Google Isn't Punishing Your AI Content. It's Ignoring Content That Could Belong to Anyone.

Every week a business owner asks me some version of the same question: "If I use ChatGPT to write my website, will Google bury me?"

It is a fair worry. You have probably read that Google can spot AI writing and quietly pushes it down. SEO (search engine optimization, the work of getting your business found when people search for what you sell) is full of rumors like that, and this one costs people money in two directions. Some owners pay extra to avoid a penalty that does not exist. Others publish fifty AI pages in a weekend and wonder why not one of them brings in a call.

Both groups are asking the wrong question. Google is not checking who wrote your page. It is checking whether your page could have been written about any business, in any city.

What Google Actually Said About AI Content and SEO

I would rather go to the source than repeat what other marketers say, so here it is. On February 8, 2023, Google published its official guidance on AI-generated content. The FAQ answers the big question in one sentence:

> "Appropriate use of AI or automation is not against our guidelines."

The same post says Google's ranking systems "aim to reward original, high-quality content" that shows expertise, experience, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Google shortens that to E-E-A-T. For a local business, the letter that matters most is the first one: experience. Did the person behind this page actually do the work?

There is one hard line in that guidance. Using automation, AI included, mainly to manipulate search rankings is a violation of Google's spam policies. In plain words: a tool does not put you on the wrong side of the rules. Publishing pages whose only job is to game Google does.

So "AI or no AI" is not the decision you need to make. "Does this page help the person searching?" is.

Why Generic AI Copy Fails, and Why It Is Not a Penalty

When I audit local websites that switched to AI writing, the pages are rarely punished. They are just invisible.

Ask any AI tool to "write a service page for a med spa in Scottsdale" and you will get something close to this:

"At our med spa, we are committed to helping you look and feel your best. Our experienced team offers a wide range of treatments tailored to your unique needs."

Now swap "med spa" for "dental office" or "hair salon." It still works. That is the whole problem. Nothing in it could only be true of this one business.

Google already has thousands of pages saying exactly that. Adding one more gives it no reason to show yours. Your customers feel it even faster. They land on the page with a real question (how much, how long, does it hurt, will it work for me) and nothing answers it. So they hit the back button and call someone else.

Generic copy is not new, by the way. Agencies were selling template pages written by humans that said the same nothing long before AI existed. AI just made the nothing cheaper to produce, so now there is a lot more of it competing for the same spot.

Generic vs Human-Voice AI Content, Side by Side

The businesses I see winning with AI use it like a fast assistant who has never met their customers. It writes the first draft. The owner supplies everything only they know.

Here is what that difference looks like on a med spa page:

My recommendation: rewrite every service page so it answers the left column in the words of the right column. The human-voice version answers the exact questions people type into Google. It proves experience, the first E in E-E-A-T. And it gives the reader a reason to call you instead of the next result.

The same test works for any trade. A deck builder in Denver whose page explains which boards hold up through freeze and thaw, and what the permit process looks like, will beat a page promising "quality craftsmanship" every time. Specific beats polished.

A Med Spa in Scottsdale: Same Tool, Different Result

Earlier this year, a med spa owner in Scottsdale, Arizona reached out after spending a weekend generating service pages with an AI tool. She had fourteen shiny new pages, one per treatment. Two months later, not one of them showed up in search for anything except her own business name. Her conclusion: Google had caught the AI.

It had not. I compared her pages with the ones ranking above her for searches like "microneedling Scottsdale." The pages beating her were not better written. They were more specific. They explained how pricing worked, what the first appointment looked like, how long results lasted and what recovery felt like, with photos from their own treatment rooms.

She kept the AI. I changed the process:

For each treatment, she recorded a ten-minute voice memo answering the eight questions clients ask her most on the phone.

I used AI to turn each memo into a first draft that kept her wording.

She edited every draft for accuracy, and I added her own photos plus her real name and credentials to each page.

I rewrote the pages for her top five treatments first, over about five weeks, instead of all fourteen at once.

Within roughly ten weeks, the rewritten pages were the ones people mentioned when they booked a consult. The untouched pages were still sitting where they started. Same tool, same website, very different result, because the rewritten pages finally said something no other med spa could copy.

If your website is full of pages that could belong to anyone, tell me about your site and I will tell you honestly which pages are worth fixing first.

How to Use AI for SEO Without Sounding Like Everyone Else

You do not need to stop using AI. You need to stop handing it a one-line prompt and publishing whatever comes back. Here is the process I use with clients, and you can start it this week:

Start with what only you know. Record answers to your ten most common customer questions. Give the AI that recording, not a one-line request.

Put real details on the page. How pricing works, how many visits a result takes, how long a job runs in weeks. Vague pages lose to specific ones.

Name your place. Neighborhoods you serve, local conditions (Arizona sun, Chicago winters, Florida humidity), local rules your customers deal with.

Use proof you own. Your photos, your reviews, your licenses and certifications. Stock photos prove nothing.

Read it out loud before you publish. If a competitor could sign it without changing a word, rewrite it.

Publish fewer, better pages. One strong page per service beats five thin ones that compete with each other.

Put a real person on the page. A name, a role and a photo. Never claim experience you do not have. That is the one shortcut that genuinely backfires.

If you want the longer version of how I plan pages like this, my SEO service page walks through what I look at first, and my process shows how a project runs week by week. The FAQ covers the questions owners usually ask before a project starts. And if you run Google Ads, these same pages make better landing pages, because the ad finally sends people somewhere that answers them.

The Bottom Line

Google does not care whether a person or a tool typed your page. It cares whether the page helps the person searching, and generic copy helps nobody. Good SEO now means using AI for speed and your own experience for everything that makes the page yours.

Not sure which of your pages are the generic ones? Send me your website and I will show you where to start.