In the digital age, small businesses are increasingly finding themselves in a peculiar position: writing for robots. A recent article from The Verge highlights the case of Jennifer Dziura, owner of GetBullish.com, an e-commerce platform that sells quirky gifts. Dziura maintains two blogs: one for humans, filled with personal insights and career advice, and another for Google’s web crawlers, packed with SEO keywords and phrases.
The latter blog, generated using artificial intelligence tools, is a testament to the growing influence of Google’s search algorithm on small businesses. The content, designed to attract Google’s web crawlers, is not intended for human consumption. It’s a stark departure from Dziura’s original vision for Get Bullish, which was a publication where she wrote about career and business topics through a feminist lens.
According to The Verge, the shift towards SEO-focused content is not unique to Get Bullish. Small businesses across the country are grappling with Google’s monopoly on how internet users find products and services. The need to be discoverable and picked up by Google’s search algorithm has become a non-negotiable chore.
Shopify, an e-commerce company used by millions of businesses, recently launched an AI tool that generates product descriptions using keywords. This development has accelerated the production of SEO-optimized content, leading to an internet landscape shaped largely by Google’s ever-changing search algorithm.
However, as The Verge points out, this trend is not without its drawbacks. The increasing reliance on AI tools for content generation has degraded Google’s biggest product, Search. As businesses use AI tools to generate SEO-optimized content, the quality of search results is likely to decline, leading to a less satisfying user experience.
Despite the challenges, small businesses like Get Bullish have little choice but to adapt to the demands of Google’s search algorithm. As Dziura puts it, “without doing SEO, her store might never be seen at all.”
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