I've increased my search traffic by 27% by implementing how-to and video SERP features on my site. In 2023 I'll be taking a closer look at all of Google's SERP features. SERP features have become a big part of Google's strategy, so if you haven't already thought about a SERP strategy for your site, 2023 would be the right time to do so. These snippets, or features as Google likes to call them, always show at the top, which is great news since it gives you a chance to rank in the top results even though you wouldn't do so naturally. After implementing how-to and video snippets on my site, my traffic from Google increased by 27%, so there's a lot to gain from implementing them. You can take a look at Google's guide [1] to see which snippets fits your site. 1: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/search-result-features
Backlinks and their ‘weight’ in organic SEO continue to be a crucial component of any SEO strategy. As a focus point in 2023, we’re continuing to develop how we utilise internal linking as a means of spreading authority from pages which have singular link juice from external sources. The benefits of this approach are incredible in that a) you can allow authority to ‘flow’ from pages which have obtained external links (and grown their singular authority over time) without driving links to them directly, and b) you’re doing so in a manner that is completely natural and contextual when search engine bots are crawling your site.
Long-form content will be a top priority for our SEO efforts moving into 2023. Lengthy written pieces allow for increased crawlability by Google bots. The more easily they can find your site, the better chance you have of ranking higher in a Google search. Additionally, long-form content allows you to focus on a larger pool of keywords. Remember that keywords are informed by what people are already searching on Google. Knowing those keywords, you can write content that addresses the questions your audience is asking.
Mobile-first indexing is a type of search indexing that gives preference to websites that are optimized for mobiles. My focus for the 2023 SEO strategy is to create a more optimized website for mobile devices because more and more users now access the internet through mobile devices. In fact, it’s estimated that by the year 2025, around 75% of internet users will be on mobile. So, as these numbers are intended to grow in the future, my rigid focus will be on the mobile-first indexing trend.
With the uncertainty of a cookie-less future on the horizon, clients will be increasingly focused on drawing tangible ROI from their organic campaigns in 2023 - meaning SEOs will have to work even harder to provide a clear rationale for what they hope to achieve and the predicted long-term success. Historically, this has always been tricky to get right - with SEOs often relying on unscientific ‘forecasts’ that assume your client always attains top positions in the SERPs (it’s the dream, but it’s not always the reality!). We should all be looking at building a more contextually relevant picture - providing a realistic yet inspiring growth plan based on market trends, seasonality, traditional forecasting data and current/historical website performance. This can help set the scene (and expectations) whilst getting clients excited about the possibilities of working with you.
Keyword clustering is an SEO trend that has been gaining momentum in recent years, and it is likely to become even more important in 2023. The idea behind keyword clustering is to group together similar keywords into a single cluster, in order to target them more effectively. For example, rather than targeting the keyword "dog food," you might create a cluster including the keywords "dry dog food," "wet dog food," and "grain-free dog food." By grouping together these related keywords, you can create content that is more targeted and relevant to your audience. Not only will this help you to rank for the keywords you are targeting, but it will also help you to attract more organic traffic. As search engines continue to evolve, they are placing greater emphasis on user intent and relevance. Keyword clustering is an effective way to meet these new criteria and ensure that your SEO efforts are successful in 2023 and beyond.
Visual search optimization will definitely be one of my main SEO focuses in 2023. Over the years visual search has gained a lot of popularity. As a tourism and booking company, I believe this will be a great opportunity for us properly optimize our visuals to gain more attraction. People nowadays often search for places when planning vacations or holidays with pictures from their friends family or just found on social media. By properly optimizing our images we can get in front of potential customers. This concept has continued to grow exponentially over the years. So, Visual search optimization will be the key focus of my SEO efforts.
One that is likely to continue dominating the industry in 2023 is semantic search. Semantic Search uses machine learning algorithms to identify and interpret the meaning of words and phrases within content pages. As a result, it allows websites to rank higher for queries that have a specific meaning or context. This technology has been found to be beneficial for both business owners and webmasters because it increases click-through rates (CTRs) by providing more relevant information on SERPs.
I will vigorously roll out content optimized for conversational queries. Google's LaMDA AI innovatively leverages natural language processing technologies to better process dialogues. This makes voice search one of the juiciest slices of the SEO cake to aim for in 2023. I will target more conversational phrases, typical of how voice search users input them on their devices. Take, for example, a business in the animated video production niche. Instead of targeting traditional keyword phrases like "best animated video production agency", you would rather target the conversational variant like "which company produces the best animated videos?" Of course, I will also integrate more vernacular, especially in my local SEO campaigns targeting specific locations. For example, if I was targeting queries optimized to California, I would also use CA which is the localized vernacular for California.
Data Scientist, Digital Marketing & Leadership Consultant for Startups at Consorte Marketing
Answered 3 years ago
When I began my career in digital marketing with an emphasis on SEO two decades ago, the adage was, "content is king!" Today, content is still a cornerstone of SEO. The difference is that exponentially more content is produced on a daily basis than back in those days. So, you need your content to stand out. The best way I've found for written content to stand out is to build stories around data. People love learning factoids that they can share with their friends. If you have unique data that's hard to find elsewhere, then build some content around it. You'll make it much more unique, and shareable than the multitudes of blog posts that likely came out at the same time, covering the same topic as you. The difference is that most of them won't report on unique data sets.
Site speed will continue to be an important focus point for SEO efforts in 2023. Google has already indicated that site speed is a ranking factor, and with more and more people using mobile devices to access the internet, it's important that your website is quick to load. There are a number of ways to improve site speed, including optimizing images, reducing server response time, and caching static content. Talk to your web developer about implementing some of these measures on your website so you can ensure that your visitors have a positive experience when they visit your site.
SEOs are having to get smarter and smarter with keyword research in order to uncover new opportunities. As SEO continues to mature as a discipline, in many industries there are more and more players competing for a finite number of high-volume keywords. In 2023, I'll continue to dig deep to find keywords that are less competitive yet still offer a high volume of relevant traffic. Almost always, these are 'zero volume' keywords, or keywords that appear to have a low search volume - but actually generate a lot of traffic. There are still opportunities like this to be found, if you look in the right places!
Traditionally, when doing SEO you would do keyword research. This would mean you'd find A keyword and make that the focus of your page. Topical research is finding a topic and covering multiple keywords within that page. E.g. you sell countertop cleaners and you write a blog post on "How to remove turmeric stains from a quartz countertop" This would be the traditional keyword research route. For the topical research, the blog would be titled, "How to remove stains from a quartz countertop" and within this you would cover different keywords such as: "How to remove turmeric stains from quartz countertop" "How to remove coffee stains from quartz countertop" "How to remove rust stains from quartz countertop" etc. This way you're hitting lots of different keywords within a single page. For a long time I went the typical keyword research path but I decided to test a topical approach and was blown away by the results. The websites I work on have less pages but have more traffic.
We’re evaluating how influencer marketing would impact our SEO strategy. As research continues to show the high impact of partnering with influencers, my marketing team has been tossing around some ideas. We’re currently analyzing how we can best leverage this avenue to help us move up in the Google rankings.
Voice search has evolved a lot in recent years and is still getting popular and popular. For example, from Siri to Alexa to Cortana. The Voice search trend has grown popular and is expected to grow even more in upcoming years. My effort will be to optimize my business website with voice search as more and more consumers are adapting to this technology with each year passing.
Local SEO has become much more critical as consumers search for services or products in their area. More than ever, people want to support local businesses, so you must lean into focusing on how to reach those people with your SEO marketing. When your customers google search for a product or service near them, you want to ensure that you come up in that search. In 2023, we plan on optimizing our local search for SEO and reaching those customers in our area who need our services.
In 2023, I think that the focus of SEO will be on creating content that is truly unique and valuable to customers. Content has always been important, but in the past it was often possible to simply recycle existing content and repackage it. The rise of social media has changed this, and now people expect every piece of content they read to be well-written, interesting and informative. In addition, as more consumers start using ad blockers, there is an increasing need for companies to create more compelling content that will draw them in rather than relying on ads to do their job for them. As a result of these trends, I think that companies will increasingly focus on creating high-quality content that is unique and useful for potential customers.
Passage indexing is one of the latest trends in SEO, and it's one that I think will be a focus point for my efforts in 2023. Passage indexing is a way of indexing individual passages of text, rather than entire pages. This means that when someone searches for a particular term, the search engine can return results that include the exact Passage where that term appears. This is extremely useful for long-form content, as it means that readers can find the exact section they're looking for without having to wade through an entire article. It's also great for rankings, as it means that your content can be more targeted and relevant to the searcher's query. I think passage indexing is a trend that is here to stay, and I'm excited to see how it develops over the next year.
In 2023 Small businesses will be rising on various online platforms and would be under the focus point of SEO. After COVID people drive their attention toward online business hubs to buy fashion and aesthetic stuff at home. Now that we have seen how flourishing an online store on Instagram could be through various success stories being heard and told. The words like aesthetic and minimalistic both are on trend and will be on trend in the future. Before buying anything, people add these words and focus that the products, they are buying are worthy of their stories or feed or not.
In 2023, one of the main focus points for SEO will be mobile optimized. More and more people are using their smartphones and tablets to search the web, and this trend is only going to continue. As a result, businesses need to make sure their websites are mobile-friendly. This means having a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes, as well as ensuring that all of the website’s content can be easily accessed on a mobile device. In addition, businesses will need to pay attention to their page loading speed and make sure that their site is as fast as possible. With so many people using mobile devices to browse the web, businesses that don’t optimize their sites for mobile users will be at a disadvantage.