SEO has had a challenging year. Budget cuts due to the pandemic are still felt today as companies struggle to manage and outsource their SEO marketing. The search industry has also received major updates like new SERP features, leading marketers to adjust their online strategies.
With 2023 fast approaching, professionals are hopeful that the industry will only continue to grow and provide more value to users. Marketers are starting to speculate what’s to come in the new year for the SEO industry.
The “State of SEO” report, published by the Search Engine Journal, revealed the expectations of 3,600 SEO executives and professionals in 2023. The study observed the following emergent factors:
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Core Web Vitals
- Site Credibility with E-A-T
- Mobile-First Indexing
- SERP Features
Artificial Intelligence
The use of AI has become popular in today’s marketing playground. It is so prevalent that Google released the “helpful content” update, which favors organically written content over AI-generated ones.
Although, the update cannot fully determine if the content is derived from AI tools. The algorithm has gotten smarter and now emphasizes the readability and uniqueness of blog posts.
Digital marketers can still use AI in content creation, but they must ensure that their content is:
- Readable for its target audience
- Unique from previous content
- Free from grammatical errors
- Relevant to the topic tackled
Core Web Vitals
Core web vitals are metrics that measure page performance. These are website performance reports based on real-world usage data. Companies should take note of their site’s performance in the following metrics:
- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) – time to render the largest content element
- FID (First Input Delay) – the time it takes for the page to respond to users’ first interaction
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) – measurement for shifting elements in the site
Learn more about Core Web Vitals through this article.
Site Credibility with E-A-T
E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It is integrated into Google’s algorithm to assess the quality of search results. Basically, the algorithm considers the following:
- The expertise of the creator;
- The authoritativeness of the creator, content, and site; and
- The trustworthiness of the creator, content, and site.
Mobile-First Indexing
Phone searches have greatly increased in the past few years, calling for mobile SEO strategies. Mobile-first indexing refers to the algorithm focusing more on mobile content than desktop ones.
Digital marketers can carry out the following mobile SEO strategies to improve ranking:
- Make mobile-friendly content
- Create responsive web designs
- Use dynamic serving
- Utilize separate URLs for web and mobile sites
SERP Features
Search engines are improving the search experience by adding more helpful features. SERP features are additional elements found in search pages that supplement the traditional organic results.
Typically, they come in the form of the following:
- Rich Snippets – accompanying texts, data, or visuals to search results (e.g., price and availability for products)
- Paid Results – ads on specific keywords as a result of bidding
- Universal Results – image results, recent news, and featured snippets
- Knowledge Graph – additional info relevant to specific queries (e.g., address, measurements, contact details)
What to do in SEO 2023?
With these findings and other events in the last year, SEO marketers can hypothesize which optimization strategies will be the most relevant in 2023. Consider the following aspects in forming online marketing plans:
Content Creation
Publish Compelling Content
Content marketing will continue to reign supreme over all other SEO strategies. Compelling content is how brands drive traffic to their site.
In 2023, marketers should continue to create impactful content to increase brand visibility, expand marketing reach, and boost sales conversion.
Build Site Credibility
Establishing site trustworthiness is as vital as ever in ranking. Digital marketers should keep in mind E-A-T in forming SEO marketing plans. SEO strategies like link building will continue to help in building online credibility.
Humanify AI-generated Content
There is no secret nor shame in using AI tools in content marketing. It has made publishing piles of content quicker and simpler. But digital marketers should constantly assess their AI-generated content to ensure it is readable, unique, and appears written by real people.
Website Optimization
Add Visual Elements
The rise of SERP features drove brands to add visually interesting elements to their content. Snippets call for graphics, statistics, prices, images, videos, lists, and everything else that can be featured in the result pages. This allows marketers to amplify their content’s impact, which can lead to increased traffic and sales.
Optimize for Various Media
Although not mentioned in the top five results, multimedia searches have become one of the emergent factors in 2022 that caused marketers to adjust their SEO strategies. Google’s multisearch has changed the way users find content online.
Introduced last April, multisearch highlights using Google Lens to improve users’ search experience. This pressed marketers to integrate images into their SEO tactics to make the most of the new update. Furthermore, optimization for voice results had also been encouraged since voice search had become popular during this time.
Improve Website Performance
Digital marketers can never go wrong with consistently improving the speed of their websites. In fact, the faster the web pages, the better it ranks in SERPs. Companies can use the web core vital reports to assess the performance of their website and refine where improvements are needed. WordPress speed optimization is an excellent SEO service that can lead to a faster website.
Enhance User experience (UX)
When you improve website performance, you enhance user experience. Aside from speed, other factors can also boost UX. Enhance the user experience by using functional buttons, opting for cohesive design, and simply making web pages pleasing to the eyes.
Get Ahead on SEO Trends 2023
SEO is an ever-evolving industry. Optimize your web pages early and often by following trends and creating impactful online marketing strategies. Apply these insights to get ahead of the curve and maximize your website’s marketing capabilities.
Need Help with SEO?
Digital Marketing Philippines (DMP) is a growing marketing agency specializing in everything SEO. We offer complete website optimization, content creation, social media management, and graphic design services. Strengthen your SEO marketing for the coming year by availing of services by DMP.
DMP is updated with the latest search trends and updates. Learn more about SEO with our blog.
Sources:
- https://www.searchenginejournal.com/biggest-challenges-facing-seo-in-2023/467689/#close
- https://rockcontent.com/blog/seo-trends-2023/
- https://zenmedia.com/blog/top-seo-trends/
- https://www.digitalmaas.com/blog/local-seo-trends-2023/
Jomer B. Gregorio is a well-rounded expert when it comes digital marketing. Jomer is also known as a semantic SEO evangelist and practitioner. Check out our Digital Marketing Services today and let us help you in achieving positive and profitable results for your business.