ai slop words: the phrases that make a site read machine-made

why models overuse these words

Models write the most likely next phrase. In marketing copy, the most likely phrase is the one that appeared on thousands of other landing pages. So the output drifts toward the average of all marketing, and the average is vague. These words are safe, positive and fit any product, which is exactly why they say nothing.

the list

Verbs that promise without saying how

• unlock, unleash, elevate, empower, supercharge, revolutionize, transform, streamline, leverage, harness, delve, navigate, foster

Adjectives that fit any product

• seamless, robust, cutting-edge, innovative, powerful, intuitive, effortless, next-generation, world-class, holistic, comprehensive, dynamic

Phrases

• in today's fast-paced world, in the ever-evolving landscape of, take your business to the next level, a game-changer, whether you're a beginner or a pro, look no further, it's not just X, it's Y, the power of, at the intersection of, tapestry

what to write instead

Each of these words is a placeholder for a fact. Find the fact.

• Seamless integration with your tools → "Connects to Slack, Linear and GitHub. Setup takes about two minutes."
• Unlock powerful insights → "See which pages lose signups, ranked by how many people leave."
• Robust security → "SOC 2 Type II. Data stays in the EU."
• Elevate your workflow → say what step disappears.

If you can't find the fact, the sentence probably shouldn't be there.

where they hide on a landing page

Hero. The worst spot for stock phrases, because it's the only part everyone reads. Unlock the power of your data tells the visitor nothing. Name the job the product does.

Feature cards. Each card gets a verb and an adjective: Effortless collaboration, Robust analytics. Replace the adjective with what the feature does and the verb with who uses it.

About section. We're passionate about innovation could be any company. Say who you are, where you are, and why you started.

Call to action. Take your business to the next level → "Start a free trial, no card needed."

a five-minute edit

1. Paste your page copy into a doc and search for every word on the list above.
2. For each hit, write the fact it was covering for. A number, a name, an integration, a time saved.
3. If there's no fact, delete the sentence.
4. Cut every list of three adjectives down to the one that's true.
5. Read it out loud. Anything you wouldn't say to a customer across a table goes.

do ai detectors catch this?

Not reliably. Detectors that guess whether text was machine-written produce false positives on plain human writing and miss lightly edited AI text. And readers don't care who typed the words. They care whether the page is specific. That's why slop calculator scores what a visitor experiences, not authorship.

it's not only words

Structure gives copy away too: three-item lists of adjectives, em dashes in every sentence, every paragraph ending on an uplifting summary, headings phrased as "The Power of X". Read your page out loud. If it sounds like a keynote nobody asked for, cut it down.

count them on your site

Slop calculator counts stock phrases across your pages as part of the copy score, and shows the sentences it flagged so you know what to rewrite first.