Many Perth businesses now use AI tools to fill their websites and blogs. It is quick and cheap, and the copy often reads smoothly at first glance.
The problem tends to show up later, in your enquiries. Copy that sounds like everyone else’s rarely persuades anyone to pick up the phone.
We have looked at whether AI content can help SEO in a separate article. This one focuses on what happens after someone lands on your page, and why human knowledge still makes the difference between a visitor and a customer.
Rankings bring visitors. Copy wins customers.
A page can rank well and still produce no enquiries. Once a visitor arrives, they decide quickly whether you understand their problem and whether they trust you to solve it.
That decision rests on detail. Visitors want to know what you actually do, how pricing works, how long things take and who they will deal with. Generic copy skips these points because a tool doesn’t know them.
The common pitfalls
It sounds like everyone else. AI tools draw on the same pool of writing. Ask several of them to write about a Perth plumber or a family law firm and you get much the same page. A visitor comparing a few websites has no reason to choose yours.
It answers the wrong objections. Tools fall back on stock concerns such as price and trust. Your real customers may be worried about something more specific, such as whether you cover their suburb or how soon you can start. Those insights come from talking to customers.
It gets facts wrong. AI can invent details or repeat outdated information with confidence. A wrong price, a service you no longer offer or an overstated claim damages trust quickly. Misleading claims can also create problems under the Australian Consumer Law, whoever wrote them.
It ignores industry rules. Health practitioners are a clear example. Ahpra’s advertising rules ban testimonials for regulated health services and restrict incentives and before-and-after images. Financial, legal and other regulated fields have their own requirements, and a tool won’t reliably know which apply to you.
It flattens your voice. Your website should sound like the people a customer will deal with. Copy that could belong to any business makes you forgettable, even when every sentence is technically correct.
It treats every reader the same. Someone who has never heard of you needs different information from someone ready to book. AI drafts tend to use one tone and one level of detail for everybody.
Cheap content can look like a saving. Often the cost has simply moved somewhere less visible.
You pay in enquiries that never arrive. You also pay in time, because fixing a page full of vague or inaccurate copy can take longer than writing it properly in the first place.
If you have published a large amount of thin content, there may be a clean-up job after a search update as well.
What human expertise adds
People who know your business and your customers bring things a tool can’t:
- first-hand knowledge of how the work is done and what tends to go wrong
- the real questions customers ask on the phone and in person
- local detail, such as the suburbs you cover, Perth conditions and realistic lead times
- judgement about what to leave out
- the ability to check claims and stand behind them
This lines up with what Google looks for. Its guidance on helpful, people-first content puts experience first in E-E-A-T, and experience can only come from people who do the work.
How to check your own pages
You don’t need to be a copywriter to spot weak copy. Open your main service page and work through a few practical checks.
- Could a competitor paste this onto their site with only the name changed?
- Does it say who the service is for and what happens next?
- Are prices, inclusions or at least a pricing guide explained clearly?
- Does it answer the questions customers actually ask you?
- Is there a clear, easy way to get in touch?
- Is every claim accurate and something you can back up?
If several answers worry you, that page is a good place to start.
Then look at the numbers. Google Analytics can show which pages people leave quickly and which ones lead to enquiries. Set up key events for form submissions, phone clicks and email clicks so you can see what is working.
Using AI sensibly
AI tools still have a place. They can help with research, rough outlines and checking a draft for gaps.
The important step is what happens next. Before anything goes live, someone who knows the business should rewrite it in their own words, add real detail and check every fact.
If a page still reads like it could belong to anyone, it isn’t ready to publish.
Treat your copy like a salesperson
Your website works for you when you aren’t in the room. It should do what your best salesperson does: listen, explain plainly, answer worries honestly and make the next step easy.
That takes real knowledge of your customers, and a person to apply it. Our article on the importance of content for SEO covers how good copy supports your rankings as well.
SLINKY is a Perth digital agency, founded in 1998. You deal directly with senior people, with no account managers and no lock-in contracts. Our digital marketing and SEO work starts with the business and its customers.
If you would like a fresh look at the copy on your key pages, we are happy to talk it through. Get in touch whenever it suits you.
