Here at Lake Solutions, we are always encouraging our clients to write blogs – as creating original content for your website is absolutely key, particularly for SEO purposes.
However, writing blogs is time-consuming and, after an initial burst of enthusiasm, it’s often hard to keep up the momentum, particularly if you’re busy working in your business. You can always source a copywriter to write your blogs – but there’s a cost involved with that. Wouldn’t it be perfect to wave a magic wand and ask the Internet to craft a blog for you and have it delivered instantaneously? Well, your dream has been answered!
Launched in November 2022, ChatGPT is a free piece of software available online which will craft words on practically anything and it’s surprisingly pretty good. When we first used it, we wondered if it would read like it was written by a machine but, honestly, it doesn’t.
Imagine you’re an estate agent and want to write a blog on ‘five reasons why Spring is a good time to sell a house’, ChatGPT will deliver a really good list of tips. In fact, don’t take our word for it. Here’s what ChatGPT created when we made this request:
1 High Demand: Spring is traditionally a popular time for homebuyers to start looking for a new home, which means there is typically a higher demand for homes during this time of year. As a seller, this can mean more potential buyers viewing your property and increased competition for your home.
2 Better Weather: Spring weather is generally more pleasant than winter or summer, which can make your home look more attractive to buyers. The blooming flowers and greenery can add to the curb appeal of your property, and buyers may be more willing to spend time outside exploring your yard and garden.
3 More Daylight: Longer daylight hours during the spring mean that potential buyers have more time to view your home, which can be especially important for those who work during the day. This can also allow for more flexibility in scheduling showings and open houses.
4 School Year Timing: Spring is also a popular time for families to start looking for a new home because it allows them to move before the start of a new school year. This can mean that families are willing to pay a higher price for your home or make a quicker decision on a purchase.
5 Market Activity: Spring is generally a time when the housing market is more active, with more homes being listed for sale and more buyers looking for homes. This can create a sense of urgency for buyers to make a purchase, which can work to your advantage as a seller.
We haven’t made any changes at all to this copy. It provides a pretty good list of reasons, reads well and makes sense.
This is just generic copy though and if you’re writing a blog, you will usually bear in mind your company’s tone of voice. If you are writing for a fairly traditional firm, you’ll craft an article in a different tone of voice from a business involved in a fun or modern consumer facing brand.
That said, you can ask ChatGPT to rewrite you content in different styles. Here’s the first section of our estate agent blog in the style of ‘hip hop’:
Yo, yo, yo, it's ChatGPT droppin' some knowledge for ya Listen up, 'cause I'm 'bout to tell ya why spring's the time to sell ya house, hear me?
First up, demand's high, buyers comin' out the woodwork More peeps checkin' out your crib, competition's good, that's a perk
Second, weather's better, flowers bloom, greenery's poppin' Curb appeal's through the roof, buyers diggin' your garden.
However, ChatGPT does have limitations. Sometimes it gets overloaded and you’ll get the message ‘ChatGPT is at capacity right now’ and it does tend to favour American English. In this example, it has used ‘yard’ in our estate agent copy – but this can easily be changed.
It’s also worth noting is that ChatGPT is not up-to-date. In fact, it currently (in early summer 2023) has a knowledge cut-off date of nearly two years ago! In fact, let’s ask ChatGPT about it:
My knowledge cut-off date is September 2021. This means that any events, information, or developments that have occurred after that date may not be reflected in my responses. However, I am continuously learning and updating my knowledge base to provide the most accurate and up-to-date information possible.
This means that journalists can’t use it to write their articles, as it doesn’t have a handle on any current events. There are also potential issues around the ethical accuracy and fairness of the information ChatGPT might share. One hopes that it is unbiased but if it’s consuming all the knowledge out there, a lot of that will have a bias.
Currently, the spread of ‘fake news’ is a huge issue and if ChatGPT was trained in real time it could easily ‘read’ things which would alter its perception of our world. Some commentors have already accused ChatGPT of being more in the Biden camp than the Trump one…
Google though is looking for ‘original, helpful content written by people, for people’ and doesn’t like seeing content which has been ‘lifted’ or copied from other sites. If another estate agent asks for the same five points – will they just get the same copy? To test this, we asked a colleague to input the same search criteria and, interestingly, while the top five reasons were broadly similar, the copy was different.
That said, using ChatGPT – or its growing number of competitors - could provide a starting point for somebody who really doesn’t know where to begin with a blog. It is important to fact check the content which is generated and to amend it for tone of voice and American English etc. Even if you end up rewriting a fair proportion of the content, it could at least suggest points you might want to consider.
If you want to find out more about why creating blogs is good for your website, do get in touch on tel: 020 3397 3222.