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Dofollow Digest #21: Google's Stance on AI/Scaled Content

Dofollow Digest #21: Google's Stance on AI/Scaled Content

Eric Carrell
April 11, 2025

Hey, it's Eric 👋

Google made an interesting statement about scaled content this week. Danny Sullivan (Google's Search Liaison) stated that scaled content is "going to be an issue" regardless of how you create it. I'll break down what this actually means for SaaS companies below.

(Spoiler: I think a bit of skepticism is warranted).

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🔍 DEEP DIVE: Google's Stance on Scaled Content: What It Means for SaaS

In a recent discussion, Google's Danny Sullivan stated: "We don't really care how you're doing this scaled content, whether it's AI, automation, or human beings. It's going to be an issue."

This comes alongside an update to Google's Quality Rater Guidelines, which now groups AI-generated content with "content created with little effort or originality."

Sullivan compared today's AI content boom to the spam tactics of 2005, saying "2005 just called, it'd like to explain to you how human beings can generate thousands of pages overnight that look like they're human generated."

Sullivan provided two criteria for evaluating content strategies:

Motivation test: If you're creating content primarily to "game search traffic" rather than to provide something users would value if they came directly to your site, that's a red flag.
Originality test: If you're just using AI to crank out content on topics you know nothing about, without adding any unique value or expertise, that's what Google is targeting.

What I found interesting was Sullivan's example of good AI usage: how Amazon uses AI to summarize user reviews. He praised this approach because "it's AI applied to original content... to give me a summary. That was added value for me and unique value for me."

Our Take: A Bit of Skepticism

While I understand Google's position, I remain somewhat skeptical. We've seen well-executed scaled and programmatic content strategies work effectively for many SaaS companies. The reality is that search is nuanced, and blanket statements about content creation methods don't always align with what actually performs well in real-world scenarios.

The key consideration does seem to be value. When our clients implement scaled content approaches that genuinely solve user problems or provide unique insights, they continue to perform well regardless of how that content was created.

For SaaS companies, I see this as more of an opportunity than a threat. Most SaaS businesses have unique data, proprietary insights, and specialized expertise that generic content simply cannot replicate. This is exactly the kind of original value that tends to perform well.

The most successful SaaS companies we work with are taking a pragmatic approach:

Identifying where scaled content makes sense for their business objectives
Using human experts to provide strategic direction and unique insights
Leveraging AI and automation as tools, not replacements for human judgment
Adding proprietary data points and customer success stories only they can provide
Building high-quality backlinks that validate their authority

Rather than abandon scaled approaches entirely, ensure your content delivers genuine value. When your content helps users solve real problems, the creation method becomes secondary to the utility it provides.

This balanced approach not only helps maintain search visibility, but it also creates content assets that actually convert visitors into customers — which is the whole point of SEO for SaaS in the first place.

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Til next time,

Eric