A couple of weeks ago, I had my first editing run in with AI-generated website copy. And I learnt a lot from it. One of the biggest lessons I learnt is that I won’t be doing it again. Before I explain why, let me give you a bit of context.
How I ended up editing AI-generated copy in the first place
Outside of my website projects, I work with a number of freelancers on a 1:1 basis to help them improve things like their client communication and boundaries, pricing, processes, marketing strategies, etc. And almost every client ends up working on their website copy with me.
We always begin with the about page. As a freelancer, this is one of the most important pages on your site as any client you work with has a direct relationship with you. Then we move on to service pages. A couple of weeks ago, for the first time, a client handed me website copy that had been run through Claude. To their credit, they were upfront with me about it. And to be fair, English isn’t their first or even second language. So I completely understand why they felt the need to use AI as a crutch in this situation.
The downsides of AI generated copy outweigh the benefits
The benefits are simple: save time, save money, save brain power, and avoid that horrible “I’m fucking terrible at this” feeling you get when you try to do something new.
The downsides of using AI-generated copy, however, have significant impacts on your business:
- Your website sounds generic and like it could belong to anyone (and in many cases, in any industry)
- LLMs lack perspective and don’t understand how you work or why you work that way
- They also lack empathy and can’t actually understand the issues your clients face that you are trying to tackle
- The god damn fucking em dashes. Jesus Christ there are so many
- Copy that is devoid of personality or perspective
- AI-generated copy is way too easy to spot. It’s so ubiquitous now that folks who don’t work in marketing at all can also spot it from a mile off
- It’s like having a big sign saying “we don’t care about your experience, just give us your money” plastered all over your shop window
- The copy will need extensive editing to get to a point where it no longer sounds like AI, except it also won’t sound like you either
- If you do this without a clear template and structure in mind, the copy will be unbearably long and not even remotely website ready
The real problem here is that AI-generated copy is an impression of what good copy looks like. Not what good copy actually is. In fact, it writes website copy at a similar level (minus the em dashes) to the work I did as a copywriting intern over a decade ago. And you deserve better than that.
Why I won’t be editing AI-generated copy again
After I edited those first couple of pages for my 1:1 client, I provided some feedback informing them of a few things:
- I ran out of time to complete the editing because it took so much longer than I expected
- The copy, while now grammatically correct and sounding less AI-ish, still didn’t sound like them. At all.
- I understand why they did it but I’d like them to try their hand at writing another couple of pages without the use of AI at all. I’m there for editing support, so they don’t need to worry about the first draft being perfect. It just needs to exist.
And friends, the difference was night and day. The two pages of AI-generated copy took me over an hour to edit into a passable state. The two pages of human-written content took me less than 30 minutes because it was of a much higher quality.
So not only does AI-generated copy take so much longer to work with, you also end up with a worse final product.
For a while, I did consider offering copyediting for AI generated content, charged at a much higher rate. In fact, it takes me longer to edit this copy than to just write it from scratch. I don’t operate on an hourly rate basis, but the only way to justify taking on this work was to charge more than I do for my standalone website projects.
I quickly realised that didn’t make sense financially for my clients or for me as a creative person. Plus, I really don’t want to be responsible for some underperforming, generic copy out there in the world. I can do better than that and my clients deserve better than that.
What I’m going to offer my clients instead
After I posted about this AI copy editing on LinkedIn, I received a few DMs asking me to edit AI-generated or AI-sounding copy. And I told everyone the same thing. No.
What I can do, however, is rewrite the copy for you. If you already have tone of voice guidelines, SEO prep, and the design sorted, I can provide a copywriting service for you that’s cheaper than the full website project. As long as you’re open to adjusting the design a bit for UX purposes when needed.
If you don’t have those things, we’re going to need to start from scratch anyway.
It won’t be the best work I can possibly do for you, but it’s a good middle ground between trying to edit some soul into soulless copy and going for a full website overhaul.
A full rewrite will provide you with a better end product at a cheaper rate than just editing. I take the time to get to know your business. Your goals, your blockers, your conversion priorities, your target audience, and the key personality behind the brand. And all of that comes through in the copy.
If you want the best possible end product, we’ll start your website project from the beginning so I can also advise you on UX and conversion optimisation, your website navigation and sitemap structure, URL designation, wireframes to support the copy in the design process, and naturally integrate keywords and SEO copy throughout, while still sounding completely human.
Frankly, an AI could never.
You deserve better than a generic website. Let’s have a chat about how we can create something that will build your brand, your confidence, and your conversions.