AI-Generated Content: Can It Rank? (+ Expert SEO Tips)

AI-generated content can rank in Google when done right—if it's high-quality, original, and optimized with human input.

You’ll know exactly what that entails by the end of this article.

But first, let’s break down what AI-generated content is.

What Is AI-Generated Content?

AI-generated content refers to any text, image, video, or audio work created by artificial intelligence, typically using a large language model tool (LLM) such as ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini.

These tools use sophisticated algorithms to generate human-like responses to AI prompts—instructions entered into the LLM that specify what the output should be. 

For example, when you enter a prompt requesting an article, the LLM relies on its training data and possibly external resources to generate each word of that post.

Marketers can use AI to generate all kinds of content, including:

• Blog post drafts
• Meta descriptions (short HTML summaries that can show in search results)
• Title tags (HTML titles that can appear in search results)
• Product descriptions
• Social media captions
• Email subject lines

Why use AI for content generation? Speed and scale. 

According to CoSchedule’s 2025 state of AI in marketing report, nearly 85% of marketers report that AI has improved the speed of delivering high‑quality content.

How Is AI-Generated Content Created?

AI-generated content is created when an LLM that’s trained on a large dataset (containing books, webpages, public code repositories, etc.) predicts what should come next based on the patterns it learned.

Here’s how it works:

1. A user enters a prompt into a chatbot like ChatGPT (e.g., “write an intro to an SEO blog post”)
2. The AI tool processes the prompt and uses patterns it’s learned from reading huge amounts of content to guess what should come next
3. The AI tool builds a draft by making educated guesses about what sounds natural and makes sense based on everything it has learned

That’s why your prompt matters so much.

A vague prompt gets a vague response. But when you give the AI clear direction, it can produce something far more useful right from the start.

The more specific you are about the tone of voice you want, who the audience is, what examples to include, and which sources to reference, the better the result will be.

Can AI-Generated Content Rank in Google?

Yes, AI-generated content can rank in Google search results if it involves human oversight for optimizing, fact-checking, and editing.

What Google Says

Google’s official guidance on AI-generated content states that it doesn’t penalize AI-generated content simply because AI wrote it. 

Instead, it evaluates content based on how high in quality and original it is.

However, Google’s systems are designed to demote content that’s generated at scale to manipulate search rankings 

The March 2024 core update specifically addressed this issue by aiming to reduce the presence of low-quality, unoriginal content across the web—and that includes spammy AI-generated content. Google estimates this was a 45% reduction by April of 2024.

What Other Data Shows

AI-generated content can absolutely rank—it does all the time.

An ongoing study from Originality.ai reports that almost 19% of content ranking in Google’s top 20 results is likely AI-generated.

And our own survey of more than 700 marketers and business owners reveals that 64% of respondents say their AI content performs the same or better than content that’s fully written by humans. 

That said, human involvement is still crucial for accuracy, quality, and alignment with your brand’s tone of voice.

How to Create & Optimize AI-Generated Content for SEO

Here’s a simple, repeatable process to scale high-quality written content developed with both AI and humans that’s likely to rank:

Step 1: Find a Specific, Relevant Topic

Before you start writing, you need a focused topic. The more specific your angle, the easier it is to create content that ranks and resonates with your audience.

You can start by using an LLM like ChatGPT or Claude to brainstorm topic ideas. Just prompt it with something like:

“Give me 10 article ideas based on the topic ‘life coaching,’ focusing on areas that generate curiosity or spark debate.”

This is a quick way to get topic ideas. But it has one big limitation: It doesn’t show which topics people are actually searching for.

That’s where Semrush’s Topic Finder tool comes in.

Just enter your broad topic (e.g., “life coaching”), and the tool will generate a list of more specific themes that people are actively searching for:

For each topic, the tool gives you title ideas, additional keywords to include, an overview of the topic’s search intent (i.e., what users are trying to achieve when searching), and more. 

Click “Start writing” > “Create SEO content brief” next to a title you like to generate an SEO article brief you can use in step three.

We’ll use the topic “what is life coaching?” to illustrate the process for the rest of this article.

Step 2: Use AI to Research Your Topic

Before you generate a single paragraph of publishable text, use AI to explore and understand the topic like an expert.

Start by uncovering:

• The core definition and philosophy behind the topic
• Key comparisons to related or commonly confused concepts
• Major schools of thought, methods, or approaches
• Recent developments, trends, or emerging perspectives
• Common criticisms, misconceptions, or controversies
• Subtopics worth exploring further, such as tools, use cases, or supporting research

We might enter a prompt like this into ChatGPT if we’re focused on the topic “what is life coaching”:

I'm researching life coaching to write an article about it. Help me understand: 

1. The core definition and philosophy behind life coaching
2. How it differs from therapy, mentoring, and consulting
3. The main approaches or schools of thought within life coaching
4. What controversies or criticisms exist about life coaching
5. What specific subtopics I should explore further (like certifications, techniques, effectiveness research, etc.)

It’s also a good idea to Google the term yourself to see what content is already performing well. 

These insights will help you write something interesting that’s likely to resonate with your audience. Next, let’s build an outline.

Step 3: Generate an Outline with AI

Once you’ve explored your topic and gathered useful ideas, it’s time to translate that information into a structured content outline with an AI tool.

If you’re using an LLM like ChatGPT or Claude, craft a prompt that includes:

• The target keyword and/or title of the article
• Key questions or subtopics from your research
• Any firsthand experience or examples you plan to include
• Specific angles or controversies to address
• Recent, relevant statistics and sources you want to cite
• The tone, audience, and goal of the article

Here’s an example of a well-structured prompt for an outline:

“Create a blog post outline for the topic ‘what is life coaching?’

The article should target people who are unfamiliar with the field and are considering hiring a coach. Include sections that define life coaching, compare it to therapy and mentoring, cover the main types of life coaching, explore common criticisms, and give tips for choosing a qualified coach.

I also want to include my personal experience working with a coach for burnout recovery. Ask me questions to help share my experience in the outline.

Use only credible sources from the last two years (2024–2025) to support any statistics or claims. Prioritize government, education, and industry publications.”

You’ll get something that looks like this:

If you want to speed things up and align with real search data, use Semrush’s SEO Brief Generator to get a suggested outline that includes:

• Information on competing content
• A suggested title and meta description
• Semantically related keywords to include
• An outline with subheadings and key points to cover

Once you’ve generated an outline, review and refine it to make sure it’s logically structured and aligned with your goals. This is your chance to add any specific points you want the article to cover—like key stats, personal examples, visuals, or calls to action.

Step 4: Draft the Article with an AI Writing Tool

If you’re using an LLM, turn each section into a quick first draft. The key is working one section at a time and providing enough context to guide the AI’s output.

You can begin with a prompt like this, attaching your outline as a PDF or pasting it directly below the prompt:

“I’ve attached the outline for an article titled ‘What Is Life Coaching?’

Write the introduction first. It should address readers who are curious but skeptical. The tone should be informative yet friendly and non-promotional.

Include a recent statistic from a credible source (from 2024 or 2025) about how many people have experienced a positive life change after working with a life coach.”

If you’d rather skip the manual, section-by-section prompting and get anSEO-ready draft faster, continue from the last step using Semrush’s AI Article Generator.

When your brief is ready, send it to the AI Article Generator to draft your first version. Just click “Generate SEO article.”

As you go, don’t be afraid to tweak the output in real time. Especially to incorporate your own expertise, examples, or firsthand experience. 

These human touches improve the draft and minimize additional work later on when it comes time to edit.

Step 5: Implement SEO Best Practices

Once your draft is complete, fine-tune it using SEO techniques.

Review your article manually for:

• Keyword use and semantic variations (ensure the main keyword is used several times, and include related keywords)
• Clear, scannable headings (H1, H2, H3, etc.)
• Concise paragraphs and sentence structures
• Logical flow between sections
• Internal links to related content

If you want an easier way to do this, paste your article into Semrush’s Content Optimizer tool. (If you used the AI Article Generator, it will automatically move your content to the Content Optimizer for editing.)

The Content Optimizer tool will check for everything listed above. Plus, it will give you advice on what to improve for a better chance at ranking on Google.

Step 6: Edit for Quality and Accuracy

Now for the most important step: Incorporate a dedicated round of editing to eliminate vague filler, verify facts, cite authoritative sources, add more firsthand experience, etc.

Google’s search algorithm aims to prioritize content that demonstrates Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T)—a framework human raters use to assess the quality of search results:

• Experience: The author’s firsthand experience with the topic
• Expertise: The author’s knowledge and credentials pertaining to the topic
• Authoritativeness: The author’s (or website’s) credibility with the topic
• Trustworthiness: The degree to which the content is accurate, transparent, and up to date

Here’s how to approach editing in a way that humanizes AI content and makes it more likely to rank:

Start by reading the entire article out loud to surface awkward or robotic phrasing, sentences that don’t make logical sense, and paragraphs that feel vague, repetitive, or unhelpful.

Then, do a fact check. Update outdated statistics and remove generic or unsupported claims. Your goal is to replace vague statements with specific, credible information.

For example, instead of generically saying that life coaching is becoming more popular, write:

“The interest in life coaching as a topic has gradually increased over the last five years, according to Google Trends data gathered in 2025.”

Next, layer in real experience.Even a short anecdote, testimonial, or expert quote makes the content feel more human and original. 

For example:

“A client recently hired me as her life coach, and she was able to overcome her anxiety around opening her laptop to work in the morning. She ended up speaking with more confidence and even got a promotion and a raise because of it.”

Also, back up your claims with authoritative sources. Stick to information published in the last year or two from trusted publications (such as .gov sites, .edu sites, or industry publications).

Further reading: How to Write an Article Audiences Want to Read (7 Steps)

Testing Pure AI-Generated Content vs. Human-Assisted AI Content

To showcase how different pure AI-generated content is from AI-generated content with human intervention, we ran an example through Copyleaks—an AI detection and plagiarism checker tool.

First, we entered a basic prompt into ChatGPT: 

“Write a paragraph about life coaching.”

Then we copied and pasted the unedited text into Copyleaks. 

The result? It came up as 100% “Matched Text” and 100% “AI Content.” Meaning the text is almost certainly created with AI and either an exact match or an extremely close match for text found elsewhere on the web—not original.

So, we took the content through the steps above and made changes like: 

• Bringing the bottom line up front to immediately answer the question 
• Breaking up the paragraphs into smaller chunks and shortening the sentences 
• Adding statistics from high-authority sources to back up our claims

We also used Semrush’s SEO Writing Assistant tool and clicked the “Simplify” and “Rephrase” buttons to rewrite some of the paragraphs. 

The result?

After pasting the new text into Copyleaks, it came back with no matched text but still a 100% score indicating AI use. Which is interesting, because some of the text was purely written by a human.

The important part is that it’s now seen as original content.

Here’s what this means for you:

It’s important to edit AI-generated content yourself rather than copying and pasting exactly what comes out. Because it might sound too little like you and too much like someone else. 

Start Generating AI Content That Ranks

The verdict is this: AI can help you publish faster, but ranking in Google still takes a human touch. 

The most effective teams blend human input with the right tools.

Semrush’s Content Toolkit helps you do exactly that. Try it today.