How to Protect Your Blog From AI Slop

Company blogs are now firmly in the hands of AI. 

What took at least three full-time writers a month can now be accomplished by one tool in less than a week. Instead of posting once a day, they now publish four daily posts. No wait, they post, and post, and post, as if there's no tomorrow.

But some tech company blogs have experienced a sharp decline in organic traffic since increasing their output volume. The question on everyone’s mind: Is AI to blame?

AI isn't the problem, but how you use it

“It must be AI” would be the easy answer, and the one you might expect from me. But it’s not quite that simple. 

Some of these companies, like Hubspot, were the first to catch on to the changes that AI demanded from content optimization. You would think they would have seen this coming. 

Others who’ve been ranking in the top places for many searches must have done something right to make that happen. To achieve that requires staying on top of algorithm changes and search trends. It seems out of character that they would miss such a significant shift.

Truth is, they probably didn’t. But they underestimated the accelerating factor AI would have. 

A bit of blogging history

Back in the early 2000s, when affiliate marketing was at its peak, content creators started posting product reviews, then comparison articles. Individuals realized that comparing or rating products was a great way to ‘objectively’ market brands and collect a hefty commission.

Articles,such as “best software for ….” or “the x best tools for…” helped buyers reach decisions. And Google loved them as well. 

The moment brands understood the potential, they jumped on the band wagon. They, too, compared features and benefits of tools, including, of course, their own and they went a step further. 

To highlight the specific advantages their product offered, they compared it to the market leader. The result was “best alternative to [brand name]” articles. 

This worked really well until a new way of evaluating products and services emerged: UGC. Video reviews, actual customer feedback and testimonials took priority on Google, Amazon and other platforms. 

The reason for Google? The abundance of “best x for y” and ‘alternative to” articles made it harder to identify what’s based on actual research and what’s written with the intent to boost a brand.

But Google's mission is to provide the best answers and the highest value to the searcher. To provide that, it’s critical to detect content that’s primarily intended to boost ranking.

Two algorithm updates in 2025 with the goal to reinforce trust signals (E-E-A-T) and strengthen useful content downgraded many of the said types of articles. 

But not all. 

What do you think were the criteria? And when does AI come in? Keep reading.

How AI changed the ranking game

Not all “best alternative to…” or “best tools for…” articles are suspicious.  But when a company publishes 20 such articles and places its own tool in rank #1 in each, the bias is obvious.

Then AI entered the playground. You could produce not 20, but 200 or even 2000 articles based on the same template. And companies with successful blogs did. They took what had worked so far and mass-produced. 

Not only did this leave a bad taste in Google’s algorithm, it jeopardized the ranking. It’s called “scaled content abuse”.

Placing themselves on top everywhere is only one issue. 

The hidden signals that got lost

Forgotten were context and search intent. Semantic relationships became increasingly far-fetched. The added value in each individual article ran thin and thinner. And originality has long left that party. 

So blaming AI for the organic traffic drop is a bit like killing the messenger. 

AI as an accelerator and augmentor also provides a wake-up call for quality and precision. With everyone being able to mass-produce content, still only those who do it RIGHT will stay on top. 

It’s the small difference between mass-producing and scaling. Even the best need to make sure they know WHAT exactly they are scaling – the content or the abuse. 

“But, does it even matter, still? I mean, search queries are being answered by AI now.” 

Glad you brought that up! You’re right. That naturally has an impact on organic traffic. 

SEO is for searching, GEO is for finding

When it comes to optimizing content for search, opinions stretch from “nothing is the same as before” to “nothing significantly changed, we’re just renaming our optimization tactics”.

If you follow me on LinkedIn, you know that each side can back its claim with data. It’s a matter of how deep you dig. But who has time for that, right?

The critical question is, “what now?” 

Let’s think for a second what AI actually changes for the searcher on the way to your product or brand. 

I’ll put it this way: AI eliminates a small - but significant - step in the journey.

Google offered a list of possible answers to a search query. The algorithm had to do a lot of ‘guessing’ to figure out the best matches and display results accordingly. 

The searcher could then select what answered their needs. But it was work. Searchers often had to run a number of queries with different keywords to get what they needed. You know this. You’ve been there.

AI takes away a lot of the search engines' guesswork and the searchers' selection work. 

If Google took care of search for the potential buyer, AI takes care of the next step, finding. 

One step less for the buyer

Think of it this way: You enter an Adidas store (physically or virtually) and ask for women’s running shoes. Your current ones are still good, but there’s a big marathon coming up in two weeks, and you want to make sure you’re best equipped. Also, your friend told you they just came out with a new model especially for long-distance running. You can’t remember the name, though.

You are directed to the women’s running shoes department and find yourself in front of shelf-filled wall full of beautiful shoes. Or, in the online store, an endless list with images of the same.

Oh the decisions! How do you decide?

Enter AI, and it directs you to the exact shoe your friend recommended. It explains why it may or may not fit your needs. It will offer you alternatives if needed. 

Now, let’s reverse-engineer, so we can adapt our content. What is the first thing you need? 

• You need to know the exact reason someone would choose your product over another one. 

  
  

• Figure out precisely what specific challenge or pain point your offer solves down to the finest detail. 

  
  

• Define the specific value or purpose your product or brand uniquely offers as accurately as possible. 

• The more granular, the bigger the chances of getting found.  

Can you say that about your product?  That’s when you’re ready to move to the next step.

Optimize for readers and algorithms

What does that mean for companies?

1. Content must answer real questions, be factual, focused, and without fluff (a lot of f’s here 😉).
   

   ➡️To get found by the searchers who may actually turn into paying customers, you need to provide quality insights that address an actual pain point. No vague marketing language or fancy promises. To get found by the searchers who may actually turn into paying customers, you need to provide quality insights that address an actual pain point. No vague marketing language or fancy promises. 
   

2. Content must build the right context.
   

   ➡️ For AI to understand your product or brand, your content needs to live within an environment that doesn’t leave room for misunderstandings. Make sure everything you publish on the web follows the same identifiable message. Communicate the purpose clearly.
   

3. Content must convince the agent before convincing the human.
   

   ➡️ Understand how AI search works and how it’s different from the traditional Google algorithm. Authority and semantics are still relevant, but keyword-based optimization won’t do the magic. Structure and build your content for AI, but still write for humans.

Whether GEO, or SEO, or a combination of both, getting found by the algorithm is one step. Now you're on stage in front of your audience. You gotta make sure to give them what they came for. If you blow it, they'll never return.

Here’s where AI still falls short. 

It lacks empathy and associative thinking to connect with your ICP. Here’s an example of what that looks like. 

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