Google updates its advice on AI-written content

Google's view on mass-produced and low-effort content

Google's first oulined it's policy and guidelines on AI-written content in May 2025, and this week they added links to its Search Quality Rater Guidelines. These are the guidelines used by people Google hires to check the quality of its search results. Two sections are now highlighted:

• One on mass-produced content, and
• Another on pages made with very little effort or originality.

Google says the update brings the page in line with what its content quality team already tells people at events. So while this is not a new announcement from Google, they've firmed their guidance.

Does Google penalise AI content?

It doesn't penalise AI-written content, and it doesn't mind whether a person or a tool wrote your content. What it does care about, is whether the page is useful to the person reading it, a factor built into their ranking systems.

Where it draws the line is using AI to publish lots of pages that don't offer anything new, and/or no effort put into it. Google treats that as spammy, and it can hurt how your whole site performs in search.

How this affects online stores

AI has made it very quick to fill a store with content. Product descriptions, category intros and blog posts that used to take weeks can now be done in an afternoon, often with tools built straight into Shopify or Magento.

That speed is helpful, especially for websites with large catalogues, and supports website builds where content is important. But it's also where problems tend to creep in, because content that's quick to make is often quick to skim past too. That's not just bad for rankings, but conversions too.

• Product descriptions written in bulk: If an AI tool writes 2,000 descriptions that mostly repeat the product name back to the shopper, you've added words without adding anything useful.
  
  
• Same intro on every category page: A description needs to reflect what's in that category, like the styles you stock, who they suit and what shoppers should look for when choosing.
  
  
• Reworded supplier descriptions: Your competitors probably use the same supplier copy. Running it through AI gives you a slightly different version, but the shopper learns nothing more.

Check everything before it goes live

AI tools don't look facts up (unless you ask them to). They write what sounds right, which means they can get a measurement, material or compatibility detail wrong without any sign that something's off. And, when it comes to facts that they can't find online (say, your own product documentation), it's a dangerous ground.

Google expects a real person to check all AI-generated content carefully before it's published. That includes the parts shoppers see in Google, not just on your site:

• Product details, features and specs
• Page titles and descriptions shown in search results
• Image descriptions (alt text)
  

Rules for AI images and product feeds

If you sell through Google Shopping, the rules are stricter. Google Merchant Center needs AI-made product images to carry a hidden label in the file saying they were AI-generated.

AI-written product titles and descriptions also need to be sent to Google separately and flagged as AI-generated. Most shopping feed apps on Shopify and Magento won't do this for you, so it's worth checking how yours is set up. Image editing and compression can also strip that hidden label out, so check the final files too.

How to use AI to write product and category descriptions

Use AI tools as a starting point, and find the best one for content skills. It's good for getting a rough draft down or organising ideas, but the useful bits still come from you. That's things like how a product fits, what customers usually ask before buying, or why you stock one brand over another.

If your product page would read the same on a competitor's site, it needs more of you in it.

eCommerce SEO with Absolute

AI can save your team a lot of time, as long as someone is checking the results. Our ecommerce SEO services and content strategy help retail brands use it sensibly with our bespoke guidance, without risking their rankings. 

Get in touch to chat about how this could enhance your store's SEO performance.