AI Content Creation: Not a One-Stop Solution for Law Firms

In the world of digital marketing, it’s tempting to lean into every new piece of tech promising speed and convenience—especially when you’re running a law firm and wearing a dozen hats. One of the biggest trends right now is using AI tools like ChatGPT to create website content. And on the surface, it sounds like a dream: just type in a prompt and boom—blog post done. Easy, right?

But here’s the catch: while AI content creation can be a helpful tool, it’s not a silver bullet. At Accel Marketing Solutions, we specialize in legal marketing, and we’ve tested AI tools inside and out. What we’ve found is that while AI can save time, relying on it without human review—especially for law firm websites—can do more harm than good.

Let’s break down the pros, the cons, and how to use AI the right way without risking your Google rankings, reputation, or accuracy.

The Allure of AI: Quick, Easy, But Not Always Accurate

There’s no denying that AI tools can produce a lot of content fast. From blog posts to FAQs, you can generate paragraphs of content in seconds. Need ideas for article topics? AI can brainstorm a full year of blog titles in under a minute. Want to explain the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony? AI can whip up a quick summary with zero hesitation.

For busy attorneys, this sounds like gold. But here’s the problem…

AI Isn’t a Legal Expert: The Dangers of Relying on Inaccurate Information

One of the biggest issues with AI-generated content is hallucination. That’s the term the tech world uses when an AI confidently provides information that is completely wrong or made up. And yes, it happens a lot—especially in complex and highly regulated industries like law.

For example, an AI might write:

“In New Jersey, a first-time DUI offense results in an automatic 30-day jail sentence.”

Sounds legit, right? But it’s not true. The actual penalties for a first-time DUI in New Jersey depend on BAC level and several other factors—and jail time isn’t always automatic.

Another example we’ve seen:

“New York law requires all personal injury lawsuits to be filed within 5 years.”

Wrong again. The statute of limitations for most personal injury cases in New York is actually three years.

These mistakes aren’t just technical errors—they’re legal liabilities. If a potential client reads something incorrect on your site, it damages your credibility. Even worse, if they act on false information, there could be legal consequences.

AI Content vs. Human Expertise: Why Google Prioritizes Real Human Content

Here’s something else law firms need to consider: Google prefers high-quality, original, human-written content—especially when it comes to what it calls “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) content. This includes legal, medical, and financial advice—basically anything that could impact a person’s well-being or finances.

Google has stated that experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) are major ranking factors for YMYL content. And while AI can mimic tone and structure, it still lacks the true expertise and firsthand experience Google looks for.

In our tests, AI-generated articles—even when grammatically perfect—consistently underperform in search rankings compared to content written (or at least reviewed) by legal professionals.

Why? Because Google is getting smarter at detecting AI-generated content. And while it doesn’t outright ban AI content, it does prioritize accuracy, depth, and authority—which AI alone can’t fully deliver.

April 2025 Update

Recently, Google updated its Search Quality Rater Guidelines to address the growing presence of AI-generated content. Quality raters are now instructed to assign the “Lowest” quality rating to pages where the main content is predominantly created using automated or generative AI tools, especially when such content exhibits minimal effort, originality, or added value for users.

The revised guidelines introduce a formal definition of “Generative AI,” describing it as a machine learning model capable of producing new content, such as text, images, music, or code, based on learned examples. While acknowledging its usefulness, Google emphasizes the potential for misuse.

Significant changes include the reorganization and expansion of spam definitions. Notably, the previous section on “Auto-generated Main Content” has been replaced with new subsections focusing on the following:

Expired Domain Abuse: Repurposing expired domains to host low-value content.
Site Reputation Abuse: Publishing third-party content on reputable sites to exploit their ranking signals.
Scaled Content Abuse: Mass-producing content with little effort or originality, often using AI tools.
Low-Quality Paraphrased Content: Content that is copied, paraphrased, or auto-generated with minimal effort, originality, or added value.

Additionally, the guidelines clarify distinctions between “Low” and “Lowest” quality ratings; content that is reused but shows some effort in curation or modification may receive a “Low” rating, whereas content that is largely copied or paraphrased is rated as “Lowest.”

AI Content Might Boost Rankings Temporarily, But Not for Long

Some law firms have tried going all-in on AI content to quickly fill out their websites. At first, they might see a bump in traffic. But over time, as Google crawls the content more deeply and notices inconsistencies or inaccuracies, those pages can lose their rankings or even be flagged as low quality.

We’ve seen firms go from page one to page five in a matter of weeks—all because they published dozens of AI-generated pages without review.

AI Isn’t Useless, But It’s Not a Substitute for Human Content

AI can be incredibly useful as a starting point, but not the final product.

Here’s how you should be using AI:

For Brainstorming Topics: AI is amazing for idea generation. You can ask it to list common questions people have about divorce law, or the top concerns after a car accident, and it’ll give you a solid list to build on.
To Summarize Statutes (With Source Verification): AI can quickly summarize legal concepts, but always—always—double-check it against real sources. It’s a helpful time-saver for research, not a replacement for it.
To Speed Up Outlines: Use AI to generate a basic structure for a blog post. Then, go in and flesh it out with your own voice, examples, and legal expertise.
To Rephrase or Polish Human-Written Drafts: Got a rough draft but struggling with clarity or tone? AI can help reword and smooth it out, while keeping the original facts and legal accuracy intact.

What to Avoid When Using AI Content for Your Law Firm’s Website

Let’s make it crystal clear:

Don’t copy-paste AI content straight onto your website
Don’t assume it knows local laws—it doesn’t
Don’t trust it for citations without manually verifying the sources
Don’t let it write content that carries legal implications without a professional review

The Bottom Line: AI Is a Tool—But Human Writers Make the Difference

At the end of the day, AI is just that—a tool. It’s like a calculator: great for quick math, but you wouldn’t use it to teach someone algebra from scratch. The same goes for law firm marketing content. You need real insight, accuracy, and credibility—something only humans (especially legal professionals and experienced marketers) can fully provide.

At Accel Marketing Solutions, we understand that AI has its place, but following best practices and guidance from the top experts in SEO, we rely on our team of experienced legal writers and editors to make sure everything that goes live is accurate, optimized, and uniquely tailored to your firm.

Don’t risk your reputation (or your rankings) just to save a few hours. Let us help you create content that not only sounds good, but works—for your clients, for your brand, and for Google.

Why AI Content Falls Short: Google Prefers Human Expertise – Updated April 2025