Plenty of Nottingham and Derby businesses are now writing website copy with ChatGPT or a builder’s “write it for me” button. I do not think that is a sin. I think it is a draft. The problem starts when the draft goes live without anyone checking it — including the bits you never see on the page, like the title Google shows, the meta description, and the alt text on your photos.
I am Harry Ashton. Hashton is a Nottinghamshire web studio. This post is a plain checklist for East Midlands owners who used AI to write some or all of their site, and want to make sure it says true things before Google, customers, or an AI Overview repeats it.
AI copy is a first draft. Somebody who knows the business still has to read it. Photo: Startup Stock Photos / Pexels.
What Google changed on 1 October 2026
Google updated its Search Central page on using generative AI content on your website on 1 October 2026. The accuracy section now says, in Google’s words, that “generative models don’t retrieve facts, but predict a likely sequence of words based on their training data”, that outputs “may contain inaccuracies (also known as hallucinations)”, and that “it is critical to manually factcheck and review all AI-generated content for accuracy and trustworthiness before publishing.”
The part most small sites miss: Google says that review also applies to metadata — title elements, meta descriptions, structured data, and image alt text — because those can appear in Search results. That is not a new penalty. It is Google telling you, in writing, what it expects a careful site owner to do.
The same page still warns that using AI to churn out lots of pages without adding value can fall under its spam policy on scaled content abuse. So the rule has two halves: check what you publish, and do not publish a pile of near-identical pages just because they were cheap to make.
Why this matters more for a local business
A national publisher can absorb one wrong sentence. A two-person clinic in West Bridgford or a joiner in Beeston cannot. If the AI says you are “open seven days”, “fully accredited”, or “serving the whole of the UK”, someone will believe it, ring you on a Sunday, and leave annoyed. Worse, the same wrong line can get picked up and repeated when someone asks a chat assistant about your type of business in your town.
Language models are good at sounding like a business. They are not good at knowing yours. They fill gaps with whatever is typical, and typical is often wrong for you.
The checklist I run on AI-written pages
1. Every claim you could be asked to prove
Read the page and highlight anything a customer could hold you to: years trading, qualifications, memberships, guarantees, awards, response times, “trusted by hundreds”. If you cannot point to the certificate, the date, or the client, delete it or rewrite it as something you can stand behind. “Fully insured” is fine if you are. “Award-winning” is not fine because a tool guessed it would sound good.
2. Area, hours, and how to reach you
AI drafts love to over-promise coverage. Check the towns you actually work in, the days you actually answer, and the contact routes you actually monitor. If you work across Nottinghamshire and sometimes Derby or Leicester, say exactly that. Do not let a tool invent a second office or an address you do not want published.
3. Prices and timelines
If the copy says “from £495” or “ready in five days” and you never wrote that, take it out. Invented prices are the fastest way to lose trust on the first call. If you do not publish prices, say what moves the cost instead — I covered that in the follow-up questions your service page should answer.
4. The page title and meta description
These are what people see in Google before they ever reach your site. Open the page source or your CMS SEO fields and read them out loud. Are they true? Do they name the right service and town? Do they match what is on the page? A title that says “Emergency Plumber Nottingham 24/7” on a page for a business that does not do call-outs is a problem, even if nobody on the site ever reads it.
5. Image alt text
Alt text is for people using screen readers first, and search second. AI tools often write alt text that describes a photo they never saw, or stuffs it with keywords. Look at each image and describe what is actually in it in a short sentence. If the photo is your team outside the unit, say so. If it is a stock photo, describe the stock photo honestly.
6. Structured data
If your theme or a plugin added schema markup — business type, opening hours, reviews, FAQ — check it matches reality. Google’s page says structured data should follow its general guidelines and the policies for each feature, and that you should validate it. Review stars your customers never gave, or hours you do not keep, are exactly the kind of thing that can get markup ignored.
7. The voice
Read one paragraph and ask: would I say this to a customer at the counter? “We leverage cutting-edge solutions to deliver bespoke excellence” is the sound of nobody. Replace it with what happens: who you help, what you do, what the first step is. That rewrite is also what makes a page worth quoting.
8. How many pages you really need
If the tool made you twenty pages that each swap one town name, stop. Google’s guidance links scaled, low-value AI pages to spam. One strong service page with real answers usually beats a swarm. I wrote about the URL side of this in if it has no URL, search cannot find it — the flip side is that not every rephrase deserves one.
A ten-minute version if you are short on time
- Open your homepage and your main service page.
- Highlight every number, award, qualification, guarantee, and town name.
- Delete or fix anything you cannot prove today.
- Check the Google title and description for each page in your CMS.
- Look at every image and rewrite its alt text to match what is in it.
- Ask someone who knows the business to read the page once, out loud.
That last step catches more than any tool will.
Questions owners ask me about AI copy
Will Google penalise my site for using AI?
Google’s guidance does not ban AI-assisted writing. It asks for accuracy, quality, and relevance, and warns against generating many pages without adding value. The risk is publishing wrong or empty pages, not the tool itself.
Do I need to label pages as AI-written?
Google’s page suggests giving readers context about how content was created where that makes sense for your audience, especially for automated content. For a small business site that a human has rewritten and checked, the important part is that a real person stands behind what it says.
Can I just ask the AI to fact-check itself?
It can help spot obvious contradictions, but it does not know your opening hours, your insurance, or your clients. Google’s wording is “manually factcheck and review”. Someone who knows the business has to do the final read.
What if my web designer used AI and I never checked?
Ask them which pages and fields were generated, then run the checklist above. A good designer will not mind. If you are planning a rebuild anyway, put “all copy and metadata reviewed by us before launch” in the brief — see a redesign brief before you open Figma.
AI can get you to a first draft faster. It cannot tell your customers the truth about your business. That part is still yours.
East Midlands independents — if you are not sure what your site is actually claiming, I will go through it with you and point out what needs fixing. Start at website design in Nottingham or email contact@hashton.agency.