2023 SEO Trends and Predictions

From using semantic search to mastering AI-based content tools, here are 17 answers to the question, “What are some SEO trends that will be a focal point for your SEO efforts in 2023 and why?”

Semantic Search

One trend that is likely to continue dominating the industry in 2023 is semantic search. Semantic search uses machine learning algorithms to identify and interpret the meaning of words and phrases within content pages. As a result, it allows websites to rank higher for queries with a specific purpose or context.

This technology benefits business owners and webmasters by increasing click-through rates (CTRs) by providing more relevant information on SERPs.

Paw Vej, Chief Operating Officer, Financer.com

Reinforcing E-A-T

No doubt, content is still king. However, there is no good content without E-A-T: Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.

This is extremely important for humans who visit your website and for Google algorithms that contribute to ranking your content. Many SEO trends come and go. However, with E-A-T, every Google update puts more and more emphasis on it.

So, 2023 is the right time to make some content updates to prioritize E-A-T: focus on building valuable links from relevant websites with high metrics, adding customer testimonials and case studies, writing unique, informative articles, and other proof your content is worth your visitors’ time.

Nina Krol, Outreach & PR Team Leader, Tidio

Longform Content Key for Crawlability and More Keywords

Long-form content will be a top priority for our SEO efforts moving into 2023. Lengthy written pieces allow for increased crawlability by Google bots. The more quickly they can find your site, the better chance you have of ranking higher in a Google search.

Additionally, long-form content allows you to focus on a larger pool of keywords. Remember that keywords are informed by what people are already searching on Google. Knowing those keywords, you can write content addressing your audience’s questions.

Jonathan Zacharias, Founder, GR0

Forecasting With Context

With the uncertainty of a cookie-less future, clients will be increasingly focused on drawing tangible ROI from their organic campaigns in 2023—meaning SEOs will have to work even harder to provide a clear rationale for what they hope to achieve and the predicted long-term success.

Historically, this has always been tricky to get right—with SEOs often relying on unscientific “forecasts” that assume your client always attains top positions in the SERPs (it’s the dream, but it’s not always the reality!).

We should all look at building a more contextually relevant picture—providing a realistic yet inspiring growth plan based on market trends, seasonality, traditional forecasting data, and current/historical website performance. This can help set the scene (and expectations) whilst getting clients excited about the possibilities of working with you.

Ben Foster, Managing Director, The SEO Works

Focus on Data-Driven Stories

When I began my career in digital marketing with an emphasis on SEO two decades ago, the adage was, “content is king!” Today, content is still a cornerstone of SEO. The difference is that we produce exponentially more content daily than back in those days.

So, you need your content to stand out. The best way I’ve found for written content to stand out is to build stories around data. People love learning factoids they can share with their friends. If you have unique data that’s hard to find elsewhere, create some content around it.

You’ll make it much more unique and shareable than the multitudes of blog posts that likely came out simultaneously, covering the same topic as you. The difference is that most of them won’t report on unique data sets.

Dennis Consorte, Digital Marketing & Leadership Consultant, Snackable Solutions

Keyword Clustering Is Very Promising

Keyword clustering is an SEO trend gaining momentum in recent years and is likely to become even more critical in 2023. The idea behind keyword clustering is to group similar keywords into a single cluster to target them more effectively.

For example, rather than targeting the keyword “dog food,” you might create a cluster including the keywords “dry dog food,” “wet dog food,” and “grain-free dog food.” By grouping these related keywords, you can create more targeted and relevant content for your audience.

Not only will this help you rank for the keywords you are targeting, but it will also help you attract more organic traffic. As search engines continue to grow, they emphasise user intent and relevance more. Keyword clustering is an effective way to meet these new criteria and ensure that your SEO efforts are successful in 2023 and beyond.

Jim Campbell, Founder, Wizve Digital Marketing

Internal Link Development From High-Authority Pages

Backlinks and their “weight” in organic SEO continue to be a crucial component of any SEO strategy.

As a focus point in 2023, we’re continuing to develop how we utilize internal linking to spread authority from pages which have singular link juice from external sources.

The benefits of this approach are incredible in that a) you can allow the authority to ‘flow’ from pages that have obtained external links (and grown their singular authority over time) without driving links to them directly, and b) you’re doing so in a manner that is completely natural and contextual when search engine bots are crawling your site.

Andy Way, Head of Digital, Worldwide, PartyLite

Implementing How-To and Video Snippets

I’ve increased my search traffic by 27% by implementing how-to and video SERP features on my site. In 2023, I’ll be inspecting all of Google’s SERP features. SERP features have become a big part of Google’s strategy, so if you haven’t already thought about a SERP strategy for your site, 2023 would be the right time to do so.

These snippets, or features as Google likes to call them, always show at the top, which is great news since it gives you a chance to rank in the top results even though you wouldn’t do so naturally.

After implementing how-to and video snippets on my site, my traffic from Google increased by 27%, so there’s a lot to gain from implementing them. You can look at Google’s guide to see which snippets fit your site.

Holger Sindbaek, Founder & CEO, Solitaire Online

Finding Hidden Niche Keywords

SEOs must get smarter and wiser with keyword research to uncover new opportunities. As SEO continues to mature as a discipline, in many industries, more and more players compete for a finite number of high-volume keywords.

In 2023, I’ll continue to dig deep to find less competitive keywords yet still offer a high volume of relevant traffic. Almost always, these are “zero volume” keywords or keywords that appear to have a low search volume—but generate a lot of traffic. There are still opportunities like this if you look in the right places!

Michael Sandford, Editor, Pink Wafer

Taking Voice Search Technology Into Account

One of the fastest-growing trends in SEO is voice search, and if you want to have an impact in 2023, then this is an excellent place to focus.

If you want to be successful in this area, then you need to consider how people are asking for searches orally, as opposed to just through text. In text, we are much more likely to use correct terminology, phrasing, and wording, whereas voice leaves more room for interpretation, different phrases, and even the use of more slang words, so it is really important to consider this an extra part of your work with SEO, as paying attention could really help your business get ahead in a way that others are still coming to grips with.

Brett Downes, Founder, Haro Helpers

Topical Research Over Traditional Keyword Research

Traditionally, when doing SEO, you would do keyword research. This would mean you’d find a keyword and make that the page’s focus. Topical research is finding a topic and covering multiple keywords within that page.

E.g. You sell countertop cleaners and write a blog post on “How to remove turmeric stains from a quartz countertop. ” This would be the traditional keyword research route.

For the topical research, the blog would be titled, “How to remove stains from a quartz countertop” and within this, you would cover different keywords such as:

“How to remove turmeric stains from quartz countertop.”
“How to remove coffee stains from quartz countertop.”
“How to remove rust stains from quartz countertop.”
etc.

This way, you’re hitting lots of different keywords within a single page.

For a long time, I went on the typical keyword research path, but I tested a topical approach and was blown away by the results. The websites I work on have fewer pages but more traffic.

Zukais Mohammed, SEO Consultant, Zukais Digital

Primarily Posting Video Content

People enjoy watching videos. Simply put, it is more interesting than words and pictures because we can express ourselves a lot through motion. Around 70% of internet users consume online video content on a monthly basis, and half of those want to see more videos from businesses they like. An interesting video on your website is likely to keep visitors there longer, and Google will reward you with higher search ranks. The video offers a potent opportunity to promote your brand on sites like YouTube as well.

We personally will use it not only to draw more interest, but to help express ideas and feelings. There are some things that you have to see to believe, and seeing them in motion only makes them more believable. Travel blogging relies on really selling the reader on a destination, and video content could be the key to this for us moving forward.

Aiden Higgins, Sr. Editor & Writer, The Broke Backpacker

Conversational Keywords Will Be More Lucrative

I will vigorously roll out content optimized for conversational queries. Google’s LaMDA AI innovatively leverages natural language processing technologies to better process dialogues.

This makes voice search one of the juiciest slices of the SEO cake to aim for in 2023. I will target more conversational phrases, typical of how voice search users input them on their devices.

Take, for example, a business in the animated video production niche. Instead of targeting traditional keyword phrases like “best animated video production agency”, you would rather target the conversational variant like “which company produces the best animated videos?”

Of course, I will also integrate more vernacular, especially in my local SEO campaigns targeting specific locations. For example, if I was targeting queries optimized to California, I would also use CA, which is the localized vernacular for California.

Lotus Felix, CEO, Lotusbrains Studio

Site Speed Will Continue to Be a High Priority

Site speed will continue to be an important focus point for SEO efforts in 2023. Google has already indicated that site speed is a ranking factor, and with more and more people using mobile devices to access the internet, it’s important that your website is quick to load.

There are several ways to improve site speed, including optimizing images, reducing server response time, and caching static content. Talk to your web developer about implementing some of these measures on your website so you can ensure that your visitors have a positive experience when they visit your site.

Matt Tutt, SEO Consultant, Matt Tutt Digital Marketing

More Focus On Visual Search Optimization

Visual search optimization will definitely be one of my main SEO focuses in 2023. Over the years, visual search has gained a lot of popularity. As a tourism and booking company, I believe this will be a great opportunity for us to properly optimize our visuals to gain more attraction.

People nowadays often search for places when planning vacations or holidays with pictures from their friends and family or just found on social media. By properly optimizing our images, we can get in front of potential customers. This concept has continued to grow exponentially over the years. So, visual search optimization will be the key focus of my SEO efforts.

Khanh Tran, Growth Manager, Villa Finder

Optimized Mobile-First Indexing

Mobile-first indexing is a type of search indexing that gives preference to websites that are optimized for mobiles.

My focus for the 2023 SEO strategy is to create a more optimized website for mobile devices because more and more users now access the internet through mobile devices.

It’s estimated that by the year 2025, around 75% of internet users will be on mobile. So, as these numbers should grow in the future, my rigid focus will be on the mobile-first indexing trend.

Matt Magnante, Director of Content & SEO, Fitness Volt

Mastering AI-Based Content Tools

I run a boutique service focused on SEO content writing, and my primary focus in 2023 is scaling up by using AI-based content tools. 

High-quality content is set up to thrive regardless of Google’s algorithm changes. I can create high-quality content at scale by using AI-based tools like Jasper.ai and Surfer SEO. 

Since these platforms are becoming more and more well-known, mastering them is crucial to ensure that my content continues to perform well in the short and long term.

Axel DeAngelis, Founder, Jumpcoast