The Evolving Landscape of SEO: Trends and Strategies in 2023

Intro

SEO is becoming pickier with every passing day.

And if you ask us, that’s a good thing.

With countless businesses competing for precious ranking positions, giving the best scores to content with the highest value not only makes sense, it also pushes brands to continue improving their assets.

If you’re curious about the latest trends that are creating SEO success, stick around. Today we’re covering six simple but powerful strategies you can use to encourage higher rankings.

1. Growing importance of local SEO

As more people turn to mobile search, voice search, and voice assistants to find information, businesses need to increase their focus on optimizing for localized and specialized search phrases to show up in relevant SERPs.

This is especially true for businesses with a brick-and-mortar presence or ones that provide courier, delivery, shipping, or travel services.

Take the Cruise America website as an example of how this trend is shaping up.

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As you can tell from the above website screenshots, users are moving away from general search terms like “RV rental” and instead, searching for more specific location phrases, such as:

• “Nationwide RV rental locations”
• “Cruise America rental centers in the United States”
• “Cruise America rental centers in Canada”
• “Cruise America rental centers in Alaska”
• “Cruise America - Anchorage”
• “Cruise America - Denver”
• “Cruise America - Las Vegas”

By focusing on these niche terms, Cruise America gets SERP brownie points and aligns with its ideal customer, getting the brand one step closer to its target audience.

To capitalize on this trend, consider the types of content you can optimize for local and niche searches.

For instance, if you own a flower delivery company, you could optimize your sales landing pages and website with location-based keywords dependent on where you deliver.

For example, if you deliver in Norfolk, Virginia, you might add keywords, such as:

• “Norfolk flower delivery”
• “Flower delivery in Norfolk”
• “Mother’s Day flower delivery in Norfolk”
• “Norfolk Virginia floral delivery”

If you own a fully remote brand, optimizing for location will look a bit different, but you can still implement the following keywords where relevant:

• “Remote”
• “Worldwide”
• “International”
• “Online”

For instance, if you own a remote SaaS content agency, you might use phrases, such as “content agency for international SaaS brands,” “online SaaS content production agency,” or “remote agency for SaaS.”

2. Thoughtful link integration

Link-building, internal linking, and external linking continue to play a pivotal role in search ranking potential, but doing it the right way is essential.

A few things Google expects include:

➡️ Ethical link-building practices

➡️ High authority external links

➡️ Relevant internal linking

➡️ Not linking too soon in the content

To satisfy these measures, use and share the following checklist with your content team:

1. Write with value and relevancy when backlinking to your content — stick to white hat and green hat link-building practices only
2. Stick to approved anchor texts
3. Link to reputable and relevant external sources with high DA scores
4. Only link to internal content that can help the reader expand their knowledge on the subject
5. Avoid adding backlinks in blog post introductions or conclusions (these appear shoehorned in, which can convey low value)

3. Better readability scores

Readability is becoming all the rage, with some sites committing to only publishing content that’s written for a 6th to 8th-grade reading level. Some publishers are willing to go up to a grade 9 in The Hemingway Editor, a popular tool sites are using to check their content’s readability scores. To achieve optimum readability, many writers and content creators are reevaluating their writing habits to take their content quality to the next level.

And for good reason.

Simple language is growing in prominence across all communication modalities, including PR, copywriting, news, and even in legal disclosures and privacy policies.

As search engines aim to not alienate readers with lower reading levels, they’re prioritizing content with:

• Short and snappy sentences
• Everyday vocabulary and terms
• Plenty of spacing between paragraphs and key ideas
• Short paragraphs (three to four lines, max)

To satisfy these measures, use and share the following checklist with your content team:

Make sure your content:

6. Doesn’t have jargon
7. Limits adverb usage
8. Doesn’t include long, complex, or hard-to-read sentences
9. Is mostly written in active voice
10. Has paragraphs that are no longer than three to four lines
11. Has a Grade 6 to 9 in Hemingway

4. FAQ sections based on “People also ask” and “related searches”

Publishers are getting competitive about aiming for featured snippets based on audience personalization.

Not only do featured snippets appear at the top of Google’s SERP, but they’re often the first thing a voice assistant will read when a user conducts a voice search.

Enter: FAQ sections based on “People also ask” and “related searches.”

Google has recently updated these terms to “More to ask” and “More searches.” It also recently added a section for some terms called “Things to know.”

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To put their hats in the ring, sites are adding FAQ sections at the end of their blog posts and resource guides. These are ultra-personalized with terms found in the “More to ask” and “More searches” SERP sections for their target keywords.

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Here’s an example of an FAQ section Friday added at the end of its guide on “35 Best Productivity Apps, Tools & Software for 2023.”

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**To follow this trend, add an extra step to your content optimization process. Simply ask your SEO content writers to always include an FAQ section based on their target keyword. **

Here’s a quick checklist they can use:

1. Search your article’s target keyword in Google
2. Screenshot the “More to ask,” “More searches,” and “Things to know” sections that pop up in the SERP
3. Choose five to seven questions (or terms) from your screenshots and turn them into an FAQ section at the end of your article
4. Answer close-ended questions with a “Yes” or “No,” repeat the question, and respond as simply as possible — aim for one to four sentences max

5. Unique content angles from competitors with gap analysis

As SEO competition gets fiercer, it’s become more important than ever to perform a gap analysis when planning your assets to stand out from the pack.

To do so consistently, add another extra step to your content optimization process. Ask your SEO content writers to always perform a competitor gap analysis based on their target keyword before writing their articles.

Here’s a simple checklist they can use:

5. Search your article’s target keyword in Google or our SEO tool
6. Analyze the organic content in the top 10 search results and consider the following questions:
   1. How can I include more value in my article than I see in the top 10 search results combined?
   2. What should my piece absolutely cover that the other publishers are including?
   3. How can I make my article more unique than the top 10 search results combined?
   4. What weak areas or missed opportunities do I notice in the top 10 search results that I can compensate for in my article?

6. Higher content scores in SEO tools

Brands are also aiming to ultra-exceed the target content scores recommended by their SEO tools. Some SEOs are even aiming for the max content score to give their pieces the best chance of ranking.

But there’s a caveat here.

While getting the highest possible score can encourage higher rankings, it can also set you back if you don’t optimize with intention.

In other words, be sure to maintain ethical SEO practices when aiming for ambitious target content scores.

That means:

• No keyword stuffing
• Don’t plug in random keywords that don’t make sense or add value to your piece
• Weave in your main and secondary keywords throughout your article as naturally as possible
• Break your article up into strategic information sections your audience would care about to fit in more keywords
• Expand your wordcount so you have more room for keywords — but not at the expense of value — try adding in case studies, real examples, and scenarios to bring more meaning to your draft

Wrap up

And there you have it!

Today we covered six SEO trends that are changing the landscape of optimization as we know it.

For good measure, here’s a quick recap of the trends and strategies we covered today:

1. Growing importance of local SEO
2. Thoughtful link integration
3. Better readability scores
4. FAQ sections based on “People also ask” and “related searches”
5. Unique content angles from competitors with gap analysis
6. Higher content scores in SEO tools

Now, over to you.

Set up a meeting with your SEO team and discuss which of these practices you’ll start putting into action. To make sure you’re consistent, consider setting up digital workflows, checklists, and internal guides the entire team can reference when creating content.

That’s it for now, SEOs.

Here’s to your success!

PS: Need a way to monitor your rank positions in real-time? You’ll love Ranktracker! Sign up for a free 7-day trial today.