How to Keep Google Happy in 2023

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By Boris Dzhingarov

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a strategy that is constantly evolving and being improved. Google is always updating its algorithm and the way that queries and searches are processed in order to provide the best experience and value to users. Because of this, it’s essential for your SEO strategy to stay fresh and up to date if you want your business to remain competitive in the market.

If you are coming up with a new SEO strategy for 2023, then understanding what it’s going to take to keep Google happy this year is crucial. Learning more about the main SEO predictions and trends for 2023 is a good place to start before you begin putting any new strategies in place. Keep reading to find out more about some of the top SEO trends for 2023, and how you can implement them to keep Google happy this year.

Helpful Content

The Helpful Content update was one of the biggest updates to Google’s algorithm last year, and its importance is set to grow even more throughout 2023. Google is always updating the way that it processes queries to ensure that users are provided with the most relevant and useful information when searching for anything. When coming up with an SEO content strategy, older tactics such as keyword research are less important this year. It’s all about focusing on user intent and providing content that is helpful to the specific customer that it targets. Spending more time on research when creating written or video content is going to be a must this year, as Google’s algorithm prioritizes content that provides significant value and delves deeper into the topic.

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Reinforcing EAT Signals

Over the past few years, Google’s guidelines have consistently stated just how important it is to reinforce and amplify your EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) when ranking your site and content. Google is heavily focused on the user experience and proving that your website and content is worth the user’s time is an essential step in getting better results from your SEO strategies. EAT signals can include proof of your expertise, customer reviews and testimonials, security badges, social proof and much more. Consider linking to more authoritative websites, using statistics and facts to back up your data, showcasing awards, certifications, and displaying customer reviews on your site.

Video Marketing

Video marketing is an SEO trend that has been around for a while and is showing no signs of slowing down. Getting involved with video is an ideal strategy for keeping Google happy in 2023, with more than half of consumers now relying on videos when making a purchasing decision. With an increasing number of people watching videos as part of the customer journey, it makes sense to add video to your SEO strategy. Google is beginning to introduce a range of features that are designed to help users find the information that they are looking for faster using video. For example, one new feature is clip markup, which allows you to highlight important parts of your video so that users can skip straight to them.

Featured Snippets

One of the biggest SEO trends for 2023 is set to be featured snippets in search results, which has been gradually rising over the past year. Feature snippets are going to continue being a main part of search, and as time goes on, they are likely to become even more important and prominent. A featured snippet is the box that you will often see in Google above the actual search results. They might be a single sentence, a quick how-to, FAQs or a bullet list. If your website or page offers valuable information that is frequently searched for by users, then it’s worth focusing your content on getting to the top in the form of a featured snippet. Google’s ‘people also ask’ and autocomplete features are excellent tools to use when it comes to finding worthy topics and keywords. Use Google’s Schema Markup Testing tool to ensure that your content has the correct schema markup to appear as a featured snippet.

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Answers to Complex Queries

There is likely to be a bigger focus on answering more complex queries when it comes to SEO predictions for 2023. The main goal at Google has always been to deliver the answers that users need, and, as a result, online businesses and websites have focused on providing these solutions. With Google making even more changes to its algorithm, delivering answers concisely and in one place is set to be even more important. The Multitask Unified Model being implemented by Google is set to help users find the information that they need in fewer steps, reducing the average number of queries from the current eight when it comes to finding answers to tasks or questions that are more complex or require multiple steps.

Conversational Queries

With voice search only getting bigger and bigger as smart speakers and smart assistants make their way into more homes, it’s no surprise that this is going to be on the list of the top ways to keep Google happy in 2023. As we know, Google is always working to improve the user’s search experience and help them find the information that they are looking for as fast as possible. With conversational queries becoming a more common way for users to utilize Google in 2023, a bigger emphasis on optimizing your content for voice search is necessary. You can do this by targeting phrasing and understanding the difference between how somebody might make a verbal query and a typed search term. Along with this, it is worth considering vernacular, which involves understanding where your target audience is located, and the type of regional language that they might use when making verbal queries. Keep answers short and to the point in order to ensure that you are delivering helpful information faster. SEO has changed a lot over the years, and once again we’re seeing this search engine make a range of changes and upgrades to focus on a better user experience for 2023. When it comes to your SEO strategies for this year, these are some of the main things to focus on to keep Google happy.

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