Content: Creating content only for “quick wins” or to rank #1 for specific keywords will never be an effective content marketing strategy and can actually hurt your site’s long-term success.

How to Use AI to Write Blog Posts

1. Start with a Clear Prompt

When you’re ready to use AI, the first thing you need is a clear, detailed prompt. By the time you’re writing, you should have already done your keyword research — AI does not have access to search data. Just because it can come up with keywords doesn’t mean people are actually searching for those keywords.

What you can use AI’s help with is structuring the post and filling in the content around the keywords you’ve chosen. For example, if your topic is about stress management, you can collect keywords and questions to answer around the topic.

Then, give your chosen AI platform a hyper-specific prompt, “Create an outline for a blog post on stress management. The blog post should answer the following questions: what is stress management? Why is it important to manage stress? What are some stress management techniques? Keep in mind the audience you’re writing to are working professionals, and you’re writing on behalf of a meditation app company.”

This is why it’s necessary to have a pre-established direction for your content before starting the writing process—the more specific you are in your prompt, the more closely the AI can meet your needs.

2. Let AI Give You a Starting Point

That said, there’s no “one-and-done” approach to prompt writing; no one prompt will result in a ready-to-go blog post. So, once you’re satisfied with the outline and have provided instructions on your desired tone, let AI do its thing by generating a draft that serves as a starting point.

Then go section-by-section and refine, because trying to refine the whole post at once will only leave you frustrated. AI can only meet so many instructions at once, so while it’s important to be specific, you have to be patient and avoid feeding it too much instruction at once.

AI can help quickly gather information, suggest headers, and pull relevant details from various sources to get you started. This part of the process allows you to work smarter, not harder. Use AI to help you understand any complex elements of a topic and synthesize industry data. Have it explain information littered with technical jargon to you as if you’re in middle school. This allows you to gain enough of an understanding of the topic to have a jumping-off point, which may have taken you an hour to get to independently.

3. Review the Content for User Intent

AI can help create the outline and content, but it’s up to you to ensure it meets the search intent. Take a step back and think about the experience of someone searching for this information. Ask yourself:

Would the user feel satisfied after reading this post?
Are the questions they might have answered in enough detail?
Is the information I’m providing objective and relevant?

Make sure the post is more than just informative: blog posts aren’t supposed to read like academic research papers. They should address the problem and provide a clear, actionable solution and/or insight to help the reader understand what their options are.

This is where you refine the AI-generated content and tailor it to your target audience. Ask AI, “How might someone researching this topic be feeling about it? What problem(s) are they facing / what solution are they looking for?” Doing so will help you tap into your target audience’s mindset, allowing you to create content they feel is super relevant to them.

4. Edit for Readability and Flow

AI can come up with solid information but often lacks a natural flow or engaging tone. Your job now is to edit the draft to ensure it’s readable and engaging for the user. To do this, ask yourself:

Are those answers easy to find? (Or, is this post easy to skim?)
Can the average user read this sentence and understand what I’m trying to say the first time they read it?
Have I used enough subheadings or bullet points to break up the text?
Is the content engaging, or does it feel flat or robotic in parts?
Are there repetitive phrases or ideas that could be tightened or removed?

Break down complex ideas into bite-sized sections, use concise bullet points for easy scanning, and make sure there’s a logical flow from one section to the next. When editing, step outside of yourself and your experience with the topic. Then, imagine if you were reading this after a long day where you’re mentally taxed: can your attention span hang on long enough to get through the blog post?

That’s the kind of human touch AI can never offer. Tapping into your own mind in this way ensures the copy is clear, concise, and easy for readers to follow while still being optimized for SEO.

5. Focus on Engagement and Call-to-Action

While you can use AI to identify emotional connections to make, it struggles to capture those emotions in an authentic (and not corny) way. It tends to create conclusions that merely summarize the main points and restates them in slightly different phrasing.

Blog posts should be written with the genuine intent to help your target audience. Providing objective value that clearly meets the user’s search intent is what search engines and consumers alike prioritize. That said, each blog post should play a specific role in your content strategy. Having a strategic call-to-action closing section provides a path forward, giving the user an optional next step.

This is where you can include promotional language without turning off the user. Again, AI can help you identify the best way to connect the topic back to your offer in a concise and compelling way, but it needs guidance on how to capture your company’s USP.

Otherwise, it’ll just say something like, “At [insert company name], we’re the best, most reliable [insert product] provider. Our top-of-the-line products are innovative, cutting-edge, and convenient. Learn more about our excellent and extensive product line.” Word salad with a bunch of positive adjectives might sound great to you as a marketer, but it doesn’t tell the user anything real.

Instead, have AI help you describe why you’re the most reliable or innovative option and how your product is convenient. Use it to help you define the positive outcome the user is looking for and to connect the dots quicker and easier than you could do on your own.

Scale Your Content Strategy and Maximize ROI

If you’re hoping there’s a way to create AI-generated blog posts that perform well and attract the right audience within 20 minutes, you’re out of luck. However, there is a way to scale your SEO content strategy without adding more to your plate.

At Astute Communications, we combine AI’s efficiency with a data-driven strategy and thoughtful perspective to ensure your content engages readers and ranks well. With our help, you’ll boost your content’s effectiveness and visibility. Let us handle the heavy lifting so you can focus on growing your business.