What awaits us in the field of SEO? What is the winning strategy this year?

Below we have compiled the top elements that will influence our SEO campaigns in 2023:

1. The use of artificial intelligence (AI): both on one side (Google uses the power of AI in its Rankbrain algorithm) and on the other side of the coin (SEO experts use AI-based content creation tools):

• It means that the click-through rate and time users spend on a website will be key factors that Rankbrain will use when ranking content. Why? Because user experience will make the difference for the Rankbrain algorithm in 2023.
• It's good that everything you create on your website is organized and useful so that you captivate and engage readers.
• This applies to English content: More and more SEO experts are turning to AI content creation tools, and it seems that if things are done right, the content will rank high in search engines.

2. You must provide answers to complex questions:

• MUM is a model created by Google in 2021, a unique multitasking model to help users take fewer steps to find information online. Why was it necessary to create it? It is known that users make an average of 8 queries to find answers to complex questions, we want to reduce it to only 2 queries.
• MUM helps understand abstract languages and intent, so it helps users find information faster.
• MUM considers the context of people's searches to help deliver content that provides the information they need.
• This model can analyze videos, images, and text in 75 languages that answer complex search queries.

3. Create long-form content. What kind of SEO content do we suggest to you?

• Longer than 3000 words per page/article
• Well-structured with headings: H2 and H3, so that it is easy to navigate and it's scannable
• Interesting and different content.

- The purpose of using this content is to make it easier for readers to navigate, especially on mobile devices, as large chunks of text can be intimidating to many readers and can be awkward on a small screen.

- Another suggestion is to make sure that the content is easy to share so that readers can share it with a click of a button.

4. A Mobile-friendly website is essential for Google rankings:

You probably already know about mobile-first. But the trends say even more: it is estimated that almost 75% of Internet users will access the Internet exclusively through mobile devices by 2025.

And voice search should be a priority for you, as it is more practical on mobile.

5. Content should meet Google's EAT principle.

EAT stands for experience, authority, reliability, and the system with which the search engine invites its reviewers to analyze the content on the site. What does Google want to achieve with this system? Creating in-depth content that helps users find what they need, especially in areas important to people's lives and health where pseudo-experts have no place.

The EAT elements:

E - Expertise

A certified professional is the most reliable source of information, especially when it comes to the legal or medical field, where bad information can harm readers, and apart from these sensitive fields, there is also everyday expertise: from fashion to cooking.

A - Authority

Authority is about credentials and reputation: proof that those content creators know what they're talking about. You may have all the degrees and all the certifications in a field, but without a blog, speeches, or other public means to reinforce your expertise, you have no authority.

T – Trust

depending on how useful the content is to searchers. The goal is to create content that people want to consume. All articles and company information must be accurate, accessible, and linked to sources that meet Google's journalism standards.

Sites to be trusted must also be secure, and offer clear navigation and a privacy policy.

6. Video content will matter more and more

Optimize your videos to create key moments. They will be increasingly important in Google for video search so that users get the exact answer to their questions.

So in 2023, an effective SEO must include video:

• optimize your YouTube channel description, including an
• overview of what the channel is about
  keywords will also play an essential role in optimizing your video content
• while you don't want to stuff your video descriptions with keywords, a few useful keywords and hashtags can help you target your content to your target audience.

7. Do local SEO:

• In post-pandemic conditions, everything close to the user is more relevant
• People prefer to work and study at home and will probably do so even after the pandemic.

8. Semantic search. In this context Google deals with:

• determining the context and intent of queries, trying to answer user questions based on: "What do I mean"
• the study of words, the relationships between them, and what those words mean in specific contexts.

If you want to deliver content that works for your audience, you need to answer their questions: put yourself in your visitor's shoes and make sure you have content for any potential barriers to entry/purchase.

Tip: Add structured data: To help you provide useful information to your audience. This type of data includes information such as product ratings or recipe preparation time.

Here's what structured data results look like in search results:

9. Take care of Core Web Vitals

It's about site loading speed and providing a great on-page experience for users. Some of the Core Web Vitals are very technical, and Google has some tools like Lighthouse to help you understand what your site's speed issues are.

A WordPress website tip for you: it is recommended to use Cloudflare.com for site optimization, but also other plugins to handle image compression, code minification, and cache.

Test your site's loading speed here: https://pagespeed.web.dev/.

LCP: Measures charging performance. Google recommends an LCP of less than 2.5 seconds after a page starts to load.

FID: Measures interactivity. Google recommends an FID of less than 100 milliseconds.

CLS: Measures visual stability. Google recommends a CLS score of less than 0.1.

10. Take care of getting backlinks

• a backlink is a connection between 2 web pages that occurs by inserting a hyperlink to a URL in the text of a page (or on an image).
• Search engine algorithms give much importance to organic and quality links.

11. Integrating SEO efforts into multi-channel marketing

• People will discover your business through multiple channels, so you need to take a multi-channel approach
• Once people discover your business, you want to keep them interested: you have email and social media marketing as ideal tools for this
• This way you create new opportunities for people to visit your site.

12. The intention of the seeker is essential

„DWIM” - do what I mean (not what I say) - that's the motto Google seems to follow when displaying organic search results.

- User intent is the focus of search results, based on algorithms that try to know what the user wants, not necessarily the exact search strings the user types into the search box.

What Outdated SEO Tactics Are We Avoiding in 2023?

• Populate text with keywords -> topic-grouped keywords, related keywords and long-tail keywords, subtopics, related ideas, semantically related information, and context around a topic
  Providing bad user experiences: High bounce rates, bad design, mobile experience, Ads blocking content view -> We use a tool like hotjar.com which shows us videos of how people navigate the site, this will help us maintain the user on the page, pop-up only on the first visit.
• Ctrl+c, ctrl+v from other sites (e.g. product descriptions) or within your site -> we replace with the correct use of the canonical tag (this is the tag that can prevent Google from seeing the site pages as having duplicate content).
• Exact anchors (more than 20% of all anchors) ->partial anchors will be replaced.
• Misleading headlines won't get you results.