Let the AI do the parts of a page that are the same for everybody: the research, the outline, the first draft. You do the parts that only you can do: what you have seen, what you would tell a customer, where you disagree with the usual advice. That is the whole method. The rest of this page is how to do it without the page reading like a robot wrote it.
The intern and the expert
I like to think of the AI as 'the intern' and of you as 'the expert'. The intern is fast, has read everything on the internet and never gets tired. But the intern has never done the job. Never repaired a machine, never talked to a customer, never seen what goes wrong in real life.
So if we let the intern write the whole page, we get the same page as every other intern. In SEO land that page already exists a thousand times. Google has no reason to send anybody to copy number 1,001.
The rule: every page needs something the intern could not have written. If you can't find it, the page shouldn't exist.
Google says it in its own words. Generative AI "can be particularly useful when researching a topic, and to add structure to original content" (Google Search Central, 2023 (opens in new tab)). And: "Generating many pages without adding value for users may violate Google's spam policy on scaled content abuse" (spam policies (opens in new tab)). The AI is allowed. Copy number 1,001 is not.
What goes where
| What | Who | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Read the top results and find the gaps | The intern | Reading ten pages is work, not expertise. In SitePerfector this is the blueprint. |
| Outline, one question per section | The intern, from the blueprint | Structure is mechanical once the questions are known. |
| First draft | The intern | A draft is raw material. It only has to be complete. |
| Numbers from your own work | You | Nobody else has them. |
| The mistake you see customers make | You | The intern has never met a customer. |
| Where you disagree with the usual advice | You | This is what gets a page quoted. |
| What to cut | You | The intern keeps everything. Padding is its default. |
| The last read before publishing | You | Nothing goes out that you didn't read. |
One paragraph, twice. The intern's version, for a page about air compressor maintenance: "Regular maintenance is important to keep your air compressor running reliably and to extend its lifespan." True. Useless. Every compressor page on the internet says it.
My version, from my years as a compressor engineer: "Drain the water from the air receiver every day, or fit an automatic drain. A receiver full of condensate is one of the most common reasons for water in the air lines, and draining it takes thirty seconds." Same spot in the page. Now it is worth reading, and worth quoting.
Worked example: from generic to specific
Step by step
- Start from the blueprint, not from a blank prompt. Give the AI the outline, who the reader is, and the pages it has to beat. In SitePerfector the blueprint already contains all three, built from the actual search results for that keyword.
- Let it draft the whole page in one go. Don't fix sentences yet. A draft is raw material.
- Read it once and mark every paragraph any website could have written. Be honest. It will be most of them.
- Replace each marked paragraph with something only you know. A number from your own work. A case. The mistake everybody makes. What you would say to a customer across the counter.
- Cut what you couldn't improve. If half the page is gone, good. Short and specific beats long and general.
- Read it aloud once. Cut the em dashes and every "it's not X, it's Y" sentence. AI writes like that. People don't.
When you need this, and when you don't
Use the AI on subjects you know. It saves you the boring half of the work, and you keep the half that matters.
Don't use it to write about things you have never done. The intern can't add what you don't have. You would get copy number 1,002, and Google treats it that way. Pick a subject you know instead.
Next
- Check a draft for robot patterns with the free AI-Tell Detector. It marks the sentences that read like a machine wrote them.
- Next page: E-E-A-T in practice. "Something only you know" has a name in Google's guidelines.
- How section-by-section writing works inside SitePerfector: Article writing.