Top 9 SEO Trends in 2023

As an ever-evolving field, SEO in digital marketing requires a constant reassessment of trends in order to align with the constantly updating algorithms of search engines like Google. This attention to detail ensures a better overall user experience in search results.

In light of this, I have compiled a list of 9 tips to help you stay current on the latest SEO trends and incorporate them into your strategy.

• Relevant content for your target audience
• The additional E in the E-E-A-T 
• Focus on Content Quality than Quantity
• Helpful content rather than a generic description
• Authors’ authority is a key
• AI-assisted content
• Image SEO
• Crawl frequency might become lesser
• Faster Loading is now a necessity

1. Relevant content for your target audience

By prioritizing relevant content for a specific audience, Google emphasizes the importance of aligning your website’s offerings with the content you share. For example, if your website primarily sells software services and you suddenly start posting about cooking, Google’s algorithm may flag this as irrelevant to your target audience. Ultimately, Google aims to provide the most valuable information to its users, making it essential for content to be tailored to the needs and interests of your audience.

2. The additional E in the E-E-A-T 

You may already be familiar with Google’s E-A-T principle, which stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness. This is a key factor that Google’s search engine uses to determine the quality and relevance of content for its users. Now, Google has added an additional E for Experience to this principle. 

In order to rank highly in search results, websites must not only be experts in their field and have a level of authority, but they must also be able to demonstrate authenticity and user experience. To do this, Google may analyze the profiles of users who contribute content to a website, including their bios and links to other platforms. It is therefore important for website administrators to ensure that user profiles in their content management system (CMS) are up-to-date and include relevant information about their experience and authenticity.

3. Focus on Content Quality than Quantity

Posting many blogs on a particular topic and not providing any valuable insights to the users will not work. Users nowadays search content to find the answer to their problem and not read generic content. Google identifies the same as well and will give priority to the content that helps users with answering a question. Therefore the quality of your post matters more that the number of posts.

4. Helpful content rather than a generic description

In order to provide high-quality content that is helpful to users, it is important to consider user satisfaction. While this can be difficult to measure, Google uses various metrics to determine user satisfaction, including the following:

• The content is created by a human
• It is appropriate for the target audience
• It is relevant to the primary topic or subject matter of the website
• It is created by an authoritative and experienced user
• The website displays in-depth knowledge about the topic

To provide helpful content, try conducting keyword research that goes beyond just volume.

Include the types of content that rank well for specific searches, length, questions answered, and the experience of the creator. Then, use this information to create a search query that accurately reflects what users are looking for and how your content can meet their needs.

5. Authors’ authority is a key

This point is once again an addition to the 2nd point. The importance of authority in the ranking of auto-generated content in search engine results pages (SERPs) is increasing rapidly. This is because Google wants to ensure that the content being published is from a real person and intended for a real audience. With the availability of tools that can quickly generate content through artificial intelligence (AI), it has become easier to copy and paste this content into websites as blog posts. However, this can often lack the authority and experience of the user publishing the content, leading to questions about its value and usefulness for users. In order to provide high-quality content that meets the needs and expectations of users, it is important to consider the authority and experience of the content creator.

6. AI-Assisted content

While it may seem counterintuitive, AI-generated content can actually have more benefits than drawbacks. Tools like copy.io or ChatGPT are gaining popularity for their intuitive responses to user commands, making it easier to generate ideas for articles and blog topics that may have previously taken days to develop. One effective way to use these AI-assisted content creation tools is to quickly generate points on a topic and then use them as a foundation for writing your own content, adding your own explanations and insights. In this way, AI tools can be useful tools for streamlining the content creation process without sacrificing quality or authenticity.

The use of AI-assisted content writing tools has just started and will start to increase in the coming years.

7. Image SEO

The importance of Image SEO is usually neglected but it plays a key role in ranking your website. Google values alt text and schema markup that help its crawlers understand the content of images and makes websites more accessible to all users, including those with visual impairments or limited internet bandwidth or connectivity. By implementing these strategies, webmasters can not only improve their search engine ranking but also contribute to a more inclusive and user-friendly internet experience.  

8. Crawl frequency might become lesser

In an effort to reduce carbon emissions from its data centres, Google is de-prioritizing technologies that do not have a direct impact on its users. This means that crawl usage may be reduced, which can make it more difficult for new content to rank highly in search results and for new websites to reach the top. 

To overcome this challenge, it is important for creators to increase the frequency of posting blogs while maintaining key elements like expertise, authority, experience, trustworthiness, and helpful content

9. Faster Loading is now a necessity 

In the past, the faster loading speed for websites was a nice-to-have for businesses, but now it is a necessity. As the attention span of users continues to decrease, the need for fast-loading websites becomes even more important. When a website takes too long to load, users may become frustrated and leave the site, leading to a high bounce rate. A high bounce rate can negatively impact the search engine ranking of a website.

In addition to improving the user experience, faster loading speed can also help with SEO ranking because it is a factor that search engines consider when ranking websites. By optimizing the loading speed of a website, you can improve its ranking in search results and drive more traffic to your site. There are various ways to improve the loading speed of a website, including optimizing images, minifying code, and using a content delivery network (CDN). By focusing on improving the loading speed of a website, you can not only improve the user experience but also boost its ranking in search results.

To conclude, Ranking on SERPs might seem challenging but does not have to be that way. All the points revolve around having Expertise, Experience, Authority and trust. Makes sure to consider the below points on the SEO strategy.

• Relevant content for your target audience
• The additional E in the E-E-A-T 
• Focus on Content Quality than Quantity
• Helpful content rather than a generic description
• Authors’ authority is a key
• AI-assisted content
• Image SEO
• Crawl frequency might become lesser
• Faster Loading is now a necessity