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Like it or not, AI-generated content is becoming more common across online platforms.
Publishing AI-generated content is considered risky, as Google has penalized AI-heavy sites, leading buyers to pay 39% more on average for sites with no AI content. Based on a study by the website buying and selling marketplace MotionInvest.com
In addition to popping up in Google results or Reddit posts, AI content is now a critical part of how websites that people are buying and selling get valued.
Although the use of AI isn’t necessarily a problem in and of itself, buyers know that there are both pros and cons to AI-generated content. And when money’s on the line - especially at higher price points - even a little uncertainty can impact the risk and resulting price a buyer is willing to pay.
To investigate this, we conducted a study on how the use of AI content (either fully, partially, or for grammar support) affects the sale price and time on market of websites based on real transaction data from Motion Invest.
Motion Invest is a website marketplace that offers content sites ranging from $800 to over $1 million, making it an excellent data source for our particular study. This platform specializes in vetted, profitable sites, making it a reliable source for studying how AI sites affect buyer behaviour.
Notably, it is the only marketplace that discloses and uses Originality.ai’s AI detector to verify if the website's content is AI-generated or human-written.
Based on 12 months of website sales data from Motion Invest, this study set out to:
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Our analysis of Motion Invest’s website sales (defined as those that sold for $6,000 or more) from May 2024 to April 2025 reveals that, on average, the use of AI negatively impacted sale price.
More specifically, AI sites sold for lower sales multiples (a metric that compares sale price to monthly revenue). AI sites sold for an average of 1.5x annual revenue sale multiple, while those without AI use sold for 2.1x annual revenue.
This data suggests a strong correlation between the use of AI content on websites and buyer behavior. However, other valuation factors may also come into play here. Niche, traffic trends, monetization methods, and other factors can all impact the sale price.
Our study also revealed another pattern: Websites that had AI content took longer to sell than those that didn’t.
The difference in the average time on the marketplace proved to be quite significant. Sites that didn’t use AI spent on average 35 days on the market, while those that did sat for 54 days until they were sold.
On average, it took 19 more days, or 54% longer, to sell websites with AI-generated content than those without.
These results clearly indicate that buyers perceive AI-generated content as risky.
A decrease in sales multiples and an increase in time on market highlight the potential impact that AI has on website purchasing decisions, signalling a shift in how buyers evaluate digital assets.
Of course, AI use didn’t prevent sales in this study, which is good news for site owners who rely on some type of AI to help run their websites.
However, consistently lower sale prices suggest that sites with only human-written content are seen as more valuable/less risky. If that trend continues, sites with only human content could stand out even more in the market.
Tools like AI detectors and Site Scans could end up playing an important role here, as they can help both buyers and sellers flag potential instances of low-effort AI-assisted content.
Data Scope:
Exclusions:
Final Dataset: 28 qualifying website transactions.
AI Sites specified "Yes" to AI Disclosure: Sellers explicitly stated AI content was used (either fully, partially, or for grammar support).
Sites without AI specified "No" to AI Disclosure: Sellers stated they didn’t use AI, and this was verified by the team at MotionInvest with Originality.ai’s AI Checker scans of multiple pages.
Overall, the results of this study demonstrate that the presence of AI-generated content on websites is actively shaping buyer behavior.
If sellers want to avoid lower sale prices and longer times on market, it may be worth highlighting human-written content in website marketplace listings
Sellers can:
Buyers can:
Need a quick way to evaluate AI use before buying or selling a website? Scan content with Originality.ai’s AI Detector and Bulk Scan today.
Further Reading:
In the constantly evolving realm of AI generated content the veracity of information is of utmost importance. With a couple of fact checking solutions available, discerning their efficacy becomes crucial. Originality.ai, revered for its transparency and accuracy in AI content detection had recently ventured into the domain of fact checking but how does our solution stack up against well established giants like ChatGPT or emerging contenders like Llama-2? This study aims to answer this question.
We believe that it is crucial for AI content detectors reported accuracy to be open, transparent, and accountable. The reality is, each person seeking AI-detection services deserves to know which detector is the most accurate for their specific use case.
