Is SEO Dead in 2023? Understand New SEO Trends

Are you not getting any organic traffic on your website even after implementing all the SEO strategies?

Do you constantly write 2-3 articles daily but, still are not able to rank even a single article?

Is your SEO agency going downhill?

Have you come to believe that SEO is dead in 2023?

Well, if you answered yes even to a single question then this article is for you.

There are a lot of misconceptions regarding the effectiveness of SEO in 2023 and what strategies would work in the future.

Today, I will clear all the misconceptions and tell you if SEO is dead in 2023 or not.

I will also tell you effective strategies that are recommended by Google itself that can help you rank your articles higher on SERP.

After reading this article you will understand what has changed in SEO and how you can adapt to the changing trends.

Is SEO Dead in 2023?
SEO is Saturated
AI-Powered Tools Can Also Write Articles
SEO for E-commerce Websites
Adapt Your SEO Strategy to Changing Trends
Top 6 SEO Strategies for 2023
Improve the E-A-T of Your Website
Is E-A-T a Ranking Factor?
5 Ways to Improve Your Website’s E-A-T

Is SEO Dead in 2023?

SEO is not dead as long as people use search engines. This is because search engines use SEO to rank websites.

If SEO has not vanished then why people are not getting organic traffic or sales even after implementing all the SEO strategies?

The answer to this question lies in the next paragraph.

SEO is Saturated

Well, SEO is not dead but Google is very saturated.

According to earthweb there are more than 600 million blogs on the internet, with over 7.5 million blog posts published per day in 2022.

As you can guess, there is just too much content for Google to rank.

Google was the one who told us that we need to create good quality content that helps people solve the problem to rank our articles on the search engine.

Although people took this to a next level.

Writers and SEO experts started creating content like crazy.

People are building new websites on niche topics every now and then and writing articles that may not help people solve their problems.

The focus went from quality to quantity and that’s where things started going wrong for SEO.

People are not getting any results from SEO because they are competing with millions of articles.

Most importantly, a lot of people know how to beat the algorithm so, they are ranking their articles even though they might not be the best ones.

Due to this, you can see dozens of poor-quality articles ranking on the first page of Google.

At the same time, high-authority websites are ranking for most of the keywords.

For example, Wikipedia ranks for almost every other keyword.

All these things increase the competition.

The problem doesn’t end here because more and more articles will be published with the help of AI in the future.

AI-Powered Tools Can Also Write Articles

A lot of AI-powered tools like Ryter, Jasper, and many more can write long-form plagiarism-free articles within minutes.

This means that marketers can publish more and more articles on a daily basis on different topics.

Since Google’s algorithm cannot understand which articles are published by AI and which are written by humans, articles that are drafted by AI can also rank.

This means that Google will get more and more saturated in the future.

SEO for E-commerce Websites

E-commerce sites are using SEO in the most terrible way possible.

Let’s say you want to buy a digital watch.

You hop over on Google in the hope to find a blog post that tells you the best watch that matches your needs.

You need an article where they tell you the best watches with their pros and cons.

However, you eventually find yourself reading an article from a watch company where they describe some key characteristics of each watch and embed a link to their products.

Would you be able to buy yourself a perfect watch by reading such articles? Absolutely, NO.

On the other hand, most of the e-commerce sites like Amazon and Flipkart rank for most of the product keywords.

Other websites only write articles with the aim to sell their products or earn some affiliate income.

In both such scenarios, readers are not able to understand which product is best for them.

As you can see even e-commerce sites publish articles like crazy with the sole aim to sell you a product.

E-commerce sites aren't willing to put in the effort to write a quality article and just want the SEO agency to write it.

Since these SEO agencies are not experts in their domain they end up producing subpar articles.

People will become irritated if this keeps happening, which will lead to a decrease in Google searches.

Instead, they would go to other social media sites like Instagram, Pinterest, or YouTube to get answers to their questions.

To be very frank, social media sites sometimes work better than Google because there are real people on those sites providing genuine solutions.

Adapt Your SEO Strategy to Changing Trends

If you think that your articles are going to rank just because you are stuffing keywords in your meta title and descriptions and developing backlinks then you are completely wrong.

You need to tell yourself that things are changing and you need to adapt.

If you want to grow your reach and get organic traffic you need to pitch your product or service to the right audience.

On the other hand, if you are writing blogs then you must first define who reads your articles and why they are reading them.

Below, I have mentioned the top 6 effective SEO strategies that will work in 2023.

Top 6 SEO Strategies for 2023

The strategies that I am mentioning here are not any guesswork.

Google’s Helpful Content Update was released in August 2022 which stated that helpful content that satisfies the needs of the readers and helps them solve their problems will rank well.

There are different questions in the document that guides you in writing better content.

I would be take the help of that document and tell you effective SEO strategies.

So, keep in mind that these strategies are mentioned by Google itself.

Focus on Specific Industry and Niche:

Don’t produce content on different topics. Instead, choose a particular topic and write detailed articles around it.

When you curate articles on a particular niche it shows Google that you have expert knowledge on your topic.

Creating a website with only blogs pertaining to video editing, for instance, would be a good idea.

If you create such a website you can write blogs on topics like:

• 10 best free video editing software for beginners.
• Common video editing mistakes people make.
• 5 ways to edit video faster.

Target long-tail keywords and keep producing high-quality articles.

When the algorithm of Google understands that you have a deep knowledge of video editing you would start ranking for the keywords related to video editing.

So, instead of producing content on different topics choose one particular industry and niche.

Write on Exploding Topics:

Instead of writing articles on outdated topics, you should write on a subject that is creating a buzz in the market.

You can also write on topics that currently are not popular but will grow in the future.

To find such topics you can use tools like Google Trends and Exploding Topics.

Don’t Focus on Word Count:

You need to understand that people’s attention span is going down.

Thanks to Instagram and Tik Tok, people are habituated to consuming short-form content.

This is the reason why YouTube also introduced 'shorts' in its system.

Your readers want to solve their problem as soon as possible.

Instead of increasing the word count of your articles, improve the quality of your content and give people what they want as quickly as possible

Now, I am not saying long-form content doesn’t work.

The idea here is that if you can give an answer to a question in just 500 words then don’t write a 1000-1500 words article.

On the other hand, if you feel that your topic needs to be discussed in depth then by all means write a long article.

Take the example of this article, since there was so much to tell this article is a bit long.

However, everything that is written here will assist you in developing a potent SEO strategy.

Don’t Just Summarize:

Don’t just summarize what others are saying without adding any value.

Instead of paraphrasing write something unique which has not been mentioned in other articles.

Before you start writing answer yourself: What is the USP of my article?

Add Your Personal Experiences:

To make your articles stand out from the crowd you can add your personal experiences.

When you write something which you have experienced in real life it increases the trustworthiness of the article.

At the same time, personal experiences give an emotional touch to your article.

So, if you have something to share don’t hesitate to write it.

Create Executable Content:

This is a very important point. After reading your articles your readers should be able to do something.

They should be able to achieve their goals.

For example, if you are writing a guide on how to select the best bicycle then after reading your article your readers should be able to buy a bicycle for them.

At the very least, your readers should learn how to choose a bicycle that suits their needs.

You must always write an article that clarifies the doubts of your audience.

If people get confused after reading your articles then your piece of content is useless.

7 Steps to Create the Perfect Content Marketing Strategy

Do you want to create high-quality content and rank higher on Google? Here’s the ultimate content marketing guide to help you attract visitors.

StartupTalkyShikha Tyagi

Improve the E-A-T of Your Website

E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.

This concept was laid down by Google itself in its Quality Raters' Guidelines.

• Expertise: What is your level of expertise and knowledge on the topic?
• Authority: Do the industry experts link back to your content?
• Trust: Does your organization protect user information and provide accurate information?

Since everyone was pushing content on Google like crazy, this metric was developed to evaluate the overall quality of the article.

Using this metric Google is trying to understand if the content is valuable to readers and whether it should rank well or not.

Here’s an example from Google that highlights what they mean by E-A-T:

“High E-A-T news articles should be produced with journalistic professionalism – they should contain factually accurate content presented in a way that helps users achieve a better understanding of events. High E-A-T news sources typically have published established editorial policies and robust review processes.”

Is E-A-T a Ranking Factor?

E-A-T is technically not a ranking factor but, it can impact your rankings. I know this sounds very confusing but, listen to me.

E-A-T determines if the content is helpful or not and Google only wants to rank content that helps people solve their problems.

So, using this metric if Google thinks that your content is not helpful they won’t rank your articles anyways.

As a result, even though it's not a direct ranking factor, it can indirectly affect your search rankings.

5 Ways to Improve Your Website’s E-A-T

Tell About Yourself:

Tell your visitors who you are and why you are the right person to speak on a particular topic.

You can do this by having an effective About Us Page or a Team page.

You should also tell your readers your name, profession, number of years of experience, and why you are writing on that specific topic.

If you have a website where a lot of writers publish content regularly just like our website StartupTalky you can include the name, pic, and bio of the writer.

Work With Experts:

Google wants to rank articles written by experts who know what they are talking about.

Since anyone can publish a low-quality article on Google, it is very important for the search engine to make sure only the highest quality content ranks.

So, rather than hiring ghostwriters who don’t have any expert knowledge about your niche you should only work with experts who can bring something new to the table.

Link To High-Authority Sources:

Back your information with facts and link your article to other high-authority websites, official sources, studies, and research papers.

You can also link your article to tweets by industry experts. Linking to high-authority websites increases the trustworthiness of your article.

Get Backlinks From Other Authority Sites:

When big websites that are experts in their domain link back to your article, it tells Google that you are also an expert in your subject.

In this way, the chances of your article getting ranked on the first-page increases.

Update Content Regularly:

The content that you have written a few months back or a year ago might become outdated today.

At such times, you should always update the content with new and accurate information.

Conclusion

Don't just stuff keywords and build backlinks. Put yourself in the shoes of your customers.

Think about different ways your customers could discover you.

Then ask yourself if are you building your SEO strategy around those ways.

You must understand that apart from Google there are so many other ways to increase your reach like Instagram and YouTube.

If you are new to the industry first build your audience on social media sites.

Once you have built a name in your industry and people are searching for your brand name on Google you can then start writing content.

Or you can produce content both on Google and other social media sites.

The key thing to remember is to focus on quality and not on quantity.

FAQs

Will SEO exist in 10 years?

I can’t give you an accurate answer to this question but there is a very high chance that SEO will exist 10 years from now.

This is because search engines use SEO to rank websites.

Without SEO, the search engine won’t be able to understand which articles to rank so, SEO would be there in the future.

Although, the way people perform searches will change.

For example, instead of typing their search query on Google, they would rather ask Alexa or Siri to find answers to their queries.

If this happens Google will bring chances to its algorithm and you need to change your strategies as well.

The complexity of search queries would increase if people use virtual assistants to conduct Google searches.

This means that your keyword research strategy would also change.

What's replacing SEO?

SEO has evolved into Answer Engine Optimization (AEO).