The latest SEO trends: what to expect in 2023 and beyond
As the SEO landscape continues to evolve in 2023, we examine the important trends for those looking to stay ahead of the curve and remain competitive.
In this blog, we will take a look at some of the key SEO developments for 2023 and how you can use them to your advantage.
With the right approach and direction, you can ensure your website is optimised for maximum visibility, helping you to reach those extra visitors and drive more conversions.
Content. Content. Did I already say content?
You may be familiar with the expression "content is king". No exceptions here. When it comes to SEO success, content is what helps your website stand out from the competition and drives users to your site.
By providing content that is both informative and interesting, you give your visitors a reason to stay on your website and keep them coming back for more.
Voice search is going nowhere
The emergence of voice assistants such as Siri, Google, Alexa and Cortana has revolutionised the way we interact with web applications.
In order to optimise for voice search, it is essential to use natural language and long-tail keywords, because voice search queries tend to be more specific and focused than traditional, typed search queries.
It is also important to ensure that your content is organised in a way that is easy for voice assistants to understand. Ideally, the content should be broken down into simple and concise chunks of data, and organised into meaningful topics that can be searched for effortlessly.
Featured snippets
Appearing in a featured snippet can provide significant benefits for content creators and webmasters alike. Such snippets increase the visibility of the content, because it is displayed prominently at the top of the search engine results page (SERP).
It also provides additional opportunities to capture users’ attention and direct them to desired parts of your website, because featured snippets often include a link to the source of the information.
Search engines use a variety of factors such as keyword relevance and content quality to determine which content will be selected in a featured snippet. General rules apply – ensure that your target content is well-written, well-structured, and free from errors.
How mobile-friendly is your website?
Mobile optimisation is more than just making sure your website looks good on a mobile device. It’s about making sure the user experience is optimised for mobile users, factoring in elements such as page loading time, navigation, and website responsiveness.
Furthermore, it’s crucial to consider how the user interacts with your website on a mobile device – for example, users may interact and convert differently with a touch screen than with a mouse or keyboard.
Consider using Google’s mobile-friendly testing tool to check whether your website is optimised for mobile users.
Page loading and site speed
Studies have shown that slow loading pages can cause users to abandon a website, and can significantly decrease the chances of them returning or using the website in the future.
Google's PageSpeed Insights tool can help you identify potential bottlenecks that are slowing down your website, such as slow server response times, slow-loading images, and inefficient JavaScript and CSS etc.
By addressing these issues, you can significantly improve the loading times of your landing pages and the website overall, ensuring that your visitors have a smooth browsing experience.
User experience
User experience (UX) isn't just a trend but a key aspect of website design that can benefit both website visitors and website owners alike.
Good UX can make websites more attractive to potential customers, while providing a positive experience that encourages them to make a purchase or take another desired action.
This can have a direct impact on the bottom line of a business, as well as on its reputation.
Technical SEO
The ability of search engines to crawl websites is one of the most important elements of SEO. As the algorithms of search engines become more sophisticated and powerful, they are able to crawl deeper into websites and index the content more accurately.
For instance, if your website's technical side is not properly structured, it could be difficult for Google to crawl and index it, resulting in poor rankings.
Videos
2023 is shaping up to be an exciting year for video SEO. The popularity of video content continues to rise, with YouTube consistently being the second most popular search engine after Google, and TikTok rapidly gaining traction in the market.
Backlinks
The focus for link building (backlinks) in 2023 and beyond should be on creating legitimate, high-quality, relevant links. This means looking for link opportunities that are related to your industry and that are from reputable sources.
Backlinks from websites that have a high domain authority tend to be more effective at improving keyword rankings.
Conclusion
It's important to remember that SEO is a continuous process and not something that can be done and forgotten.
SEO trends are subject to change and it's always important to stay up to date with the latest algorithm updates and best practices.
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