Search engine optimization, also known as SEO, is an essential part of digital marketing. When navigating through a digital marketing strategy for your business, it’s imperative that you focus on your SEO. You also need to anticipate the new trends that emerge every year, so you will know exactly what you need to do with your SEO approach.
First, what is search engine optimization (SEO)?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the set of practices and processes used to improve the quality and quantity of website traffic, as well as the ranking and visibility of a website or web page in search engine results.
Search engines, like Google, Bing, and Yahoo!, use crawlers, which gather information about all the content published on the internet. The crawler analyzes the contents of a webpage, as well as the internal links redirecting to a page within the site, and the external links redirecting to other websites. All of these will help the crawler understand what the page is all about, how it connects to the other pages, and how relevant it is to the users’ queries.
SEO relies on search engine algorithms as well. A search engine algorithm is a collection of unique formulas that a search engine uses to determine the significance, relevance, and overall quality of a web page and its content in relation to a user’s particular search. Search engines update their algorithms all the time. They’re constantly changing. For example, in 2021, Google ran over 700,000 experiments that resulted in more than 4,000 improvements to the users’ search engine experience. Of course, marketers have to adapt to these changes as well. They have to optimize web pages, landing pages, and more to make sure that they abide by the new rules and standards set by the algorithm.
A good SEO strategy is necessary if you want to boost your business’s website appearance and overall organic traffic. According to HubSpot, 60% of marketers say that inbound (SEO, blog content, etc.) is their highest quality source of leads. When good SEO practices are implemented, you have more chances of ranking and improving your website’s performance in the search results. The more traffic you have, the more leads you can get for your business.
Why is SEO important?
Search engine optimization is important for a number of things. For businesses or professional individuals hoping to improve their online presence with a website or try out a digital marketing approach to grow the business, SEO is a necessity.
Here are a few reasons why SEO is important:
- It helps boost organic traffic – According to BrightEdge, 53.3% of all website traffic comes from organic search. SEO can help you get the organic traffic you need for your website. More people will have the chance to discover and access your website.
- It helps build trust and credibility – Your business needs credibility before your audience can trust you. SEO can help with that. A good, functional website, with optimized content and valuable information, builds credibility and trust for a brand.
- It helps you understand the customer – SEO and SEO trends can also help you understand customers and your audience better. SEO can determine their pain points, their worries, their queries about a product or a service, their related interests to your brand, and more. You can use all of this information to improve your product or service, optimize your website, add to your content bucket, and more.
- It enhances the user experience – SEO is also partly responsible for providing a good experience for your website visitors. Are your web pages loading fast enough? Are the fonts readable? Are they getting the right value and information from your web content? Can the user navigate through your website without any complications? SEO can help you ensure that users have a smooth experience with your brand’s website.
- It has an impact on the buying cycle – SEO, of course, is also vital in the buying process. This is because SEO can help you spread the word about your products, exclusive deals, special offers, and more. This will help drive prospects into converting and making a purchase.
- It’s good for small to medium-sized businesses – Small to medium-sized businesses can also take advantage of local SEO to grow and stay ahead of the competition. Local SEO can help you engage with audiences locally, increase traffic to your website, and increase conversions.
- It’s cost-effective – Implementing SEO practices doesn’t have to be expensive. Unlike PPC or pay-per-click ads, SEO is cheaper and can be handled by yourself or within your team. It’s also a good investment for a long-term strategy.
- It supports content marketing – SEO trends and content marketing also go hand in hand. SEO can support content marketing and ensure that every piece of content you publish is optimized. Optimized content can lead to better reach, better engagement, and increased leads for your business.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a vital part of digital marketing. Everywhere you look, SEO has an impact, no matter how big or small the change is.
Emerging SEO trends for 2023 and beyond
As mentioned above, SEO is constantly changing. With the various algorithm updates, consumer behaviors, and new technologies being introduced to our lives, it’s no surprise that SEO will continue to transform. Here are the emerging SEO trends you need to consider for 2023 and beyond:
New “E” in E.E.A.T.
Last December 2022, Google updated its famous EAT (Expertise, Authority, Trust) algorithm, and added another E. This second E refers to “Experience”. This is because Google wants to emphasize and consider the first-hand experience of the author or creator when evaluating content quality. This might lead to more creators seeking subject matter experts and professionals for the betterment of content.
Artificial Intelligence in SEO
The surge of artificial intelligence, or AI, has also impacted a number of fields and industries, including SEO. With the popularity of the AI-powered language model, ChatGPT, as well as other AI content writing tools, AI-generated content will likely continue to increase in the upcoming months. In a survey by Influencer Marketing Hub, 60% of survey respondents have used AI in their marketing operations.
However, it’s also important to note that Google’s algorithm still doesn’t prefer AI-generated content. This means that when incorporating AI into SEO and content, it’s best to use it as a tool, not as a replacement. Use it to speed up your process, analyze data, research keywords and interests, summarize content, or give you new insights, perspectives, or topics to follow. Don’t rely on AI entirely.
Mobile-first Indexing
Mobile versions of websites and web pages will be given priority now. Google calls this mobile-first indexing, where the mobile version of a site’s content is crawled with the smartphone agent for indexing and ranking. There are over 4.32 billion active mobile internet users in the world, and 55% of website traffic comes from mobile devices. This is all the more reason for marketers and businesses to pay attention to their mobile sites.
Voice Search Engine Optimization
Voice search is becoming essential in our daily lives. Did you know that the number of voice assistant users in the US is forecast to increase to 157.1 million by 2026? This means millions of people are asking their Google Assistant or Siri to search for local restaurants, clothes, establishments, businesses, or other products that they need daily. What you need to do is optimize your site for mobile. Voice search is usually done on mobile devices, so optimizing for mobile will also affect your voice search optimization.
Multiple Content Formats on Multiple Platforms
While websites are important and Google still remains the largest search engine, it’s also important to remember that social SEO is fundamental as well. Don’t forget about your social media and the content you post there.
It’s best that you know how to repurpose your content and how to publish it on multiple platforms. YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat are the most popular social media platforms for Gen Z. They will most likely use these to search first, rather than Google.
More emphasis on Author Authority
There is more emphasis on author authority as well, most likely because of the increase in auto-generated and AI content. Search engines like Google want to ensure that the ranking content is actually produced by qualified humans for humans as the audience.
A few ways you can build author authority are by including author bios in blog content or creating author pages on your website. And of course, avoid using AI content as a replacement.
Product Page SEO
As Google continues to reward long-form content and competes with online retail sites like Amazon, it’s more important for your product pages to be detailed and helpful for users. In 2022, Google made several changes to product search results, including adding more details to product review snippets and expanding the eligibility to merchant listing experiences.
Optimize your product pages and add other details that will benefit the overall customer experience. Think about shipping details, return policy, specific directions or instructions on how to use them, as well as high-quality images that will encourage audiences to buy.
Videos in Search Results
Video snippets are likely to show up more in search results now as well. Especially when it comes to “how-to” topics, be prepared for a video in the top result. Add that to the fact that in 2020, the number of people watching digital videos in the US reached 244.4 million. This means optimizing your video for search is essential. Optimize your video titles and descriptions, add closed captions, break your YouTube videos into chapters, and more.
Search engine optimization today is broad-ranging and only continues to evolve. Make sure to include and consider these 2023 trends as you build and adjust your SEO strategy for this year and beyond. If you need help from experts, you can always count on our SEO services.
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