You want to use AI to create content. But you’re unsure if it’ll adversely affect your website’s SEO or cause a drop in traffic.
After all, the big question remains looming: Does AI content rank on Google? The answer: Yes, with the right tools and some human oversight.
We have thoroughly compared AI-generated and human written content to answer your questions. In this report, you’ll find a detailed analysis of how AI-generated content performs, and what’s the general consensus about it in the SEO industry.
It’s not just based on our findings. Here’s the exact methodology we adopted.
Does AI Content Rank in Google: Our Methodology
We wanted to keep this report as unbiased and multifaceted as possible. That’s why, on top of our own findings, we also understood what Google has to say about AI content and also included opinions and findings of other industry giants.
Here’s what you’ll find in our detailed report:
- Google’s Official Stance
Google’s algorithms determine what ranks and what doesn’t, so the first step was to analyze Google’s official statements on AI-generated content.
We reviewed policy updates, announcements, and insights from Google representatives to understand how AI content is treated in search rankings.
- Industry Research & Expert Opinions
AI content is a hot topic in the SEO industry. Since everyone’s wondering how AI content performs, many industry giants have conducted and published their own research reports about this.
We gathered insights from SEO platforms like Semrush, HubSpot, and SE Ranking, which have run large-scale experiments to compare AI-generated and human-written content in search rankings.
Their data helps us assess the broader industry trends and real-world performance of AI content.
- Our Own Experiment & Data Analysis
We used our AI content creation tool, Article Writer 6, and compared AI-generated content against human-written content published on our own blog. This way, we could analyze in detail by comparing their organic traffic, and rankings through Google Search Console. By measuring key SEO metrics, we aimed to see whether AI content performed comparably to human-written pieces — or if it lagged behind.
By combining Google’s official stance, industry-wide data, and real-world testing, we aim to provide a comprehensive and unbiased answer to the question: Does AI content rank on Google?
Disclaimer
This experiment was conducted to gain insights into how AI-generated content performs in real-world conditions. Our findings are for informational and educational purposes only and should not be used as a strategy to manipulate search rankings.
While AI can assist in content creation, we do not recommend relying on it as the sole method. Human oversight is essential to ensure accuracy, quality, and relevance. Content should always align with user needs, brand voice, and Google’s guidelines for high-value content.
Google’s AI Content Policy: What Does Google Say?
Google has made its stance clear in its guidelines for AI content: AI-generated content is not inherently bad — what matters is its quality and usefulness.
That means, Google doesn’t care whether the content is written using an AI tool or purely by a human. As long as it provides value, it will rank in Google’s SERPs.
In fact, Google itself uses AI in various ways, including AI Overviews in search results. This reinforces the idea that AI-generated content stands a good chance in Google SERPS if it meets quality standards.
But..
The Real Question: Can Google Detect AI Content?
Google hasn’t explicitly stated whether its algorithms can accurately differentiate AI-generated content from human-written text. Neither has it claimed to do so.
While a few reports claim that Google has a “secret” algorithm through which it detects AI content, these are only speculations. That’s because there are many AI content detectors available. But they are usually quite inaccurate.
In several instances, purely human-written text is flagged as AI while AI-generated text is flagged as human. It’s quite likely that Google, too, hasn’t come up with an algorithm to accurately detect AI content.
But even if Google, or any other AI detector detects AI content, does it matter? Let’s find out through a little experiment.
Let’s run a few random searches on Google, select the top ranking article, and pass it through an AI detector.
Starting with the keyword “how to start a digital marketing agency.”
Now, let’s run the first search result through ZeroGPT, an AI content detector.
As you can see, it’s flagged as 71% AI generated.
Similarly, let’s consider another keyword “how to study for an exam.”
Running it through an AI content detector, we get…
Other AI-content detectors, even paid ones, give us similar results. Considering results from multiple AI-detectors, we can assume that these articles “resemble” AI-generated text. This helps us come to two conclusions:
- If Google has accurately detected these as AI-generated, it won’t differentiate between AI and human content as these articles are ranking anyway.
- If Google’s not able to differentiate between AI-generated and human content, we can continue using AI-generated content. It might rank just like human content, as you can see in the above results.
Even Google’s own AI-driven tools, like Gemini (previously Bard) and AI Overviews, are creating content for users — so penalizing AI-generated text outright would be contradictory.
What Google can detect, however, is low-quality, thin, or unoriginal content — which is often a problem when AI is used without human oversight.
AI models, especially generic ones like ChatGPT, tend to rely on existing data, which can result in bland, repetitive, or generic writing if not refined properly. If content doesn’t add unique value, Google’s algorithms may deprioritize it in rankings, whether it’s written by a human or AI.
And that’s what Google’s policies say. In particular, they speak about:
1. Spammy Publishing Practices
AI makes content creation fast and scalable, which tempts many businesses to publish large volumes of AI-generated articles in a short time. The assumption is that more content equals better rankings. However, this often backfires.
When a website suddenly produces hundreds of AI-generated blog posts without proper review, optimization, or added value, Google may flag it as spam. Search algorithms don’t just look at quantity — they prioritize quality, user engagement, and originality.
Take HubSpot’s massive traffic drop, example.
The industry giant had been publishing content on topics that were irrelevant to their website or product, signaling a lack of topical authority. Plus, many of their blog posts had less than 1000 words, which can be considered as thin content, lacking quality.
Many industry reports, including those from Semrush and Surfer SEO, attribute the drop to HubSpot’s “traffic first” approach.
Remember, we aren’t claiming that HubSpot used AI content. Rather, we are pointing out the consequences of publishing poor quality, random content, regardless of whether you use AI or human writers.
2. Poor Quality Content
One reason AI content initially had a poor reputation was because early AI tools produced generic, repetitive, and sometimes inaccurate articles.
Even today, while AI has significantly improved, blindly relying on AI without human oversight can lead to poorly structured, low-value content. Common issues include:
- Lack of original insights – AI pulls from existing data but doesn’t create new ideas.
- Factually incorrect information – AI models can generate outdated or misleading facts.
- Repetitive phrasing and unnatural tone – AI can sometimes sound robotic or overly generic.
However, when AI-generated content is properly edited, fact-checked, and optimized for engagement, it can perform just as well as human-written content.
3. E-E-A-T Guidelines for Content
For quite some time, Google has been vocal about assessing content based on their E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) guidelines.
But there’s also a common misconception that AI-generated content inherently fails to meet these E-E-A-T criteria.
The reality?
Google doesn’t penalize AI-generated content simply for being AI-written. Instead, it evaluates content based on its usefulness, accuracy, and credibility. This means that if AI-generated content follows E-E-A-T principles, it has just as much potential to rank as human-written content.
Google’s Official Statement on AI Content
“As said before when asked about AI, content created primarily for search engine rankings, however it is done, is against our guidance. If content is helpful & created for people first, that’s not an issue.”
— Danny Sullivan, Google Search Liaison
Key Takeaway
Google doesn’t penalize content just because it’s AI-generated. However, it does penalize content that is spammy, mass-produced without value, or poorly written. The key to ranking isn’t avoiding AI — it’s using AI strategically while maintaining quality, originality, and user-first content practices.
Does AI Content Rank in Google: What Do Industry Giants Say?
Several SEO platforms have studied how AI-generated content performs in Google rankings and answered the question “Does AI content rank in Google?”.
Their findings suggest that AI content can rank well when properly optimized and reviewed by humans, but success depends on content quality, relevance, and strategic execution rather than AI alone.
Let’s go through and understand what exactly some of these reports say in detail:
The Semrush Report: AI Content Can Compete with Human-Written Content
Semrush analyzed how AI-generated content performs compared to human-written articles. Their study found that AI content can achieve nearly the same rankings as human-written content when combined with SEO best practices and human oversight. This proves that AI can be an asset when used effectively.
What Semrush found:
- 57% of AI content and 58% of human content appeared in the top 10 search results. This means AI-generated content is just as capable of ranking well as human-written articles.
- 39% of marketers saw increased organic traffic after publishing AI content.
- 73% of marketers use a combination of AI and human writing.
The HubSpot Report: AI Enhances Rankings When Backed With Human Expertise
HubSpot’s research highlights that while AI can boost rankings, authenticity, trust, and subject-matter expertise are still crucial for long-term SEO success.
AI is most effective when used for structured content like “How-to” guides and reviews, where factual accuracy and clarity are essential.
What HubSpot found:
- 46% of respondents said AI-generated content helped them rank higher. This suggests that AI content is not inherently bad for SEO.
- 36% saw no impact, while 10% saw a drop. Poorly optimized or low-quality AI content may not perform well, which means some amount of editing and refinement is needed.
The SE Ranking Report: AI Content Can Rank, but Results Vary
SE Ranking conducted experiments on 20 newly created websites and existing blogs to see how AI content performed in real-world conditions. Their study found that AI-generated content was successfully indexed and ranked, but rankings varied depending on niche, content quality, and optimization efforts.
What SE Ranking found:
- 70.95% of AI-generated pages were indexed within 36 days. This shows that AI content is recognized and accepted by Google.
- 11 out of 20 new websites using AI content were fully indexed. Not all AI content ranks immediately, but most are successfully recognized.
- Sites with AI content ranked for 1,000+ keywords within a month.
A few reports, like the one from Neil Patel, claim that human content outperforms AI. But if you go through the report, you notice that the study is based on ChatGPT. ChatGPT is a generic AI chatbot that is not designed for content creation.
That means, it will only provide low-quality, robotic-sounding content that’ll most likely be flagged by Google. If you want good result with AI-generated content, like other reports have claimed, the AI writing tool you use matters.
For example, a dedicated AI writing tool such as Article Writer 6 produces long-form articles that meet Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines. That means, a much better chance to rank compared to ChatGPT-generated text.
We show you the result of this drastic quality difference and how content from Article Writer 6 performs in the next section.
Our Experience with AI-Generated Content
After analyzing Google’s stance and industry research, we conducted our own experiments to see how AI-generated content performs in real-world conditions.
We published AI-generated articles (from Article Writer 6) and human-written pieces on our own website writesonic.com and compared their organic traffic and search rankings to come to a conclusion.
Note: There was minimal editing involved in our AI-generated pieces. This included fact-checking, adding quotes and other personalized content, and adding images.
AI Content vs. Human Content: Performance Analysis
We tracked multiple AI-generated and human-written blog posts using Google Search Console (GSC), and here’s what we found:
- Most of our AI-generated content ranked well in Google SERPs, depending on the keyword difficulty.
- Some of our AI-generated pieces did not rank, but the same stood true for human-written content. Just because a content piece was human-written, it did not increase the probability to rank.
- The AI-generated content that ranked on the first page brought in organic traffic just like human-written content would.
Take our article on Grok 3 vs ChatGPT, for example. This article was completely AI-generated but fact-checked by one of our writers. Here are the results ever since it was published:
This is one of the top traffic-generating articles on our website. It ranks 4th for the main query, and also ranks for 1000+ other keywords:
Another top traffic-generating article, Claude vs ChatGPT, is also majorly generated using Article Writer 6, with some human editing:
While this is anecdotal from our own website, several of our clients have also seen a good increase in traffic and clicks using Article Writer 6.
Client Case Studies: What our clients achieved with AI content
Here are a few examples of our clients who’ve used AI content to discover that AI content does rank in Google.
Client 1: Alan Ranger Photography
Alan Ranger, a photography educator, used Article Writer 6 to increase the content output and update older content on his website.
Results he got using AI content:
- 500% increase in Google impressions after consistent content updates.
- Significant boost in website clicks from organic search.
- Expanded content production from 2 to over 30 articles per month.
Client 2: Best Arctic
Best Arctic, a Norway-based travel company, needed to improve its online presence and attract more customers through organic search. They used our Article Writer 6 and other SEO tools to generate content.
Results they achieved using AI content:
- 500% increase in organic traffic within a few months.
- 300% growth in clicks from search results.
- Higher engagement and conversions from blog content.
Similarly, you can go through our other case studies to learn how AI content performed for each of our clients. Almost all of them got positive results in terms of organic traffic, clicks, and conversions using AI content.
The conclusion? AI content does rank in Google!
That said, the tool you use to generate AI content also matters. As mentioned before, simply copy pasting content generated using ChatGPT won’t yield you results.
Which tool to use for AI content creation?
When people think of AI-generated content, they often default to ChatGPT. And while ChatGPT is great for general conversations and brainstorming, it’s not designed specifically for content creation — especially if you want SEO-optimized, high-quality articles that rank on Google.
For example, check this article on “how to build a skincare routine,” written by ChatGPT.
Notice how generic and surface-level the content is. It lacks depth and originality. The tone can feel robotic, and without proper editing, it’s easy to spot as AI-generated.
That’s because ChatGPT wasn’t built as a dedicated content writing tool — it’s a chatbot with broad capabilities, but it doesn’t specialize in long-form content optimized for search engines.
If you want to rank in Google purely using AI content, use a dedicated AI tool like Writesonic’s Article Writer 6. Unlike generic AI models, AW6 is tailored for SEO-focused content creation. Here’s why it stands out:
- Optimized for Google Rankings – AW6 follows Google’s E-E-A-T principles, ensuring content meets quality and relevance standards.
- Produces Long-Form, Structured Content – Generates detailed, well-structured blog posts, guides, and articles that require minimal editing.
- Better Readability & Engagement – Unlike ChatGPT’s repetitive phrasing, AW6 creates content that reads naturally and keeps readers engaged.
- SEO-Driven & Keyword-Optimized – Helps integrate keywords naturally, improving chances of ranking in search results.
Let’s write the same article as before using Article Writer 6. All you have to do is enter the topic:
Select your keywords:
And you’ll get a well-researched, well-written article that’s SEO optimized and comprehensive:
Notice how the article cites the necessary sources, making it credible and interesting — just like a human-written article would.
Factors That Affect How AI Content Ranks in Google
AI-generated content can absolutely rank—but its performance depends on how well it aligns with Google’s ranking signals. Here are the key factors that Google considers when ranking content:
E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)
Google uses E-E-A-T to evaluate whether content is credible and worth ranking. AI alone can’t demonstrate experience or trust—it’s up to you to layer in human oversight.
That could mean quoting subject matter experts, linking to reputable sources, or showing first-hand experience through case studies, testimonials, or real examples. Even when AI writes the draft, human input builds authority.
Search Intent
Great content means nothing if it doesn’t match the searcher’s intent. AI can help generate a lot of text, but it doesn’t always understand whether someone is looking to learn, compare options, or make a purchase.
Before you hit publish, ask: “Does this actually answer what someone’s Googling?” If not, tweak the content to align with what users really want.
User Experience (UX)
Even if your AI content is good, bad design will hold it back. UX factors like fast load times, mobile optimization, easy navigation, and clean formatting all influence how users interact with your page. Google picks up on that behavior.
A frustrating layout or slow-loading content can tank rankings — even if the writing is solid.
Engagement Signals
Search engines use indirect cues like how long people stay on your page, how far they scroll, or whether they click through to another post.
AI content that feels robotic or surface-level might drive users away fast. That’s why adding a human voice, multimedia, or interactive elements helps keep people interested — and signals quality to Google.
Content Freshness
AI tools don’t always account for new developments or changes in a topic. Over time, even high-ranking content can drop if it gets outdated.
Regularly reviewing and updating your AI-generated content ensures it stays accurate and competitive. Refreshing statistics, adding new insights, or responding to evolving search trends keeps your pages relevant.
What to Keep in Mind When Using AI Content
Here are some factors to keep in mind when you’re publishing AI-generated content:
Do Not Spam Publish
AI makes it easy to generate large volumes of content quickly. But publishing hundreds of AI-written articles without strategy, optimization, or real value can backfire. Google prioritizes quality over quantity, and mass-producing low-value content can get flagged as spam.
Instead, focus on publishing well-researched, high-quality articles that provide genuine value to your audience.
Involve Some Amount of Human Review and Editing
AI can generate structured content, but human oversight ensures it’s natural, engaging, and aligned with your brand voice. Editing helps refine flow, fix inconsistencies, and optimize for SEO, making the content more effective and trustworthy.
Choose AI Tools Meant for Writing
Not all AI tools are created equal. While ChatGPT is great for general-purpose text generation, it wasn’t built specifically for SEO-driven content writing. It often produces generic, repetitive content that lacks structure, SEO focus, and strategic keyword integration.
Instead, use AI tools designed for content creation — like Article Writer 6 (AW6).
Include Quotes and Images to Make It Credible
Google values content that demonstrates expertise and credibility. Adding quotes from experts, case studies, and relevant images or infographics can significantly boost the perceived authority of your content.
For example, integrating statistics from reliable sources and supplementing them with visuals makes your content more engaging and trustworthy.
Fact Check Stats
One of the biggest risks with AI content is misinformation. Many AI tools generate data that sounds correct but isn’t factually accurate. That’s why fact-checking is crucial—especially for stats, research-based claims, and numerical data.
With Article Writer 6, fact-checking becomes much easier. AW6 automatically provides sources and citations for the data it includes, making it simpler to verify information and ensure accuracy.
This gives your content more credibility and aligns with Google’s preference for high-trust, well-researched information.
Use the Right AI Tool to Create Content That Ranks
AI-generated content can perform just as well as human-written content when optimized correctly. While some human editing is necessary to refine accuracy and readability, the ability to produce high-quality content at scale gives AI a distinct advantage.
With the right tool, like Article Writer 6, you can create SEO-optimized, engaging content effortlessly. It ensures structured writing, factual accuracy, and a smooth workflow—helping you rank without compromising on quality.
Ready to scale your content creation? Try Article Writer 6 for free today.
