AI copywriting vs a human copywriter - what's the best practice

I’m a human copywriter, so it’s natural to get a little bit ‘wobbly’ when you see people promoting AI copywriting as the ‘next best thing’.

I can honestly tell you it’s not really!

And that’s not just because I’m a real-life human SEO copywriter.

There’s a whole mixed bag of reasons which we’ll shoot through shortly.

Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not archaic and stuck in the dark ages. I love AI – in its rightful place, that is. Drones that can survey power poles for damage and faults and that sort of thing. Even robot vacuums that know how to clean your floors to perfection (that’s pretty cool).

But in a writing sense, I’m not sold on using AI as a tool. Well, at least not to write your entire piece of content without any human input at all.

Here’s why.

Google can penalise AI-generated content

Original, fresh content is always the best practice when producing content (such as blogs) for SEO purposes. Your content needs to be free from errors, and there must be no signs of plagiarism.

When it comes to Google’s Search Essentials, automated (or copied), content is spam and violates their terms and conditions. If your site is caught with content like this, it will be removed from Google.

And I don’t think anyone wants that!

As AI creators improve their products, Google is also finding ways to keep up. Google bots are now trained to search for pages with poor spelling, grammar and an unnatural (un-human) tone of voice.

So, if you’ve got AI-generated content that you haven’t edited or put the human voice back into, Google will detect your content, and you risk your site being penalised.

My top 4 reasons why human copywriters beat AI copywriters every time

Humans are real!

When you’ve taken the time to read the content your fav business is putting out, you don’t want it to sound robotic, lack emotion and have no tone. When AI bots ‘write’, they simply clump together ideas and call it a blog. It lacks empathy and doesn’t connect with you on a personal level.

Being authentic is a huge part of online marketing; only a human copywriter can help you achieve this with creative and playful writing.

For example, you could ask an AI program to write about dogs. They’d simply clump together a heap of cliché dog facts with no emotion. Ask a human copywriter to write about dogs, and you’ll hear words like ‘adorable’, ‘mischievous’, and ‘huggable’!

SEO copywriters know how to write blogs for humans and Google

A key factor in blogging is researching trends and keywords people are searching for (in your niche) and writing a blog around these topics. AI programs don’t have the capacity to do this kind of research (without the writer needing to add keywords afterwards).

An SEO copywriter knows how to include relevant keywords in your blog (or any online content) to help you rank better in Google. Using keywords and terms your audience is searching for increases your chance of your content being found online.

SEO copywriters also know about using backlinks and internal links in your blog to help you increase your ranking factors. AI programs simply can’t do this.

Copywriters will keep your brand voice consistent

I’m sure no one sets out wanting their brand voice to sound robotic. Well, I hope you wouldn’t! Content marketing is about giving your ideal audience educational information but delivering it in an exceptional way that promotes you as a thought leader.

If you’re churning out mass-produced AI content for the sake of content marketing gains, your audience will feel like it’s not written for them but for the masses.

And when it comes to creating loyal fans, you need to be connecting with them on a personal level. A human copywriter will capture your brand voice, ensuring your content directly speaks to your audience so they feel appreciated, supported and part of your crew.

Human copywriters edit their work

One of the main reasons you’d outsource your copywriting tasks (blogs, website, socials etc.) is because you don’t like or don’t have time for writing. A human copywriter takes care of this side for you and returns a piece of well-written content.

Sure, you may have a few edits (factual issues and the like), but most of the time, you’ll need very little input when you’ve used a human copywriter.

An AI program, on the other hand, doesn’t proof or edit its work. They’ve simply jammed together random words in no particular order. Although this can give you a starting point, you’ll need to be prepared to spend a while editing your AI content to make it sound somewhat human.

My personal experience with AI copywriting

Although I’ve never used an AI copywriting program as such (and never will as I can write!), I’ve seen copy from one.

Here’s why.

A client runs a podcast. Once she’s done, she likes to turn her podcasts into relevant blog posts (super intelligent lady, btw). So, she runs her podcast through a voice-to-text translator (similar to AI, I guess…). She sends me the transcript to create a blog. Incomplete sentences, words misheard or mistyped. Honestly, it takes me ages to shift through the chaos of words.

After a few hours, I take the jumbled words and create a blog post. Without writing know-how, I’m not sure how anyone would edit AI copywriting. And I’m a trained SEO copywriter!

AI copywriting vs a human copywriter – what will you choose?

If you want to play with AI copywriting, go for it. It will give you a starting point if you want to produce copy independently. But please, never just put out what’s spat out! Edit, add your SEO components and make it your own so that it works for your audience.

If you’re looking for a human copywriter trained in SEO who has been writing blogs and web content for happy clients for many years, let’s chat!