In a recent episode of Google’s Search Off The Record podcast, team members worked with Gemini to explore SEO-related content creation.
However, their experiment raised concerns about factual inaccuracies in relying on AI tools without proper verification.
The discussion involved Lizzi Harvey, Gary Illyes, and John Mueller taking turns using Gemini to write sample social media posts about technical SEO concepts.
While analyzing Gemini’s output, Illyes highlighted a limitation shared by all AI tools:
“My biggest problem with almost all generative AI is the reality: you always have to check what they’re spewing. That scares me that now we’re just reading it live, and we might say things that aren’t even true.”
Outdated SEO Tips Exposed
The concerns stemmed from an AI-generated tweet suggesting the use rel=”previous/next” for pagination: a technique that Google has deprecated.
Gemini suggested posting the following tweet:
“Pagination causing duplicate content headaches? Use rel=prev, rel=next to guide Google through your content sequences. #technicalSEO, #GoogleSearch.”
Harvey immediately identified the advice as outdated. Mueller confirms that rel=prev and rel=next are not yet supported:
“It’s gone. It’s gone. Well, I mean, you can still use it. It doesn’t have to go away. It’s just ignored.”
Earlier in the podcast, Harvey warned that inaccuracies could stem from outdated training data.
Harvey stated:
“If there is enough myth circulating or a certain thought about something or even outdated information
which has been blogged about a lot, could come up in our exercise today, potentially.”
Sure enough, it only took a short time for outdated information to come out.
Human supervision is still critical
While Google’s Search Relations team saw the potential of AI-generated content, their discussion underscored the need for human fact-checking.
Illyes’ concerns reflect the larger discourse on the responsible adoption of AI. Human oversight is necessary to prevent the spread of misinformation.
As the use of generative AI increases, remember that its output cannot be blindly trusted without verification by subject matter experts.
Why SEJ cares
While AI-based tools can help with content creation and analysis, as Google’s own team illustrated, a healthy degree of skepticism is warranted.
Blindly deploying generative AI to create content can result in the publication of outdated or harmful information that could negatively impact your SEO and reputation.
Listen to the full podcast episode below:
FAQ
How can inaccurate AI-generated content affect my SEO efforts?
Using AI-generated content for your website can be risky for SEO, as AI can include outdated or incorrect information.
Search engines like Google favor accurate and high-quality content, so posting unverified AI-produced material can hurt your website’s search rankings. For example, if AI promotes outdated practices like using the rel=”prev/next” tag for pagination, it can mislead your audience and search engines, damaging your credibility and authority. place
It is essential to carefully fact-check and validate AI-generated content with experts to ensure it follows current best practices.
How can SEO and content marketers ensure the accuracy of AI-generated output?
To ensure the accuracy of AI-generated content, companies should:
Go through a thorough review process with subject matter experts. Have specialists check that content follows current industry guidelines and best practices. Check AI data or recommendations with trusted sources. Stay up-to-date on the latest developments in identifying outdated information produced by AI.
Featured Image: Screenshot from YouTube.com/GoogleSearchCentral, April 2024.
