Auto-generated content is page text produced by software rather than written by a person: from templates, data feeds, scraped sources, automated translation or AI models. Automation is not banned. Google's policies target automated content generated primarily to manipulate search rankings, without adding value for users. Since March 2024, Google covers this under its scaled content abuse policy.
Acceptable and abusive automation
Plenty of useful pages are generated automatically: weather pages, sports scores, product specs from a database, documentation generated from code. What makes them useful is that the underlying data is real and the page serves a need.
- Problematic: text stitched together from search results or other pages
- Problematic: automated translation published without human review
- Problematic: rewritten copies of other content using synonyms or obfuscation
- Problematic: pages that contain search keywords but make no sense to a reader
- Usually fine: pages generated from your own structured data that answer a real need
The policy history
Google's guidelines long named "automatically generated content" as a spam tactic. In March 2024, Google broadened this into the scaled content abuse policy, which applies however content is produced: automation, humans or a mix. The test is purpose and value, not method.
Checking your own generated pages
Read a random sample of generated pages as a visitor would. Ask whether each page gives information a person could not get as easily from another page on your site, whether its data is accurate, and whether you would publish it if search engines did not exist.
Example
A template library with real data
Hypothetical spreadsheet tool Plumcourt generates a page for each template in its library from a database: a preview, the columns included, formulas used and a sample filled-in version. The pages are generated, but each one describes a real, usable template. A plan to auto-generate thousands of pages for keyword variations with no matching template was dropped.
Common mistakes
Assuming any automation is safe if the text reads fluently
Fluent text with no substance still fails the value test. Quality, not grammar, is the bar.
Questions
Programmatic pages are generated from templates and data, so technically yes. They are fine when each page has unique, useful data; they become spam when the pages exist only to target keywords.
