SEO is evolving very quickly and, with it, the techniques to position yourself better. To help you see things more clearly, we have listed the 8 trends that could impact your SEO and Content strategy .
Analyzing these trends is essential for:
- anticipate changes,
- position yourself ahead of your competitors,
- improve the profitability of your content!
To draw them up, we relied on the latest publication of the Search Engine Journal “The State of SEO: Insights, Opportunities, Threats” but also on the own issues encountered by our clients .
In this article, we also provide you with content to delve deeper into the different subjects. Insights from our SEO experts will allow you to pick up tips and quick-wins to make now!
In addition: if you want to implement a successful SEO content strategy this year, consult our report on the state of SEO content 2024 !
1. Strategic priorities: focus on UX and content
9% of SEO professionals want to focus on on-page factors. This is the second area after search intentions (10.4%) and before UX (9.7%) .
In 2023, content remains a safe bet for increasing traffic and generating leads. For several years and particularly following the health crisis, content has made it possible to maintain dialogue with your audience and develop business opportunities. It is a lever which is, and will remain, essential in the coming years for the generation of traffic and leads.
To be considered by your audience and Google as THE benchmark brand in your market, the objective will be to succeed in producing more relevant content than your competitors. An objective that you absolutely must fulfill since the search engine's level of requirements for content continues to increase. With each update of its algorithms, Google improves its understanding of user requests in order to find THE content that will perfectly respond to the Internet user's request.
As for UX and the rules of experience on the page (SXO), these criteria were already very important in 2022. They therefore remain so for 2023. They are an integral part of the Core Web Vitals , or Essential Web Signals, 3 indicators which measure the quality of the user experience:
- LCP for Largest Contentful Paint which concerns in particular the loading speed of the website pages.
- FID for First Input Delay , or the user's interaction time with the page.
- CLS for Cumulative Layout Shift which measures content accessibility.
To improve your web performance, you can find a method given by Google which is summarized in three steps:
- Evaluate the health of the site and identify critical points.
- Debug and optimize Core Web Vitals indicators.
- Monitor performance and avoid regressions.
Source: https://web.dev/vitals-tools-workflow/
In order to bring the best content to its results pages, Google will continue to emphasize on-page criteria, namely:
- Technical criteria : optimization of URLs, tags, presence of a sitemap, consistent internal networking, etc.
- Editorial criteria : optimization of content according to targeted keywords, headings, content structure, etc.
2. The main positioning factors
25% of SEO professionals observe that the depth and precision of content are essential positioning factors, just after user behavior – click-through rate, bounce rate, time on site – (31%) and optimizations on -page (33%) .
Note that user behavior is not really a ranking factor for Google. But elements such as bounce rate, CTR or even session time must be taken into account in order to offer content that is better structured for the audience and readable for robots. Above all, this is what will improve the visibility of your pages.
We have also produced a report on the state of SEO content in 2024 . Through these 18 key points, you will understand Google's behavior towards your content and obtain advice to improve your SEO strategy . To carry out this study, we relied on the analysis of 520,000 optimized contents.
3. Emerging SEO factors to watch out for
In first position is Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (11.3%) . In the field of SEO and Content , it is true that NLP technologies accelerate and revolutionize content creation. GPT-3 is the one that has been getting a lot of attention lately because it is considered THE most advanced language model on the market. It allows you to create so-called “natural” content with a pen similar to that of a human.
At GoNaddra, we are well placed to know this since we leverage an AI trained specifically for SEO , to help writers write high-performance editorial content faster. AI Chat or brief automation, our users feed on this AI to be sure to produce content that will capture more traffic and engagement.
10.8% of SEO professionals think that Core Web Vitals will be among the most important emerging SEO factors in the coming years.
Read also: Natural SEO Strategies and SEO Trends in 2024
Subsequently, search marketers identify as emerging factors the EEAT criteria (10.2%) as emerging factors.
n terms of content, the EEAT criteria (Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trust) allow Google to distinguish reliable and quality content. They particularly concern professional media, health websites, and even legal information.
Even if the EEAT criteria do not have a direct impact on the positioning of a website, they are nevertheless taken into account and evaluated by Google's Search Quality Raters . Tasked by Google with analyzing and evaluating the quality of organic results, these individuals help refine the quality of Google's results. To improve the performance of your site, it will therefore be crucial to strengthen your EAT profile and create content with high added value.
4. Positioning, the main criterion for measuring performance
15% of SEO professionals use keyword positioning to measure the performance of their content, followed by the number of pages viewed per session (12.4%) and the number of conversions (9%) .
Indeed, the positioning of the page marks the effectiveness of the SEO strategy and makes it possible to capture traffic and engagement, the main expectations of customers in this area.
To be well positioned, your challenge here will be to carry out a good analysis on the SERP side (results page). Understanding it well will allow you to offer THE content that will make the difference and ensure maximum visibility.
What you need to remember here is that the pages highlighted by Google can be informational, transactional or both. It's up to you to see if your content meets the expectations of Internet users on the query while providing more relevant information than that of your competitors.
5. Improved SEO results
58.7% of SEO professionals consider that their SEO results (probably their traffic and turnover) have improved over the last 12 months compared to 21.3% who note stagnation and 20.1% a drop in their results .
This improvement in results is due to several factors. First of all, the health crisis which has considerably increased the use of digital and therefore generated many more searches and therefore visits and conversions!
SEO professionals and marketing have had to adapt to this exponential demand from Internet users by optimizing or producing new content. To make these tactics as profitable as possible and obtain SEO results, the challenge will be to provide more relevant content to your audience and to Google.
The good reflex to adopt today is to take into account the search intentions of Internet users , i.e. the reasons why users carry out a search. To do this, it is essential to analyze Google results pages, the algorithm of which highlights the main expectations of Internet users.
Example : on the query “ electric car ”, the results pages display both informational content and transactional content. Google therefore interprets the search intentions of Internet users in two ways: there are those who wish to know more about the characteristics of electric cars and those who wish to find offers to equip themselves.
Informational content nevertheless dominates the SERP, which means that for this query, Google considers that the majority of Internet users are looking for information.
To position yourself on “electric car”, you will therefore have every interest in offering informational content.
6. The big threats to SEO
In the next two years, the main threats to SEO would essentially be linked to:
Artificial intelligence and machine learning
AI is the subject of numerous debates today, particularly in terms of content creation. Will it permanently replace the editors? What impact will automatically generated content have on SEO and Content Marketing ? How will Google react to a potential influx of content?
At GoNaddra, we prefer to see AI as an opportunity and not a threat. Thanks to our platform, AI is at the service of the writer and helps accelerate the writing process while improving knowledge of reader expectations. GoNaddra's AI also offers detailed analysis of the competition, to be sure to offer relevant and truly original content. It's the perfect balance between SEO, editorial and creativity.
Google updates
Notably the arrival of Google MUM : the search engine is increasingly updating its algorithms. Between 2012 and 2020, the number of changes increased by more than 635% , making the SERPs particularly changeable and volatile. However, tools exist to evaluate this volatility such as Semrush Sensor, SEOgre, etc.
To monitor the performance of your content following a Google update, GoNaddra can also help you. Measuring the performance of each of your contents, the platform allows you to identify possible fluctuations, refresh your optimizations and maintain your positions over the long term!
7. A strong need for support in content strategy
Among the services most requested by clients , content strategy (31.3%) comes first, followed by keyword strategy (30.8%) and web design (25.5%) .
In this case, content strategy and keyword strategy go hand in hand. It is necessary to know the keywords to target in order to measure your efforts and produce content that generates a business impact.
These statistics demonstrate the weight of content in SEO and the awareness over the last ten years of its importance for generating traffic and qualified leads.
Moreover, according to the same study, 31% of clients want to be supported by SEO experts .
A phenomenon which can be explained both by the business contribution of natural referencing which allows long-term growth, but also because of rapid developments (Google updates, fluctuation of SERPs, aggressiveness of the competition, etc. .) which complicate actions. SEO also requires a significant effort and a need for internal and external resources to be sure to adopt the right tactics, maximize results and make the investment it represents profitable.
The need for support is precisely what we observe among our users.
Depending on their challenges, some companies need more in-depth support from an SEO expert. This is why GoNaddra offers a Custom plan which allows you to benefit from associated services to accelerate the SEO growth of content. We offer in particular technical audits, creation of editorial strategies, training and even support on the different SEO pillars . To find out more, make an appointment with GoNaddra .
8. An SEO budget that increases for a majority of companies
53.2% of SEO budgets increased over the last 12 months, 26.9% stayed the same , and 19.9% decreased . For example, the Search Engine Journal study specifies that the average budget of an SEO client is between $1000 and $5000 per month .
Measuring ROI is necessary to justify the actions carried out in content strategy and unlock budgets on this lever. However, it is not always easy to obtain. You can, for example, use several analytical sources which can complicate the transcription of this data. It will therefore be crucial to equip yourself with a tool to centralize all your KPIs and track the SEO gains generated by your content.