More businesses are realising the value of organic traffic to their websites and so the online competition is going to get stiff in 2023 and beyond.
Businesses will be working to improve search rankings for their websites to increase organic traffic. This is because organic site visitors are more likely to convert into customers as they are already looking for a solution to their problem.
In this article, you are going to learn the 10 SEO Best Practices to use in 2023 if you want to achieve higher rankings on search engines and get more organic traffic to your site.
Ready? Then let’s begin.
1. High-Quality Content
We’ve all heard that “content is king” and every “SEO guru” insists that you need to write high-quality content. But if you ask these SEO experts to define the meaning of quality content, you get varied and opinionated answers.
The most common question is about “the minimum word count fit for search engine rankings”. Some will tell you 1,200, others 3,000, or 2,000 and so forth. But the answer to this question is that more content doesn’t mean better content. This is one of the reasons Google can show a “snippet” showing the age of an actor when you search for it instead of a whole article. Which shows Google is evolving more and more from being a search engine to an answer engine.
Here are the best practices to ensure high-quality content in 2023:
- Know your target audience and how they search on Google
- Understand the problems or needs behind those queries they type on Google
- Provide effective and comprehensive content about the solutions to those problems
- Learn the needs of your target audience at each stage of the buyer journey and offer useful information to improve their customer experience
2. Keyword Research SEO Best Practices
Google used to generate search results by matching keywords in the search queries to content available on the internet. So content that had more keywords related to the query would have better chances to rank higher even if the content didn’t answer the users question as well as the one with fewer keywords.
Through AI technology and various algorithms such as BERT, Google has evolved to understand searches and their semantic connections better. Therefore, today, content is more about the quality and relevancy over inserting certain keywords for the purpose of them being there.
Here are the best practices for your keyword research strategy in 2023:
- Use a combination of SEO tools when preparing your keyword list. These tools include Google Keyword Planner, Answer the Public, and SEMrush.
- Use Google and YouTube to find secondary keywords around a topic and use them together with the primary keyword in your content. When you type a topic on the search box of Google, it brings autosuggestions which are the most popular terms that people have searched about that topic.
- Research your competitors and industry leaders. Analyze the keywords they are ranking for including the ones that have high search volume and low difficulty. Learn more about keyword research in this article.
3. Local SEO
According to Smart Insights, 46% of searches on Google have local intent. This means that in 2023, local business authority is going to be a major ranking factor for higher rankings. More businesses are going to try to make it to the top of search results. This is because almost every local search by users results in either an online or offline sale.
The authority of a business is determined by 2 factors: entity popularity and entity engagement. Entity popularity is determined by the number of mentions a business gets on social media, articles, videos, etc. While links are much better than brand mentions, mentions still can impact local SEO if they are many.
Entity engagement, on the other hand, will be determined by “engagement metrics” such as:
- How many people ask for the location of your business using Google Maps? High searches for your location also increases your ranking authority
- How many positive reviews your business have on Google My Business?
- How many people have searched your business using voice search on their smartphone?
All these are important metrics that show the level of authority your business has in its location. Therefore, optimise your Google My Business (GMB) listing and constantly update your NAP ( Name, Address, Phone) to keep it accurate.
4. Link Building
Google has consistently made it clear that content and link building are the two biggest SEO factors. A website with great content but no links is like a beautiful island that remains undiscovered and isolated in the vast ocean because it lacks a path for people to find it.
Backlinks enhance referral traffic and increase your ranking potential because they provide routes through which your target audience can get to your website.
Here are the best practices for link building in 2023:
- Guest posting is still going to be one of the ways to build links in 2023. Only this time, guest posts will be of high quality, providing value to the audience of that website. People will no longer focus on paid and spammy sites to submit their guest posts. Instead, they will go for the authority sites with the main aim of building connections.
- Link reclamation will continue to remain a link building strategy. Companies will identify sites that mention their services, products, or resources on their content and check if the links lead to the right pages. If they find broken links, then it will be a perfect opportunity to earn accurate backlinks.
5. Featured Snippets and SERP
A featured snippet refers to a short and quick answer to a searcher’s question that appears on SERPS. The purpose of the featured snippets is to provide the right answer quickly to the user. Statistics show that 8.6% of all traffic goes to the snippet and 19.6% of the clicks go to the first organic result. So by optimising your content around the answers to search questions by your target audience, you increase the chances of occupying the featured snippet position.
Here are the best practices to optimise for featured snippets:
- Identify a keyword you are trying to rank for and then use tools such as Answer the Public to learn how people are forming that keyword into questions. The next step is to use these questions in your blog posts and answer them in clear and simple-manner, short paragraphs.
- To rank for bulleted list snippets, you should prepare your article in the form of a bulleted list. Your title should be concise and your introduction short.
6. User experience on your website
User experience is going to be one of the biggest trends in 2023 and beyond. This is because Google considers user experience as a ranking factor. Page speed plays a vital role in improving your website’s user experience.
Here are some of the best practices for better user experience on your website in 2023:
- Stop using intrusive pop ups on your websites. Intrusive pop ups are those that cover the main content immediately as a user visits your site. Apart from hurting your SEO, intrusive pop-ups annoy your site visitors. Rather use the exit intent pop-ups or display the pop-ups after a user has spent some time on their website or after x% of scrolling the page.
- Use header styles (H1, H2, H3, etc) in your subheadings because it helps Google understand the structure of your content better.
- Make your content visually appealing using images, videos, and screenshots to illustrate your points.
- Create a responsive website. Responsive websites are those that auto-adjust to any screen size whether it is a smartphone, a tablet, or a desktop.
7. BERT and User Optimisation
Google launched a new algorithm known as BERT in 2019. It helps Google understand the topics and intent behind sentences, paragraphs, and search queries. So instead of analysing texts to match keywords, BERT improves the relevance of search results for users by understanding the intent behind search questions and statements.
Create content primarily to help your target audience solve their challenges. Instead of intentionally sprinkling keywords throughout the article, focus more on user optimisation. Aim at creating content that meets the user’s intent.
8. Content that focuses on E.E.A.T
Google considers the Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness (E.E.A.T) of a company for search engine rankings. Companies that have a poor reputation may find it hard to rank in the first SERP, specifically if you are in the “your money or your life” categories such as legal, finance & health.
Google will consider the content on your site and who it is authored by, reviews, and feedback about your brand. It will also check if your site has security or technical issues. Google will also examine user experience. If your customers find the purchasing process difficult, then it may hurt rankings because Google prefers directing users to sites with excellent customer experience.
Here are the best practices for E.A.T in 2023:
- Pay keen attention to your customer reviews. Encourage customers to leave genuine reviews about their experience interacting with your services. And respond to every review they give by constantly improving your services
- Improve your customer service. Respectfully engage with your clients when they seek clarification or assistance about your products
- User experience. Are your customers getting what they want without struggling? Is your purchasing process time-consuming
9. Voice Search Optimisation
According to BrightLocal, 56% of all voice searches are made using smartphones. This statistic means that voice search is popular among mobile users and mobile search is critical in the search industry.
Here are other statistics related to Voice Search Optimisation:
- 55% of teenagers are using voice search daily
- 60% of smartphone users have tried using voice search at least once in the last 12 months
Since most questions in Voice search are in the format of direct questions, they will likely play a crucial role in SEO in 2023. Voice search questions begin with keywords such as How, What, when, why, and where.
Here are the best practices for Voice Search Optimisation:
- Use direct question keywords. Add keywords such as How, What, When, Why, and Where when creating content specifically for voice search
- Use long-tail keywords to complete the questions for voice search
- Add filler words to make the questions more conversational. Examples of filler words include, of, of the, to, for, etc
These points are critical for Voice Search keyword research.
10. Videos
Videos are still going to be one of the important digital marketing trends in 2023.
According to a report by Zenith Media, the average online consumption of videos per person every day is likely to rise steadily in 2023 and beyond.
Zenith forecasts that the average amount of time people will send consuming videos in 2023 is 84 minutes and in 2021 it will be 100 minutes. It also revealed that certain countries like China are already consuming an average of 103 minutes of video per day.
Wyozowl reveals that 96 percent of people agree that videos helped them understand more about a product or service. This means that adding videos into your SEO strategy will increase engagement with prospects and existing clients.
Here are the best practices for video SEO strategy in 2020:
- Provide accurate schema tags to improve the way search engines understand your video content and make them rank according to relevant search results.
- Optimise the title and description of your videos to match the needs of the target viewer
- Make your videos mobile friendly
- Create a transcript for every video you make
- Use engaging thumbnail images that persuade people to watch your videos
Final Thoughts
Now that you have learned SEO best practices to implement in 2023, what are you going to do next? We can help you improve your search engine rankings and increase organic traffic to your site.
At Lemon Pulse, our experts will help you achieve your business goals by proposing effective SEO strategies. We will conduct an SEO audit for your website to identify ways to improve organic traffic to your site. Based on your target audience, we will help you design a formidable content strategy to increase engagement and attract prospects to your brand. Let us help you grow your business!
