Spring Clean Your SEO for 2023
The world of marketing is shaking up once again, leading to major tech companies and startups duking it out in “The SEO” (“The Search Engine Octagon”).
As you may have heard, artificial intelligence is being used to retool content marketing and in the display of enhanced search results. Microsoft is equipping Bing with AI-powered search results while marketing agencies and students are even using chatGPT to produce content for marketing campaigns and do their homework for them.
Start the year strong by spring cleaning your SEO to improve your organic search performance.
AI is All the Rage Right Now
New AI tools like chatGPT, Dall-E, and Jasper are being used to create content more quickly. Bing.com is testing search results tailored with an AI chatbot, but experiencing some awkward encounters with the new AI chatbot on Bing.com.
Google has always frowned upon Black Hat SEO tactics like buying links to improve domain authority and drive a ton of referral traffic, but now they’re also looking down on AI written content. What Google cares most about is writing content with humans in mind – not Google search rankings.
There’s a race between Google and Bing to see who has the best AI search engine, but clearly there’s still more testing that needs to be done to truly integrate AI. Let’s just hope it can have positive outcomes, like in the case of Myriem Khal, a French college student who uses ChatGPT to help overcome her challenges with dyslexia.
While things get sorted out with AI search results, there’s plenty for SEO teams to tackle in the meantime.
Are You Set Up for GA4 (Google Analytics 4)?
If you’re reading this, it’s time to open up Google Analytics and get your websites configured for Google Analytics 4 because GA4 is replacing Universal Analytics on July 1, 2023. This new variety of Google Analytics is here to provide enhanced tracking of your website.
- Understand how users are getting to your website and track the customer journeys that occur on your website.
- Get a quick glimpse at landing page metrics and retention of website visitors.
- Gain insights into device sessions and demographic data to optimize your paid search targeting strategy.
- Show detailed reporting in Google Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio).
Improve Your SEO Game in 2023
Search Engine Optimization is a never-ending job. It’s about taking care of the SEO basics to improve keyword rankings, manage website health, and publish relevant content that matches the searcher’s intent. That’s why it’s crucial to do daily website scans and technical crawls to monitor organic search performance.
Take a look at your keyword target list doc or look in a tool like SEMRush. Analyze how your top keywords are ranking in search results and spend some time refreshing your keyword list. Consider new products or services your business offers and new keywords to target in 2023.
Leverage Keyword Intent in Your Content Strategy
Follow the latest Google algorithm updates to see how performance fluctuates after updates take place. The December 2022 Google Helpful Content Update shouldn’t be overlooked by content creators.
Essentially, write content that matches a searcher’s keyword intent and ensure the content is valuable to them based on their current stage of the buying journey. There are four searcher intent types for keywords: navigational, informational, commercial, and transactional.
- Navigational intent: Users are looking for a specific page (e.g., “Netflix login page”)
- Informational intent: Users would like to learn more about something they’re searching for (e.g., “chocolate cake recipes”)
- Commercial intent: Users are doing a little research before making their purchase (e.g., “best Italian restaurants in Kansas City”)
- Transactional intent: Users are about to complete a specific action, usually a purchase, download, or registering for an event (e.g., “where to buy Pat Mahomes jersey”)
Use Schema Markup to Improve SERP Visibility
Take your content a step further by implementing structured data to help Google index your page as the most relevant search result. A popular structured data type is JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data). This schema markup helps organize unstructured data on a webpage to feature prominently on search engine results pages.
Google has openly stated that they prefer JSON-LD because it’s simpler to maintain, it does not need to be embedded within HTML code, and it’s easy to add or remove the schema markup from a website. Create schema markup types for blog and news articles, videos, online reviews, products sold on your website, upcoming events, local listings and so much more.
Don’t Sleep on that Old Content from 2017 and Beyond
Google loves fresh and timely content, but they also love it when you update existing webpage content. As part of your 2023 content roadmap, look at older webpages that still drive high site traffic and conversions and make copy updates. Incorporating more text with fresh keywords can help your pages rank for new keyword searches.
If you aren’t sure how to take your SEO to the next level, our Seismonauts can help your website liftoff.
Image generated by Midjourney.