Five things you need to know about optimizing content in 2023

Google constantly tests and updates its algorithms in pursuit of the best possible search experience. As the search giant explains in its “How Search Works” paper, that means understanding the intent behind the query and returning relevant, high-quality, accessible results for consumers.

As if the ever-changing search landscape wasn’t hard enough to navigate already, content marketers are also having to contend with an increasingly technology-laden environment. Competitors are upping the ante with tools and platforms that generate smarter, real-time insights and even optimize and personalize content on the fly based on audience behavior, location, and data points.

Set-and-forget content optimization is a thing of the past. Here’s what you need to know to help your content get found, engage your target audience, and convert searchers into customers in 2023.

AI automation will be an integral part of content optimization

As the content battlefield heats up, SEO insights will continue to grow in importance as a key source of intelligence. We’re optimizing content for humans, not search engines, after all – it’s best to have a solid understanding of what these people need and want.

While I don’t advocate automation for full content creation, I believe that next year, as resources run out, automation will have a bigger impact in helping with optimizing existing content.

CHATGPT

ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, is a powerful language generation model that leverages the GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) architecture to produce realistic human-like text. With GPT Chat’s wide range of capabilities, from completing sentences and answering questions to generating content ideas or boosting research efforts, it can be an invaluable asset to any natural language processing project.

The introduction of ChatGPT has sparked considerable debate and an explosive amount of content on the web. With ChatGPT, content marketers can gain an edge over the competition by efficiently creating and editing high-quality content. It offers help generating blog post titles, topic or article summaries, as well as full campaigns when targeting specific audiences.

However, it’s important to remember that this technology should be used to enhance human creativity rather than completely replace it.

For many years AI-powered technology has helped content marketers and SEOs automate repetitive tasks like data analysis, glitch scanning, and reporting, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. AI also enables real-time analysis of a higher volume of consumer touchpoints and behavioral data points for smarter and more accurate predictive analytics, opportunity forecasting, real-time content recommendations, and more.

With so much data at stake and recession concerns already impacting 2023 budgets at many organizations, content marketers will need to do more with less next year. You will need to carefully balance human creative resources with AI aids where it makes sense to remain flexible, nimble and market-ready.

It’s time to look at your body of content as a whole

Google’s Helpful Content Update, launched in August, is a site-wide signal that it targets a high percentage of sparse, useless, and low-quality content. This means that your site’s great content won’t reach its fullest potential if it’s lost in a sea of ​​mediocre and outdated resources.

It may be time to reboot the content, but don’t get carried away. Before you start unpublishing and redirecting blog posts, put your trust in automated site checker technology and see what you can fix first. AI-assisted technology can help identify on-page elements, including page titles and H1 tags, and off-page factors like page speed, redirects and 404 errors that can support your marketing strategy. content update.

Focus on your busiest and most visible pages first, such as those linked from the home page or main menu. Google’s John Mueller recently confirmed that if important pages on your website are of low quality, it’s bad news for the entire site. There’s no percentage by which this is measured, he said, urging content marketers and SEOs to instead think about what the average user would think when they visit your website.

Take advantage of location-based content optimization opportunities

Consumers want personalized experiences, and location is your brainchild at your fingertips. Seasonal weather trends, local events, and holidays all impact search traffic in various ways and present opportunities for location-based optimization.

AI-assisted technology can help you discover these opportunities and evaluate topical keywords at scale so you can plan content and promotion campaigns that tap into this increased demand when it occurs.

Make the most of content created for locally relevant campaigns by repurposing and promoting it on your website, local landing pages, social media profiles and Google business profiles for each location. Google Posts, for example, is a fantastic and underutilized tool for improving the visibility and interactivity of your content right on the search results page.

Optimize your content with high-volume and conversational keywords

Also look for trending and conversational terms in your keyword research. Keywords at the top of the funnel that help generate awareness and spark conversations in social channels offer great promotion opportunities. Use hashtags organically and target them in paid content promotion campaigns to dramatically expand your audience.

Conversational keywords are a good opportunity to improve the visibility of that content in search as well. Check out the “People Also Ask” results and other featured snippets available on the Search Results Page (SERP) for your keyword terms. Incorporate questions and answers into your content to naturally optimize these and voice search queries.

It is important to use SEO insights and real-time data correctly; you don’t want to target what was trending last month and is already over. AI is a big help here too, as a smart tool can constantly scan and analyze, sending recommendations for new content opportunities as they arise.

Consider how to optimize content based on intent and experience

The best content comes from a deep and meaningful understanding of the researcher’s intent. What problem were they having or what need did they have that made them seek out your content in the first place? And how does your blog post, ebook, or landing page copy improve their experience?

Look at the search results page as a door to your “home”. How’s your curb appeal? What do potential customers see when they come across one of your pages in search results? What kind of experience do you offer when they cross the threshold and click on your website?

The best content meets visitors where they are with relevant, high-quality information presented in an accessible manner, loading quickly and being easy to digest. This is the case for both short and long SEO content. Make sure your content contains calls to action designed to give people options and help them discover the next step in their journey versus trying to sell them something they might not be ready for yet.

2023, the year of SEO: why brands aim and how to prepare

Conclusion

The public is king, queen, and the whole court as we head into 2023. SEO and content marketing provide you with countless opportunities to connect with these folks, but remember they are a means to an end. Keep researcher intent and audience needs at the heart of every content you create and the campaign you plan for next year.