How to Use AI Responsibly, Creatively, and Effectively 

Generative AI (GAI) tools have bombarded the content marketing and SEO space since the release of ChatGPT in late 2022. 

Look left, and you’ll see Google’s AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Claude. 

Look right, and you’ll see Semrush’s Copilot, ChatGPT, and a whole host of AI-powered writing, editing, and proofreading tools. 

While these tools have their uses, the market is oversaturated, and some marketers are relying on AI too much. 

If you want to succeed with using artificial intelligence in 2025, there are some AI dos and don’ts you need to follow.

Use AI the smart way, and you’ll publish quality content while saving a ton of time and money. 

Try to cut corners, and you risk:

1. Harming your brand’s reputation 
2. Negatively impacting your user experience (nobody likes generic AI content) 
3. Plagiarizing copyrighted work  
4. Spreading misinformation 

AI tools are NOT infallible or all-knowing. They can and do make mistakes, which is why human oversight is a necessity, not a luxury. 

A recent study by the BBC found that AI chatbots cannot accurately summarize news articles, so there are definitely still some kinks to work out. 

Yet, with some fact-checking and editing, you can use AI to make decent content. 

That’s not to mention all the ways AI tools can assist with brainstorming, outlining, and drafting articles. 

This guide will teach you how to responsibly use AI tools to enhance your SEO and digital marketing strategies, so keep reading! 

Why AI Best Practices Matter in 2025 

Let’s be clear: if misused, AI-generated content can harm your brand’s reputation and search performance.

When ChatGPT first came out, some marketers falsely assumed that it was totally accurate and capable of generating 100% original copy. 

They quickly discovered that this wasn’t the case, as instances of chatbots (like ChatGPT) spitting out misinformation and plagiarized content skyrocketed soon after release. 

So far, vast improvements have been made to generative AI programs, but they’re still far from being completely foolproof. 

When misused, AI content can:

• Cause a reduction in search rankings 
• Negatively impact your brand’s reputation 
• Harm your website’s user experience 

Yet, with some human oversight and fact-checking, AI content can:

• Rank reasonably well on search engines like Google 
• Save money on your marketing budget
• Speed up content creation
• Eliminate writer’s block
• Help you brainstorm new ideas 

It’s entirely possible to find SEO success with AI-generated content, you just have to do it the right way. 

Also, some marketers falsely assume that Google punishes content for using AI, but that isn’t true. 

According to Google’s official documentation, using AI and automation does not violate their guidelines. It only becomes a problem when it’s used to manipulate search rankings with spam.  

So, as long as you make appropriate use of AI-generated content, you’re good to go. 

AI Do’s: Top Ways to Leverage Generative AI Tools 

Okay, now it’s time to learn some AI best practices. 

These are the techniques that you SHOULD use when integrating AI into your content strategy. 

DO use AI for brainstorming and ideation 

The #1 thing AI excels at is brainstorming ideas. 

You can use AI to come up with:

1. Outlines
2. Drafts 
3. Trending topics 
4. Keyword suggestions 
5. Catchy headers 
6. CTAs (calls to action) 
7. Meta descriptions 

Basically, you can use AI to brainstorm any type of idea related to SEO and content marketing. 

Have you ever dealt with writer’s block before?

If you’re like 78% of writers (Forbes), then the answer is yes. 

A blank page can be incredibly intimidating, especially when writing about a new topic for the first time. 

AI tools can virtually eliminate this intimidation by getting the ball rolling for you. 

Once you see a few sentences on the page, it’ll become easier to edit the copy to fit your voice. 

DO edit and fact-check all AI-generated content

Remember how we said that AI tools still aren’t 100% trustworthy and reliable?

Because of this, you owe it to your brand to edit and fact-check EVERY piece of AI-generated content. 

Skip this step, and you could do serious harm to your reputation by spreading misinformation. 

You could run into legal trouble if it’s discovered that you’ve been publishing inaccurate information – especially for things like finances and healthcare. 

Even if you only use AI for simple tasks, you still have to fact-check everything it generates. 

Just consider what Anthropic, the creators of AI-powered assistant Claude, are going through right now. 

They’re in the middle of a lawsuit regarding copyright violations with music lyrics from major artists like Katy Perry and the Rolling Stones. 

Amidst accusations of plagiarism, Anthropic’s legal team had an embarrassing goof when Claude ‘hallucinated’ and fabricated a title and authors for a cited source in a court filing. 

This goes to show that you have to rigorously fact-check every output from an AI, even simple things like citations. 

DO disclose AI usage when required 

Transparency is important when using generative AI tools, and that stretches beyond being courteous to your audience. 

First, modern internet users appreciate transparency when it comes to AI, so it’ll reflect positively on your brand when you’re open about AI use.  

A simple disclaimer like, “This article was generated by AI and then edited and fact-checked by humans” goes a long way toward building trust with your audience.

Research from Sprout Social revealed that 94% of consumers believe that AI-generated content should be labeled as such. 

Second, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has laws in place to protect the public against misleading advertisements. In recent years, they’ve become increasingly focused on AI. 

In fact, the FTC recently enacted a rule prohibiting brands from using AI to generate fake reviews, testimonials, and celebrity endorsements.  

If you don’t label your content as being AI-generated, it could be interpreted as misleading or deceptive. 

That has the potential to lead to lawsuits. 

You can avoid this risk by disclosing every time you publish an article that was created by an AI. 

DO use AI to enhance – not replace – your current content strategy 

AI works best as a supplementary tool for an existing content strategy. 

It’s amazing for:

1. Capitalizing on emerging trends before they expire
2. Broadening your content to include new topics (that still relate to your business) 
3. Updating older content 
4. Quickly brainstorming ideas for keywords, topics, and outlines 
5. Bridging gaps when you’re short-staffed on content creators 

However, it does NOT excel at:

• Providing original insights 
• Sharing first-hand experiences 
• Using humor and analogies
• Generating copy for topics where data is scarce 

In other words, you need human writers to exhibit Google’s E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) characteristics. 

If your content isn’t high in E-E-A-T, it’ll be extremely difficult to achieve high search rankings. 

DO stay up to date with platform rules and algorithm updates 

Generative AI is still in its infancy, so new rules and policies are popping up all the time. 

Thus, you should keep up with the rules updates for your preferred AI platforms. 

You also need to keep a close eye on Google’s major algorithm changes, as they roll out numerous core updates each year. 

There’s no guarantee that AI-generated content won’t be affected by one of these updates, so keep an eye on our website (we track all major Google updates). 

DO pair AI with human expertise for nuance and trust 

As we’ve been saying over and over, AI content still needs human expertise to reach its full potential. 

At the same time, the amount of necessary oversight is minimal, which is something most marketers fail to grasp. 

In most cases, all it takes is some quick fact-checking (which you can do in minutes using Google) and brief edits to make the content 100x stronger (we’ll tackle a real-world example in a bit). 

AI Don’ts: Losing Tactics to Avoid at All Costs 

Now it’s time to learn what you shouldn’t do when working with generative AI tools. 

Some of these tactics may seem promising as a way to earn a quick buck, but they pose way too much risk. 

It’s not worth ruining your reputation by publishing an article that would take about 30 minutes to fact-check (if even that).

Here are the AI tactics that we recommend avoiding:

• DON’T publish raw AI content. We’ll say it until we’re blue in the face: you must fact-check every AI output!

• DON’T over-rely on AI for highly nuanced, sensitive, or technical content. If you’re dealing with a complicated subject matter, leave it to human experts. 

• DON’T ignore sourcing and copyright attribution. Unless you want to find yourself in a copyright lawsuit like Anthropic, always give credit where credit is due. 

• DON’T assume AI understands your brand voice or goals. It’s a mistake to assume that AI chatbots understand what you’re trying to achieve with your content, so be as specific as possible with your prompts. 

Here’s a quick summary of all the dos and don’ts we’ve gone over:

Real-World AI Use Case: Fact-Checking and Adding Brand Voice 

Before we wrap up, let’s use ChatGPT to create a sample blog paragraph. 

From there, we’ll fact-check and edit it so that we don’t lose our brand’s voice.  

This will hopefully give you creative fuel for editing your own AI-generated content. 

First, let’s ask ChatGPT to generate an opening paragraph for a post entitled SEO vs. GSO: Key Differences and Similarities.

By all means, this isn’t a bad intro, but it still needs some work. 

Let’s start by fact-checking the output. 

It’s here where we encounter the first hiccup. 

ChatGPT states that Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) is an AI-powered search engine, which isn’t exactly true. 

In actuality, SGE was a series of AI-powered search features that never left its experimental phase in Search Labs. 

What it did do was pave the way for Google’s AI Overviews, which are very much a thing right now. 

The other problem is the copy isn’t in a readable format and doesn’t align with our brand voice. Yet, some quick edits will spruce it up:

In the ever-evolving world of digital marketing, search engine marketing (SEM) is going through some major changes. While SEO (search engine optimization) has long been the gold standard for online visibility, a new contender has emerged. 

Generative Search Optimization (GSO) is the act of refining and optimizing content to improve visibility on generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude. 

As AI-powered search features like Google’s AI Overviews become more prominent, marketers are eager to boost their brand’s visibility across generative AI tools. 

This post breaks down the key differences and similarities between SEO and GSO so that you can optimize for today’s and tomorrow’s search landscape. 

As you can see, we only made some simple edits to better align with our brand voice, but they made the content WAY better. 

That’s all it takes to enhance AI content to make it rankable and worth consuming! 

Closing Thoughts: AI is Powerful, but Human Oversight Remains Essential 

To summarize, AI tools are undeniably useful, but they’re risky. 

Publish raw AI content, and you risk harming your brand’s reputation, running into legal trouble, and losing search rankings (if Google thinks that your content is trying to game its search rankings). 

Using AI with fact-checking and human oversight, on the other hand, ensures accuracy and quality. 

Do you lack the resources to handle content creation and SEO in-house?

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