The Revolution in AI Content in Online Shopping
The growth of artificial intelligence (AI) has changed how online stores make content. AI tools like ChatGPT, Jasper, and Copy.ai claim to make it easier to write everything from product descriptions to blog posts, while also cutting costs and making it possible to make more content. Automation is undeniably more efficient, but it also causes big problems for search engine optimization (SEO), which is what brings people to online stores and makes them money.
This post shows the hidden risks of relying too much on material made by AI in e-commerce. We’ll look at how automation that isn’t set up correctly can hurt SEO, hurt user trust, and even lead to search engine penalties. More importantly, we’ll give you practical ways to use AI in a way that doesn’t hurt your results.
1. The Promise and Reality of Content Made by AI
The Appeal of AI for E-Commerce
- Cost Efficiency: A 2023 HubSpot study says that AI can cut the cost of making content by up to 70%.
- Scalability: In minutes, you can write thousands of product listings or blog posts.
- Support for multiple languages: Instantly translate material for markets around the world.
The Unfair Truth
- Google’s Position: In 2022, Google made it clear that AI-generated content is not automatically punished as long as it is helpful, original, and puts users first.
- The Problem: Most companies use AI to make a lot of material that is generic and repeats itself, which doesn’t meet these standards.
2. Why AI content is bad for e-commerce SEO
a) Not enough content and keyword stuffing
The Problem: AI tools often put keyword abundance ahead of readability, which makes text sound robotic and uninteresting. As an example:
- “Buy the best running shoes for men,” the AI said. The best cushioned running shoes for guys. Online stores that sell cheap running shoes for guys.
- “Find lightweight running shoes designed to be as comfortable as possible during long runs, with responsive cushioning and breathable mesh uppers,” said Human Output.
What SEO Does:
- High Bounce Rates: People leave your page quickly because the content isn’t very good, which tells Google that the page isn’t helpful.
- Term Cannibalization: When several pages use the same term in slightly different ways, it makes search engines confused.
Case Study:
A store that sells shoes used AI to write descriptions for 500 different items. Since there wasn’t enough material, organic traffic dropped by 35% in 3 months.
b) Use the Same Content on Multiple Pages
The Problem: When AI tools are taught on similar datasets, they often come up with the same or very similar language. As an example, here are two product details for two different backpacks:
- “Durable, waterproof backpack with lots of storage space.”
- “Backpack that is waterproof, built to last, and has lots of pockets.”
What SEO Does:
- Crawl Budget Waste: Google wastes time and money indexing duplicate pages instead of giving more weight to original material.
- Rankings are diluted when competing pages split the ranking authority, which makes both of them rank lower in search results.
c) Not having enough E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness)
The Problem: AI can’t copy human knowledge or experience. As an example:
- A skin care brand that uses AI to write “How to Treat Acne” pieces is not a dermatologist.
- Buying tips made by AI leave out more complex information, like “This camera is great for vloggers because it has a flip screen.”
What SEO Does:
- Lost Featured Snippets: Google gives more weight to content from reliable sources.
- Low Click-Through Rates (CTR): People skip over search results with generic, copy-and-pasted material.
Google’s Helpful Content Update (2023) targets “content created primarily for search engines rather than people,” which is a sign of AI content that isn’t done well.
d) Information that is wrong or out of date
The Problem: Since AI models like GPT-4 are taught on data from up to 2023, they can’t be trusted with things that need to be done right away:
- Prices change over time: “The average cost of SEO services in 2024 is $500/month” is no longer true.
- Product details: “This laptop comes with Windows 11” → this is wrong if the model was changed.
What SEO Does:
- Damage to Your Reputation: People stop trusting your company, which leads to bad reviews.
- Google demotes pages that spread false information as a punishment for sharing false information.
e) Bad optimization for mobile and voice search
The Problem: AI material doesn’t always follow best practices for mobile UX:
- Too many long lines.
- Voice search questions, like “Where can I buy organic cotton t-shirts near me?” do not have enough structured data.
What SEO Does:
- Lower mobile rankings: Google’s mobile-first indexing gives material that works well on phones more weight.
- Voice Search Opportunities Missed: According to Statista (2023), 27% of mobile people around the world use voice search.
3. Examples of Times When AI Content Doesn’t Work
Case Study 1: The Blog Disaster at a Fashion Store
A medium-sized clothing company used AI to write 200 blog posts about terms like “summer dress trends.”
Cause:
- 90% of posts didn’t make it past page 5 on Google.
- Google’s algorithms marked the site as having “low-value content,” which made all of its pages less visible.
What to do:
- Rewrote 50 posts with human editors, who looked at them for originality and user purpose.
- Got back 60% of the traffic they lost in 4 months.
Case Study 2: The Law Against Drop-Shipping Stores
AI was used by a Shopify shop to write 1,000 product descriptions for standard tech items.
Cause:
- Google took down 300 pages because they had duplicate information.
- Conversion rates dropped to 0.5% (the norm for the industry is 2.5%).
What to do:
- Combined products that were similar and paid copywriters to come up with new names for them.
- In 8 weeks, conversions went back up to 2.1%.
4. Smart Ways to Use AI Content (That Won’t Kill SEO)
a) Use AI for drafts or sketches.
- Have a person oversee the work.
- Ask editors to add these:
- Brand style, such as humor or telling a story.
- Information based on numbers, like “Our poll showed that 68% of users prefer X.”
- First-hand knowledge (for example, “We’ve worked in this field for 10 years”).
Use of a Tool:
- Frase.io creates AI-written content plans that are SEO-friendly and can be expanded upon by writers.
b) Put quality content ahead of quantity.
Avoid: Don’t publish 50 blogs every month that were made by AI.
Do: Write 10 good posts that include
- First-hand study.
- Videos and diagrams are examples of multimedia.
- Interviews with experts.
Example: Make a report called “2024 Running Shoe Report: 1,000 Runners Reveal Their Top Picks” instead of “10 Best Running Shoes.”
c) Get ready for E-E-A-T
- Add author bios: “Forefoot doctor Dr. Jane Smith, who has 15 years of experience, looked over this guide.”
- Link to.gov,.edu, or peer-reviewed studies to show that your sources are reliable.
- Display User Reviews: Add user reviews to product pages.
d) Check and update AI content often
Tools to Use:
- SurferSEO finds keyword gaps and material that isn’t very good.
- Originality.ai checks for copied text and text written by AI.
Steps to Take:
- Update any old product or statistic information.
- For FAQs or how-tos, add schema markup.
e) Use AI for Non-Text Content
- Use video scripts to plan out video content, then film with real people.
- Personalized emails: AI can divide viewers into groups, but don’t use generic subject lines.
- Robots: Use AI robots for customer service to free up people to answer more complicated questions.
5. Where AI and SEO Are Going in E-Commerce
a) Google’s Fight Against Spam:
- Project SpamBrain is Google’s AI spam detector that can now spot automatically generated material 95% of the time.
- Update to the core in March 2024: “scaled content abuse,” which includes bulk AI pages, is demoted even more.
b) The Rise of “AI-Assisted” vs. “AI-Generated” Winning Strategy:
- Use AI to help you come up with ideas and work more efficiently, but always add a human layer.
c) Voice and image search optimization
AI A chance to: Teach models how to do their best in:
- Picture alt text, like “red summer dress with floral pattern.”
- Search terms for conversations (“Where can I buy eco-friendly yoga mats?”).
Finding the right balance between automation and authenticity
In e-commerce, AI is very useful, but it can’t take the place of human knowledge. If brands automatically create content, they could get penalized by search engines, lose visitors, and lose trust.
- Automate jobs that you do over and over (like meta descriptions and product tags) to save time and effort.
- Invest in human creativity: Do original study, tell stories, and show empathy to stand out.
- Monitor and adapt: Check your content’s success on a regular basis and make sure it follows Google’s changing rules.
You can keep your e-commerce SEO on track with search engines and grow it in a way that doesn’t hurt them by using AI as a crutch.
