6 Pitfalls to Avoid When Using ChatGPT for Website Content

​Has ChatGPT changed the way you work?

In the few short years since its 2022 debut, ChatGPT and similar AI-powered tools have become integral to our daily lives, helping us save time and effort across a wide range of tasks. But should content creation be one of them?

While many organizations are leveraging tools like ChatGPT to craft landing pages, blogs, and even thought leadership content, we would advise against it. Relying solely on AI for content creation can be risky, especially when writing for your law firm’s website.

Why Law Firms Shouldn’t Rely on ChatGPT for Web Content

ChatGPT is an AI-powered chatbot built on a Large Language Model (LLM), a type of artificial intelligence system that’s been trained on massive amounts of text to understand and generate human-like language. While tools like ChatGPT can be incredibly useful if you’re looking to work smarter rather than harder, when it comes to writing content for your law firm’s website, there are several reasons they can prove problematic.

ChatGPT can be wrong – and often is: When you prompt ChatGPT or a similar AI tool, it’s always going to generate a response. However, there’s no guarantee the response will be accurate. There’s always a chance that the training data behind the LLM is out of date or entirely based on misinformation. What’s more, a recent landmark study found that these models will always produce plausible but false responses, even with perfect data, due to inherent statistical and computational limits. The potential for so-called “hallucinations” is a concern for any business, but it’s especially problematic in the legal industry, where credibility is paramount.

AI tools are short on creativity and depth: ChatGPT cannot produce original ideas or content; it can only leverage information that’s already out there. Even with clear, detailed prompts, the output is unlikely to be as engaging as human-written content. AI-written content is unlikely to align your brand voice or match the tone of content you’ve already published. Readers who follow your blog or normally read your content will likely pick up on that. You’re much better off relying on the specialized expertise of your team, even though it might take more time.

Your firm may not own AI-generated content: Tools like ChatGPT’s generate responses based on their training data, and there’s no good way to determine where that information is coming from. The copy they create could already exist somewhere on the web, but you have no way to cite the original publisher. It might even come from a competing firm. So, who would own that content? You wouldn’t just go to another firm’s blog and copy their content, but that’s what these platforms could be doing. As a law firm, it’s important to avoid even the suggestion of plagiarism or copyright infringement, and there’s a risk that ChatGPT and similar tools could expose you to charges of both.

ChatGPT content can reflect biases: As of right now, we don’t really know the source of all ChatGPT data and how it’s reviewed for biases. We also don’t know if information has been fact-checked or how. Responses generated by ChatGPT may reflect stereotypes or make erroneous assumptions that reinforce and amplify existing societal prejudices and inequalities. This can create a host of problems your firm doesn’t want to deal with.

Information can’t be verified due to a lack of crawling – ChatGPT cannot crawl the web like a search engine. Unlike traditional search engine results, ChatGPT responses are based on a current database, and it can’t “look around” for the latest information. Any copy it generates may not reflect the latest laws, regulations, or rulings. Again, this is particularly troublesome for a law firm’s credibility. You’re much better off relying on the specialized expertise of your team, even though it takes more time.

ChatGPT content lacks originality: When responding to a prompt, ChatGTP and its counterparts predict the most statistically likely words based on their training data. As a result, the copy they generate can feel bland and repetitive. They lean toward safe, common phrasing rather than bold or unusual choice, and they favor stock transitions like “in conclusion” or “this guide explains,” as well as rigid list structures and cautious qualifiers, like generally,” “it’s worth noting,” or “in most cases.” Because these tools optimize for fluency and length instead of originality, they also tend to restate the same idea in slightly different words. If your firm’s web content is going to stand out, it needs a human’s unique creativity, something chatbots struggle to replicate.

How Law Firms Can Use AI Tools Like ChatGPT

While we don’t recommend using tools like ChatGPT to write your law firm’s website content from scratch, that doesn’t mean they have no place in your marketing workflow. When approached thoughtfully, these platforms can support your content creation process without compromising quality or credibility.

So how can your firm strategically leverage tools like ChatGPT?

Brainstorming Content Ideas Struggling to come up with blog topics? A tool like ChatGPT can help you generate fresh ideas tailored to your practice areas or frequently asked client questions.

Creating First Drafts for Internal Content ChatGPT can help draft internal documents, social media captions, or even outlines for longer pieces. A team member can then refine and edit the initial drafts.

Summarizing Complex Legal Topics AI is useful for condensing complex information into concise summaries, but its output should always be reviewed and verified by a legal professional to ensure accuracy before publication.

Repackaging Content for Different Channels You can use ChatGPT and similar tools to repurpose existing content into email copy, meta descriptions, or content snippets for LinkedIn or other social platforms.

Takeaway

Your website isn’t just a digital brochure—it’s your most important business development tool. The words on your site should reflect your firm’s expertise, speak directly to your ideal client, and guide visitors toward taking action.

That’s why using ChatGPT or other AI tools to generate web copy is particularly risky. Beyond the issues of inaccuracy, lack of originality, and bias, AI-generated content often misses the mark in terms of search engine optimization (SEO), user experience, and conversion strategy. In today’s highly competitive legal market, these shortcomings could prove detrimental to your firm’s lead generation and client acquisition efforts.

If your content wish list is a mile long and your time is short, it might be time to consider outsourcing. Our team is ready to help your firm develop and execute a robust content marketing strategy tailored to your audience, based on personalized consulting and in-depth industry research. Contact us today to learn more.