AI has changed content. Sites everywhere are pumping out low quality articles at scale, and Google has had to act. Their last big crackdown cut low quality, unoriginal results by almost half. The catch is it doesn’t only hit the spammers. Every site now gets measured against a higher bar, even the ones that never touch AI.
So what is Google actually looking for? After all the noise, their position is pretty simple. They reward high quality content, however it’s produced. They don’t care if you used AI. They care whether your page adds anything worth reading. The same goes for the AI tools people now ask instead of Google. Get this right and you’ll show up in both.
Here are the 7 things your pages need now.
1. Say Something New
The fastest way to lose is to repeat what’s already ranking. AI is brilliant at remixing what already exists, so the web is filling up with pages that all say the same thing. Google calls the opposite “information gain”, and it rewards pages that add something to a topic instead of recycling it. Give the reader a stat, a number from your own jobs, a real opinion, a tip nobody else bothers to mention. One original thing beats a thousand words of summary.
2. Prove You’ve Actually Done It
Anyone can sound like an expert now. So Google added “Experience” to the things it scores, which means first-hand proof you’ve done the work. Case studies are the easiest win here. Write up real jobs: what the problem was, what you did, where it happened, how it turned out. A real story from a real job is something a generic AI page can’t fake.
3. Use Real Images of Your Work and Team
Photos of your actual work and the people who did it tell visitors and Google there’s a real business here. They don’t need to be perfect or professional. A quick phone photo of a finished job beats a polished stock image every time. Something is better than nothing.
4. Put a Real Name on It
Google asks a simple question of every page: who wrote this? Add a byline, a short author bio with credentials and years in the trade, and a link to a LinkedIn profile or a proper About page. It takes five minutes, and it tells both readers and search engines there’s a real person behind the words.
5. Back Up Your Claims
If you quote a figure or make a claim, link to where it came from. Citing reliable sources builds trust, and trust is the single most important thing Google scores. It also keeps you honest, which matters more than ever now that AI will happily make things up.
6. Get Specific About Your Area
Local detail is hard to fake and easy for you to add. Mention the suburbs you work in, the local conditions, the council rules, the things only someone who actually works your area would know. It makes the page more useful to local readers and more relevant when people search locally.
7. Show the Real Business Behind It
The page doesn’t stand on its own. Google looks at the whole site for signs there’s a real, trustworthy business here. A proper About page, clear contact details, your address, real reviews. These are the trust signals that back up everything on the article itself. Trust is the foundation the rest sits on.
Will This Work for AI Search Too?
Yes, and that’s the good news. More people now ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google’s AI Overviews instead of scrolling the results. Those tools build their answers from the same web, and they reward the same things: clear, specific content from a source they trust. So the seven above are the foundation for both.
Getting picked up by AI just adds a few moves on top:
- Put the answer up front. AI tends to lift a clean, self-contained answer from near the top of a page. Nearly half of all AI citations come from the first third of the page, so make your point in the first paragraph, then expand. Don’t bury it under a long warm-up.
- Get talked about off your own site. This is the big one. Around 85% of the time an AI names a brand, it’s pulling from a third-party site, not the brand’s own pages. Reviews, directories, YouTube and forums like Reddit are some of the most cited sources there are. Getting mentioned in those places counts as much as your own content.
- Use real numbers and quotes. Concrete stats and direct quotes are easy for AI to lift and attribute, and they lift your odds of being cited. Vague claims get skipped.
- Don’t lock the AI tools out. Some sites accidentally block the crawlers these tools use to read pages. If you want to be quoted, let them in, and add a bit of schema so machines can read who you are and what the page says.
- Keep it fresh. AI leans towards recent content. A visible “last updated” date helps.
Get It Ranking, Then Get It Converting
Everything above helps you get found. Getting the reader to actually call you is a separate job. A few rules we stick to:
- Lead with what they get, not your back story.
- Cut the waffle. Say it straight.
- Write like you speak. Read it out loud, and if you wouldn’t say it, rewrite it.
- Name the problem first, then give the solution.
- Be specific. Real numbers and places beat vague claims. “37 enquiries in the first month” says more than “great results”.
- Tell them the one next step, and make it easy to take.
Our first Halo Authority site
A Perth home services business was the first to try it. We built him a 70 page site that covered every service and sub-service he offers. His search traffic went from 1 – 5 visits a day to 15 – 20. His leads went from a handful a month to a few per day. The chart below shows the climb.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Google penalise AI content?
No. Google rewards high quality content, however it’s produced. What it acts on is content made mainly to game rankings with little value for the reader, whether a person or an AI wrote it.
Can I use AI to write my blog posts?
Yes, as long as a human checks the work, adds real experience, and makes sure it says something new. Google’s own example of acceptable AI is an AI-assisted article reviewed by a human expert. Posting raw, unedited AI at scale is what gets sites in trouble.
How do I get my business mentioned in AI answers like ChatGPT?
Be clear and specific on your own site, then get talked about elsewhere. Most of the time an AI names a brand, it’s quoting a third-party source like a review site, directory or forum, so mentions across the web matter as much as your own pages.
What is “information gain”?
It’s the new information your page adds to a topic instead of repeating what’s already out there. Google’s systems favour pages that bring something fresh, like your own data, a first-hand story, or an opinion you won’t find on every other site.
How often should I update my content?
Keep your important pages current and refresh them when things change. AI and search both lean towards recent information, so a visible “last updated” date and the odd new stat or example go a long way.
We’ve baked this approach into our SEO and content work. If you’d like a hand applying it to your site, happy to have a chat.
We’re also rolling all of it into a new Authority Website System. We’ve put a decade of rankings and conversion optimisation into one lean system built to give you an edge over the competition. Early tests have been promising.
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