A new year means new opportunities to grow in the search engine optimization (SEO) industry. In the year 2023, we can expect major changes in how websites and blogs are optimized to gain that top position in search engine visibility.
As we all know, search engines are something we cannot control as they are constantly evolving. Google’s December 2022 helpful content update and link spam update have just finished their rollout this January, and there are already chatters of another algorithm update.
So it’s crucial to stay updated and up-to-date with the trends to remain competitive. That’s why we’re here to share with you the 8 latest SEO trends you should optimize for this year!
Whether you’re a seasoned SEO pro or a beginner just starting out, this guide will give you the lowdown on the newest and top SEO trends you need to be aware of.
Let’s dive in!
1. Adding Another “E” in the E-A-T Concept
For a brief introduction for the newbies, the EAT concept in SEO stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness. It is basically Google’s way of ensuring that a website’s content is legit and credible.
The idea is to have someone who knows their stuff (Expertise) writing about a topic that they are an authority in (Authority) and making sure that the information they provide is trustworthy (Trustworthiness). When you practice all three, you will have higher positions on Google search results.
Just before 2023, Google added another “E” in the concept to stand for Experience. What does “experience” mean? It means that Google requires that content creators have firsthand, genuine expertise regarding the topic discussed to create high-quality and authoritative material.
For example, I write a blog post on a fashion website about the latest surgical procedures. It would not reflect well on the quality of the content because I am not a trained medical professional and have no background in the healthcare industry.
How to adapt to this trend?
So what can you do to optimize for this trend? Here’s how:
1. Make sure you only talk about topics in which you have real-life experience and knowledge.
2. Verify your information with reliable sources and make sure it is up-to-date.
3. Prove to Google that you are an authority on the topic by citing relevant references or providing proof of accomplishments, such as awards or certificates.
2. Google Goes Green with Less Crawls
As a search engine giant, Google has set commitments to operating on carbon-free energy by 2030. This 2023, they will start acting on this climate goal by reducing the frequency with which it crawls web pages.
What does this mean for our websites and the web pages that we want to rank? Google will still be scouring the web but at a slower rate. So when you make new changes to your website, it may take longer for Google to notice them.
Google has yet to adopt a system similar to the Index Now, which is now being used by several of the top search engines. With Index Now, web crawlers can quickly and easily identify any changes in site content so that it can be added to their index without delay. This ensures maximum visibility for businesses on major search engine platforms.
For this year, we must ensure that our websites are properly optimized for SEO when Google does crawl, so they rank high in search engine results. By optimizing our pages to their fullest potential, we can guarantee more organic traffic and visibility on search engines.
How to adapt to this trend?
For this year, we must ensure that our websites are properly optimized for SEO when Google does crawl, so they rank high in search engine results. Here are some SEO strategies you should practice to keep up with this trend:
1. Ensure that your website has a clean design, is well-structured, and loads quickly.
2. Update the content on your website regularly and make sure it includes relevant keywords for search engine optimization.
3. Make use of tools like Google Search Console to track any changes in performance or visibility so that you can take steps to improve it.
4. Keep an eye on the latest Google algorithm updates and adjust your SEO strategy accordingly.
3. AI Software Goes Hand-in-Hand with Content Writing
Artificial Intelligence development has come a long way since its inception and now plays an important role in content writing. AI-powered software provides users with a plethora of tools that help to create high-quality content quickly and effortlessly. Of course, this has an effect on generating SEO-driven long-form content today.
Generating new ideas, editing existing text, and even optimizing content are just some of the capabilities of AI writing assistants. These helpers create content that is accurate, engaging, and optimized for SEO. With the accessibility of these tools, anyone can definitely give SEO writing a shot without having to be an SEO expert.
Google algorithms actually have a hard time distinguishing AI-generated content from the real thing. This is all thanks to natural language processing, which makes it easier for machines to understand the language of a text and then generate similar-sounding content.
ChatGPT, Jasper AI, and Lumen5 are just some of the AI-driven content creation tools that are available today. If you are new to this SEO trend, these are the tools you could try!
How to adapt to this trend?
AI-powered writing assistants will be essential to generating SEO content this year. To make use of these tools, you should:
1. Familiarize yourself with the available AI content creation tools and their features.
2. Make sure that you’re familiar with basic SEO principles and practices so that you can guide the AI in producing SEO-optimized content.
3. Take advantage of these tools to generate high-quality and accurate content quickly and easily—perfect for SEO.
4. Always keep an eye on the latest Google algorithm updates so that you can use them to your advantage in optimizing content.
5. For long-form content, you can use AI tools to generate ideas and come up with a structure for your piece. You can then fill in the gaps manually and make sure that your content is optimized for SEO.
4. Core Web Vitals is a Priority
If you’ve been in the SEO game for quite some time now, you should already be familiar with Core Web Vitals. What is it and what is it for? Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics that measure web page performance, stability, and user experience. It is used to evaluate how websites respond to user interactions such as loading times, scrolling speeds, and more—all while taking into account the importance of mobile devices.
Google uses Core Web Vitals to determine the quality of your website’s user experience, which is a factor in ranking websites. This means that if your website does not meet the Core Web Vitals standards, it may be penalized by Google’s algorithms and will appear lower on SERPs.
Although the page experience update has been in the works for some time, Google only recently wrapped up its rollout of this new algorithm on March 2022. As a result, they are continuing to fine-tune and further develop the signals used to determine if a page is indeed providing users with high-performance and quality service.
This 2023, you’d want to focus on the three key page experience metrics:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
- First Input Delay (FID)
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
How to boost your website with page experience metrics in mind?
To keep up with this SEO trend, you must adhere to the Core Web Vitals guidelines and ensure that your page experience is as optimized as possible. To do so:
1. Optimize your images, minify CSS and JavaScript files, and use a content delivery network to reduce the loading time of your website.
2. Ensure that your website’s response time to user input is fast by reducing the number of requests made by your website and by using a responsive design that adjusts to different screen sizes.
3. Ensure that your website’s content loads smoothly and without any visual jitters by optimizing the layout and structure of your website and by avoiding heavy animations and pop-ups.
4. Use lazy loading, a technique where images and other heavy content are only loaded when they become visible on the user’s screen. This helps reduce the amount of data that needs to be loaded initially and improves the overall loading time of your website.
5. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse to monitor the performance of your website and identify areas for improvement.
5. Highlight Your Authors
In 2023, it’s not just your quality content that matters, but who wrote it. With the emergence of artificial intelligence writing tools, Google and its users are beginning to recognize the value of authentic, human-written content.
Think about it: anyone can write a piece of content, but only real people can write an article with a unique point of view and articulate ideas in a way that resonates with readers. That’s why it’s essential to highlight the authors behind your content and let them take center stage.
So this year, author authority is becoming a big deal in search engine algorithms. It’s all about who you are and how credible you are as a writer on a particular topic. If you’re writing about financial planning and you’re a finance expert, Google will see you as more trustworthy and credible than someone with no finance background.
How do you make sure Google recognizes your authors?
There are ways to make sure your authors are properly credited and recognized. Here’s what you need to do:
1. Create an author bio page on your website that showcases the credentials of each individual writer and includes links to their social media profiles, personal websites, and other publications they’ve written for.
2. Utilize Google Author tags to link content back to its author(s) and help build a connection between an author’s name and their published work.
3. Make sure to properly credit authors when posting content from other websites or platforms, and link back to the original source.
6. SEO Practices a Mobile-First Approach
A recent Statista report revealed that in February 2022, mobile devices accounted for a whopping 55% of Australia’s total internet traffic. It goes to show that a mobile-first approach to SEO is no longer a choice but a necessity.
So, what does that mean for your website? Well, search engines like Google have caught on to this trend, and they’re focusing on mobile-first indexing. This means they’ll mainly use your website’s mobile version to decide your position in the search ranking.
If your website isn’t optimized for mobile in 2023, it’s going to be at a disadvantage. Your search rankings will suffer, your visibility will drop, and you’ll miss out on all the traffic and conversions that come with being at the top of search results.
How to adapt to mobile-first indexing in 2023?
To make sure your website stays competitive, here are some basic SEO steps you need to take:
1. Optimize your website for different devices by using a responsive design that adapts to all screen sizes.
2. Make sure the content on your mobile site is easily readable and accessible across all devices, even small screens like those of smartphones and tablets.
3. Utilize Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) for faster loading times.
4. Make sure your images, videos, and other types of media are optimized for mobile devices.
5. Keep page loading times low by optimizing code and minifying files as much as possible.
7. High-Quality Content = Helpful Content
Quality content will always remain a key element in SEO trends from year to year. It’s why Google never stops updating its algorithm in order to favor the best-quality content and penalize low-quality pages.
In 2023, the definition of “high-quality content” shifted from simply good writing to something more meaningful—helpfulness. Prioritizing search intent and creating content that is useful to users, whether it’s how-to guides, buying tips, or product reviews will be essential for Google rankings this year.
Google has already begun rewarding websites that go above and beyond by providing truly helpful content. This goes beyond simply offering a product or service but also providing resources and advice to customers.
How to optimize content for helpfulness?
Optimizing content for helpfulness is a crucial factor in improving your website’s visibility and ranking in search results, especially when it comes to local SEO. Here are a few steps you can take to make sure your content is as helpful as possible:
1. Users usually seek direct answers to specific questions. Use keyword-rich headings and subheadings, and remember to include keyword-rich snippets to provide a brief preview of your content in the search results.
2. Use short paragraphs, headings, and subheadings to break up the content and make it more manageable. This will make it easy to read for both users and search engine spiders.
3. Incorporate multimedia like videos, podcasts, infographics, and animation to make your content more interactive and engaging. Video marketing and video content optimization are also becoming increasingly important in SEO.
4. Ensure your blog is optimized for mobile devices, as more and more people are using their smartphones to access the internet. A mobile-friendly website will improve your users’ experience and help your content rank higher in search queries.
8. Optimizing for Voice Search
With the rise of smart speakers like Amazon Echo and Google Home, more and more people are turning to voice search to find what they’re looking for online. So, it’s no surprise to find this in our SEO trends list.
This 2023, people will use voice searches more than ever before. That’s why optimizing your website is a must to get a spot in higher search rankings. It will ensure that your website appears in the search results when someone asks a voice query.
How to optimize for voice search?
Optimizing your business website for voice search can generate more traffic and leads. Here are some SEO tactics you can do to make sure your content is voice search-friendly:
1. Ensure your website is optimized for mobile users because voice searches are often done on mobile phones. So your website also has to be responsive, fast-loading, and easy to navigate on a mobile device.
2. Use natural language in your content, which means using long-tail keywords that sound more like a conversation than a search query. Users want information that’s easy to understand, so use simple language and short sentences to make your content more accessible.
3. Optimize your content for featured snippets to help you rank higher in voice search results and get more visibility. Featured snippets are brief answers to a user’s question at the top of the search results page.
Conclusion
The year 2023 will be a pivotal year for SEO—with Google’s algorithm focusing on helpfulness, mobile optimization, and authority websites.
Optimizing your content to meet these requirements will be essential if you want your website to rank high in organic search results this year. Taking a few extra steps now will ensure your business is well-prepared for the future of SEO.
Stay ahead of the pack and make sure your website is SEO-friendly to get the most out of 2023. From custom web applications to mobile apps, we offer software development services to help you get ahead of the competition! Get in touch with us today to learn more about how we can help.
