Using ChatGPT for Website Copy: What to Keep, What to Verify

Over the past few weeks, almost every client who brings up their website ends up asking the same thing: can they use ChatGPT to write their copy? OpenAI released the chatbot at the end of November, and for the first time, a small business owner can get a working draft of website text just by typing a request, without hiring a writer or an agency. That is a real shift for anyone who needs to fill several pages on a tight budget. But AI-generated text is not the same thing as publishable text. Between the two sits a verification step that never gets skipped, no matter which tool produced the first draft. Here is what I keep and what I check every time a client wants ChatGPT-assisted copy on their site.

What is ChatGPT, exactly?

ChatGPT is a conversational tool from OpenAI, free to use since the end of November, that generates text in response to a plain-language request. You describe what you want, an About paragraph, a list of frequently asked questions, three headline options, and it produces a full draft in seconds. This kind of use falls under what is sometimes called AI marketing, the application of artificial intelligence to a business's marketing tasks, from content generation to data analysis. The tool has not seen your website, does not know your current prices, and has no idea what is happening in your business this week. It assembles a plausible-sounding draft from what it learned during training, nothing more.

What is the risk of publishing ChatGPT text without reviewing it first?

The main risk is that a well-written paragraph can still contain errors, made-up numbers, or claims about your business that simply are not true. ChatGPT can confidently describe a warranty you do not offer, quote a price that has nothing to do with your actual rates, or walk through a generic process that does not match how your business actually works. A retailer could end up with a paragraph promising same-day delivery when the real turnaround is two or three days, simply because the generated draft borrowed a common example instead of an actual fact about the business. Nothing in the text flags which line is accurate and which is invented; the confident tone stays the same throughout. Publishing that kind of draft without a check means putting your name behind claims you never confirmed yourself, and a customer who shows up expecting what the page said has every right to be annoyed.

A related habit worth watching for: the tool sometimes states an outdated or overly broad claim as if it were current and specific to you, since it has no way to check today's reality against what it learned during training. Treat every sentence it gives you as something to verify before it goes on the page.

What can ChatGPT actually speed up on a website?

Where ChatGPT genuinely helps is getting past a blank page, not delivering a final draft. Asking for five headline options, a section outline for a service page, or a list of questions customers commonly ask before reaching out are all uses that save time without putting your site at risk. You stay in control of the facts because you are the one answering the generated questions, with your real services and your real prices filling in the blanks. The tool helps structure the writing work; it does not replace the knowledge you have of your own business.

What should you always verify before publishing AI-assisted copy?

Anything that could mislead a visitor if it turned out to be wrong needs to be checked before it goes live, with no exceptions. That includes every price, every turnaround time, every service name, every number or statistic, and any mention of a certification, licence, or professional credential. If you cannot back up a line with a real source, whether that is your own price list or an official document, the simplest move is to cut it or rewrite it using what you actually know to be true. A shorter, accurate page always beats an impressive one that contains a claim a customer could later hold against you.

How do you spot wording that does not sound like Canadian English?

ChatGPT can lean toward phrasing and spelling that read more American than Canadian, since its training draws on English as a whole rather than the way businesses here actually write. A generated draft might default to "color" instead of "colour," describe pricing without ever naming the currency, or use an example that assumes a US context, like a state instead of a province. A careful edit should swap in the spelling and details a Canadian visitor expects, and add "CAD" or a "$ CAD" tag anywhere a dollar figure appears on a page selling to Canadian customers. That review matters as much as fact-checking, because wording that reads slightly off tells a visitor the page was not really written with them in mind. A shipping paragraph that mentions state sales tax instead of GST and provincial sales tax, for example, is an easy tell that nobody local read the page before it went live.

What does Google say about website copy written with AI help?

Google published a Search Central post about this on February 8, and the core message is clear: AI is not banned outright, what matters is whether the resulting content actually serves visitors or mainly exists to try to inflate search rankings. A generated draft that has been checked for accuracy and published under an identifiable, accountable person is not treated any differently than text written by hand. That is exactly the standard I apply before anything AI-assisted goes live, including this article.

How does SIB check AI-assisted copy before publishing it for a client?

For a client, generated text always goes through the same review before it reaches the live site. I compare every factual claim against something the client can confirm, prices, turnaround times, services offered, then I edit the wording so it reads like Canadian English instead of a generic draft, and I make sure no number or statistic was invented to make a line sound more convincing. That review work is part of what AI marketing integration covers: connecting artificial intelligence tools to your processes in a way that saves time without giving up accuracy. A draft never goes live until a responsible person has read it through, line by line.

Where should you start this week if you want to try ChatGPT for your site?

Pick one page, ideally one where you mostly need ideas rather than a page listing specific prices or guarantees, like a general About page or a set of broad FAQ questions. Ask for a first draft, then go through it line by line: keep what is accurate and well phrased, fix wording so it reads like Canadian English, and cut anything you cannot confirm yourself. That approach gets you the time savings the tool promises, without the risk of publishing a claim you never actually checked.

Drafted with AI assistance, checked and published by Marven Salgado.