Christmas is coming and the goose may be getting fat, but at 24 fingers towers, we’re already focused on what the New Year will bring. 

This year has been dominated by the rise and rise of TikTok, as well as the shenanigans at Twitter, but what can marketers expect from the next 12 months?  

Settle back and read on, as we provide our predictions for SEO trends for 2023.  

SERPS gets even smarter 

Google has once again updated its algorithm from the Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers – affectionately known as BERT – to MUM. 

The Multitask United Model, first introduced in May 2021, is a multilingual technology for search. It answers complex search queries using AI and natural language processing to understand images, audio and videos as well as text. 

With MUM, Google aims to optimise the search experience, presenting all information from text, videos, audio and images in SERPs to provide the most efficient, user-centric service. 

Expect content to go beyond the usual E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness) and be more proactive: anticipating customer needs and questions. 

Optimise content for voice search

If you didn’t already know, 41% of adults use voice search every day. If your website content hasn’t been optimised for voice search and mobile devices, that’s a significant chunk of custom you’re missing out. 

Just think of all the homes that now have smart speakers, as well as multiple smartphones. 

For 2023, make it a priority to integrate voice search into your marketing strategy by targeting long-tail keywords in a question format. 

Then create blog posts that answer these specific queries and watch your engagement fly. 

Prioritise a responsive, mobile-friendly website 

Another big SEO trend expected for 2023 is an increase in phone searches, so optimising for mobile search is fundamental. 

If your site wasn’t created using a responsive coding and framework – so it automatically adapts to whichever device it is being viewed on – then there’s no time to waste. 

Use caching, a content delivery network and compress images. If you’re not sure where to start, get in touch with us. 

Content is still king

We’ve already mentioned how Google’s MUM technology is going to improve search results, but that doesn’t mean businesses can take a holiday when it comes to content creation. 

Generating original, high-quality blogs, images, video, infographics and other media will not only drive engagement accessibility, it could also boost sales and your bottom line. 

Focus on creating regular, relevant content that keeps user intent and experience at its core. Tap into the SEO trend for 2023 and experiment with videos. 

They can increase how long visitors stay on your site, which is good news for your search rankings. Even better, research shows more than half of consumers want more video content in the future. 

Use structured data

Structured data – also known as Schema markup – offers page information and also classifies its content, helping Google and other search engines understand exactly what a web page is all about. 

It allows you to organise everything from product descriptions and pricing to user reviews, improving the chances of your page appearing in rich search results, one of the most important SERP features. That means more user attention and potentially a higher clickthrough rate. 

As well as engaging with your target audience, structured data can also boost your domain authority in a niche. 

Target TikTok in 2023 

If you haven’t yet integrated TikTok content into your marketing strategy, the new year is the perfect opportunity to do so. 

The social media site has 1.5 billion monthly active users worldwide, of which more than 60% are GenZ. If your company or brand wants to target younger consumers, TikTok is the place to be. 

Use hashtags to target brand-relevant keywords when posting to the platform, and focus on creating video content that’s relevant to your field or niche. 

Don’t forget to drop in images and GIFs to further engage your target audience. If you’re new to marketing on TikTok and need a helping hand getting started, we can help. 

More search engines to choose from 

The Google search engine is the world’s most popular. It’s even become a verb. But there is growing competition and not just from the likes of Bing, DuckDuckGo and Yahoo. 

Many people searching for specific products or services turn to Amazon, YouTube and Facebook, and it’s worth spending time optimising your SEO for these so-called “secondary search engines”. 

Focusing on search locations outside Google can also boost your local profile, boosting traffic to your website and the potential for conversions. 

Integrate AI in your marketing 

Some business owners can become a little twitchy at the thought of using artificial intelligence, but there’s a lot to be said for the tech, which remains one of marketing’s hottest topics. 

We’ve all dealt with chatbots that are about as helpful as a brick wall, but the systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated. 

While larger firms may be looking to implement a chatbot solution to improve their customer service in 2023, you don’t have to be one of the big girls to benefit. 

AI can also be extremely useful for automating emails and repetitive tasks, as well as boosting website personalisation and gaining actionable insights from customer behaviour.

Analytics are imperative

Google Analytics and similar tools have been around for a long time now, but they remain as relevant a component of your SEO and marketing strategies as ever. 

The new year will see no let-up in their importance, as brands seek to squeeze their customer data for all the insights it can deliver. The best way to understand how your visitors are behaving is to comb through your analytics. 

You can even automate SEO tasks, position tracking and website crawls, as well as reporting, keyword intent analysis and brand mention monitoring. 

That way, all the information you need to launch and monitor your next kick-ass marketing campaign is at your fingertips. 

Of course we’re on hand to guide you through the digital maze, boost your SEO and make the most of every social media marketing opportunity. Just drop us a DM and we’ll start flexing our 24 fingers.