Google recently updated the guidelines for AI content. Considering that 87% of marketers reported using AI content tools in some capacity last year, this update will reshape content marketing and SEO strategies in 2025 and beyond. It’s an ideal moment for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) to adapt and thrive.
If you’re a business owner or a marketing professional, you are always looking to maintain or improve your Google rankings to get more customers to your website without paying for the clicks. Google has just thrown a wrench into how it will evaluate your content. This will directly impact how customers find your company, products/services, and ultimately your sales.
Let’s get into Google’s fight against low-quality AI-generated content, how SMBs can respond, and actionable steps to thrive in an AI-dominated landscape.
A Google Quality Rater is an individual who evaluates the quality and relevance of search results generated by the Google Search algorithm. They are trained using the Search Quality Rater Guidelines, a comprehensive document that outlines criteria for evaluating the quality of web pages, including factors such as experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). These guidelines help ensure that raters provide consistent and objective evaluations across different types of content.
Google updated the raters' guidelines by redefining low-quality content. Most digital agencies and industry professionals see this as an attack on AI-generated content. The biggest change is that Google wants to see more of an effort on developing high-quality content.
Now, Google is emphasizing the creator's effort, originality, and content value. It’s not acceptable for ChatGPT to produce your content!
“The Lowest rating is required if the page is created to benefit the owner of the website (e.g. to make money) with very little or no attempt to benefit website visitors or otherwise serve a beneficial purpose.” - Search Engine Journal
AI content must be original and add value to maintain or improve your Google Rankings. Google quality raters are assessing whether content is AI-generated and will follow the Google guidelines.
Small businesses face the challenges of limited time, budget, and talent to create good content. Enterprise businesses have more resources to create high-quality and original content.
Considering an already tentative domestic economy coupled with looming tariff wars, how would less revenue from organic search impact your bottom line? If you’re flagged with AI-generated content, you risk reduced visibility in the search results. You’ll miss opportunities to connect with potential customers or rank competitively in your category.
Google wants to minimize AI content in the search rankings. If you don’t have one, I recommend a small business SEO strategy and revisiting your overall marketing strategy to align with your goals. In most cases, you are NOT just creating content for SEO but also for sales, trade shows, product videos, etc. All of the content should align, be original, and add value to your customers.
Focus on Original Content Creation
Create content that provides unique value and insight beyond what competitors offer or alternative solutions. Make sure your content aims to serve your users first, not just optimize for search engines. If you can’t use it for sales, customer service, etc, too, then it probably is not worth creating.
Don’t forget about different types of content. People consume content differently.
Prioritize Effort and Expertise
Highlight the value of content that reflects differentiation, research, expertise, and your personas. Embrace your credentials, certifications, or suitable claim to emphasize your authority on your content.
Leverage Expertise
Share examples of your industry expertise and knowledge within your niche. You can showcase your knowledge with case studies, testimonials, how-to guides, and webinars specific to address your personas' pain points.
Use SWOT Analysis Differently, NOT GAP
Identify areas where you can differentiate. Complete a SWOT analysis instead of copying competitors’ content topics. Focus on your competitors' weaknesses as an opportunity to stand out and be unique in the market.
Tip: Address your weaknesses and take steps to limit the threats.
You don’t just want to stand out with SEO. You want a brand identity for your small business. The brand and marketing strategies have to align with revenue growth. That starts with a strategy or a plan!
Step Beyond the Content
Your plan should help you become more recognizable in your niche. In most cases, better branding leads to better search signals that improve search engine rankings. It’s based on brand trust, authority, and links from reputable sources.
Google often rewards memorable brands regardless of the company’s size. And so do your customers with referrals or recommendations to their family, friends, and colleagues.
Ways to Enhance Your Brand Presence
Use social proof like testimonials, reviews, or partnerships to enhance your brand. Maintain a clear and consistent brand identity with your imagery, font, logos, and color palette.
Engage your audience with valuable and consistent interactions across platforms. Every touchpoint is an opportunity to have an impact on a purchasing decision and brand loyalty.
Track Your Success
Identify your key performance indicators (KPIs) for your overall strategy and create a dashboard to monitor performance. You can use tools such as Looker Studio and Google Analytics. You can measure your bounce rates, exit percentage, and user engagement.
As for the content, it is important to monitor the performance of the content you publish. Is the content indexing in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools? Don’t leave Bing out because Microsoft sources some of the AI-generated content. You want your unique content to be added to the conversation.
Continuous Improvements
Evaluate how your content is impacting customer service and sales. Update content to reflect your new insights, industry trends, or FAQ-style additions.
Discuss ways to include feedback from customers, social media engagement, and sales into your future strategies. How is the content for sales outreach performing? What are the content performance analytics telling your small business?
Quality raters are encouraged to judge not just content, but the intent behind it. Once upon a time, I was a Google Quality rater (before DaBrian Marketing existed), and here are my concerns:
It’s human, so it’s subjective. Regionality, culture, and context matter.
Even AI detectors get it WRONG sometimes, so how do we ensure accuracy in low quality content reporting? We are talking about people's livelihood!
How do we challenge a low quality score? 🤣 I am not confident in this process. The response time and service have been on the decline since COVID-19. We’re partners!
I find it a little hypocritical. Let’s give everyone AI with AI Overview in the search result, Gemini in Google Workspaces with templates, Gemini on Android phones, and AI in Google Performance Max campaign. But…we are watching and governing the content.