Automated Content Writing: A Strong Competitive Advantage
Good morning, Bjoern. Congratulations on your new “baby,” SeoPresso. What will SeoPresso do?
SEOPRESSO is a private project of mine. It's a weekly show on IGTV. The idea is to present know-how transfer, industry news, interviews with interesting people I meet, and behind-the-scenes documentation of conferences where I speak, in an appealing and entertaining format. I am very interested in being creative in video editing and production. I am also a total limelight hog!
I am really excited about Instagram and I'm discovering what works there. The idea for this format is a result of those efforts.
For the few readers who don't know you, what is your position and role at Searchmetrics?
As Director of Digital Strategies Group EMEA, I lead the consulting department at Searchmetrics. We offer strategic SEO and content consulting for our clients. At DSG we are currently 9 consultants, and our client portfolio ranges from e-commerce, publishing, and content sites to lead generators or corporate sites. We work with clients from the digital industry, but also with traditional industries such as insurance, finance, automotive.
From your point of view, what role does content play in search engine optimization?
Without content there would be no search engine optimization. The goal of search engine optimization is to place content as well as possible. Technical SEO, strategic SEO, SEO automation , conversion optimization, UX, etc., are ultimately only used to make content quickly accessible, to structure it better, to make it easier to find it on the site, to provide the user with a better user experience, and to elegantly bring the user to their goal, e.g., a conversion.
What does Google think about text automation? Will it “punish” auto-generated content?
I don't think Google can tell the difference between automated content creation and normal text creation by content alone. I know your generated texts, and it's really hard to tell whether they're automated or hand-crafted.
In my opinion the problem is rather the existing possibility to scale automated content creation so massively. The sudden and massive exaltation of a website and thus the index, with hundreds and even thousands, should be managed intelligently and moderately.
But I clearly see automated text creation as the future for every business that earns money online.
Those who are able to produce and publish content quickly and without much effort can have a clear competitive advantage in being able to quickly occupy topics and trends. In addition, existing content can also be updated quickly and automatically, for seasonal topics or for new topics where there are weekly new innovations. An example would be a software provider with constant innovations, actualizations, and updates.
Only, as already mentioned, content alone is not the key to success. A good technical set-up, intelligent page structure, very good UX, etc. are crucial to get the content placed reasonably on Google.
Ok, so you can automate, but quality still has to be in there. What makes quality content?
At the end of the day, quality determines whether the content (whether created manually or automatically) is relevant to the user, i.e. whether it corresponds to the user's intention. In addition to the right address and target group, the right keywords, answers, and topics play an important role. A reasonable data research and basis and a clever mind that can generate the right insights from it are enormously important here. In addition, one should not think in small parts of only individual text blocks, but instead should create a holistic content strategy on the basis of the data and insights. A reasonable strategy based on good data quality automatically affects content quality.
How does Searchmetrics support a copywriter for automated content? What can Searchmetrics deliver for my text concept?
We can help with the automation of text especially with our data. We have a huge database that reflects the search behavior of millions of people. In addition to the keywords and the volume, we can also reflect the user intent and the seasonal interest of the user. We also know the questions users ask Google about specific topics. These data points are the perfect basis for a briefing for automated text creation.
From the consulting side, we can of course support you with content audits and content strategies. In principle, we develop target-group-specific communication concepts based on gap analyses, topic potential analyses, and competition analyses.
Our goal is to improve digital communication between our clients and their target groups.
