5 Essential SEO Tips You Need to Follow in 2023

Are you interested in improving your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy in 2023? If so, you’re in the right place! SEO is still one of the best ways to connect with your target audience and enhance brand awareness, so it’s no surprise that many marketers and business leaders want to optimize their websites for searchability.

Google, the largest search engine in the world, receives a staggering 105,000 searches every second, and there’s no sign of slowing down. Improving your visibility on Google means you’re more likely to appear on search engine results pages (SERPs), which translates to more opportunities to grow your small business or personal website.

The biggest hurdle new leaders face is making it to the elusive first page of Google. Many things can set you back during this process, such as not having the right tools or fierce competition with seemingly limitless budgets. You’ll be glad to know that despite these potential setbacks, it’s still possible to rank for relevant industry keywords in 2023. 

And I’m going to show you how to get started.

Today, we will look at a few tips to keep in mind when implementing and improving your SEO strategy.

Let’s begin!

Ensure Your Site is Fast and Responsive

If your site is slow or doesn’t work well on smartphones, you will have a hard time improving organic traffic and searchability. Google developers have stated on multiple occasions in interviews and official updates that they are taking a mobile-first approach. 

In other words, if your site performs poorly on smartphones or doesn’t load as quickly as it should, it will not appear prominently in search results. 

The approach Google has chosen makes perfect sense. An impressive 87% of smartphone owners say they use a search engine on a daily basis. Considering there are 5.48 billion smartphone users, it’s easy to see why mobile devices are so important for SEO.

Luckily, there are quite a few ways to ensure your site is fast and responsive. Here are a few tips. 

Choose themes with fast, flexible mobile templates. Limit the plugins and tools installed on your website. Optimize images and host videos off-site. Implement a content delivery network (CDN)Use a caching plugin to improve load times for returning visitors.

One more thing on this topic; did you know that long loading times can negatively impact desktop traffic too? Most people expect websites to load in 2-seconds or less. Every additional second after that translates to a 7% loss in conversions and an 11% loss in pageviews. 

Create Content with User Intent in Mind

Surveys show that around 72% of business leaders and marketers say content creation is their go-to SEO strategy. Blog posts and highly engaging videos are excellent ways to improve your search visibility and reach more potential customers. 

The key to creating powerful content for your brand is to focus on user intent. Simply put, user intent is why someone types in a specific string of keywords. So if a user types “what is the best email marketing software?” into Google, it’s safe to assume that they are interested in purchasing a marketing SaaS and want to research their options. 

There are plenty of ways to discover user intent for your specific business. Actionable strategies include sending surveys to subscribers, reviewing on-site analytics, and listening to what your target audience is saying on social media. 

Once you gather enough data, use these cues to choose content topics and long-tail keywords strategically. You’ll want to use what you learn in combination with a keyword research tool. If you don’t have an SEO tool, Google has a keyword planner that you can use for free! 

The goal is to create blog posts, videos, and other visual content that resonate with your audience’s goals and pain points. If people click through to your website and spend time engaging with your brand, this sends positive signals to Google, which can have a positive effect on your search position.

Use Structured Data

Creating high-quality content is a great way to let visitors know the purpose of your website. Structured data, on the other hand, is how you make it easy for Google to learn about your intent.

I like to think of structured data as a page-by-page spreadsheet that includes crucial details like pricing, product availability, contact information, and other data that consumers and search engines find helpful. Structured data is typically manually added to your website code, though some SEO plugins can help you do this with minimal effort.

When Google crawls your website, they see all of this information and make inferences about your website and audience. Based on what they decide, you could see a surge in traffic. A site with detailed schema markup (a type of structured data) can rank for featured snippets, which appear as detailed cards at the top of the search results for specific keywords. 

If you methodically include structured data on crucial pages, like your homepage and product landing pages, Google can accurately index your site and help you reach a wider audience.

Earn More Backlinks 

Backlinks are another powerful way to connect with people who have never heard of your brand and improve your search presence. As the name implies, a backlink is a link on another website that leads back to your business. 

Google sees backlinks as a seal of approval. If many different companies and blogs point back to the same source, they are viewed as trustworthy, which means there’s a good chance they could move up in the SERPs. 

Despite the advantages that come with backlinks, over 55% of all websites don’t have a single backlink pointing back to their brand. 

There are quite a few ways to earn more backlinks for your business. 

For starters, if you’re publishing high-quality content on your website that includes engaging visuals and statistics, you’re in an excellent position to generate backlinks organically. 

You could also look for guest posting opportunities. This process involves reaching out to a brand in a similar industry and pitching an article topic for their website. If they like your idea, you can write the post and include a link to your site in the content or your author bio.

I also recommend reaching out to journalists on sites like Help a Reporter Out (HARO). HARO is full of journalists who want to create expert roundup lists or interview leaders and marketers across specific industries. Answering queries from these people can help you get more links to your website in surprising ways. 

Don’t Forget about Voice Search

Finally, let’s talk about voice search. Did you know that around 30% of all searches are conducted without a screen? This phenomenon is primarily due to the rise of voice assistants in all new smartphones and computers. 

Some people own devices like Amazon’s Alexa, a standalone smart speaker. People use these different devices to search for everything from cupcake recipes to social media marketing tips. 

If you optimize for voice search, there’s a good chance your brand will pop up when a user asks a relevant industry question.

First, write in a conversational tone and use plenty of long-tail keywords. People tend to speak differently than they type, so casual blog posts and landing pages are more likely to attract these users. As an added benefit, people enjoy reading conversational blog posts more than traditional, formal-sounding content. 

On that note, I suggest including FAQs at the bottom of each article. Use questions that people in your industry might ask, and you can expect to reach a new batch of people who may have never heard of your company. 

If you follow the other tips listed above, such as optimizing for mobile and using structured data, you’re also far more likely to show up the next time someone says, “Hey, Google.”

Final Thoughts

There you have it! 

Things like voice search and schema markup were here last year, but this technology is evolving fast. I expect business leaders to get more value from these tools as Google improves the functionality and effectiveness of the current SEO resources and updates its algorithm.

It’s never too late to start optimizing your site for searchability. The strategies presented here today will help you establish your brand with Google and build your presence in the search results.