Gaining a higher position in Google's search results for relevant keywords is the aim of search engine optimization, SEO. Technical SEO has a significant impact on a site's ability to be crawled, user experience, and click-through rate. SEO is the process of optimizing a site for Google's search algorithms.
Predicting the future is always a guess, what the future tells us is based upon what we know now, not what the future actually will be. Changes in the algorithm are a secret until it is released, every leak of a new change would start the race from those who want to go around, and make shortcuts. So this is a compilation of what I found predictors think tomorrow in SEO could be.
Introduction
In the early days of SEO or search engine optimization, you would pack your content with keywords to trick search engines into giving you a better ranking.
Although this approach has been around for a while, search engine algorithms started to dislike it in 2012 because it produces keyword-rich sites but lacks substance and, generally speaking, is of no service to consumers. To rank in search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing when people look for information online, SEO writing involves designing, developing, and optimizing content.
Understanding SEO trends is important if you are serious about getting your website ranked in search engines. You must be aware of current SEO trends and how they affect your marketing plan if you want to continue appearing at the top of search results.
For instance, as voice-enabled searches are becoming increasingly common with the rise in the number of Amazon Echo Dots, Siri, Google Home, and other voice-activated devices used in homes and offices, the nature of your on-page SEO needs to change if you want to continue growing traffic. According to researchers, nearly 50% (?) of searches are done via voice search. The technology, voice search, is changing how we optimize our websites for SEO. Online search trends reveal that users searching using voice are increasingly searching for local results.
Almost 60% of those consumers who use voice search are using voice search to look up local businesses. This indicates that people are increasingly using voice search to help them locate establishments or locations that are close by. Google says searches for "near me" businesses have increased substantially in recent years. So in 2023, we are having to fight SEO in other ways to get ranking in the search engines.
Page load time is another important factor in determining your website's ranking in search engines. For example, Google believes that pages that load faster provide the user experience. There are many ways to achieve this. For example, reduce the size of images, remove render-blocking JavaScript, and improve server response times.
The methods change slightly, but it seems like two main factors are still in play, one stronger than the other, it seems. SEO trends are always changing, what was a success in 2022, will be an unimportant factor in 2023, and in the future. Having content structure together with a structure of links set up and optimized on-site is, as an SEO trend, what you should certainly focus on in 2023, instead of focusing only on content marketing, building links, and optimizing for search engine algorithms. Link building remains one of the critical factors used by Google and other search engines in ranking content. It acts as the feedback through which Google judges your content quality and ranks it on the top of the SERPs (search engine results pages).
Google algorithms typically get results from structured data like FAQ pages or descriptions. To give your content the best chance of being included in search results, structure it with heading tags and other markups.
Making sure your Google My Business listing is set up, optimized, and properly placed on the right local directories is one of the most important and straightforward components of a successful SEO plan, you have to start with.
So what are the two important factors for SEO in the future?
Same as before probably, content and backlinks, with some new additional strategies to think about.
I can tell, I haven't implemented all these tips yet in my ecommerce store, but I will successively do so. Time is an enemy when you are a one man company.
If you want to make sure that your website stays at the top of search results, it is important to stay on top of these ever-changing SEO tips.
Here are some of the important SEO, you have to work on in the future:
1.Backlinks
After John Mueller of Google said in the video for the Google SEO Office Hours that in the future, he could see Google's search ranking algorithm in which links are not as relevant to the overall algorithm as they are today, this information has shaken up the SEO world quite a bit. He even hinted that links are not weighted as heavily as they have been throughout Google's history with the ranking algorithm.
Staying on top of changes to the algorithms that Google is making is important if you want to rank well in the future. One of the reasons that backlinks perhaps lose their importance a bit, maybe because the fight against link spam is largely lost on Google.
The Penguin algorithm, as well as other changes in Google's infrastructure, which allowed Google to perform an increasing number of link-related ranking functions, marked the tipping point in 2012. When Google was originally released, links and backlink signals made it an improved search engine over its competitors. After Google gained traction, links were understood to be important to improving rankings. Web directories and link-selling brokers are just two examples of whole companies arising in response to the demand for links. In addition, different link-building strategies have emerged, including forum spam, comment spam, and reciprocal link-building.
But just saying, stop worrying about links as much, and focus on your content. Superior content has been more and more sought after, and really, better stuff usually generates links without requiring a link request or any other substantial link-building activities. And link signals are stronger now than they were when Google first started, perhaps the most important thing to remember. Links, as a ranking factor, are not, and will not ever be, dead.
Search engine optimization will still in most cases depend on link building. It is simple to capture why having links among your net pages is useful. The quality of the inbound connections on your internet site remains essential withinside the eyes of Google and different seek engines. Therefore, whilst finished correctly, it's going to nonetheless decorate your seek results. The higher the one-way links are, the better the internet site will rank.
By using artificial intelligence, Google's algorithms have gotten smarter over the years. A recent example is their BERT algorithm update. BERT is an acronym that stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representation from Transformers, in case it was clearer(!?).
With this update, Google can understand this language better than humans. BERT, like previous updates like RankBrain, explains why techniques like keyword stuffing are no longer effective and can lower your search rankings. BERT looks for niche and valuable conversational content.
Measure yourself against Google's score, Expertise, Authority, and Trust (EAT) to ensure you're BERT compliant.
What it means for a website to have a good EAT is defined by Google Guidelines. EAT is critical if your business offers advice or sells products or services that could affect someone's health, happiness, safety, or financial stability.
2.Content
A website with poor, uninteresting content and a lack of useful information, is something we don't need. It has never been useful for anyone, to make an audience is, and will, high-quality content be important in the future.
Content is an essential element of SEO, as it helps search engine algorithms understand the context of a webpage and its relevance to a question. Without good SEO content, search engines won't have enough information to index your pages correctly and help them rank. Content is also important for SEO because it makes search engine optimization easier to do, and it's a vital part of SEO because it's the vehicle you use to reach and engage audiences.
Your content is important because it creates a positive experience for the customer, and improves the usability of your site. Additionally, user experience is an important factor in how Google decides which content should rank in the search engines for top positions. SEO content is not just any content, it needs to be high-quality and useful to the visitor. SEO content is content that's been well-optimized for search engines, and it's important because it provides a match when a user types in a keyword. It's also important because it helps search engines understand the context of the webpage and its relevance to a question, and it helps to build your brand image. Finally, SEO content is important because it helps search engines deliver search results that are valuable and relevant to the user.
Today having a website is no longer enough. Search engines use content and SEO to rank websites, so without a solid SEO strategy, your pages will never be seen or shared. SEO and content work hand in hand to help search engines rank websites. Content is not just any content, it needs to be high-quality and useful to the visitor.
Google wants to deliver search results that are valuable and relevant to the user, so SEO is about providing the right signals to search engine crawlers and algorithms. When someone performs a search, search engines scour their index for highly relevant content and then order that content in the hopes of solving the searcher's query. The ranking determines a website's relevance to a search question, so a higher ranking means more relevant content. As search engines become more efficient, the ability to produce SEO-friendly content becomes even more important.
Google's algorithm involves more than 200 ranking factors, the relationship between which defines Google’s position on search engine results pages, SERPs. Optimizing your site and content can help your pages rank higher in the search results, putting you ahead of the competition. The goal of SEO content is to consider it valuable and relevant enough to be positioned on the first page of the search engine results page.
Content optimization is a valuable technique that can be used to improve the content and SEO performance of a website. It is an effective strategy for improving search engine rankings and boosting brands. It is important to optimize your content for both keywords and user experience. Implementing a historical optimization strategy is a great way to improve SEO. This is especially true for blogs that have been established for a few years and have a fair amount of content already. A few SEO strategies that make sense for your business can also help to improve click-through rates, engagement, and rankings. SEO and content marketing should be seen as two connected and complementary strategies. It is important to remember that without creating high-quality content, you will never fully benefit from it.
Voice search is a growing technology and one of the more important SEO trends that allow users to search the web using voice commands. Voice search optimization is important so that you can rank higher in searches using voice search. Things you can do to optimize your website are:
Use natural language and long-tail keywords. Voice queries tend to be longer and more natural-sounding than typed queries. Therefore, it is important to use long-tail keywords that reflect the way people speak.
Optimize your website for mobile devices. Since many searches are made by mobile users, it is important to have a mobile-friendly website. That means responsive design, fast loading speeds, and easy navigation.
By following these tips, you can improve your website's ranking and attract more potential customers.
As we've written before, it's no secret that this type of search is on the rise. Nearly 50% of consumers are quite a lot, so it's important to start by optimizing your website for voice search.
4.Tik Tok
TikTok is a mobile application that allows users to create short, video clips. In 2019, TikTok overtook Instagram to become the world's number one app to share photos and videos, with an underline on videos. According to research, in 2021, TikTok will have about 650 million users worldwide. This number is expected to reach 750 million users now, 2022.
More than 60 percent of TikTok younger users are now turning to TikTok over Google for search purposes. With so much attention being directed at TikTok, it makes sense marketers are taking note as well. And with the right approach, you can use all of the hype surrounding TikTok to increase organic search traffic and bring leads to your website.
Hashtags are used to classify content in a particular niche. They enable users to find relevant posts quickly and are very useful in a Tik Tok video.
Using hashtags allows you to target keywords relevant to your brand. This makes your content easier to discover by your audience when they are searching for a similar subject.
Keywords are words or phrases that describe your video. When creating your video, be sure to incorporate these keywords throughout your description. You can also use keywords to make videos that include relevant information for your niche.
Adding visual elements such helps to tell the story and attract viewers. For instance, adding a video of you holding a trophy or playing sports could add a lot of personality to your video.
5.Core Web Vitals
With Google’s recent announcement that core web vitals will be a ranking factor for SEO starting in May 2021, it’s clear that these metrics are becoming increasingly important. But what exactly are Core Web Vitals, and why are they so important?
Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics that measure website performance. These metrics include things like load times, interactivity, and visual stability. All of these factors can have a significant impact on the user experience of a website and thus become increasingly important to Google in terms of website ranking.
Core Web Vitals are crucial for SEO for a few main reasons. They first offer an impartial evaluation of a website's user experience. This is becoming more and more crucial as Google strives to give its users the best experience possible. Second, because core web vitals are constantly changing, they can alert you to potential problems with your website before they become serious ones. The visibility of your website on search engines can be directly impacted by core web vitals, which will soon be a direct ranking factor for SEO.
Core Web Vitals are, as you can see, becoming more and more crucial for SEO. Make sure you're paying attention to these metrics if you want to make sure that your website is accessible and offers a positive user experience.
Read more about Core Web Vitals here.
6.Search Intent
The term search intent describes the goal of online search, also known as a user or audience intent. This is the motivation behind certain searches. After all, everyone who researches online is looking for something.
But is anyone looking for a solution to the problem they are facing?
Are you looking for a specific website?
Or are you searching online for something to buy?
This type of search is common online and often represents different stages of a user's journey.
Google has invested noteworthy resources over the years to enhance its algorithm, which is intended to recognize user intentions during searches. Google wants to place the most relevant web pages near the top of the search results for the search term being used by the user as well as the intended search intent. Because of this, you must make sure that your post or page is relevant to the audience's search criteria.
There are four types of search intent:
Informational
Information is what the searcher is looking for. Who is the president of the United States? might be answered with this information. Or something like, how does the blockchain work, which calls for a longer and more detailed response. Not all informational searches, however, are created as questions.
To optimize for informational intent, you need to target informational intent keywords and pay close attention to what information users are searching for. Write your content as clearly as possible.
For example, "how-to" queries typically look for structured procedures.
Make content appear as an ordered list with clearly numbered steps. Make each numbered step a subtitle with details below. Google uses these headers to compile rich snippets.
Regardless of the topic or question type, make sure that when writing your message content you structure it properly. Include important information, such as steps or answers to questions, in page titles, descriptions, and headings whenever possible. You can then use other text elements such as lists, charts, and graphs to make your information easier to read.
Navigational
The searcher is trying to find a particular website. They are already aware of their destination. They probably Google it, instead of entering the entire URL into the address bar because it is quicker and simpler for them to do so. Additionally, they might not know the precise URL.
To optimize for navigational intent, you must ensure your site's structure is well-organized and simple to navigate to your intended keywords in the navigation. Every part of your website should be identified, including page titles, tags, headings, and descriptions, which tell users what information is present there.
Every product or service you offer must have its dedicated page with all pertinent information. Enhance each page with appropriate branding and product names. Include additional relevant terms, such as the type of product or the problem it addresses.
And finally, make your URLs meaningful and easy to understand.
Transactional
The searcher wants to buy something. They are shopping right now. They probably already know what they want to purchase. They are seeking a location.
To optimize for transactional intent, keywords are your money maker.
Take your time and effort by targeting transactional keywords with optimized product landing pages and an easy checkout process.
Commercial
The searcher is looking for a specific service or product but they haven't decided which is best for them as of yet. Most likely, they're looking for ratings and contrasts. They continue to consider their options. Additionally, a lot of local searches have a commercial investigation goal.
Optimizing for commercial intent is like informational keywords, if you want to target commercial keywords, you need to know what your users are asking for. Then structure your page so users can find answers as efficiently as possible.
Ask yourself what does my audience want to find on this site? Then create a well-structured page as needed.
Next, tweak it with meaningful page titles, headings, meta descriptions, and URLs.
Finally, make it as easy as possible for them to buy, by adding links to more information, lead generation forms, or purchase pages.
Make sure the content you write is in line with both popular searches and the needs of your intended audience.
Make sure your post or page is sufficiently informative when people are looking for information. When someone searches for your company name, you must come up on the first search page. Publish information that can help people in choosing between options. And send visitors to your sales page when they want to purchase your products.
7.Artificial Intelligence
Google’s use of machine learning to weed out content created through machine learning could be one of the hottest SEO topics in 2023.
This could become a cat-and-mouse game, with Google getting better at detecting AI-generated content, only to make the AI better at masking human-generated content. This is likely to be a battle that Google will ultimately win, as they have an index of the entire searchable web and resources that allow their machine learning to improve exponentially.
Machine learning and artificial intelligence will be used in all aspects of SEO, from content optimization to linking building and keyword research.
When Google released its August 2022 Useful Content Update, to ensure that people see more original, useful content written by people, in search results, the first impression was that it was targeting AI content tools.
According to the search engine's webmaster guidelines, Google's search advocate John Mueller considers content automatically generated using AI writing tools to be spam.
From a content marketing perspective, one of the major downsides to AI-generated content is that it’s not entirely original. Content generators simply gather information that is already in their parameters. While the content will pass plagiarism checks, it does not contain any original research, insights or data.
In practice, this means that AI-generated content can create simple text snippets. But it cannot share opinions or create thought leadership content.
The only way to ensure your content resonates is to thoroughly understand your audience and use machine learning and artificial intelligence as your productivity assistants while still maintaining a human touch.
8.Page load
In competition with all sites on the internet, page loading time would have a major impact in the future, it already has, but in the future it will be even more important.
The internet is growing and if you want your visitors to stay, you have to show your content fast enough to make them stay.
And if your website is slow, it won't rank as high.
Speed is an important part of user experience. Fast loading pages can make all the difference in keeping visitors on your website. If a website takes too long to load, for more than a second or more, you would consider the website unresponsive in most cases.
For mobile devices, speed is an even more pressing concern. Many users abandon a site if it takes longer than three seconds to load.
This is an even bigger problem when you are running an e-commerce website. The extra time it takes to reach the cart is the total time it takes for a customer to change their mind. The faster your website loads, the better.
Check if your website may have file compression set up. If you're not sure, it's worth checking to make sure it's enabled. Simply enable this setting to reduce file size by 50% or more.
You can use this free tool to test whether your website has compression enabled.
If not, here you have information on what to do to set up compression on your site.
What more can you do to speed up your page load?
Here is some advice on what you can do to reduce the loading time.
Images
Images are one of the main causes of slow load times. High resolution images can be very large and take a long time to render extensively.
If you upload a large image that is 2500px wide and encode it to display the image down to 150px wide, the browser will still download the larger image and scale it down to fit the code.
One way to reduce the time it takes your computer and smartphone to download this image is to manually resize it before uploading it to your website.
If your site requires a 150px wide image, you should create a 150px wide image to upload.
You should also save the image as a JPEG or PNG. Things like BMP and TIFF take up too much disk space because they are more complex. It is best to spend time optimizing the images used on your website.
You can even use tools to reduce the resolution of your images, there are several you can search for.
Load images when needed, so called lazy loading.
It is unnecessary to load the media that is not in the user's view when the page loads. This technique only loads media when needed. For example, if you are using WordPress, there are several plugins available for this purpose.
Clean your code
Many slow websites suffer from weak coding. Long-term active sites tend to be slower than others because the code is not updated.
Styling and coding have changed a lot, and your website can fall victim to outdated practices.
Themes like those used in WordPress can also be the cause of slow pages. The same principle applies when you consider how long your website has been running with the same theme. You need to check for updates to the theme.
If you want to speed up your website, you should make sure it uses the latest coding techniques. You might also want to consider switching to a new theme, which may not only improve speed, and it also gives your website a new look.
When it comes to mobile browsers, you can use Google's Mobile Optimization Testing Tool to test various components of your site to see how they perform.
First, investigate whether there is an easy solution to the problem found. If this is the case, you can remove the code to make the page load faster. If not, implementing a load time fix can improve your ranking in Google search results - as well as increase the revenue you generate from your site.
Optimize your homepage
You don't want your homepage to be too busy. Displaying too many posts on the homepage can slow things down. Many website owners take a more minimalist approach to homepage and landing page design.
Removing video content, reducing the use of images, reducing banners, and only showing some of the most common posts are some of the more typical practices.
Many have also adopted the idea of reducing homepage scrolling. This means that if a visitor has to scroll too far to get to the bottom of the home page, that's too much.
Focus on making the website as simple as possible.
Third-party scripts
A third-party script is any external script that is embedded into your website via third-party code, such as embedded YouTube videos or chatbots.
They usually add functionality to your website and provide many useful features, such as social sharing buttons, comments, analytics, and more.
But third-party scripts add extra load time to your website. So keep only what's really important. Ask yourself, do you really need chatbot functionality on all your websites or can it only be on the home page?
A poorly configured web hosting server can affect your load times. When choosing a web hosting server, we mostly try to choose the most affordable option. This might be fine at first if you're just starting out.
However, once you receive a sudden increase in traffic, your host and server can no longer handle many users at the same time. There can be sudden spikes, especially when launching a new online marketing campaign or product.
Rather than looking for a free or cheap web hosting solution, your best bet is to go for a reputable host. In addition to price, you should also consider how quickly your server responds to problems. There may be times when emergencies happen to your website and filling out a form isn't fast enough to solve the problem. Do research and read reviews about the web hosting company and its support.
Summary
SEO and content work hand in hand to help search engines rank websites. Google wants to deliver search results that are valuable and relevant to the user.
It is important to optimize your content for both keywords and user experience.
Voice search optimization is important so that you can rank higher in searches. Almost 60% of those consumers who use voice search are using voice search to look up local businesses.
Use keywords to make videos that include relevant information for your niche in Tik Tok. Include important information, such as steps or answers to questions, in page titles, descriptions, and headings whenever possible.
Publish information that can help people in choosing between options.
Make sure your post or page is sufficiently informative when people are looking for information.
And finally, ask yourself what does my audience want to find on this site?