MHM#03 The price of AI generated content

AI is here to stay and will continue to become more sophisticated and widely used.

AI-generated content can dramatically increase efficiency, enabling you to write social posts, blog articles, and website content much quicker than writing from scratch.

As a practice owner, there are many balls to juggle and hats to wear, and it can be very tempting to get ChatGPT to write content for you.

But there is a price to pay…..

It makes it harder for your website to rank on Google.

And it reduces brand authenticity. 

Before I explain these in more detail, let's look at some of the pitfalls of AI-generated content: 

• It's generic
• Lacks human expertise/experience
• It can fabricate information 
• It's based on existing information, not new
• Duplication - it can produce the same content for someone else 
• It's not unique
• It's not authentic / doesn't incorporate real-life experiences

Ranking on Google

Each day, 4.6 billion pieces of content are published. This continues to increase due to the ease of AI mass content creation. 

Most people don't go past the first page of Google, so with 4.6 billion pieces of content published each day, it is incredibly difficult to get your content ranking on the first page of Google. 

Google's automated ranking systems use many different factors to rank content. After Google identifies that the content is relevant, it prioritises the most helpful content. 

To determine if the content is helpful, it looks for content demonstrating experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (EEAT). Of these aspects, trust is the most important. 

Google's guidelines state, "...those seeking success in Google Search should be looking to produce helpful, original, high-quality, people-first content demonstrating E-E-A-T qualities."

Google isn't against AI-generated content, but you can see the issues when you compare the list of AI-generated content pitfalls above to Google's ranking guidelines. 

To write website content that follows Google's guidelines, ask yourself these questions:

1. Does the website page/article have a primary purpose, topic, or focus?
2. Would my ideal client find the content helpful? 
3. Does the content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge? - why should I be trusted to write on the topic?
4. Does the content include a fresh perspective, unique ideas, or new information/research? 
5. After reading my content, will someone leave feeling they've learned enough about the topic?
6. Is the content easy to read/understand?
7. Will someone reading my content leave feeling like they've had a satisfying experience?

Brand authenticity 

Why does brand authenticity matter? 

As I discussed in last week's article, prospective clients are assessing different therapists to determine who will be the best fit for them  - will the therapist get me, will I connect with them, what will they be like, what is their approach to therapy, etc. For prospective clients to answer these questions, we need them to read, see, watch, and hear (words, photos, videos) about you and your Practice. 

An essential role of marketing is to create accurate expectations. What we don't want to happen is for a prospective client to get an incorrect sense of who you are, as this creates inaccurate expectations, leading to a less positive experience -  potentially resulting in them finding another therapist or deciding therapy isn't for them. 

Of course, there will always be cases where you've done everything you can to create an accurate picture of yourself and your Practice, and the client expects something different, but through marketing, we want to reduce this as much as possible. 

How do we create an authentic brand? 

All marketing and communication needs to accurately reflect you and your Practice. 

In fact, it's the nuances within your communication that together create a brand that's authentically you  -  the way you phrase things, the words you use, your tone, and the way you structure your sentences and paragraphs. All of these things create content that reflects your authentic voice. This is what helps your Practice stand out and connect with prospective clients.

Your voice is an extension of your therapy practice, and there should be a consistent voice throughout your website content, social media, videos, and their experience of you in a therapy session.

ChatGPT struggles to replicate your authentic voice. So your website and social media content end up not sounding like you. It also creates inconsistency - as your website content sounds different from your videos or you in a therapy session.

When my clients send me content written by AI, I know instantly, and this is simply because after working with them, I know their voice, and the content just doesn't sound like them. 

AI has a role to play, but use it to support you rather than replace you. 

Use it for: 

• Idea generation
• Draft content that you can then edit 
• Extract and paste the audio from a video into ChatGPT and ask it to tidy up the text into a blog article

These days, for your content to rank on Google, it doesn't just have to be good; it needs to be amazing. Adding new content to your website is important, but the quality of content is more important. Rather than viewing content creation as something you need to get off your list, view it as an essential part of creating a successful Practice. And set yourself up for success by creating a realistic content creation schedule.

Watch therapy practice marketing training videos.