Dominate Search Results with These SEO Trends in 2023

In the digital marketing industry, in recent years we’ve noticed a significant evolution in various aspects of search engine optimisation (SEO). The current landscape has become much more integrated, and businesses now understand the importance of long-term growth and brand authority over short-term traffic gains.

In the past, tasks like keyword research and optimisation were often tedious and time-consuming. However, with the progress of marketing tools and Google's various keyword-related services, keyword research has become much more advanced and user-friendly, offering more freedom for searchers to deviate from basic queries.

Today, businesses recognise that content quality is the most crucial factor in SEO ranking, and they are investing in becoming authorities in their respective fields, rather than simply faking it. Building a positive online reputation is essential, and most businesses are willing to put in the necessary effort to achieve it.

As we move forward into 2023 and beyond, there are several SEO trends that will be important for businesses looking to improve their online performance. These include prioritising user experience, building high-quality backlinks, leveraging the power of video content, and optimising for voice search. 

By focusing on these trends, businesses can stay ahead of the curve and remain competitive in the constantly evolving world of SEO. We’ll show you how in this handy guide.

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Author Experience Trumps AI Generation Platforms Like ChatGPT

With the rise of AI-generated content, there is a growing concern about its impact on SEO. While AI-generated content can be a useful tool for quickly generating large amounts of content, it can also be repetitive and lack originality. This can hinder SEO efforts under the new Google algorithm, which places a strong emphasis on unique, high-quality content. 

When Google detects duplicate or low-quality content, it may penalise websites by lowering their search engine rankings. Therefore, it's crucial for businesses to strike a balance between utilising AI-generated content and producing high-quality, original content to ensure their SEO efforts are effective under the new Google algorithm.

The Importance of E-E-A-T

While AI-generated content has become increasingly popular, it's important to remember that author experience still trumps AI generation platforms like ChatGPT. Google has recognised this and has even added an additional E to their popular EAT acronym, which stands for Expertise, Authority, Trust, and now, Experience. This means that Google will consider the experience of the author or creator when evaluating the quality of content.

As a content creator, having real-world experience with the topic discussed is crucial in order to create high-quality content that resonates with your audience. For example, if you're creating content about heart disease, it's important to have experience in the medical field. This is where AI content falls short – it lacks the human experience and understanding that only a real person can bring to the table.

To ensure that your content stands out in a world where AI-generated content is increasingly common, it's important to focus on elevating the experience and authority of your content creators. This can be done in a number of ways, including:

• Author bios that communicate their knowledge and areas of expertise
• Creating author pages with links to all of the articles they’ve written
• Linking their social media accounts to provide social signals that they are real people and real experts

While AI-generated content may seem like an easy solution, it's important to remember that author experience is still essential for creating high-quality content. 

By focusing on elevating the experience and authority of your content creators, you can ensure that your content stands out in a world where AI-generated content is becoming increasingly common. So make sure to invest in your content creators, and your audience will thank you for it.

Google's Helpful Content Update Favours Quality Over Quantity

Google's Helpful Content update, released in August 2022, emphasises the importance of quality over quantity when it comes to creating content. 

This update reflects Google's ongoing efforts to serve high-quality content to users and ensure that they are satisfied with the results they receive from the SERPs. Here are some key takeaways from the update:

1. Helpful Content Defined: Google defines "helpful" content as content that is created for humans, appropriate for the target audience, relevant to the primary topic or subject area of the website, created by authoritative, experienced creators, and displays a depth of knowledge about the topic.
   
   
2. Quality Over Quantity: Instead of focusing on pumping out a high volume of content, prioritise quality over quantity. It's better to create a few pieces of in-depth, well-researched content that satisfies users than a large quantity of shallow, low-quality content.
   
   
3. Expanded Keyword Research: Expand your keyword research to include information beyond just search volume. Consider factors such as the types of content that are ranking for specific searches, the length of the content, the questions it answers, related sub topics and questions explored, links included, and the experience and authority of the creator.
   
   
4. Search Console Insights: Use Google Search Console to gain insights into the search queries that lead users to your blog posts. This will help you understand what people are looking for and create content that meets their needs.
   
   
5. Aim for User Satisfaction: Ultimately, the goal of creating helpful content is to satisfy users. By focusing on creating content that is relevant, well-researched, and authoritative, you can increase the likelihood that users will be satisfied with the results they find on your website. 

Creating helpful content may seem daunting, but it's an essential part of SEO in 2023. By focusing on quality, expanding your keyword research, and using insights from Google Search Console, you can create content that satisfies users and performs well in the SERPs.

Why TikTok Needs to be Included in 2023 SEO

With TikTok rapidly becoming the go-to app for younger users, businesses must incorporate TikTok SEO into their marketing strategies to attract and engage potential customers. Here are some reasons why TikTok needs to be included in 2023 SEO: 

TikTok's Popularity Continues to Grow

TikTok has surpassed Instagram as the number 1 app for sharing photos and videos. The platform has achieved a staggering 1.6 billion users by the close of 2022, marking a significant increase from its 2021 user base. 

Experts predict that this upward trend will continue in 2023, with the platform expected to hit 1.8 billion users by the end of the year. With such an extensive reach, TikTok is a platform that marketers cannot afford to ignore.

Targeting Younger Users

More than 60% of TikTok users are Gen Z, which means that they’re a demographic that cannot be ignored. With younger users turning to TikTok instead of Google for discovery purposes, businesses can leverage TikTok's popularity to reach out to a new generation of consumers. 

TikTok Offers Unique SEO Opportunities

TikTok offers unique opportunities for businesses to increase organic search traffic and drive leads to their websites. By following the right approach and optimising TikTok content, businesses can use TikTok to enhance their SEO strategies and stay ahead of their competition.

TikTok SEO Strategies

To optimise your TikTok content for SEO, you can follow these strategies:

• Use Hashtags to categorise content within a specific niche and target keywords that are relevant to your brand.
• Include Keywords throughout your video's description to help your audience find your content when searching for similar topics.
• Create Videos with Relevant Content that contain information relevant to your niche to attract and engage your target audience.
• Add Visual Elements like images and GIFs to help tell a story and draw viewers in.

With TikTok's popularity continuing to grow, businesses must incorporate TikTok SEO into their marketing strategies to attract and engage potential customers. 

By following the right approach and optimising TikTok content, businesses can leverage all the hype around TikTok to boost their organic search traffic and drive leads to their sites. So, if you want to stay ahead of the game, make sure to include TikTok in your 2023 SEO strategy. 

Understanding the BERT Algorithm Update

Google's BERT algorithm update has transformed the way search engines interpret and understand language, prioritising natural language queries over specific keywords. This has led to changes in the way businesses approach keyword research and content creation. 

The BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) algorithm identifies relevant sentences or phrases, which may not contain specific search keywords, but match the user's search intent. This is where entities come in.

Here are some key takeaways to help you understand and adapt to the BERT algorithm update:

• User intent is now a top priority. Businesses need to understand their customer's pain points and create content that addresses them. This means focusing on creating valuable, informative, and conversational content that matches the language used by the target audience.
  
  
• Content optimisation is essential for ranking on SERPs. High-quality content that matches users' search intent is more critical than ever, and businesses need to create content that is engaging, easy to read, and structured for readability.
  
  
• User engagement metrics, such as CTR, bounce rates, and time spent on the page, have become more important with the BERT algorithm. Google uses these metrics to determine the relevance and quality of content, so businesses need to focus on improving them by creating engaging content and providing valuable information to users.

• Featured snippets have been impacted by the BERT algorithm update, making it more challenging to appear in them. However, businesses can optimise their content to increase their chances of appearing in featured snippets by concisely answering common questions and using structured data markup.
  
  
• Local SEO: BERT has also impacted local SEO, making it easier for businesses to rank higher in local search results. Businesses need to optimise their content for local search by including location-specific keywords, creating local content, and building local links.

Some Helpful SEO Tools

When it comes to SEO, there are thousands of tools out there that can help you find your way in the day. We have assembled a list of the best of them, including:

• Ahrefs: A comprehensive SEO toolset that provides insights into competitors' search traffic, backlinks, and more.
  
  
• SEMrush: A suite of SEO tools that includes keyword research, competitor analysis, and site audit features.
  
  
• Google Analytics: A free tool that provides website traffic data and insights into user behaviour.
  
  
• Google Search Console: A free tool that helps website owners monitor and optimise their website's presence in Google search results.
  
  
• Yoast SEO: A popular WordPress plugin that provides on-page optimization features, such as meta descriptions and title tags.
  
  
• Moz Pro: A suite of SEO tools that includes site audits, keyword research, and link building features.
  
  
• Screaming Frog: A desktop SEO tool that crawls websites to identify technical SEO issues, such as broken links and duplicate content.

• Serpstat: A comprehensive SEO toolset that includes keyword research, site audit, and backlink analysis features.
  
  
• Majestic: A tool that specialises in backlink analysis and provides insights into the authority of websites and their linking profiles.

• CoSchedule Headline Analyzer: A tool that helps writers optimise their headlines for search engines and social media platforms. 

Power Up Your SEO Today

By understanding the latest Google updates and putting more focus on high level content, you can maximise your SEO efforts in 2023 and beyond. 

In the era of AI, human-generated content will still be king as long as the content is original, provides value and matches the intent of people searching in Google. For more information, get in touch with us at Kia Ora Digital today.