AI vs human copywriting: who should write your website?

Every business owner we talk to has asked some version of this question. AI tools can produce a page of copy in seconds, so why pay a person to write it?

We use AI every day, and we coach teams to use it well. We also write every client's website by hand. Here is how we decide which does what, and why your website copy needs a human in charge of it.

Start with the worry most people have: will Google penalise a site written with AI?

The short answer: using AI does not, on its own, get a site penalised. Google's published guidance says appropriate use of AI or automation is not against its guidelines. What it cares about is whether content is helpful, original and trustworthy, however it was made. What it does act against is content produced at scale mainly to manipulate rankings, which its spam policies call scaled content abuse.

So the useful question is whether a page will be genuinely useful to the person reading it. That is where the differences between AI and human copy start to matter.

Used well, AI saves real time:

• Getting past the blank page. A rough first structure for a page or a list of angles to consider.

• Variations. Five ways to phrase a headline or a call to action, so you can pick the best.

• Tidying. Shortening a long paragraph, or checking that a page reads clearly.

• Research starting points. A quick overview of a topic before you check it properly.

That is why our AI coaching sessions focus on exactly these jobs: the work where AI speeds you up without speaking for you.

The businesses that win locally sound like themselves. A family café, a remedial builder and a private clinic should not read like the same company. AI writes in an average of everything it has seen, which is precisely the voice you are trying to stand apart from.

AI tools can state things confidently that are simply wrong: a price, an opening time, a claim about a regulation. On a website, every one of those is your business making a promise. A human who knows the business checks every line.

Good website copy answers the questions your customers actually ask, in the order they ask them, and removes the doubts that stop them picking up the phone. That comes from talking to you and understanding how people buy from you. No tool has sat in that conversation.

Google looks for signs of first-hand experience and expertise. Real project details, real photographs and specific local knowledge are hard to fake and easy to recognise. Generic copy has none of them.

If you do use AI to help draft your own pages, run every one through these questions first:

• Is every fact true? Prices, opening times, qualifications, guarantees. Check each against the real thing.

• Does it sound like us? Read it aloud. If it could be any business in your trade, rewrite it.

• Does it show real experience? Add the detail only you know: a job you did, a question customers always ask, a photo you took.

• Does it answer the visitor's question? Cut anything that is there to fill space.

• Would we put our name to it? If not, it does not go on the site.

Every site we build is written by people, for one business. We use AI where it genuinely helps, for drafting options and checking clarity, and a person writes, edits and signs off every word that goes live.

If you want help with the copy for a new site, see how we approach web design. If you would rather your team used AI well in-house, that is what our AI coaching and digital business consulting is for. Either way, come and have a brew and we will talk it through.

If this is the problem you are trying to solve, this is where we can help.

• Web design, made by hand →
• Social media marketing →
• SEO plans →

Keep reading: How do I rank better on Google? · I've got a Facebook page. Do I really need a website?

All insights →

07921 826888
gareth@ioniccreativedesign.com