What Google says about content written with AI

Five Google documents set the rules for pages written with AI. This chapter quotes each one, says what it asks a business to do, and lists the questions Google tells site owners to ask themselves.

Google says it rewards high-quality content however it is produced, and that using AI to produce content mainly to manipulate rankings breaks its spam policies. Its scaled content abuse policy targets many pages made without value for users, whether by AI, people or both. Google asks site owners to fact-check all AI content before publishing, including titles and descriptions, and to say how content was made when a reader would expect it.

The five documents that set the rules

Much of what is written about Google and AI content online is opinion presented as fact. Fortunately, Google has written down its position in public documents, and each of them can be read in full on Google's own site. When someone tells you that Google "hates AI content" or "cannot detect AI", the honest reply is to open these five documents and read what they say.

Google's position since February 2023

The starting point is a post on the Google Search Central Blog of 8 February 2023, signed by Danny Sullivan and Chris Nelson for the Google Search quality team. Its main heading says it plainly: "Rewarding high-quality content, however it is produced". The post explains that Google's systems look for content showing "expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness", the qualities Google calls E-E-A-T.

The post then draws the line. Using automation, including AI, "to generate content with the primary purpose of manipulating ranking in search results is a violation of our spam policies." In the same paragraph it recognises that automation has long produced useful content, "such as sports scores, weather forecasts, and transcripts."

The questions and answers at the end of the post are the part most worth reading for a business owner. Three answers settle most debates.

• "Will AI content rank highly on Search?" Google answers: "Using AI doesn't give content any special gains. It's just content." A page is judged by whether it is useful, helpful and original.
• "Should I use AI to generate content?" Google answers that it might be useful if AI is "an essential way to help you produce content that is helpful and original", and adds: "If you see AI as an inexpensive, easy way to game search engine rankings, then no."
• "Can I list AI as the author of content?" Google answers that giving AI an author byline "is probably not the best way" to make clear to readers when AI was part of the process. Chapter 7 covers bylines in detail.

The scaled content abuse policy

The rule that matters most for a business using AI sits in Google's spam policies under the name "scaled content abuse". Google defines it as "when many pages are generated for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings and not helping users", and adds the important words "no matter how it's created."

The policy gives five examples. They are worth reading one by one, because each describes a shortcut someone has tried.

The policy ends with an instruction: if you host such content on your site, "exclude it from Search". In practice that means removing the pages, or telling Google not to show them.

• Using generative AI tools or similar tools to generate many pages without adding value for users.
• Scraping feeds, search results or other content to generate many pages, including through automated changes such as replacing words with synonyms, translating or other ways of hiding the source, where little value is provided.
• Stitching or combining content from different web pages without adding value.
• Creating multiple sites with the intent of hiding the scaled nature of the content.
• Creating many pages where the content makes little or no sense to a reader but contains search keywords.

What changed in March 2024

On 5 March 2024 Google announced two sets of changes in a post titled "New ways we're tackling spammy, low-quality content on Search". The first was an update to its ranking systems, aimed at reducing "unhelpful, unoriginal content". Google said it expected the changes to "reduce low-quality, unoriginal content in search results by 40%". In an update to the same post dated 26 April 2024, Google reported the result: "45% less low-quality, unoriginal content in search results".

The second change widened the spam policy. Google explained that its old policy "was originally designed to address instances of content being generated at scale where it was clear that automation was involved." From March 2024 the policy focuses on the behaviour, "producing content at scale to boost search ranking", "whether automation, humans or a combination are involved." Google gave an example of what it meant: "pages that pretend to have answers to popular searches but fail to deliver helpful content."

For a business this means that hiring writers to produce hundreds of thin pages is treated the same as generating them with a chatbot. What the policy weighs is the purpose and the value of the pages.

Google's guidance for sites that use generative AI

Google keeps a separate help page for sites that use generative AI, last updated on 1 October 2026. It opens on a positive note: "Generative AI can be particularly useful when researching a topic, and to add structure to original content." Then it sets out three things to do.

The same page has a specific rule for online shops. Google Merchant Center, the service that sends product data to Google Shopping, "has policies for AI-generated content": AI-generated images "must contain metadata using the IPTC DigitalSourceType TrainedAlgorithmicMedia", a technical label stored inside the image file, and "AI-generated product data such as title and description attributes must be specified separately and labeled as AI-generated."

• Fact-check everything. The page explains why: "generative models don't retrieve facts, but predict a likely sequence of words based on their training data." Their outputs "may contain inaccuracies (also known as hallucinations)", so "it is critical to manually factcheck and review all AI-generated content for accuracy and trustworthiness before publishing."
• Review the hidden parts of the page too. Google says the same review "also applies to metadata like" page titles, meta descriptions, structured data and the alternative text that describes images, because these "can appear in Search results."
• Give readers context. "If you're automatically generating content, consider adding information on how your content was created in a way that makes sense for your audience."

The questions Google asks site owners to answer

Google's help page on helpful, people-first content gives site owners lists of questions to ask about their own pages. One list is especially useful for anyone using AI, because Google introduces it with a warning: answering yes to some or all of these questions "is a warning sign that you should reevaluate how you're creating content".

The same page names the question that matters most: "'Why' is perhaps the most important question to answer about your content." The answer Google wants is that the content exists "primarily to help people".

• "Is the content primarily made to attract visits from search engines?"
• "Are you producing lots of content on many different topics in hopes that some of it might perform well in search results?"
• "Are you using extensive automation to produce content on many topics?"
• "Are you mainly summarizing what others have to say without adding much value?"
• "Are you writing to a particular word count because you've heard or read that Google has a preferred word count? (No, we don't.)"
• "Are you changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed?"

What the rater guidelines add

Google pays people around the world to rate search results, and gives them a guide of 182 pages. Google states on its generative AI help page that these guidelines "are not a guide to ranking first in Google" and that the raters' ratings "don't directly influence ranking". They are used to test whether Google's systems work. Still, they show what Google considers a bad page.

Section 4.6.5 describes scaled content abuse: "Creating an abundance of content with little effort or originality with no editing or manual curation is often the defining attribute of spammy websites." Section 4.6.6 tells raters to give the lowest rating when "all or almost all" of a page's main content "is copied, paraphrased, embedded, auto or AI generated, or reposted from other sources with little to no effort, little to no originality, and little to no added value". The guidelines then add the balance: generative AI tools "may be used for high quality and low quality content creation."

Part of a larger guide

This page is one part of Avoiding AI slop. The other parts:

• What AI slop is
• Signs of AI writing
• The editing process
• First-hand experience
• Checking facts
• Bylines and disclosure
• Publishing at scale

Questions people ask

Does Google have a rule against AI-generated content?

Google's February 2023 guidance says that "appropriate use of AI or automation is not against our guidelines." The rule Google enforces targets the use of AI, or any other method, to generate content "with the primary purpose of manipulating ranking in search results", which its spam policies treat as a violation. Pages are judged on quality and usefulness.

What is scaled content abuse?

Scaled content abuse is a Google spam policy. Google defines it as "when many pages are generated for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings and not helping users", no matter how they are created. Its examples include using generative AI to make many pages without adding value, scraping and rewording other content, stitching pages together, and pages full of keywords that make little sense.

Can Google tell if my content was written by AI?

None of the Google documents quoted in this chapter says that Google judges pages by detecting AI, and its stated position is that it rewards quality however content is produced. Its systems, including the spam system it calls SpamBrain, look for patterns of spam "however it is produced." The safer question for a business is whether each page is accurate, original and useful, because that is what the policies describe.

What did the March 2024 core update change for AI content?

Google announced on 5 March 2024 that the update aimed to cut low-quality, unoriginal content in results by 40%, and reported on 26 April 2024 that results showed 45% less. It also widened the scaled content abuse policy to cover mass-produced pages "whether automation, humans or a combination are involved", so hiring writers to churn out thin pages is treated the same as using AI.

Do I need to fact-check AI content before publishing?

Yes. Google's generative AI help page says that "it is critical to manually factcheck and review all AI-generated content for accuracy and trustworthiness before publishing." It explains that generative models predict likely words instead of retrieving facts, so they can produce errors it calls hallucinations. The same review applies to page titles, descriptions, structured data and the text that describes images.

Does Google have a preferred word count for pages?

No. Google's help page on people-first content lists writing "to a particular word count because you've heard or read that Google has a preferred word count" as a warning sign, and answers its own question in brackets: "No, we don't." A page should be as long as the question it answers requires, which for some questions is three paragraphs and for others is a full guide.

Should I change the date on old posts to make them look new?

Not unless the content has changed. Google lists "changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed" among its warning signs of content made for search engines first. Update the date when you have updated the facts, the advice or the examples, and say what changed if readers would want to know.

What are Google's search quality raters?

They are people Google pays to rate search results using a public guide, the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, last revised on 11 September 2025. Google says their ratings do not directly influence ranking and are used to test how well its ranking systems work. The guide tells raters to give the lowest rating to pages made with little effort, originality or added value.

What rules apply to AI product descriptions on an online shop?

Google Merchant Center, which sends product data to Google Shopping, has its own policy. Google's generative AI help page says AI-generated product titles and descriptions "must be specified separately and labeled as AI-generated", and AI-generated images must carry a label stored in the image file, the IPTC value TrainedAlgorithmicMedia. Shops using AI for product data should follow both rules.

Which Google document should I read first?

Start with the help page "Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content". It holds the self-assessment questions, the warning signs of content made for search engines first, and the "Who, How, and Why" questions about authorship and AI use. It is short enough to read in one sitting, and every other Google document on AI content points back to it.

Sources

1. Google Search's guidance about AI-generated content, Google Search Central Blog. Published 8 February 2023, accessed 4 November 2026.
2. Spam policies for Google web search: scaled content abuse, Google Search Central. Last updated 2026-08-28, accessed 4 November 2026.
3. New ways we're tackling spammy, low-quality content on Search, Google, The Keyword. Published 5 March 2024, updated 26 April 2024, accessed 4 November 2026.
4. Google Search's guidance on using generative AI content on your website, Google Search Central. Last updated 2026-10-01, accessed 4 November 2026.
5. Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content, Google Search Central. Last updated 2026-10-05, accessed 4 November 2026.
6. Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, Google. Version of 11 September 2025, accessed 4 November 2026.

Keep reading

• How to avoid AI slop: the full guide
• What AI slop is, and how to spot it on your site
• Checking every fact in an AI draft
• Bylines, disclosure and AI
• Answer engine optimization, explained
• Run the free Get Found Check

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