Non-Commodity Content: Google’s Example, Applied

Google’s guide to generative AI search contains one sentence that is worth more than the rest of it. It says that creating unique, compelling and useful content “will likely influence your website’s presence in generative AI search in the long run more than any of the other suggestions in this guide.” To explain what it means, Google introduces a term: non-commodity content. This post explains the idea and then applies it to the kind of page most small businesses actually have, a service page.

Commodity versus non-commodity, in Google’s words

Google describes commodity content as content “often based on common knowledge, which could originate from anyone”, which “typically adds little unique insight for readers”. Its example is a title like “7 Tips for First-Time Homebuyers”.

Non-commodity content, by contrast, “provides unique expert or experienced takes that go beyond common knowledge and the ordinary”. Google’s example is “Why We Waived the Inspection & Saved Money: A Look Inside the Sewer Line”. The difference is clear: the first title could be written by anyone, including an AI model, without leaving their desk. The second can only be written by someone who did the thing.

The guide lists a few qualities this kind of content shares:

• a unique point of view, such as a first-hand review instead of a summary of other people’s reviews
• content created from what you know, not “recycled” from what others have said or what a generative AI model could easily produce
• a clear structure, with sections and headings that help readers find what they need
• relevant images and video where they genuinely help

This matches the wider guidance Google has published on helpful content, covered in the earlier post on how Google describes effort, originality and accuracy.

Why this matters more for AI search

Google’s AI features build answers from pages in its index and link to the pages they use. If ten pages say the same common-knowledge thing, an AI answer can cover that ground without needing any of them in particular. The guide’s advice to offer “a unique viewpoint that stands out” follows from this: the page that adds something the others don’t is the one with a reason to be cited.

The guide also explains query fan-out: AI Mode runs several related searches to answer one question. That widens the set of pages it looks at, which gives a specific, detailed page more chances to be useful, but only if it actually contains something specific.

A worked rewrite: the generic service page

Take a typical page for an imaginary local plumber called “Emergency Plumbing Services”. The commodity version usually says the same five things as every competitor: fast response, qualified staff, fair prices, all jobs handled, call now. None of that is wrong, but none of it is information. Here is a step-by-step way to rebuild it.

1. List what only you know. Sit down with the person who does the work and write down real facts: what the most common emergency call actually is, what usually causes it, what the customer can safely do before you arrive, and what it typically costs to fix. Every business has this knowledge; it just rarely reaches the website.
2. Answer the questions customers ask on the phone. “Is this an emergency or can it wait until Monday?” is a question a good page can answer with a short checklist. Generic pages never do this.
3. Show the process. Explain what happens from the call to the finished job, in steps. Include the parts that are inconvenient, such as when you need to turn the water off.
4. Give honest ranges and conditions. If prices depend on time of day or parts, say so and give the factors. You don’t need to publish a price list to be specific.
5. Add your own photos. A photo of a real repair, taken by your team, says more than any stock image and can also be found in image searches.
6. Say who wrote it. A name and a line about the person’s experience tells readers, and Google, where the knowledge comes from.

The result is a page that a competitor cannot copy without doing the same work, which is exactly the point.

Common mistakes when “adding value”

When people hear “make unique content”, they often do things that look different but add nothing:

• Making it longer. Google says there is no ideal page length. A long page of common knowledge is still commodity content.
• Making many near-identical pages. One page per town or per phrasing, with the same text, risks the scaled content abuse policy. Google’s guide names that explicitly.
• Inventing experience. Made-up case studies, fake reviews or invented statistics are deception. Google’s helpful content guidance treats deception as a sign of a low-quality page.
• Using AI to generate the “unique” part. An AI model can only produce what is already common knowledge. It can help organise your notes, but the facts and experience must come from you.

Where to start this week

Pick your most important page that brings in customers, usually a service or product page. Read it and highlight every sentence that a competitor’s page also says. Then replace half of those sentences with something from the list above: a real process, a real question answered, a real photo, a real range. Rank Math or any other tool can then help with the title and description, but the change that matters happens in the content.

If you want to check that the improved page is actually eligible to be shown in AI answers, the earlier post on what Google’s AI search guide says to do has a short technical checklist.