I Tried to Build a Blog with Only AI-Generated Evergreen Content for 30 Days. The Results Were Brutal.

By a skeptical digital marketer with 10+ years in the trenches.

A Google Analytics chart showing a flatline of traffic over 30 days for a blog using 100% AI-generated evergreen content.

I bought into the hype. You’ve seen the videos, read the threads: “Build a Niche Site to $10k/Month with AI,” “Publish 100 Articles a Day,” “Automate Your Content Empire.” As a digital marketer who has spent a decade painstakingly building blogs, the promise of an “AI-powered evergreen content engine” was too tantalizing to ignore.

So, I decided to run an experiment. A clean, 30-day test to answer the question that’s been haunting our industry: Can you build and rank a new blog using 100% AI-generated evergreen content in November 2025?

I set up a new domain in a moderately competitive niche (think “sustainable home gardening”). I used top-tier AI tools for keyword research, content generation, and image creation. The goal was to publish 50 high-quality, 1500-word evergreen articles and see what happened.

The results? They were brutal. But not in the way you might think.

The Setup: A Fully Automated Dream

My workflow was a digital marketer’s fantasy.

Keyword Research: I used AI to identify 50 long-tail keywords with decent volume and low competition.
Content Generation: I crafted detailed prompts for a leading LLM, specifying tone, structure, H2s, and internal linking opportunities. Each article was generated in under 10 minutes.
Image Creation: I used Midjourney to create custom, high-quality featured images for every post.
Publishing: Everything was uploaded to a clean WordPress install with Rank Math for on-page SEO.

For the first week, I was on top of the world. I had created a month’s worth of content in less than two days. The articles looked… pretty good. They were well-structured, grammatically correct, and covered the topics comprehensively.

“AI offers the tools to make the creation and dissemination of high-value, long-lasting content more achievable than ever for businesses of all sizes.” – Mike Allton, The Evergreen Enginelinkedin

I felt like I had found the ultimate marketing cheat code.

Phase 1 (Days 1-10): The Honeymoon of Impressions

The initial data from Google Search Console was intoxicating. The site was indexed quickly. Within a week, impressions started to climb.

Day 5: 500+ impressions.
Day 10: 2,000+ impressions.

It seemed to be working. Google was “seeing” the content. The AI had successfully produced text that was recognized and indexed by search algorithms. I started to wonder if the skeptics (like me) were wrong.

But then I looked closer at the data. While impressions were rising, a critical metric remained stubbornly at zero: clicks.

Phase 2 (Days 11-25): The Great Traffic Flatline

This is where the brutal reality set in. The impression curve, once a beautiful upward climb, began to plateau. More importantly, the traffic simply never arrived.

[Image Placeholder: A mockup of a Google Analytics traffic report showing a flat line near zero for 30 days.]

My Google Analytics report was a ghost town. Day after day, the user count was either zero or a handful of bots. The bounce rate for the few real visitors was over 95%. Dwell time was measured in seconds.

The Google Search Console data told the same story. High impressions, abysmal click-through rate (CTR).

Metric	Day 1-10	Day 11-25
Total Impressions	2,000	3,500 (and flat)
Total Clicks	2	5
Average CTR	0.1%	0.14%
Average Position	45.2	42.8

The content was visible, but no one was clicking. And those who did, left almost immediately. Google’s algorithms, which are designed to measure user satisfaction, were getting clear signals: this content is not helpful.

The Diagnosis: Why the AI Content Engine Failed

It took a week of staring at the flatline before I was ready to admit the truth. The problem wasn’t that the content was “bad” in a technical sense. It was that the content had no soul.

The “Robotic” Content Problem: A Lack of True E-E-A-T Google’s guidelines reward Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). My AI content had none of this. It could summarize information from the web, but it couldn’t share a personal story about a failed tomato harvest. It couldn’t offer a unique tip learned from years of gardening. “AI might help with research, but it cannot replace the depth of knowledge that comes from hands-on experience and professional expertise.” – Promotedge Blogpromotedge The articles felt hollow. They were factually correct but emotionally sterile. There was no personality, no “I,” no story. It was the encyclopedia entry when the user was looking for a conversation with a trusted friend.
The “Knowledge Gap” Illusion I thought AI could fill knowledge gaps. In reality, it can only regurgitate and re-package existing knowledge. For evergreen, authoritative content, you need to provide something new. The AI was excellent at creating “me too” content. It could write a perfectly acceptable “Top 10 Tips for Composting,” but it couldn’t write the definitive, experience-backed guide that would actually rank for it.
The Engagement Void: Users Can Smell a Fake The high bounce rate and low dwell time were damning. Users clicked, scanned the generic intro, and immediately knew they were reading something lifeless. They weren’t engaging, they weren’t scrolling, and they certainly weren’t converting. Google’s core mission is to provide helpful content to users. My experiment proved that “helpful” is about more than just a collection of facts. It’s about empathy, storytelling, and genuine connection.developers.google

The Verdict (Day 30): The Brutal, Honest Truth

So, can you build a blog with 100% AI-generated evergreen content in November 2025?

No. Not if you want to build a real, authoritative brand that people trust and that actually gets traffic.

The promise of a fully automated content empire is a mirage. While AI is an unbelievably powerful tool for assisting content creation, it cannot—and should not—replace the human element at the core of great content.

The most successful approach in 2025 is not “AI vs. Human,” but “AI + Human”.easycontent+1

My New Workflow: The Hybrid Model

My experiment failed, but my new content strategy is stronger than ever. Here’s how I use AI now:

AI as a Research Assistant: I use it to brainstorm ideas, find related keywords, and summarize research papers.
AI as a First-Drafter: I give it a detailed outline, filled with my own unique insights, and let it generate a rough first draft.
Human as the Editor-in-Chief: I then take that draft and spend my time injecting personality, adding personal anecdotes, and ensuring the content provides real, unique value.

This hybrid model gives you the speed of AI and the quality and authenticity of a human expert. It’s the only way to create evergreen content that stands the test of time.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About AI-Generated Content

Does Google penalize AI-generated content?
No, Google does not penalize content simply because it’s made with AI. It penalizes low-quality, unhelpful content, regardless of how it’s produced. The focus is on “people-first” content that demonstrates E-E-A-T.developers.google
Can AI-generated content rank on Google in 2025?
Yes, but only if it’s high-quality and heavily edited by a human expert. Pure, unedited AI content struggles to rank for competitive keywords because it lacks unique insights and real experience.tangence
What is the biggest weakness of AI-generated evergreen content?
Its inability to demonstrate genuine experience (the “E” in E-E-A-T). AI can’t share personal stories, failures, or unique discoveries, which are crucial for building trust and authority.
Is it better to use AI for short-form or long-form content?
AI is often more effective for short-form, factual content like product descriptions or social media updates. For long-form evergreen content, it’s best used as an assistant to a human writer.addlly
How can you make AI content sound more human?
Human oversight is key. Editors must add personal anecdotes, use a unique brand voice, include quotes from experts, and inject original analysis and opinions that an AI cannot generate.esoftech
What are the main benefits of using AI for content creation?
The primary benefits are speed and scale. AI can generate drafts and ideas in minutes, dramatically reducing the time it takes to produce content and allowing teams to focus on strategy and creativity.addlly
Can AI replace human writers for SEO content?
For now, no. While AI can handle basic keyword optimization, it cannot replace the strategic thinking, creative storytelling, and deep audience understanding that a skilled human SEO writer brings to the table.firstsiteguide
What is the “hybrid model” for AI content creation?
The hybrid model uses AI as a tool to assist a human creator. The AI handles tasks like research, outlining, and first drafts, while the human expert focuses on editing, adding unique insights, and ensuring quality.
How do you fact-check AI-generated content?
Never trust AI content without verification. Always cross-reference facts, statistics, and claims with multiple authoritative sources. AI models are known to “hallucinate” or invent information.
What is the future of AI in content marketing?
The future is collaboration, not replacement. AI will become an indispensable co-pilot for content creators, automating repetitive tasks and freeing up humans to focus on the high-level strategy, creativity, and connection that builds a loyal audience.conductor