Get AI Ready

Is AI-Assisted Content Bad for SEO?

Is AI-Assisted Content Bad for SEO?

After the initial panic over tools identifying AI-generated content and the possibility of being penalized for its use, content creators and SEO content agencies can finally be at ease.

As long as appropriately managed and published in the right places, AI-generated content won’t negatively affect SEO efforts and strategies. What matters more is that the output exhibits high quality, relevance, and usefulness. 

SEO content services can provide businesses with invaluable resources for creating and publishing high-quality content. It can ensure that each piece of content, though primarily AI-generated, meets its stated purpose while adhering to standards that make it valuable and relevant. 

By utilizing SEO content services, businesses can create search engine-optimized content that meets their needs while also helping to improve their organic rankings within search engine results.

Is AI content considered spam?

Given the changes in Google’s algorithm and the shifting landscape of SEO, creating high-quality and relevant content that meets the needs and expectations of your target audience is essential. By providing value and addressing your customers’ pain points, you can build trust and authority in your niche and ultimately improve your search engine rankings. 

However, with the rise of AI-generated content, there is a growing concern about its impact on SEO. While AI-generated content has benefits, it could be labeled as a negative aspect of SEO by Google. If that were to happen, it’s only a matter of time before the impact is felt in the traffic and rankings of websites that rely heavily on AI-generated content. 

There was a time when SEO cheats were used widely. During that time, the most significant ranking factor was the number of backlinks. It led to the proliferation of blackhat techniques like Xrumer, creating artificial links to manipulate search engine rankings.

To counter these blackhat techniques, Google developed an algorithm to detect duplicate content and link spam. However, the creators of Xrumer adapted by using synonyms and paraphrasing to generate unique titles and descriptions for the same content. This resulted in a proliferation of low-quality, duplicate content that polluted the internet and made it difficult for users to find useful information.

While AI-generated content can help automate certain tasks and create content more efficiently, there is a risk that it could lead to the proliferation of junk content.

As SEO experts, we advise that AI-generated content be approached cautiously and always with the users’ needs in mind. Using AI-generated content to provide helpful and valuable information to your target audience can improve the user experience and build a solid reputation online.

Whether AI-generated content is considered spam depends on how it is being used and the context in which it is being used.

If AI-generated content is being used to send unsolicited messages, advertisements, or links with the intent of promoting a product or service, it could be considered spam. This is because the content is being sent without the recipient’s consent and is often used to promote something in a way that is not relevant or helpful to the recipient.

However, if AI-generated content is being used to create valuable and informative content that is relevant to the recipient and adds value to their experience, it would not be considered spam. This is because the content is being created to provide value to the recipient and help them solve a problem or answer a question.

In other words, any final content produced and published on your website, even if primarily AI-generated, is NOT considered spam if it provides helpful information and brings something new to the table.

Bridge the gap between AI and human creativity 

Create valuable, fresh content by adding your human touch—a piece of new information, a fresh perspective, a story based on real events—to one produced by an AI tool. 

While AI tools can generate impressive results, they often lack the human touch essential for effective, creative work that brings something new to readers. Combining AI with human input makes it possible to bridge this gap and create content that combines machine-generated accuracy with human intuition and insight.

Moreover, though AI tools claim to be grammatically precise, this is not always the case. Writers with skills in applying correct grammar, proper syntax, and writing elements, such as coherence and flow, may still have to edit and improve AI composition. They have the final say and responsibility to deliver and publish high-quality content.

The use of AI in content creation is growing rapidly, as it can be used to generate high-quality written material quickly. However, there are still limitations to what AI can do on its own. 

To make the most of AI-generated content, we must add a human touch by leveraging our unique strengths and abilities that machines cannot yet replicate. This means going beyond simply producing automated text and instead focusing on things like storytelling, creativity, and emotional connection with readers. 

By combining AI efficiency with human skills to create engaging text and visuals, we can produce powerful, relevant, and valuable people-first content that will stand out from the competition.

AI-assisted content and SEO

Google’s algorithm, which rewards content demonstrating E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust), has revolutionized the SEO industry. As a result of its implementation, content creators must now prioritize quality over quantity when creating content for their websites or blog. 

Even more so when Google made another recent update to their search rater guidelines, adding another E for Experience. This refers to the content creator’s first-hand experience concerning the topic, which largely contributes to the Trust element. As with reviews of a product or service, feedback from someone’s personal experience weighs more than general informative content about it. 

(Source: https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/guidelines.raterhub.com/en//searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf, page 26)

 

While AI-generated content can display expertise and authority on a subject and thereby build trust in its audience and rank high in search engines, content showcasing first-hand experience will still perform better and establish trust. 

What we have previously learned about using AI-assisted content enhanced with human creativity takes care of this. A content creator may add personal experiences or first-hand learnings to what has been generated by the AI tool, making the content more relevant, useful, and trustworthy.

Of course, you can still create AI-assisted content showcasing only Expertise and Authoritativeness and still exhibit Trustworthiness, especially if a first-hand experience does not apply, may appear subjective, or biased. What matters is that your content is of substantial quality and helpful to its audience. 

In short, AI-assisted content is NOT bad for SEO. When used appropriately, AI tools can save time by quickly gathering relevant information and integrating them into helpful content. It gives your audience what they need, especially when combined with personal experiences or a human touch. AI-assisted content can also help you establish your business as a trustworthy source of information, resulting in better rankings and a solid reputation. 

After all, Google does not discriminate against AI-generated content as long as it exhibits Experience (whenever applicable), Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust. It should also provide what the audience needs and is not used for spam and deceptive, misleading, or inappropriate content. 

AI-generated content as part of an evolutionary process

AI-generated content is part of the evolution of how information is created, shared, and used. Recognize its role and let it work for, not against, you and your audience by utilizing it appropriately and responsibly. 

LeapOut is a digital marketing agency providing SEO content services that ensure your brand is represented by high-quality, relevant, and useful content.
Rank better in search engines and establish your brand as a reliable and trustworthy name in your industry. Talk to our SEO content experts today!

Picture of Peachie Garcia

Peachie Garcia

Peachie Garcia has extensive writing experience, having worked as a writer for over a decade. She has produced various types of content, including blog and marketing articles, self-help ebooks, and product reviews. She has also written short stories for young learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) and created English lessons for adult EFL learners, covering instructional, conversational, and business-related content. Now working as a Web Content Specialist in LeapOut Digital, Peachie writes articles, press releases, and web page content for clients from various industries, including The SM Store, Kultura Filipino, Malayan Insurance, Beko Philippines, and Kronicles Philippines.
  • Categorized as Blogs
Picture of Peachie Garcia

Peachie Garcia

Peachie Garcia has extensive writing experience, having worked as a writer for over a decade. She has produced various types of content, including blog and marketing articles, self-help ebooks, and product reviews. She has also written short stories for young learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) and created English lessons for adult EFL learners, covering instructional, conversational, and business-related content. Now working as a Web Content Specialist in LeapOut Digital, Peachie writes articles, press releases, and web page content for clients from various industries, including The SM Store, Kultura Filipino, Malayan Insurance, Beko Philippines, and Kronicles Philippines.
Picture of Peachie Garcia

Peachie Garcia

Peachie Garcia has extensive writing experience, having worked as a writer for over a decade. She has produced various types of content, including blog and marketing articles, self-help ebooks, and product reviews. She has also written short stories for young learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) and created English lessons for adult EFL learners, covering instructional, conversational, and business-related content. Now working as a Web Content Specialist in LeapOut Digital, Peachie writes articles, press releases, and web page content for clients from various industries, including The SM Store, Kultura Filipino, Malayan Insurance, Beko Philippines, and Kronicles Philippines.

RECENT BLOGS

Ranking #1 on Google No Longer Means Customers Can Find You

July 21, 2026 No Comments

ChatGPT pulls only around 30% of its brand citations from websites ranking in Google’s top 10. Read that again if your company still considers SEO “done” once it reaches page one. For more than twenty years, search visibility had one scoreboard. You ranked or you didn’t. Agencies built retainers around keyword positions, marketing teams built budgets around organic traffic, and everyone agreed on what winning looked like: page one, preferably position one. That scoreboard didn’t get an update. It fragmented. Your business can rank well on Google and still be absent when a customer asks ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity for a recommendation. You can be visible in search and invisible in the conversation. The quick answer Ranking first on Google is still valuable — but it no longer guarantees visibility across AI-powered search. Google Search, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity each use different systems to retrieve, evaluate, and present information. A strong Google ranking influences some of them. It controls none of them. Businesses now need to answer three separate questions: Does Google rank us? Do people still click and visit us? Do AI platforms mention, cite, or recommend us? If your reporting only answers the first question, you’re working from an incomplete scoreboard. The number marketers should sit with Benchmark data published by AI-visibility platform CiteLens, and reported by MarketScale, found that Google AI Mode and Perplexity draw roughly 90% of their brand citations from websites in Google’s conventional top-10 results. Your existing SEO still buys you a seat at those tables.   ChatGPT draws only around 30% from that same pool.   This is one platform’s benchmark, not a universal law for every query, country, and industry. But the commercial implication is hard to ignore: the most-used AI assistant in the world is sourcing roughly 70% of its answers from somewhere your rank tracker doesn’t look. A brand can rank first, generate millions of impressions, and look successful in a traditional SEO report — while being excluded from the answer its next customer actually receives.   Google ranking and AI recommendation are related. They are not the same thing. What our own data shows: ranked, but bypassed LeapOut Digital’s 2026 study, Ranked But Bypassed, examined anonymised first-party Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console data from 11 brands across the Philippines, Australia, North America, and South Africa — three and a half years of data, from January 2023 to June 15, 2026. Seven of the businesses were Philippine brands across six industry categories. Four brands had Google Search Console data available, representing a combined 59 million Google search impressions over 12 months. Here’s what that data showed. The rankings held. There was no collapse. These brands kept appearing on the first or second page of Google for the searches that matter to them — two Philippine brands held average positions around 8.6 and 9.1, and one generated roughly 35 million Google impressions in a single year. The clicks didn’t follow. Click-through rates across the four brands ranged from just 1.6% to 2.3%. Those 59 million impressions produced fewer than 1.3 million website visits. In practical terms: roughly 97 to 98 out of every 100 people who saw these brands in Google Search never visited their websites. To be clear about what the study does and doesn’t claim — it does not prove AI caused the entire gap. AI Overviews, featured snippets, People Also Ask boxes, query intent, and brand awareness all influence click-through rates. What the data establishes is a pattern businesses can no longer ignore: this isn’t an invisibility problem. It’s a conversion-of-visibility problem. The brand shows up; the searcher goes somewhere else — or gets their answer without going anywhere at all. AI-referred traffic is already showing up in Philippine analytics One more finding worth flagging. The “AI Assistant” acquisition channel appeared for the first time in the 2026 data of six brands in the study — five of them Philippine brands. Volumes were small, between 1 and 89 users per brand in the first half of 2026.   Small, but significant. It confirms that users are already arriving at Philippine brand websites through ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Copilot. AI-assisted discovery isn’t something to prepare for someday — it’s already measurable in local analytics. And every major digital channel in history started as a rounding error before it became a budget line. Search didn’t disappear. It splintered. Most marketing teams still run a mental model of “Google Search, with AI added on top.” The reality is a dozen distinct answer surfaces: traditional Google Search, AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Copilot, plus industry-specific assistants and social and ecommerce search. Each has its own retrieval systems, ranking signals, citation logic, and source preferences.   Your Google position influences some of them. It is not a master key to all of them.   This matters especially in the Philippines, where many companies are still strengthening traditional SEO foundations while customer behaviour is already moving toward conversational discovery. People aren’t just typing short keywords anymore — they’re asking complete commercial questions:   “What’s the best Shopify agency in the Philippines?” “Which digital marketing agencies in Manila work with Australian companies?” “Which agency can help a Philippine brand become visible in ChatGPT?” “Which Philippine agency offers global-quality execution at a competitive cost?”   The business named in the AI-generated answer may not be the business ranking first on Google. And when your brand is absent, the platform doesn’t leave the answer blank. It recommends someone else. What is AI search visibility? AI search visibility measures how frequently and prominently a brand appears in AI-generated answers. That includes being directly recommended, included in a shortlist, cited as a source, referenced in comparisons, or having your research and experts quoted to support an answer — and, just as importantly, whether your competitors appear when you don’t.   The discipline goes by several names — Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO), Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), AI Search

Continue Reading
Headless Shopify development in the Philippines showcasing enterprise eCommerce solutions, custom integrations, and scalable storefronts by LeapOut Digital

Enterprise & Headless Shopify Builds in the Philippines | LeapOut 

June 15, 2026 No Comments

Inside LeapOut’s Hardest Shopify Plus Builds: Regulated Commerce, Enterprise Scale, and Going Headless By Marvin Ortiz, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, LeapOut Digital  The short version: Most agencies show you their prettiest work. We’d rather be judged by our hardest. This is a deep look at three Shopify and Shopify Plus builds that each solved one of the three hardest problems in enterprise ecommerce — selling a regulated product (MaxiLife by Maxicare), executing a global brand’s standards at scale (Under Armour Philippines), and extending Shopify Plus past its native limits into a headless build (Kotis Design, USA). We chose these three because difficulty is the one thing a portfolio can’t fake. If you want to know whether a team can actually build, look at what it does when the easy path runs out.   A portfolio full of beautiful storefronts proves almost nothing. Anyone with a good designer can produce a clean store on a forgiving brief. What separates a real engineering partner from a theme shop is what happens when the brief isn’t forgiving — when a regulator is involved, when a global brand sets a standard you can’t bend, or when the platform itself says “no.”  So instead of showing you everything we’ve built, I want to go deep on three. Not our prettiest work — our hardest. Each one represents a different way an ecommerce build can become genuinely difficult, and together they’re the closest thing we have to an honest answer to the question every serious client is really asking: can you handle the part that’s hard?  Here they are. Build One — MaxiLife by Maxicare: Selling a Regulated Product Online The problem most agencies won’t take. MaxiLife by Maxicare is a regulated, healthcare-adjacent insurance product from one of the country’s largest health-maintenance organizations — sold, for the first time, through ecommerce. That single fact changes everything about the build.  Why it was hard. Selling a regulated financial-and-health product isn’t like selling apparel. The build has to satisfy disclosure, compliance, and documentation requirements that a normal store never encounters — and it has to do that without turning the purchase into a punishing legal form. The entire challenge is a contradiction: make something heavily regulated feel light and human to the person buying it. Get the compliance wrong and you can’t launch. Get the experience wrong and no one buys. You have to win both.  What we did. We extended Shopify Plus with deep technical customization to meet the regulatory requirements while protecting the buying experience — building the compliance into the platform rather than bolting it on top, so the rules were satisfied structurally instead of being patched in. Precision wasn’t a preference here; it was the entire job.  What it proves. When we tell a prospect “we handle regulated commerce,” this is the build we point to — and it’s why brands in insurance, health, and finance take our calls. Regulated ecommerce is a specialist capability most agencies quietly avoid, and the avoidance is the opportunity.  “Your professionalism, dedication, and excellent service have been greatly appreciated… It’s been a pleasure collaborating with your team, and I truly value the strong relationship we’ve built. I will certainly recommend your services moving forward.” — Carlo Rodelas, MaxiLife, Digital Channels Manager Build Two — Under Armour Philippines: Executing a Global Standard, Flawlessly The problem you don’t hear discussed. Under Armour Philippines was one of the most demanding Shopify environments we’ve handled — and the difficulty was a specific, underrated kind: building to a standard we didn’t set.  Why it was hard. When you work with a global brand, the design language, the brand controls, and the performance expectations are all defined elsewhere, and they are non-negotiable. Your job isn’t to invent — it’s to execute someone else’s standard, locally, at the exact quality they require, every single time, while making the catalog, pricing, and promotional logic work for the Philippine market. A lot of agencies are good at being creative. Far fewer are good at being faithful — at delivering precisely what a global brand demands without drift or compromise. Shopify Plus gave us the flexibility; the scale demanded governance, because flexibility without structure creates risk at exactly the moment a global brand is watching.  What we did. Deep front-end customization aligned to global brand standards, disciplined performance engineering, and careful stakeholder alignment across local and global teams — the unglamorous governance work that keeps a high-traffic enterprise store fast, on-brand, and predictable.  What it proves. Being trusted by a global brand to touch its storefront is a credential in itself. Global and enterprise brands run procurement, legal, brand-safety, and performance reviews most local businesses never will. Clearing that bar is harder than winning any award — and it’s a bar we’ve cleared repeatedly. Based on Page speed Insights Report from Jun 14, 2026, 7:18:31 PM  Build-quality scorecard (Google Lighthouse): SEO 100 · Accessibility 95 · Best Practices 92 · Performance 79. A perfect SEO score and near-perfect accessibility are the marks of a build engineered to be found and usable, not just to look good — exactly the disciplined, measurable execution a global brand requires. Build Three — Kotis Design (USA): When the Platform Says No The problem at the technical frontier. Kotis Design is a US-based B2B company — a PPAI 100 firm, one of the largest distributors in the American promotional-products industry — serving major corporate clients with bespoke swag and merchandise programs. Their requirements exceeded what Shopify does natively. The platform, in effect, said no.  Why it was hard. Kotis needed heavy, per-client customization — bespoke corporate stores, redemption sites, and ordering flows tailored to each enterprise client. Shopify’s standard theme-and-app architecture doesn’t bend that far. A weaker partner says “Shopify can’t do that.” We treated it as the brief.  What we did. We built custom functionality to support complex product personalization, and as Kotis’s ambition for their platform grew, the work evolved toward a headless architecture — decoupling the storefront from Shopify’s native layer to deliver experiences and client-specific functionality the standard stack can’t, while keeping Shopify as the commerce engine underneath. It’s not a finished project; it’s a living platform we build against in regular sprints, and have for two years.  What it proves. Two things, and both

Continue Reading
  • Social Marketing
  • Team
  • Social Media
  • SMEs
  • SME's
  • SEO
  • Insights / Industry
  • Fintech
  • Featured