SEO Trends for 2023: Staying Ahead in the Ever-Changing Landscape

Staying ahead in SEO demands ongoing vigilance. Here are our expected 2023 trends to help you stay competitive.

Given the ever-evolving nature of search engines and user preferences, staying well-informed about the latest developments in SEO remains crucial. As we progress deeper into 2023, the SEO landscape is poised to be influenced by fresh technologies and evolving consumer behaviors. Enterprises that can adjust to these shifts will gain a distinct advantage in the online business arena. This piece will delve into several prominent SEO trends projected for 2023, offering valuable perspectives and recommendations to empower businesses in maintaining their competitive stance.

EEAT – the new concept of EAT

In December of 2022, Google unveiled an update pertaining to content quality guidelines, which is expected to wield a substantial influence on the landscape of SEO content crafting throughout 2023. The acronym EAT, symbolizing Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, has been expanded to encompass the factor of Experience, henceforth recognized as EEAT. The core intent behind this augmentation is to empower Google to more effectively assess search outcomes, ensuring that users are presented with valuable, original content generated by individuals who hold proficiency in the respective subject.

Meeting the criteria for EEAT necessitates not only crafting well-composed and enlightening articles but also fashioning them under the authorship of a knowledgeable individual who possesses firsthand experience or specialization in the given domain. Such an approach can significantly heighten the likelihood of the content attaining more prominent placements within Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Artificial Intelligence-powered SEO

When striving to uphold content trustworthiness, the utilization of increasingly prevalent AI tools like ChatGPT for content creation requires a cautious approach. In accordance with official Google guidelines, "employing AI to generate content primarily aimed at manipulating search result rankings violates our spam policies." However, it's vital to understand that leveraging AI for content generation itself is permissible, under the condition that the content remains valuable, of high quality, and originates from a reliable source—be it a human creator or an AI tool.

Nonetheless, it's reasonable to contend that, in its current early phase, AI-generated content still demands the intervention of a seasoned copywriter to effect essential revisions and ensure the delivery of a valuable, top-notch composition. Beyond just content brainstorming and creation, AI also holds potential advantages in technical SEO. For example, tools like ChatGPT possess the capability to generate code snippets such as hreflang tags or exemplar schema markup for various types of web pages.

Continuous scrolling

During 2022, Google introduced an ongoing scrolling feature across both mobile and desktop platforms in the US market, with plans for its forthcoming implementation in the UK. This feature permits users to navigate through numerous pages of search results without the need to click for the next page. However, Google has established a limit of six pages on desktop and four on mobile for a single query before revealing the 'More' button, indicating that the scrolling experience is not boundless.

The introduction of continuous scrolling prompts several pertinent inquiries. Firstly, will the enhanced scrolling convenience entice users to explore more search results than before? It is highly likely that users will engage with a greater number of listings, considering that extended scrolling periods have become commonplace on social media platforms; a similar behavior might extend to Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) as well. This heightened accessibility to listings could potentially amplify businesses' visibility and impressions. However, it also places a demand on businesses to craft captivating and attention-grabbing listings to uphold their competitiveness in the market.

Secondly, does the advent of continuous scrolling reshape the discourse around SEO rankings? Undoubtedly, it does. The pagination feature has been eliminated from the first few pages following the launch of continuous scrolling, thereby making references to keywords ranking on the first, second, or third page a thing of the past.

Lastly, if users can effortlessly peruse numerous listings, what impact does this have on the click-through rate? Prior to the implementation of continuous scrolling, approximately 54% of organic clicks were garnered by the top three search results. While predicting the precise influence of continuous scrolling on the click-through rate remains challenging, it's crucial to acknowledge that clicks might become more evenly distributed. Consequently, businesses may need to invest additional efforts to capture these clicks effectively.

What other modifications are anticipated to accompany the implementation of continuous scrolling?

Considering the heightened significance of standing out within search outcomes, businesses are projected to shift their focus towards enhancing their websites for enriched results. Enriched results, encompassing images, videos, and carousels, possess a greater visual allure compared to conventional blue links and hold the potential to drive increased clicks.

Furthermore, there's a likelihood of an uptick in zero-click searches. With the rise of featured snippets and enriched results, users can increasingly obtain information without actually clicking through to a website. This trajectory might lead to a rise in searches culminating in no clicks.

Consequently, it's imperative to vigilantly track data and assess how continuous scrolling impacts your business's organic traffic. If notable shifts in click-through rates emerge, contemplating the implementation of structured data, optimizing pages for featured snippets, or adjusting metadata may prove beneficial.