Website creators often worry about not being able to stick to a long-term editorial schedule. We understand their anxiety! Regularly posting original content is an essential, but particularly time- consuming task. Between the need to find new subjects, the search for reliable information and the actual writing, it is a full-time job.
If most choose to delegate these missions to a web editor, the temptation to use automatic writing sites is tall. The rates are indeed disproportionate to those of an SEO web editor. However, is the game really worth the candle? Read on to understand the services they offer and why you should be careful in using them.
Automatic writing sites: the services offered and their costs
To better understand the issues around these platforms, it is appropriate to start with an overview of the solutions they currently offer. You can also have affordable wikipedia writing service which can help you to boost up your content.
Reformulation of existing content in a new form
This possibility (also called “content spinning”) makes it possible to generate a maximum of content in record time. The text thus produced is a simple reformulation of an existing article. As with fresh content, the goal is to get more traffic to the site while avoiding the risk of duplicate content.
It is indeed essential to guard against it, because this practice is strongly penalized by Google which easily identifies plagiarism. We will come back to this later, but the low cost of this solution largely explains its attractiveness. Posting articles regularly is also one of the keys to good SEO.
Generating original content using AI (Artificial Intelligence)
This is surely the most ambitious offer since it allows you to create new texts from simple keywords. The tool then searches different websites for all the elements necessary to create an article.
This solution directly competes with web editors, since some platforms can generate up to two thousand words. Getting started is also relatively simple. Concretely, you just have to enter the keywords that seem important to you on the platform and it takes care of the rest:
- title proposal;
- writing the introduction;
- development of the plan;
- composition of paragraphs.
The writing of blog articles, much more complex than “content spinning”, is therefore apparently at hand. Some platforms like Jasper.ai even allow citing the sources used by the Artificial Intelligence if the user wishes.
Additional services depending on the platforms
Some sites offer you additional services that can make your life easier. Jasper.ai, one of the most developed brands today, gives you the ability to write in any language. In general, sites that offer this feature can generate their content in about thirty of them (which already seems like a lot!).
If you do not know the dialect in question, however, it is risky. Proofreading is usually required when using AI to write text. Finally, some platforms offer you reporting tools to track and analyze your content.
At least attractive prices
Most of these tools promise you quality content at unbeatable prices. Jasper. Ai’s most comprehensive package, for example, is around $100 per month. At this price, the site guarantees you “long content such as blog posts, reports, emails and articles*”.
The prices of Write sonic, a direct competitor of Jasper.ai, are roughly similar for the start-up offer ($95 per month). Some software is even free. The Rite platform, for example, offers you the possibility of translating your texts into 30 languages without paying a penny.
However, you are limited to five thousand characters per month. Beyond this quota, the subscription is 29 dollars monthly. If the prices are attractive,
Reasons for using content generators with caution
Auto-drafting platforms have steadily improved over time. Nevertheless, Google’s algorithmic tendencies do not seem to favor this kind of content.
Google is increasingly putting people at the heart of its algorithms
The main objective of the famous search engine is to guarantee its users an optimal browsing experience. It is neither more nor less than its place as the number one browser on the market. However, offering the same content 15 times in different forms does not guarantee a quality experience for the Internet user.
The famous start-up has therefore armed itself with the best engineers to refine its algorithms and thwart attempts to circumvent its rules. Moreover, Google users are human beings with a much more complex language than that of machines. And that, your favorite browser has understood.
This is why algorithms are less and less inclined to favor automatically generated content. To further illustrate this idea,
Google panda in 2011: the hunt for duplicate content and content spinning
With this algorithm, the browser has a solution to filter duplicate content, but also content spinning. This way of automatically generating content from an existing text is therefore particularly risky.
The fact that this is one of the oldest Google updates also shows its commitment to the fight against these practices.
Hummingbird in 2013: “conversational search” at the heart of Google algorithms
The implementation of this algorithm made it possible to refine the search results. Instead of considering a phrase as a succession of keywords, Google has been working for a few years to improve what SEO specialists call “conversational search”.
The most famous of browsers has therefore had the ambition for a long time to understand the complexity of human language in order to generate relevant results.
BERT in 2019: an increasingly subtle understanding of human language
This update is perfectly in line with what was initiated with Hummingbird. This algorithm indeed improves the process of understanding conversational research.
One of the great advances of the search engine compared to Hummingbird, consists in the integration of linking words in the understanding of searches made by Internet users.
Regular updates show how keen Google is to better accommodate the intricacies of human language. But Internet users are also looking for content with high added value. However, in this field, automatic content generators still seem to have a long way to go.
Content with low added value and the risks for your site
If your goal is to attract qualified traffic to your site, several factors should encourage you not to use this software with your eyes closed.
A source recovery system that is opaque to say the least
With the profusion of information available on the Web, Internet users are becoming more and more demanding. In particular, they are looking for precise, innovative and reliable content. But in this game, automatic writing sites can hardly compete with professional web writers.
The use of serious sources is an important element to obtain the confidence of users. However, after having carefully reviewed the arguments of the various automatic writing sites, nothing is said about the way in which these tools recover information. There is therefore no guarantee that the sources used are verified.
Sometimes low-quality content that can scare away your visitors
The added value of such articles is also greatly compromised insofar as these platforms are content to synthesize information available on the Web. Since these are simple automatically generated summaries, there is no hierarchy of information or critical thinking at work.
There is also no real SEO expertise, optimized content being much more complex than a succession of keywords. Instead of attracting new Internet users, repeated bad experiences with a site using automatic content generators therefore risk scaring them away. In the long term, the effect obtained can then be the exact opposite of that initially sought.
What should be remembered?
Automatic writing software has been constantly developing for several years. However, from an SEO and user experience point of view, resorting to these practices is not without danger. If you still want to use them, we recommend that you limit them to simple tasks such as writing short product sheets.
In addition, confine them to the roles of tools that can save you from certain daunting tasks, but do not go beyond this framework. The price to be paid for misuse of this software would greatly exceed the apparent savings made.
