Lumar Ebook L SEO Trends To Watch in 2023
Lumar Ebook L SEO Trends To Watch in 2023
Lumar Ebook L SEO Trends To Watch in 2023
Watch in 2023
Contents
Introductio 03
Be Smart About Artificial Intelligence
04
(Takeaways from Google’s Helpful Content Update
02
Introduction
innovations.
In this guide, we’ll cover some of the top Why focus on SEO in 2023?
Google’s ‘Helpful Content’ update & issues than paid search ads, paid display ads, email
experienc
search would drive more revenue for their
How to stay on top of the latest search great customer experiences, conversions,
in 2023
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Google’s “Helpful Content Update” (also This focus on identifying and promoting
known as the Helpful Content System) was
higher-quality website content is not a one-
a much-discussed topic among SEOs when
time update for search engines — Google
it started rolling out in late August 2022. With has long emphasized the importance of
an influx of new AI-powered ‘writing’ tools in useful, truthful, and well-written content. This
recent years, this search system update is evident, too, in Google’s Quality Rater
sought to combat the potential flood of poor- Guidelines, which include their “E-A-T
quality, artificially generated content Guidelines” for evaluating content based on
proliferating on websites around the world. expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.
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What does this mean for digital marketers,
content managers, and SEOs in 2023?
The quality of your website’s content
is more important than ever.
Avoid the ‘quick wins’ promised by AI- “Avoid creating search engine-first content:
generated content tools. While tools like We recommend that you focus on creating
ChatGPT (or the many commercially available people-first content to be successful with
AI platforms in the market) can be useful for Google Search, rather than search engine-
generating initial ideas and brainstorming first content made primarily to gain search
topics, when it comes to the final content that engine rankings.”
referenced by a printed
magazine, encyclopedia,
Google’s advice for assessing your website’s or book?”
content make it clear that any content you
publish on your site should be human-first,
stating directly:
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Focusing on the E-A-T Guidelines mentioned Presentation matters too!
above can also help with getting high marks
Google’s content self-
from Google’s helpful content system, as their
assessment guidance
content self-assessment advice also
suggests asking yourself:
reiterates the importance of expertise and
the need to avoid factual errors. (You should Does the content have any spelling or
“demonstrably know the topic well.” Does content display well for mobile
Since Google released its Helpful Content This means that sites that invest in
update and the September 2022 core update, improving their ratio of quality
we’ve seen numerous sites with large amounts of
content are going to see better
thin, duplicate, low-traffic content lose those
indexation speed and coverage.”
pages from the search engine’s index. I expect
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Stay Focused on
User Experience
(Core Web Vitals in 2023)
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Back in 2021, Google rolled out Core Web And there are benefits to great UX that go
Vitals (CWV) as part of its ranking system. This well beyond your search ranking:
Anne Berlin
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1. Load Time
For Google’s Core Web Vitals, load time is measured by a metric called
“Largest Contentful Paint” (LCP). This is the time it takes for the page’s
largest image or text block to load and become visible within the viewport
(that is, the visible part of a page that users can see within their device or
monitor). Aim to have the largest block rendered within 2.5 seconds of the
2. Interactivity
responsiveness metric. This is the time it takes for the browser to begin
page should be able to quickly load and execute the required code in
3. Visual Stability
visually move, and the total distance, in pixels, that they move. Core Web
This data will come from Google’s Chrome User Experience (CrUX) report.
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Even though Core Web Vitals were implemented in Google’s
search systems back in 2021, website teams have been slow
to meet best practices when it comes to user experience.
In our “Core Web Vitals — One Year On” webinar with Rebel
Mouse’s founder and CEO Andrea Breanna, she noted that
progress on the open web to bring websites’ UX in line with
CWV standards is slow. She points to the fact that 77% of sites
still failed Core Web Vitals in 2022. That’s only 10% better than
when CWV were first introduced.
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Get Ready for GA4
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Another item that’s sure to be top of mind for You’ll also want to make sure that your third-
SEOs and digital marketers in 2023 is the party tool integrations that rely on Google
2024 — but you should still start taking massive disruption for digital marketing teams
time.
Year-on-year (YoY) data comparisons can changing consumer preferences. Many sites are
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Keeping up with
Google Search
Algorithms, Systems,
& Updates
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Search engines like Google are constantly innovating and
updating their algorithms and search ranking systems. Digital
marketers and SEOs need to stay abreast of the latest
developments in how search engines work if they want to
sustain their success in organic search.
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5 Freshness systems: Helps identify 10 Neural matching: Yet another
queries that would benefit from newer language-focused AI system that helps
content and more recently published Google understand larger concepts in
articles and then display fresher content both queries and page content and
for these queries in the SERPs.
match them.
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15 Product reviews system: Rewards 18 Site diversity system: Helps Google
high-quality product reviews and content avoid showing more than two pages from
that provides insightful analysis.
the same site in the top results for a given
query (so no single site dominates all of
16 RankBrain: Another language-
the top results).
1 Hummingbir
2 Mobile-friendly ranking system (now part of the page experience system
3 Page speed system (now part of the page experience system
4 Panda system (now part of the core ranking system
5 Penguin system (now part of the core ranking system
6 Secure sites system (now part of the page experience system)
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The State of the SERPs:
Enhanced SERP
Features to Know
in 2023
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Search engine results pages (SERPs) have As humans, we are visual creatures. Things
gone through many transformations over the that stand out from the crowd tend to hold
years. When optimizing your website with an our attention. So it makes sense that earning
eye toward driving more traffic (and revenue) rich results with enhanced SERP features is
from organic search, it’s helpful to have an likely to have an impact on your click-through
up-to-date understanding of all of the latest rates. According to a study from Milestone
SERP features that are available as potential Research that looked at 4.5 million searches,
opportunities to enhance your content’s first users are 41.5% more likely to click on rich
impression on users in their search results.
results compared to standard search results.
(In other words, they noted a 58% click-
On search engine results pages, “rich results”
through rate [CTR] for rich results, as
are search results that offer users more
compared to a 41% CTR for standard search
information than standard results, are more
results.)
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By using structured data on your site, your Your website should, of course, aim in general
site becomes eligible to display more relevant to be ranked among those top links on the
information to users at-a-glance in their first page of the organic search results, but
search results, which can entice more clicks.
let’s take a closer look at some of the
additional SERP features your business may
For example, by using the product schema
want to aim for to drive more traffic and
markup, you may earn the ability to display
brand awareness in 2023.
user ratings as well as prices alongside your
product’s page in the SERPs, allowing a user
to immediately ascertain trustworthiness and
see if the product is within their budget.
Related Resources:
Check out more options for enhanced SERP features in
Google’s “search gallery”
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7 enhanced SERP features
to know in 2023:
know, but if you’d like to explore even more options, check out
1. Featured Snippets
Featured snippets generally appear at the top Images, lists, tables, and videos from the page
of the search results, ahead of the ‘standard’ may also be displayed in the featured image
While Google states that you cannot mark a Utilizing structured data correctly across
specific page for inclusion as a featured your site may also help increase your
systems determine whether a page would featured snippets. As John Mueller said
make a good featured snippet to highlight for above, structured data can help search
a specific search request.” and “You can't engines better ‘understand’ and index
Google systems determine whether a page research into featured snippets found
would make a good featured snippet for a that about 19% of search results pages
user's search request, and if so, elevates it.”), included a featured snippet — and 66%
they do outline policies for featured snippets. of the pages with featured snippet results
These policies suggest they are, once again, utilized structured data.
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However, while featured snippets
stand out visually in the search results,
some studies have shown that
featured snippets that give users at-a-
glance answers to simple queries may
result in lower click-through rates than
‘normal’ or other types of enhanced
search results. This is likely because, for
simple questions and answers, users
may not need to click through to the
full page in order to get the answers
they seek.
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2. Knowledge Panel
If Google has generated a knowledge panel “If you are the subject of or official
for your business (or for you as a person!), representative of an entity depicted in a
there are some ways to manage the knowledge panel, you can claim this panel
information that appears here. Per Google’s and suggest changes. More information
documentation: about these processes are available in the
following articles:
Studies have shown that results with sitelinks Your site architecture can play a big role in
have a higher CTR than ‘normal’ organic how easily Google’s algorithms can find
search results in the same position. (46.9% potential sitelinks to include in the SERPs.
for results with sitelinks vs. 34.2% for normal Optimizing your overall website structure,
results)
writing concise and informative page titles,
and implementing strong internal linking
Here’s an example of sitelinks
tactics can help in obtaining sitelinks within
appearing in the SERPs:
the search results.
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5. FAQ Rich Results
To obtain these FAQ rich results, according to Do not use FAQPage schema for
Google, you’ll need to add the following advertising purpose
structured data to a Frequently Asked The FAQ page must be written by the site
Questions page: FAQPage, Question, Answer.
itself (users cannot submit answers
Each ‘Question’ schema type must
To comply with Google’s content guidelines
include the entire text of the question.
for FAQ rich results, however, you’ll have to
(And each ‘Answer’ schema type must
ensure the page you’re implementing FAQ
include the entire text of the answer.)
As videos become easier for brands to create Google will try to understand your video
and video-based content marketing content automatically, but you can help
continues to grow, it’s worth understanding search engines along by using Video
how your videos may appear in organic structured data.
Chances are, you occasionally ask a digital Presently, according to Google, the
‘assistant’ (like Siri, Alexa, or the Google speakable property works for users in the US
Assistant on your smartphone) a question out with Google Home devices, with content by
loud instead of typing it in. eMarketer publishers that is also in English, though the
estimates that 44.2% of internet users were feature may expand to other languages and
already using a voice assistant at least once a locations in the future.
While not a SERP feature, it’s worth knowing a So how can your
bit about Google Discover in 2023. Discover is website content appear
the auto-generated ‘feed’ that Google automatically in Discover?
generates for users based on what its
algorithms assume that particular user will be
According to Google:
Senior Technical SEO at Lumar direct titles that tell users what the page is
about
Use large images in your content (at least
1200px wide and enabled by the “max-
Want to learn more about enhanced
image-preview:large” setting)
SE features heck out our article
RP ? C ,
Provide content that is relevant and timely
“ ow to Get ich esults in Google”.
H R R
and addresses current interests.
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Search engine optimization is a constantly Your website’s technical health — including
changing discipline — and one that offers its site architecture, JavaScript rendering, site
significant opportunity for businesses that speed, internal linking, structured data, page
invest the time and effort into getting it right. experience, and much more — contribute to
Meeting potential customers where they are both its search engine ranking and to larger
(in the search engines!) can contribute directly business goals like brand awareness,
to building brand awareness, influencing customer experience, and conversion.
More Resources:
Lumar’s Website Intelligence Academy
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About
We empower the world’s leading brands to For businesses who need more bespoke
harness their websites’ full revenue potential guidance, our professional services team is
through powerful initiatives that many available for ongoing engagements and
businesses still overlook — technical SEO and guided SEO and website health audits.
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