Search engine optimization (SEO) is a complex, shape-shifting entity. That’s because Google is constantly updating its ranking algorithms to improve the search experience for its users.
To succeed at SEO, you’ll need to keep up with its ever-changing trends.
To help you put your best, SEO-savvy foot forward this year, we’re outlining four of the top trends to watch out for in 2023.
#1 Creators’ First-Hand Experience Matters More Than Ever
For many years, Google has used the E-A-T acronym to evaluate web page quality. EAT stands for:
- Expertise
- Authority
- Trust
This year, a new E is entering the picture—it stands for Experience.
So, what does this mean for SEO?
Put simply, Google is weighing web page authors’ or creators’ first-hand experience more heavily in their quality evaluations. For example, a blog article about knee surgery may rank better if it’s authored by an orthopedic surgeon, rather than a marketer, influencer, or lawyer. That’s because orthopedic surgeons have first-hand experience with the subject matter.
Experience is increasingly important, especially due to the growing use of AI-generated content. While content created by AI may be convenient for marketers, Google prefers to promote content that’s created by real people.
You can assure Google that your content is human-made by:
- Including author bios within your blog posts that outline their expertise
- Creating dedicated web pages for each of your authors that link to their work
- Linking to your authors’ social media accounts to signal that they’re real people
#2 Short-Form Content Is King
While content is still king, short-form content has recently stolen the crown. If you spend any time on social media, you’ll have noticed the sudden influx of short-form, vertical videos. This type of content first gained traction on TikTok, but Youtube, Instagram, and Facebook have quickly followed suit.
Naturally, this trend has implications for SEO. Google has recently started spotlighting short-form videos in its search results. These videos auto-play within the search engine results pages (SERPs). While Google isn’t currently discriminating against TikTok, there’s a chance it may promote Google-owned Youtube Shorts to a greater degree as time goes on.
This impacts your social strategy in a couple of ways:
- First, if you’re not already producing short-form content, you need to start doing so in 2023.
- Next, you may want to post this content on several platforms to increase the odds that Google selects your videos for spotlight features.
#3 Google’s Crawl Frequency is Dropping
As Google pursues it’s ambitious climate goals, it’s reducing how often it crawls web pages. After all, crawling uses up a lot of computing resources.
Brand-new web pages will likely be prioritized over established web pages during crawls. As a result, it may take more time for Google to notice your diligent web page optimizations.
In light of this change, you may want to:
- Optimize your web page content from the start – While updating old content will always be worthwhile, you may want to spend a little more time perfecting fresh content before you publish it. This way, Google’s first crawl can evaluate it in its full glory.
- Bolster your link-building efforts – Web pages with a wealth of backlinks get crawled more often. In turn, acquiring more high-quality backlinks may help you boost your web pages’ crawl frequency.
#4 Continuous Scrolling Is Disrupting Click-Through Rate Distributions
Click-through rate (CTR) has historically been closely correlated with SERP ranking. According to a recent Backlinko analysis of four million Google search results, the average CTR for each SERP position is as follows:
- 1st – 27.6%
- 2nd – 15.8%
- 3rd – 11.0%
- 4th – 8.4%
- 5th – 6.5%
- 6th – 4.9%
- 7th – 3.9%
- 8th – 3.3%
- 9th – 2.7%
- 10th – 2.4%
These stats display why ranking high on the first page of Google has always been a top priority—it directly affects your CTR.
That said, the introduction of continuous scrolling may disrupt this long-standing trend. That’s because continuous scrolling allows users to scroll past the first ten positions to find the content they’re looking for. In turn, second and third-page rankings will likely gain more clicks in 2023. If you have any web pages that are ranking on these pages, you should review their page titles and meta descriptions to ensure they are optimized for clicks.
Slay Your SEO in 2023 With Semgeeks
In summary, it’s important to stay on top of upcoming trends and switch up your SEO strategy accordingly. If you need help adapting your strategy to these fresh trends, the digital marketing experts at Semgeeks can help.
As a leading NJ SEO company, we can assist with your SEO, PPC, content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, and more.
Find out more about our digital marketing services today
