Important SEO Trends You Need to Know in 2023

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plays a major part in every business. It is essential if you are to ensure that your website gets the exposure and therefore visitors it needs. SEO is about getting your site on page one of the relevant Google page, and requires expert knowledge to be carried out effectively. This is because Google – by far the pre-eminent search engine – ranks pages by way of algorithms that take into account various factors, and these algorithms are amended frequently.

SEO has been around now in some form for a little more than 20 years. In the very early days, it was sufficient to simply ensure your website content contained the ‘keywords’ people would use for searching. It’s a lot more sophisticated now! Consultants who devise SEO strategies are always on the ball when it comes to the latest trends, so what do they expect to see in SEO trends in 2023? Here are a few that are expected to dominate.

Voice Searches on the Rise

People are asking their smartphones questions by voice more often. This form of internet search is going to become very popular over the next year and more. Your SEO consultant should be able to help optimize your site to handle voice searches. It’s been noted that most people who search vocally are looking for local services – ‘is there a service station near me’ for example – so this is one area you need to look very carefully at to get the best results.

User Experience and Page Load Speed

More than anything, the speed at which your site and pages load on a hand-held device are going to have an influence on your sales. Users want to see things very quickly, and if your pages are slow to load they will go elsewhere. This is part of what is being called the ‘digital experience’ and is a driving factor in ensuring you get traffic. Make sure you engage a professional to ensure your site is optimized for page load speeds on mobile devices.

Video is the New Content King

On a mobile especially, it’s easier to watch a video than read an article, especially when on the move. This is why well-made, concise and engaging videos will become a massive influence on website ranking and beyond. It’s not easy to get a video right, so you should talk to someone with experience in creating smartphone video content.

Handheld Takes Over

We keep mentioning smartphones above. This is because 2023 looks like being the year in which mobile phone transactions overtake those on desktop devices. Before this year, the split was 60/40 in favour of desktops, but Google has seen the light and switched to mobile-first indexing in the summer of 2019. You need to follow suit if you are to stay in the game.

Those are just a few of the SEO trends that industry experts expect to see in 2023, so talk to your SEO consultant about getting your sites optimized to suit.