2023 SEO Trends: Boosting the presence of your website with SEO

By guest author: Julien Vidal

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is one of the four pillars of digital marketing. It is defined by the technical optimisation of a website and its content to be better referenced on search engines.

In recent years, SEO has undergone significant changes. Particularly through the various updates of the Google algorithm. From now on, other factors come into play when it comes to improving the position of a site in search engines. Find in details in this article the 3 trends 2023 of SEO for a successful strategy.

1. E-E-A-T: A Vital Element of Successful Content Strategy

Search engines work with algorithms.  They take into account different criteria to determine the relevance of a content in relation to a search performed by a user. Therefore, crawlers in an algorithm go through all the pages of a site to reference them in different themes.

Google uses no less than 200 factors to decide which sites should appear in its results pages. Some factors are not made public, others are voluntarily explained by the famous search engine. This is the case of the E-A-T quality factors. 

Expertise, Authority, and Trust are three parameters used to analyse a site and its content. Hence, Expertise guarantees relevant and very detailed information for the user. The second parameter “Authority” translates into the legitimacy of the author or owner of a site. Thus, all the activities from the owner on social networks and forums, are key factors for Google.

Finally, Trust can be defined in two parts. On the one hand, the relevance of the information offered on a site (comparison with other sources). And on the other hand, all the elements such as the use of a secure server in HTTPS or the presence of legal notices on the site.

Update in December 2022 “E”-E-A-T

Google has recently introduced a new parameter called “Experience”. The addition of the term indicates that the quality of the content is also evaluated by taking into account the actual experience of a user in relation to the subject. For example, if a doctor writes an article about medicine, it will have a much better chance of ranking higher than a generalist site that deals with the same subject.

Specific therapies, personal experiences or testimonials around the subject are major points to put forward in the content of a site. It is now an important parameter to take into account in the SEO 2023 strategy.

2. Maximizing the Benefits of Topic Clusters

A large part of SEO is based on keyword research. Therefore, in order to implement an effective strategy, it is essential to research relevant keywords for content creation. Tools are available to easily analyse the words that search engine users use on a particular theme. After performing a meticulous research of the targeted keywords, it’s time to create content related to it. For example, if you want to position yourself on the keyword “running”.

You will run a keyword research to find each word or expressions related to the practice of this sport.

• Training
• Equipments
• Competition
• Distances

These are keywords to target with dedicated and helpful content if you want to have a chance to rank on the main keyword “running”. Previously, it was enough to create many articles regularly for a successful SEO strategy. Now, a new parameter is part of the winning equation, the topic cluster strategy, which has a direct impact on the topic authority.

Rather than creating isolated articles, a “pillar” or “main article” will be established and related articles pointing to the main one will reinforce the topic. With a single article on a targeted keyword, it is sometimes very difficult to be positioned in the first results of search engines. We use the “topic cluster” technique to support the main article.

For example, we can create a pillar article on the “marathon” and create related articles to the distance.

• Preparation for the race
• Nutrition around the race
• Most popular marathons
• History of the race
• Specific equipment for the distance
• Etc.

These articles will support and push the pillar article on the targeted keyword. A must-have practice to implement in 2023.

3. Artificial Intelligence: Revolutionizing Content Marketing

Since December 2022, a radical change has occurred in content marketing. ChatGPT, which is based on an artificial intelligence model, has seen its popularity literally explode. However, artificial intelligence has been around for many years. Google, for example, uses it in its algorithm since 2015. Other tools were already available since 2020, in particular to allow creating content more easily.

The major difference with ChatGPT is on the one hand its simplicity of use, but also the quality of the generated content. In the form of chat, we can generate ideas and content very quickly in a few minutes. Some people even use ChatGPT to create articles 100% generated by artificial intelligence. A practice that can have negative consequences.

And those for several reasons:

• ChatGPT is based on content already available, without originality, and is simply duplicated
• The creativity of artificial intelligence is (for the moment) very limited. It simply cannot replace the creativity of a human.
• The database on which AI is based'stops based stops in 2021. The information after this date are is erroneous.
• Finally, to take up the E-E-A-T algorithm factors, the AI has no personal or professional experience around a specific topic.

Directly copying text from the AI will have little added value for a user. That's why Google is evolving its algorithm to limit the amount of automatically generated text that can be featured.

Use the AI tool smartly.

Nevertheless, Google has recently communicated on the use of AI related to create content on a site. Based on the principle that content should be created to meet the expectations of users, Google does not automatically penalise content generated trough through AI. However, it is necessary to make sure that this content has been reviewed, corrected and edited by a human to avoid ending up with a “Wikipedia” page on your site. ChatGPT is a very powerful tool in content marketing, especially for research and content structure. 

AI allows saving a considerable amount of time in many areas:

• Define the main keywords
• Create different article title proposals
• Create an article outline
• Create the set of subheadings
• Give the relative keywords that can be used in the content

You can then create relevant content based on the recommendations of artificial intelligence without running the risk of being penalised by the Google algorithm.

Conclusion

Whether it's updating algorithm factors, using artificial intelligence, or even optimising the legitimacy of a content, SEO is constantly evolving. Google strives to improve its tool to offer the best user experience when using its services. SEO in 2023 is all about understanding the expectations of the search engine and providing the content that will give the best response to a visitor.

Investing and implementing an SEO strategy as soon as possible is fundamental. This allows in the middle and long term to benefit from a very important organic visibility, synonymous with a successful digital marketing strategy!

Julien Vidal is a digital marketing consultant from Switzerland with 20 years of experience, specialising in SEO, SEA (Online Advertising), and web analytics to assist small and medium-sized businesses in enhancing their online presence and generating more leads. You can learn more about Julien on his website. You can find out more about him on his website: www.julienvidal.ch