A two-minute test
Can you spot the slop?
Below is the homepage of a business that does not exist. It is not ugly, it loads fast, and it would pass most people without a second look. Hidden in it are 8 of the usual tells. Click every one you can find.
Wrong guesses are worth making. The things that look suspicious and turn out to be fine are the most useful part of this.
Click anything on the page below that you think gives it away.
Meridian Groupis invented, and so is every number, logo and quote on it. The page is not a copy of anyone’s website.
The eight tells, 0 found
Each one you find is explained here as you go.
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What this is really testing
Slop is not bad work. It is unmade work.
Every tell on that page has the same cause. Nobody decided anything. A model answers with the centre of everything it has read, so asked for a homepage for a business like this one, it returns the most average version of that: fluent, confident, structurally sensible and interchangeable with every competitor who asked the same question.
- The cause is not the technology. We use AI on every build. The problem is publishing its first answer.
- It gives a buyer no reason to choose you, so the decision falls to price. That is not a fight worth having.
- It gives an AI assistant nothing to quote. Asked to recommend a supplier, it cites whoever published a real number.
- It cannot be improved, only replaced, because nobody can say what it was trying to achieve in the first place.
The full guide sets out the standard a working website is held to instead: one job per page, a claim only you can make, and evidence beside it.
FAQ
Questions about AI slop
What is AI slop on a website?
Slop is what you get when a page is generated rather than decided: fluent, competent, and interchangeable with every competitor who used the same tool. The defining feature is not that a model wrote it, but that nobody chose anything. The same models, pointed at real decisions, produce work that is not slop at all.
How do I tell if my own website is AI slop?
Apply one test before anything else. Could a direct competitor put their logo on your homepage and publish it unchanged? If yes, it is slop whoever wrote it. Then check the usual companions: claims with no numbers or names behind them, three features in three columns, several equally weighted calls to action, stock imagery of nobody in particular, and no testimonial from a person anyone could look up.
Is a generic website actually bad for business?
Yes, in two ways beyond taste. It gives a buyer no reason to choose you over a competitor whose page says the same thing, which pushes the decision to price. And it gives AI assistants nothing quotable, so when someone asks an assistant to recommend a supplier, it cites the business that published a real number.
Does Google penalise AI-generated pages?
Not for being AI-generated. Google's stated position is that it rewards helpful, reliable content regardless of how it was produced, and its spam policies target content made at scale to manipulate rankings rather than to help anyone. Generic pages fail for a simpler reason: they are not the best answer to any particular question.
Is the business on this page real?
No. Meridian Group is invented, and so is every number, quote and logo on it. It was built as a demonstration, not as a copy of anyone's website. Any resemblance to a real page is the point being made rather than a comment on that business.
Start your brief
Start your brief
Tell us what you're launching and what it needs to do. We reply within one business day with a fixed price and the first available Monday.
- Websites from $13,000 ex GST, fixed. The exact figure comes with the reply.
- A reply within one business day, from Michael, not a form robot.
- A thirty-minute call to hear what the site has to do.
- A fixed-price scope, sent as a web page with a version number.
- Kick-off on the next available Monday, held for you. We take four studio builds a month.