Introduction
With the rapidly evolving Google algorithm, it became imperative for a content marketers to stay updated with the latest Search Engine Optimization trends and optimize their websites accordingly to rank higher in Google’s search results for relevant keywords. As the year 2023 starts, here are a few SEO trends that marketers should look around to stay ahead of the competition.
Trend 01. Focus on Mobile Friendly Website
According to app monitoring, firm App Annie on average people spent around 4.8 hours a day on their mobile phones. You always need to follow SEO trends by optimizing your website to be mobile-friendly in formatting and content, your SEO content will be more effective, and your site will rank higher in search results when prospective clients use your keywords and phrases in search.
There are several benefits associated with having a mobile-friendly website, including –
A. Reach more customers, faster.
According to Statista – globally, the total number of smartphone subscriptions was estimated at 625 9 million, and it is forecast to surpass 7690 million by 2027. Hence, the mobile-friendly website is more likely to get acceptance and would reach more customers in the lesser time frame.
B. Mobile-friendly content is sharable.
Due to ease of sharing, Mobile -friendly content is more likely to be shared by the users.
C. Offers the best browsing experience for visitors
While standard desktop websites do not display well on mobile devices, mobile-friendly websites adapt to smaller screen sizes and format their content and user interface in a mobile device-optimized way, offering the best browsing experience for the users.
D. More convenient for customers
The website is mobile-friendly and enables users to interact and engage with your brand across devices, without facing any inconvenience.
Trend 02. Optimize Content for Voice Search
In addition to smartphones, the popularity of digital assistants such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant has increased the number of voice searches in recent years. Recent statistics show that 41% of adults use voice search on a daily basis, and this could increase throughout 2023 as well.
The primary goal of voice search optimization is to optimize content to improve the ranking of your content on voice search technologies and virtual assistants.
There are various techniques for effective content optimization for Voice Search –
A. The focus should be on question keywords and long tail keywords.
Voice searches are different than text searches. These are longer, more specific, and more likely to be in the form of full questions. Long-tail keywords are highly targeted search phrases that are specifically convoluted to serve searcher intent.
B. Use conversational language in content.
The focus should be on simple words that are widely used in real life. Avoid using all the words that are generally not used in real life.
C. Make use of schema markup
Schema markup is a structured data vocabulary that enables search engines to better understand the contents of the website.
D. Keep the website fast and smartphone friendly.
Around 27% of mobile users are using voice search on their smartphones. Therefore, it is important to design mobile-friendly voice search optimization.
Trend 03. Use of semantically related keywords
Google has a very sophisticated approach to narrowing searches by keywords. In addition to linking a keyword or keyword phrase to the best websites on that topic, it uses similar related keywords in searches. The application of semantically related keywords provides search engine spiders with greater insight regarding the topic that the content discusses and the depth it provides. This information allows the search engine algorithm to rank the page more accurately.
The more semantically relevant keywords you use in your content, the more likely Google will recognize and rank you higher in its web searches.
Semantic SEO offers several benefits, including –
- Improves user search experience.
- Enable google to understand the content of the website.
- Enhances brand authority and expertise.
- Increase Average Session Duration
Trend 04. Optimize Images For SEO
Well-optimized images offer better visibility in Google website ranking, which in turn improves website traffic. Hence, it is essential for marketers to optimize images on their sites according to the ongoing SEO trends. JPEG, aka Joint Photographic Expert Group, and PNG are popular image types that can be displayed on any type of device. These formats can be used for blog post images, icons, logos, and other images. Effective image SEO offers various benefits :
- Improve the visitor experience: Well-optimized images make it easy for users to navigate your website. In the case of large images leaves less space for other elements on the page.
- Faster site speed: Images that are not properly formatted result in slow loading of site, affecting the organic ranking of the site.
- Makes site more accessible from various devices: Proper image optimization makes site navigation easy for different devices such as screen readers.
Trend 05. Focus on Video Marketing
Video marketing is gaining traction as one of the most effective forms of digital marketing. As per estimates, 86% of Businesses now use video to generate leads and also achieve their marketing goals. There are a lot of different video marketing platforms out there such as YouTube, and Instagram that can be used for marketing products and services. Video SEO tips and best practices are mentioned below.
- Load the title with the most important words
- Leverage what people are searching for.
- Should focus on proper detailed description for the video.
- Chaptering is an essential part of your video SEO.
- Include a video transcript.
- An effective thumbnail in important
Trend 06. Content Creation in Different Formats
Marketers should focus on creating different content formats, as no single type of content appeal to every visitor. For example – Infographic images are used in email marketing, blog posts, social media ads, etc. Some of the Most Popular Types of SEO Content formats are mentioned below –
- Blog Posts
- Long Form Articles
- Original Research
- Video
- Infographics
- Images
- Case Studies
Summary:
As algorithms are getting advanced and are more clearly able to understand the intent behind a user’s search, are becoming more able to group semantically related keyword variations. If you are an SEO person then you need to be updated on every ongoing SEO trends. The year 2023 would see an increased focus from marketers towards consolidation of similar content pieces to better align with search intent.