Bruns argues that this not only hurts his website but also misleads readers who need accurate information, as some of the AI-generated articles contained blatant factual errors. He criticizes Google for not doing enough to weed out such SEO manipulations, warning that if people keep finding low-quality articles at the top of the search results, they might start questioning Google's effectiveness.
Key takeaways:
- Exceljet, a website dedicated to Microsoft Excel, has been victimized by an "SEO heist" where an AI was used to create inferior copies of its articles to hijack its traffic.
- The perpetrator, Jake Ward, used an "SEO-optimized" AI article writer to create and publish these articles, diverting clicks to his own website.
- Generative AI is exacerbating the problem of search engine manipulation, as it allows for the rapid creation of low-quality articles filled with SEO keywords.
- Exceljet's owner, David Bruns, argues that Google needs to do more to combat this issue, as it not only hurts legitimate websites but also misleads readers with inaccurate information.