How to use an AI content writer for content that actually ranks

It feels like everyone is using AI to churn out blog posts lately. The problem? Most of it is just… bland. You know the type: generic, repetitive, and soulless content that reads like a robot trying to explain what fun is. This "AI slop" is clogging up search results and, let's be real, it rarely ranks.

An 'AI' writers will simply take a search query you specify. Download the text of the top 10 results. Text mine the results and find common words. Use the most popular semantic linking profile. Write the first iteration of text and then paraphrase. There is one major flaw with all 'AI' writers however. The semantic linking profile that it uses is the same across most 'AI' articles. Google can determine this by looking at the top results for your search query and look at how each article is written.

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But here’s the thing: the problem isn't the AI. It's how people are using it. If you think an AI content writer is a magic button for a perfect article, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. The real magic happens when you treat it like a strategic partner: a ridiculously fast research assistant and a tireless first-drafter that you guide.

This guide is your playbook for doing just that. We'll walk through the whole process of using AI to create articles that are well-researched, sound human, and are tuned for both traditional search engines and the new wave of AI answer engines.

Modern tools are finally catching on to this collaborative approach. For example, the eesel AI blog writer is built to streamline this entire workflow, turning a single keyword into a complete post that's ready to publish. It’s the exact tool we used to grow our own daily impressions from 700 to over 750,000 in just three months. It’s all about working smarter, not just faster.

What is an AI content writer?

At its core, an AI content writer is a tool that uses Large Language Models (LLMs) to generate written marketing content. We're talking blog posts, articles, website copy, and even social media ads.

This is a bit different from a general-purpose chatbot like ChatGPT. While you can certainly talk a blog post out of a general tool, dedicated AI content writers are built for a specific job. They often come with features and workflows designed for creating structured, SEO-friendly content. Instead of just a wall of text, they help you build a proper article with headings, lists, and a logical flow.

So, how do they work? In simple terms, these LLMs have been trained on a massive amount of text from the internet. They learn the patterns, structures, and relationships between words so well that they can predict the next most likely word in a sentence. When you give it a prompt, it's using that predictive power to string together sentences that fit your request.

The quality of the output really depends on two things: the instructions you give it (the "prompt") and the context it has access to. To improve accuracy and avoid making things up, advanced systems use a technique called Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). As we explain in our practical guide to content generation, RAG lets the AI pull information from a specific set of documents you provide, making its output far more factual and relevant.

The strategic setup before you start writing

Here's a secret that will put you ahead of 90% of people using AI for content: the most important work happens before you ask the AI to write a single sentence. The old saying "garbage in, garbage out" has never been more true. The quality of your input directly affects the quality of the output.

Define your goal and audience

Before you start, you need to know why you're creating this piece of content. What's the point? Is it a top-of-funnel blog post meant to educate a wide audience? A bottom-of-funnel comparison piece to help someone decide on a purchase? A technical guide for existing users?

The objective shapes everything: the tone, structure, depth, and the call to action.

Just as important is knowing who you're writing for. What are their biggest struggles? Are they beginners or experts? Answering these questions helps the AI (and you) tailor the language and examples to connect with the right people.

Instead of just telling an AI to "write a blog post about customer service automation," give it the strategic context it needs. A much better prompt would be:

"Act as an expert in B2B SaaS marketing. I'm writing a blog post for non-technical founders of early-stage startups. The goal is to explain the benefits of customer service automation in a simple way, focusing on time savings and scalability."

See the difference? You're not just giving it a topic; you're giving it a role, an audience, and a purpose.

The main thing to remember, is that it’s all about the prompts. The main things I have used it for so far are to summarize meetings and capture action items and also to help me improve upon what I’m trying to say in a document or email. There’s so much it can do with MS applications too... what surprised me the most is how long the prompt (instructions) can be and that references (links, etc.) can be in separate sentences and even paragraphs in the same prompt. You can also instruct it to take a certain viewpoint or perspective when formulating an output.

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Provide rich brand and topic context

To avoid that generic, robotic tone, the AI needs to understand your brand's unique voice. The traditional way of doing this is to manually feed it examples of your best content or write up detailed style guides. It can be a lot of work.

The same goes for your products. If you want the AI to write about what you sell with any authority, you have to give it the source material. This usually means copying and pasting product info, feature lists, and company details into the prompt. It’s tedious and has to be done for every single piece of content.

This manual setup can be a bottleneck for teams trying to scale content. It's also where newer, smarter tools are changing things. For instance, the eesel AI blog writer automates this step. You just give it your website URL, and it automatically scrapes the site to learn your brand voice, product details, and messaging. This means any product mentions feel natural, not forced. It handles the context, so you can focus on the strategy.

The writing process: Using an AI writer effectively

Think of this part as a partnership. You lead with strategy and direction, and the AI follows with speed and execution. It's a workflow that combines the best of human expertise and machine efficiency.

Step 1: Ideation and outlining

Staring at a blank page is the worst. Luckily, AI is a fantastic brainstorming partner. You can throw high-level ideas at it and get a ton of inspiration back in seconds.

Try prompts like:

• "Give me 10 blog post ideas about AI in e-commerce for small business owners."
• "What are some common myths about answer engine optimization?"
• "Brainstorm five different angles for an article about 'how to use an AI content writer'."

Once you have a topic, the next step is building a solid outline. An outline is the skeleton of your article; it ensures a logical flow and makes sure you cover all the important points. Ask the AI to generate a detailed, SEO-friendly outline based on your target keyword and what a reader would expect.

But it's important not to just accept the first outline it gives you. This is your moment to add your unique human expertise. Review the AI-generated structure and refine it. Add your own insights, personal stories, data points, or a unique angle that the AI couldn't possibly know. This human touch is what takes the content from generic to great.

Step 2: Drafting the content

When it's time to write, it's tempting to ask the AI to write the entire 2,000-word post in one go. Don't do it. You'll get much better results by working section by section, using your refined outline as a guide.

This approach gives you way more control. You can provide specific instructions for each part of the article, ensuring the content stays focused. For example, when it's time to write a specific section, your prompt could look something like this:

"Now, write a 300-word section for the H3 'The Importance of Human Oversight.' Explain why fact-checking is critical for trust and reference Google's E-E-A-T guidelines. Keep the tone confident but approachable."

This method works, but it can be slow, requiring a lot of back-and-forth. This is another area where a more integrated tool can make a huge difference. The eesel AI blog writer, for example, streamlines this whole drafting phase. You give it your keyword and context once, and it generates a complete first draft with all the sections written for you in a single click. It’s designed to do the heavy lifting of drafting, so you can jump straight to the high-value work of editing.

Step 3: Editing and humanizing the content

Let's be clear: AI-generated text should always be treated as a first draft. Always. A human editor isn't just a nice-to-have; it's non-negotiable if you care about quality.

My two cents is yes. I use Active Inspiration (A.I.) software to 'break me out' of the blank page freeze. The issue is when the content is 70% AI or more. AI should really be used as an Assistive Interface for writing great content, not producing mechanical bastardized word slop by running and rerunning paragraphs through GPT-3.

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Your job as the human editor is to add the elements that AI can't: experience, expertise, authority, and trust. This lines up perfectly with Google's E-E-A-T guidelines, which reward content that demonstrates real-world expertise and is genuinely helpful.

One of the most important editing tasks is fact-checking. AI models are known for "hallucination," which is a nice way of saying they can confidently make things up. They might invent statistics, cite non-existent sources, or get technical details wrong. You have to manually verify any data, claims, or facts the AI generates. Your brand's reputation is on the line.

Here’s a quick breakdown of AI's role in the writing and editing process:

Beyond the text: Polishing and optimizing your content

A great blog post is more than just words. The final steps of polishing and optimizing are what turn a good draft into a high-performing piece of content that actually gets traffic.

Adding visuals and media

Let's be honest, creating or finding good visuals for a blog post can sometimes take as long as writing it. Stock photos are cheesy, custom graphics are expensive, and hunting for the right screenshot is a pain. But a wall of text is a guaranteed way to make readers leave.

This is a huge pain point that newer AI tools are starting to solve. For instance, a major feature of the eesel AI blog writer is that it doesn't just give you text. It automatically generates and inserts relevant assets directly into the article, including AI-generated images, custom infographics, and clean data tables. It even finds and embeds relevant YouTube videos and pulls real, insightful quotes from Reddit threads on your topic. This adds social proof and depth, turning a simple text document into a complete, media-rich package.

SEO and AEO: Optimizing for search

You’ve got the text and the visuals. Now you need to make sure people can find it.

AI can be a great assistant for traditional on-page SEO. You can ask it to generate meta titles and descriptions, suggest keyword placements, or come up with internal linking ideas. But the world of search is changing fast.

The new frontier is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). This is all about optimizing your content to be the direct source for AI platforms like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity. The goal is no longer just to rank #1 as a blue link; it's to have your content featured as the answer.

This is a massive shift. According to Gartner, 25% of all organic search traffic will be displaced by AI chatbots and other virtual agents by 2026. If you're not thinking about AEO now, you're already falling behind.

This is a new field, but some tools are being built with this in mind. The eesel AI blog writer, for example, is designed for AEO. It structures content with clear question-and-answer formats, includes FAQ sections, and uses schemas that are easily understood by answer engines, giving your content the best possible chance of being featured.

Understanding the cost of AI content writers

The pricing for AI content writers can be all over the place, so it helps to understand the common models.

Most tools operate on a subscription model. You pay a monthly or annual fee for a certain word count or feature set. A popular tool like Jasper, for example, has a Pro plan that costs $59 per month (when billed annually). This model can be great if your content needs are consistent, but you might feel like you're overpaying in slower months.

Another common approach is a credit-based model. Instead of a recurring subscription, you buy a bundle of credits that you can use to generate a set number of articles or words. This offers more flexibility, as you only pay for what you use.

To simplify pricing, the eesel AI blog writer uses a straightforward credit-based system where you get 50 complete, media-rich blog posts for $99. There are no hidden fees or word limits. It’s predictable, affordable, and designed for teams that want to scale their content without a complicated bill.

The partnership between human and AI

If there's one thing to take away from all this, it's that using an AI content writer effectively is a partnership. It's a process of thoughtful guidance, smart collaboration, and essential human refinement. The AI is your assistant or your co-pilot, not the author.

The goal isn't to replace talented writers but to give them superpowers. It’s about empowering you and your team to produce higher-quality content, faster, and at a scale that was previously unimaginable.

To see these principles in action, check out this video which provides a great overview of how to blend AI efficiency with human creativity for content that stands out.

This video provides a great overview of how to blend AI efficiency with human creativity for content that stands out.

If you’re looking for a tool that automates the tedious parts of this process, from brand research and drafting to creating visuals and optimizing for the future of search, we built it for you. You can try the eesel AI blog writer for free and see for yourself what a true AI writing partner can do.