If you have a business in Australia, you already know that your online presence matters. If you’re not making the most of online and digital marketing, then your competitors almost certainly are, and that might be why they’re getting more leads and more business than you are.
Digital marketing matters. Having a great website matters, and SEO matters, quite a lot. If you want your business to be found online next year, there are a few things you can start doing now. Here’s our list of the top SEO trends in 2023, and how you can make the most of them.
Google Is Still the Top of the Heap
There are people who are using different search engines like Duck Duck Go and Yahoo, but they’re the minority. In fact, studies show that more than 90% of all internet users use Google to search.
So when we’re talking about trends in SEO, we’re talking about how you can make your website more visible to Google’s crawlers and spiders, so they rank your site higher in search results.
The good news is that most of the other search engines base their algorithms around the same or very similar criteria, so if you’re optimized for Google SEO trends, you’ll do well there too.
Now that we’ve got that important fact out of the way, let’s look at the actual trends and tactics you should be using as we head towards 2023.
Top SEO Trends in 2023
SEO is a very interesting part of digital marketing, and it’s been around for a very long time. However, the things Australian SEO companies were doing ten or fifteen years ago are very different to what they would recommend now.
As search engines have changed the way they rank and categorise websites, trends in SEO have changed right alongside them. This means that many of the strategies that used to work don’t, and things we might not have done in the past are much more important now. Let’s take a closer look:
You’ll Need to Change Your Approach to Link Building
Five or ten years ago, one of the biggest Google SEO trends was to build as many links as possible, as fast as possible. Quality didn’t matter much, and article directories and similar low-quality sites were one of the goes to strategies.
However, search engines like Google are always working towards giving internet users better, higher quality results. So when they realized that people were manipulating their rankings by building masses of low-quality links, they changed the way their ranking structure works.
These days, it’s not so much about how many links you have, but where those links come from, and if you only have low-quality links, they won’t do you any good and can actually hurt your search rankings.
Links still matter, though, so make sure you don’t get rid of link building altogether. Just make sure that the sites you reach out to and the directories you list your business on are relevant and respected.
Quality Means People Friendly
In the past, Australian SEO companies and others would write content with search engine bots, crawlers, and spiders in mind.
This meant that instead of focusing on creating high-quality content that really answered people’s questions, they were using strategies like keyword density and even content spinning to create content that checked all the SEO boxes but was light on information.
Semantic search and other changes to how search engines review and rank content changed all of that, and it’s still going to be one of the big SEO trends in 2023.
Search engines have got a lot smarter. They are always looking for content that answers people’s questions better and offers more valuable information and insight. This is why longer form, more in-depth content now tends to rank higher than short posts and articles and why all the most prominent websites are writing ultimate guides that could be as long as 3,000 words – or more.
So, while content is still king, you should always write for people first and then work on SEO strategies where you can.
Ranking First in Organic Search Isn’t as Important as It Used to Be
Okay, this one sounds a little crazy when all the Google SEO trends since Google began were focused on getting to the top spot on the search results page.
However, as Google has evolved, they’ve also put more focus on paid advertising, which always appears at the top of the search results. So even if you are the first organic result for a particular search term, you might still appear below the fold.
This actually means that one of the biggest SEO trends in 2023 is going to be going back to an older idea: long-tail keywords.
Long-tail keywords are all about search intent. So instead of targeting simple, generic keywords like “surfboard shop,” you might target “custom surfboard manufacturing.” The first search might get more traffic, but the second will bring people who are looking for a much more specific product to your website.
Focusing on user intent when you create content and execute your SEO strategy might not get you to the top of the general search results in your area. Still, it will definitely get more of the right kind of searchers on your website, and that almost always means more click-throughs and conversions.
Also, local SEO will continue to matter more and more in 2023 and beyond. Being shown in one of the three Google maps results when people search for a local business or advice is crucial as those results take up a significant portion of the screen! Also, text results below it are highly localised.
So, for a business based in Melbourne, look for a Melbourne SEO specialist who can help you rank in Melbourne. You can go even deeper and work on search visibility in one or more Melbourne suburbs. Have a look, for example, who we helped a business who wanted to rank no. 1 in the iconic St Kilda Melbourne suburb with our specialised St Kilda SEO services.
The same is valid for other Australian cities and townships so whether you’re in Adelaide, Newcastle, Sydney, Canberra or any other major or regional township, be sure to work on your local search visibility.
You can even optimise for the whole state if that’s where you operate in. E.g. focusing on Queensland search visibility might be the best for QLD businesses operating state-wide.
Smart SEO Includes Featured Snippets
When you get right down to the nuts and bolts of it, one of the most important reasons people use the internet these days is to answer questions.
Whether it’s looking up the current time on another continent or how to convert from metric to English measurements, people are looking for information and answers.
Search engines have realized this, which is why one of the top SEO trends in 2023 will be ensuring that when someone asks a question about your industry, products or services, your content appears as a featured snippet.
When you are creating content, make sure that you include short, to-the-point snippets that quickly answer the core question being asked. These are most likely to appear as featured snippets, and that means you’re more likely to get traffic that way.
User Experience Is More Important Than Ever
A few short years ago, no one knew what UX was. Now, there’s a whole subsection of the digital marketing field that focuses exclusively on user experience, and it’s going to be one of the big trends in SEO for the foreseeable future.
SEO, PPC and other traffic generation strategies are designed primarily to get people to visit your site. Still, UX is focused on keeping them there and getting them into your sales funnel.
User experience is about designing websites that are easy to use and intuitive. That has the right kind of information above the fold and delivers relevant search results when your visitors want more information. It’s about answering questions, providing information, and making it as easy as possible for users to take the next step – whether that’s buying a product from your site or emailing your sales team.
In a way, you could say that one of the biggest SEO trends of 2023 isn’t about search engines at all. It’s about delivering the experience people want on your website.
Search Intent Will Keep Influencing Keywords
One of the most significant ways that Google changed their search algorithms is that it stopped being so literal.
In the early days of SEO, keywords were exactly that. You used them in your content and on your site, telling search engines exactly how you wanted them to categorize your website and pages. The problem with that system is that people were exploiting this by simply attracting more traffic by using popular keywords that had nothing to do with their website.
The idea, flawed as it was, was that if you cast the net wide enough, you were sure to catch a few fish.
These days, search engines are a lot smarter. They don’t match content to searches simply based on keywords anymore. Instead, they use a variety of cues and user behaviour to deliver results based on intent. They can tell – usually – when people want information, when they need to make a purchase, and when they are looking for tools or quick answers, and they deliver results accordingly.
This means that one of the biggest trends in SEO in 2023 will be figuring out exactly who your ideal customer is and how they are most likely to be using the internet and then delivering exactly that.
Content Over Marketing
If you have a limited budget for digital marketing, you might struggle to figure out how to allocate it. However, according to all the signs, SEO trends in 2023 will continue to favour quality content over marketing.
That means that you will get more return on investment in more high-quality content than in paid advertising. When you do use paid ads, you can also use much more detailed targeting to reach the people you most want to connect with, and because they will find the content they want on your website, there’s a much higher chance they will become a customer.
It’s not about throwing your marketing budget at the wall and seeing what sticks. It’s about knowing who you want to reach and what they want to know and consistently delivering exactly that.
Video Is More Prominent Than Ever
When it comes to consistent Google SEO trends, it’s unlikely that text-based content will ever not be essential, but as search becomes more intent focused, video is becoming a lot more important. That’s another of the ongoing SEO trends that will continue into 2023.
Many people these days want to get a detailed, visual explanation that they can watch rather than read, and brands that are great at creating video content are doing very well.
Make sure that you optimize your video content by adding detailed, keyword-rich titles and descriptions. Be sure to post them on your video channels and your website and social media channels so that you can get maximum bang for your video marketing buck.
Choosing the Right SEO Companies Is Key
It might seem like there’s another SEO company making big promises everywhere you turn these days.
This is why one of the biggest SEO trends in 2023 will be choosing your SEO partner carefully.
Don’t be fooled by big promises and claims. Anyone who tells you they can get you to number one on Google in a month is not telling you the truth. Good SEO takes time. It requires some work, and it’s a process, not an event.
Choosing an SEO company might not be as easy as you think as using an unreliable business partner can damage your search visibility for a long time. Be sure to check SEO company reviews before talking to some.
If you’re looking for the right SEO company to help you take advantage of Google SEO trends in 2023, and you want to work with an Australian SEO company, we’d love to tell you about our skills, experience and track record.
Contact the team at Catnapweb to learn more about what we do and how we can help you.
