The Weekly Bulletin | June 10, 2025

Hi SODP community,

Let’s recap on what’s been happening, the new content, industry updates, tips, and more.

TIP OF THE WEEK

92% of AI content gets deindexed — and “just heavily edit it” Isn’t the Solution.

Originality.ai analysed over 50,000 AI-generated pages. 92% were deindexed by Google. That stat’s been circulating with the usual advice: “Just edit the AI output harder.” But here’s the uncomfortable truth: If your AI content needs heavy human editing to become useful, it likely shouldn’t have been AI-generated in the first place.

Even Google’s own quality raters agree (see in the comment section: Search Engine Land’s recent summary). The issue isn’t who created the content — it’s whether the content is genuinely helpful, original, and experience-led.

So why are these pages failing? Because they often:

❌ Lack first-hand experience or unique insight

❌ Are surface-level and derivative

❌ Miss the actual user intent

❌ Don’t provide new value in a saturated SERP

Heavily editing AI content doesn’t scale, doesn’t guarantee ranking, and doesn’t meet Google’s expectations around helpfulness, especially in YMYL categories.

✅ A Smarter Approach to Helpful Content

Rather than forcing AI content through painful human edits, adopt a strategy that’s fit for today’s SEO environment. Here’s what’s working:

• Programmatic SEO (done properly)

  Build structured, scalable, and intent-aligned content — especially for listings, tools, and comparison queries. Still highly effective when backed by clean data and UX.

•  First-Hand Experience & Original Insight

  Google prioritises authors with lived experience, not just knowledge. That means product reviews, local guides, and tutorials should reflect real usage or outcomes.

• Original Research & First-Party Data

  Surveys, benchmarks, experiments, and internal case studies can’t be copied or spun — making them durable, high-authority content.

• Entity-Driven Topical Authority

  Don’t write about everything. Own a niche deeply, link it semantically, and use consistent authorship to establish trust.

• Audience-Led Utility Content

  Think checklists, tools, seasonal guides, and localised tips. Content that solves real problems always wins.

• Multi-Format & Interactive Content

  Visuals, tools, polls, UGC — all signal higher quality and engagement. Google is rewarding content that goes beyond plain text.

• Up-to-Date, Maintained Pages

  Year-specific updates, new data, and refreshed examples — these are easy trust signals that help retain rankings.

🚫 TL;DR:

1. AI ≠ Content Strategy.

2. Heavy editing ≠ sustainable fix.

3. Helpful content = a strategic mix of intent, experience, and originality.

The search bar has risen. The opportunity now lies in building systems, not just prompts, that consistently deliver high-value, user-aligned content. Don't create glut content.

SODP POSTS

AI, The Double-edged Sword of Creativity, and Why Publishers Must Embrace It

It’s cliche now to say that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has changed everything, but it’s also inescapably true.

AI is so deeply entrenched in our everyday lives that it has paradoxically become almost invisible – a recent report by Reddit, GroupM and WPP found that only 1 in 6 consumers can often tell when they’re using AI-enabled tools. At the same time, AI’s rapid rise and widespread integration has sparked apprehension about its potential to disrupt various sectors of the workforce. For publishers, these concerns are particularly acute.

Publishers face the dual challenge of embracing AI’s efficiencies while safeguarding the integrity and quality of human-authored content. The rise of AI-powered search, referrals, and summaries, threaten to draw viewers – and advertisers – away from publisher domains.

The fear is not just about the displacement of journalists, but the erosion of creativity, engagement, and the authenticity that readers expect and that brands invest in. Having already contended with multiple pressures on their monetisation model, including the rise of walled gardens and social media platforms, AI presents a complete fracture.

Nevertheless, publishers can’t turn back the clock – the AI age is here and it’s here to stay. So they find themselves at a crossroads, needing to balance preservation of their core values with a competitive imperative to innovate.

The only way for publishers to truly overcome the challenges being presented by AI is to wield it themselves.

READ MORE

JOB BOARD

➡️ Bloomberg Media is looking for a managing editor to lead and expand their global lifestyle and culture coverage who will oversee editorial strategy and operations for Pursuits across platforms, and collaborate with other teams to launch new features and products. (NY). SEE MORE

➡️ Liverpool Echo. is looking for a content editor who will play a key role in their strategy to continue to grow our audience at scale, to deepen our relationship with existing readers and to reach our underserved communities. (Liverpool). SEE MORE

COMMUNITY BUZZ

Industry News

➡️ Content on platforms such as YouTube, TikTok and Instagram will attract more advertising income this year than content from traditional media companies, according to research, marking a “huge cultural shift” for the media world .User-generated material – videos, podcasts and posts put together by individual creators – will eclipse the ad revenue attracted by professional media produced by TV networks, cinemas and news companies, the analysis found. READ MORE 

➡️ Have you noticed something shifting about the Google search experience lately? You’re not alone. While plenty of digital chatter surrounds Google’s latest moves, few marketers realise just how deeply personal your next search will become. Google AI Mode is already reshaping digital strategy overseas, and it’s only a matter of time before the same hyper-personalised wave hits Australia. Gone are the tidy, predictable rows of blue links. READ MORE 

➡️Google is directing its quality raters to watch out for pages with main content created using automated or generative AI tools – and rate them as lowest quality, according to Google’s Senior Search Analyst and Search Relations team lead John Mueller, speaking at Search Central Live in Madrid. This change was part of the January 2025 update of the Search Quality Rater Guidelines. READ MORE 

Social Media Discussions

➡️ Kristan Bauer on LinkedIn:

Does replacing AI-generated content with human-curated content impact indexation? Why, yes, it can 😂

Here's a programmatic site (an AI product) that was hacked and booted out of Google's index last year.

Fast forward 9+ months and the site was still struggling to get indexed when they came to me. Security was squeaky clean.

We tried EVERYTHING to improve SEO, user experience and site authority.

Nothing worked long-term. We saw temporary boosts in indexation and then Google kept dropping these pages.

The client finally went back to one of my original recommendations: test replacing AI content with human-written content. Ohhhh what a novel concept 😂

As an AI product, they EXCLUSIVELY used AI-generated content across the site – including programmatic content AND editorial content.

CONTINUE READING

These are the highlights for the last week.

Until next!

Vahe Arabian and the editorial team at SODP