2023 SEO Trends You Need to Know About
April 28th 2023 | By Steve Grant
The online world is evolving all the time. As well as Google making countless algorithm updates several times a year, new technologies are constantly emerging that have the potential to transform the digital landscape. Which is exactly why it’s so important to keep on top of current and future SEO trends.
With this in mind, join us as we explore five of the top SEO trends you need to know about in 2023, and how to reshape your SEO strategy so everything’s in line with current search engine best practice to keep you one step ahead of your competition.
As a London SEO agency, we’re very much aware that a lot of the SEO trends for 2023 are concerned with content. In particular, creating content that shows value and expertise, as well as first-hand experience.
Google’s ability to detect which content is meeting its best practice standards is getting more and more sophisticated. And that means we all have to get better at meeting those standards.
The Helpful Content Update released by Google in August 2022 saw a refreshed focus on ranking helpful content written by humans (as opposed to AI bots, which we’ll talk about later). Basically it means content that’s written to be of value to Google’s users, rather than written with the aim of achieving top search engine positions.
And then in December 2022, Google took its Expertise-Authority-Trust (E-A-T) guidelines and added an extra ‘E’ for Experience. So now we’re working with E-E-A-T, or ‘Double E-A-T’, which is part of the search engine’s updated Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines. In a nutshell, Google is now looking at the experience of the author or creator when assessing the quality of published content.
These updates are very much part of what’s driving the top SEO trends for 2023. So let’s take a look at some of those trends.
1. Creating people-first, value-added content
Value is the name of the game when creating content in 2023. For years, SEO content was all about writing to get ranked for high volume keywords. But things have changed. Now the material we produce needs to satisfy search intent, and do a good job of answering users’ queries.
Google will prioritise well-written, thoroughly researched and relevant content, especially if it has the human touch and incorporates personal experience (more about this in SEO trend #2).
Relevancy is vital. Trying to pull traffic into your website by targeting high volume keywords that have nothing to do with your niche isn’t cutting it in 2023. Google will quickly smell a rat if you’re publishing posts about the latest celebrity news when you’re actually selling nutritional supplements.
It’s important to shift your thinking from writing for search engines to writing for humans. The thing is, if you get it spot on for humans, you’ll automatically tick the search engine box. So you’re getting two jobs done in one go.
People-first content is engaging. It answers questions. It informs. And when users are engaged, they spend more time on a website which means more dwell time, reduced bounce rate and a greater likelihood of them sharing the content, which creates more backlinks. All of these things send signals to Google that your site is a good authority on your specialist subject.
It’s important to shift your thinking from writing for search engines to writing for humans.
2. Demonstrating first-hand experience in your content
Writing from a personal point of view with first-hand experience in a topic is another one of the top SEO trends for 2023. It does a great job of building trust with readers and boosting credibility. And when readers trust your content, they’re more likely to share it, taking us back to that golden chalice of authority.
There is so much content out there these days. But not all of it addresses the questions people actually want answers to, or gives them unique perspectives or insights.
When you write from personal experience, you get across that deeper understanding that people want, making the content all the more helpful for readers. Which in turn satisfies Google’s Helpful Content Update and best practice guidelines.
Writing from a personal point of view with first-hand experience in a topic is another one of the top SEO trends for 2023.
3. Proving author authority
There has been a huge rise in the use of auto-generated content appearing in search results. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT have gone mainstream, and people are using them as a shortcut to content creation.
The trouble is, whilst Google has recently updated its guidelines to say that, providing content is crafted with people in mind, and not written with the sole purpose of boosting search rankings, then where it comes from is not an issue, the fact remains that the search engine is looking for quality content that’s up to date, and that can be trusted.
As our article on ChatGPT explores, the AI bot has various limitations in that respect. Not only is it unable to cover current affairs after 2021, it also doesn’t provide details of where it got its information. So it’s impossible to check the facts it includes in the content it produces.
This is precisely why Google has started to place greater emphasis on personal experience. And it’s also why it wants to see evidence of the experience and expertise of the author.
There are various ways to do this. Firstly, either have your content written by true experts in the subject, or have it checked by someone with the authority to verify the facts.
Including an author bio with the content will allow you to express the knowledge of your content writer, and creating author pages that list all the articles they’ve written is a good way to prove their knowhow.
Google wants to see evidence of the experience and expertise of the author of a piece of content.
4. Creating pillar content and topic clusters
One of the top SEO trends for 2023 is creating what’s known as ‘topic clusters’. This is a way of producing a batch of content on a particular subject.
But rather than writing a whole lot of articles that talk about the same thing, the aim is to create a ‘pillar page’ that covers an overview topic, followed by related offshoot pages that talk about individual aspects of that main topic. All those offshoot pages, or ‘clusters’, will be linked from the main pillar page, and the clusters will talk about the pillar content.
The aim here is to assist search engines in understand how your topics are related and to better see the context of your website. It also helps users navigate your website and find the information they need faster.
Pillar and cluster content therefore has a double benefit, boosting user experience and improving your chances of ranking for your specialist subjects.
5. Using Artificial Intelligence tools
There’s no getting away from the fact that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making waves in the digital world. And it hasn’t missed search engine optimisation off its target list. And that’s why it has to be one of the key future SEO trends for 2023 and beyond.
We’ve already talked about the pitfalls of using tools like ChatGPT for content creation. But there are other ways in which it can be helpful. We’ve explained them in more detail in our ChatGPT article, but to summarise, it can be used for:
- Keyword research
- Coming up with content ideas
- Formulating titles
- Ascertaining search intent (so you can produce the right type of content for your audience)
But Artificial Intelligence isn’t just about ChatGPT. There are other tools you can use to help you write and produce all sorts of digital content.
For example Grammarly, which checks for grammatical errors and plagiarism, AI video generator Pictory which helps you create and edit quality videos, and AI-based voice generators such as Lovo.ai and Murf, which allow you to convert text to speech and voice-overs.
But there’s an important caveat here…. anything you do with AI should go hand in hand with human intervention. Remembering that these tools are not human and can’t take the place of real expertise and insight is essential.
Artificial Intelligence and AI tools are making waves in the digital world.
SEO trends for 2023 – are you on top of the evolving world of search?
Keeping up to date with the latest SEO trends is vital if your website is going to rank above your competition, allowing you to corner your market and attract the lion’s share of online traffic.
Feeling slightly overwhelmed when it comes to staying ahead of the game? London SEO agency Figment is here to help. We’ve always welcomed emerging technology and SEO trends with open arms, and are equipped with the knowhow and expertise to take your business into the future with confidence.
Interested in chatting about your next SEO move? Please get in touch.