Why Bots Shouldn't Write Your Blog Posts

Not long ago, I was browsing on Facebook when I saw an ad for a software that automagically generates blog posts for you.

This was news to me, although it shouldn't have come as a surprise.  As a longtime content writer, I have known for a long time that there are software programs that (badly) rewrite existing content.  Using a thesaurus and a syntax generator to replace words and rearrange sentences, they produce something that can fool the search engines into thinking it's original content.

This kind of software, along with low-paid ESL writers from countries such as India, have always been the bane of a professional writer's existence.  They drive down prices and cheapen content, making it more difficult for professional copywriters to sell well-written and fairly-priced copy.  From the reader's perspective, they've also lowered the overall standards of quality for content on the internet.  It's part of the reason why so much of what you read is poorly written clickbait.

Now apparently software can also write a completely unique blog post, with you just providing it a few key terms and main points.

The thought is mind-boggling, but if you read the comments on the ads, it's also not very effective.  There are a lot of people complaining about the lack of readable quality in the posts.  And it makes sense.  The point of blogging is to write in a more informal style, allowing your own personality to shine through.  A bot will never succeed at that style of writing.

The problem with bots writing blog posts, or even writers who don't speak English as their first language, is that readers can tell.  Awkward phrasing, typos and misspellings, and lack of flow make it difficult to hook potential customers and keep them reading.  Worse, it reflects poorly on your professionalism.

To understand why bot-written content is so bad, think about the purpose of a blog.  Your blog does several things for your business:

1. It constantly updates your website with new content, which helps it to rank more highly in the search engines
2. It appeals to potential customers with more varied and interesting content, keeping them on your website for longer and hopefully generating a sale, and
3. It encourages potential customers to return to your website to check for updates or read additional posts, which also makes a sale more likely.

Bot-written content (as well as, honestly, poorly written content) will satisfy the first point, but probably won't help much with the second and third.  The content is likely to be too dry or awkward to interest potential customers for long, which will cause them to move on faster and may cost you a sale.  And if they don't find your content interesting enough to stick around, they're certainly not going to make returning to your site a very high priority, either.

Having good content is just another part of running a successful business.  There are ways to save money on business expenses, but sacrificing the quality of your content shouldn't be one of them.