Commodity vs non-commodity content

Spencer Thursfield · Published 2026-08 · Evidence: platform documentation

The most important distinction in modern content strategy comes from Google's own AI-era guidance: it wants non-commodity content, meaning first-hand, specific material, and it contrasts this with generic summaries "that could have come from anyone." Official recommendation

The test

Read your page and ask: could a competent stranger with a search engine have written this? If yes, you have commodity content. An AI system can now generate it in seconds, so retrieving your version adds nothing. If no, because the page contains your prices, your process, your failures and your photographs, you have source material.

Commodity, by example

"5 things to consider when hiring an electrician." "Why professional photography matters for your wedding." "The benefits of handmade ceramics." Every sentence true; every sentence available everywhere; no reason to cite you.

Non-commodity, by example

"What rewiring a 1930s semi in Leeds cost, room by room, and where the quote went wrong." "Six weddings at The Orangery: what the light does at 4pm in November." "Why our porcelain mugs crack in year one if you leave them on the Aga, and the glaze change that fixed it." Specific, dated, checkable, and unavailable anywhere else on earth.

The small-business advantage

Here the economics favour the small. A content farm cannot photograph your workbench. Your evidence exists already; the work is publishing it. Turning what you know into what a machine can cite is the subject of the next article.

Whether non-commodity material earns more citations, controlling for site authority, is our registered hypothesis H3. We measure it; we do not assume it.