What is content optimisation?

Con­tent opti­mi­sa­tion is the process of improv­ing the qual­i­ty and rel­e­vance of web­site con­tent to increase its posi­tion in search engine results pages (SERPs) and there­fore attract more traffic.

It involves opti­mis­ing var­i­ous ele­ments of web con­tent, includ­ing the following:

• Key­words
• Meta descrip­tions
• H tags
• Images
• Inter­nal linking
• Exter­nal linking

Con­tent man­agers and strate­gists will focus on the above ele­ments to ensure that they align with the tar­get audi­ence’s search intent so that the user expe­ri­ence is as smooth and help­ful as possible.

Effec­tive con­tent opti­mi­sa­tion requires a deep under­stand­ing of the tar­get audi­ence, the com­pet­i­tive land­scape, and the search engine algo­rithms’ require­ments. Opti­mis­ing your con­tent can improve your web­site’s search engine rank­ings, attract more qual­i­fied leads, and increase your con­ver­sion rates.

Why do you need to change your content optimisation strategy for 2023?

Google’s ever-chang­ing algo­rithms are the main rea­son why you’ll need to update your con­tent strat­e­gy in 2023. Google is con­stant­ly updat­ing its search algo­rithm to pro­vide users with the most rel­e­vant and use­ful search results, which can sig­nif­i­cant­ly impact the search engine rank­ings of web pages.

This can cause trou­ble for busi­ness­es that are try­ing to improve their SEO and con­tent because:

• Changes in search rank­ing algo­rithms can lead to a decrease in vis­i­bil­i­ty: When Google changes its algo­rithm, some web­sites may see a decline in their search engine rank­ings. This can result in a sig­nif­i­cant decrease in traf­fic, engage­ment, and sales.
• Keep­ing up with the changes can be relent­less: Google makes numer­ous algo­rithm updates each year, and it can be chal­leng­ing for busi­ness­es to keep pace and adjust their con­tent strate­gies fast enough.
• Changes can favour com­peti­tors: Algo­rithm updates can favour some com­peti­tors, giv­ing them an advan­tage over oth­er web­sites. This can be espe­cial­ly chal­leng­ing for small busi­ness­es that may not have the resources to keep up with their competitors.
• It can weigh heav­i­ly on time and resources: SEO and con­tent opti­mi­sa­tion require a sig­nif­i­cant invest­ment in time and resources. This can be made worse if Google updates its algo­rithm mul­ti­ple times a year.

Though it comes with issues for busi­ness­es, there are sev­er­al fac­tors why con­tent opti­mi­sa­tion does­n’t (and should­n’t) remain sta­t­ic. The only one that real­ly mat­ters is that Google wants to present the most help­ful results to its users. So, if busi­ness­es want to remain com­pet­i­tive in the SERPs, web­site own­ers, dig­i­tal mar­keters, and con­tent strate­gists need to stay up to date with chang­ing trends.

This arti­cle will explore some of the trends and changes we can expect to see in the upcom­ing year so that you can devel­op the best pos­si­ble strategy.

What changes to content are coming up in 2023?

By exam­in­ing his­tor­i­cal data and mon­i­tor­ing trends that emerged in 2022, we can gain insights into what to expect from the con­tent world in 2023. Here are some upcom­ing changes to be aware of:

1. User expe­ri­ence will con­tin­ue to be impor­tant: Search engines are becom­ing increas­ing­ly sophis­ti­cat­ed in under­stand­ing user behav­iour and pref­er­ences, and they are using this infor­ma­tion to rank web­sites accord­ing­ly. This means that busi­ness­es will need to focus on cre­at­ing high-qual­i­ty, engag­ing con­tent that pro­vides val­ue to their tar­get audi­ence and deliv­ers a great user experience.
2. Mobile opti­mi­sa­tion will become even more crit­i­cal: With more and more peo­ple access­ing the inter­net from mobile devices, mobile opti­mi­sa­tion is becom­ing increas­ing­ly impor­tant for SEO con­tent. In 2023, busi­ness­es will need to ensure that their web­sites are opti­mised for mobile devices, with fast load­ing times, easy nav­i­ga­tion, and con­tent that is easy to read and inter­act with on small­er screens.
3. A shift towards voice search: With the increas­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty of voice search, busi­ness­es will need to opti­mise their con­tent for voice search queries if they want to remain com­pet­i­tive in 2023. This means cre­at­ing con­tent that is con­ver­sa­tion­al and tai­lored to how peo­ple speak rather than how they type.
4. Arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) and machine learn­ing (ML) will play a larg­er role: Search engines are becom­ing more sophis­ti­cat­ed in their use of AI and ML to under­stand user intent and deliv­er more per­son­alised search results. In 2023, busi­ness­es will need to take advan­tage of these tech­nolo­gies to opti­mise their con­tent and stay com­pet­i­tive in search results.
5. Video con­tent will con­tin­ue to grow: Video con­tent is still increas­ing in pop­u­lar­i­ty, and search engines are plac­ing greater empha­sis on video con­tent in the results pages. In 2023, busi­ness­es will need to cre­ate more video con­tent to stay com­pet­i­tive and reach their tar­get audience.
6. User-gen­er­at­ed con­tent: The extent to which UGC improves busi­ness per­for­mance data has been proven repeat­ed­ly with the rise of influ­encers and social media usage. In 2023, busi­ness­es will need to par­tic­i­pate in UGC prac­tices if they want to con­tin­ue to engage with their tar­get audi­ences and rank well in the SERPs.

Will 2023 be a difficult year for businesses trying to improve their content optimisation strategies?

There are a few fac­tors that could make 2023 a more chal­leng­ing year for busi­ness­es try­ing to improve their SEO. None of them is impos­si­ble to work around, but web­site own­ers should still be aware of them:

• Increased com­pe­ti­tion: The num­ber of busi­ness­es invest­ing in SEO has been steadi­ly increas­ing in recent years, and this trend is like­ly to con­tin­ue in 2023. As a result, it may become more chal­leng­ing for busi­ness­es to stand out and achieve high spots in the SERPs.
• Time and mon­ey: As search algo­rithms con­tin­ue to evolve, busi­ness­es may need to adjust their SEO strate­gies to keep up. This can be time-con­sum­ing and require sig­nif­i­cant resources, and this won’t get any eas­i­er in 2023.
• Focus on user expe­ri­ence: Search engines are plac­ing greater empha­sis on user expe­ri­ence and engage­ment, which means busi­ness­es will need to cre­ate high-qual­i­ty, engag­ing con­tent that pro­vides val­ue to their tar­get audi­ence. This can be chal­leng­ing for busi­ness­es that have tra­di­tion­al­ly focused more on tech­ni­cal SEO strate­gies.
• Increased impor­tance of voice search: Voice search is becom­ing increas­ing­ly pop­u­lar, and busi­ness­es will need to opti­mise their con­tent for voice search queries to remain com­pet­i­tive. This is a huge­ly under­ex­plored area that many busi­ness own­ers and con­tent strate­gists will need to learn for the first time.

Despite these poten­tial chal­lenges, there are also oppor­tu­ni­ties for busi­ness­es to improve their SEO in 2023. Let’s dive into how you can adapt your strat­e­gy this year:

New content optimisation strategies for 2023

1. Improving user experience

In this con­text, we aren’t look­ing at user expe­ri­ence (UX) under the umbrel­la of web­site design. Instead, we mean the over­all expe­ri­ence users have when inter­act­ing with your web­site’s fea­tures and content.

Your busi­ness can improve this by gen­er­at­ing con­tent that bet­ter res­onates with its tar­get audi­ence’s needs and by adapt­ing to the new ways users are access­ing the internet.

Tack­ling “user expe­ri­ence” actu­al­ly encom­pass­es sev­er­al approach­es rather than just one thing. It includes the fol­low­ing five aspects: mobile opti­mi­sa­tion, voice search, arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, video con­tent, and user-gen­er­at­ed content.

Read on to learn the dif­fer­ent ways you can improve user experience.

2. Optimising content for mobile devices

Mobile opti­mi­sa­tion has nev­er been more impor­tant than it is today. In 2023, web­sites will need to be designed in a mobile-friend­ly way, offer­ing solu­tions for the nav­i­ga­tion­al and acces­si­bil­i­ty prob­lems posed by small screens.

Here are five ways you can opti­mise con­tent for mobile devices:

• Use respon­sive design: A respon­sive design ensures that a web­site’s con­tent adjusts to fit the screen size of any device. This means that the con­tent will look and func­tion prop­er­ly on all kinds of mobile devices, which is crit­i­cal for pro­vid­ing a pos­i­tive user experience.
• Pri­ori­tise speed: Mobile users expect fast load times, and a slow web­site can neg­a­tive­ly impact user expe­ri­ence and SEO. Strate­gies for improv­ing mobile web­site speed include opti­mis­ing images, reduc­ing the num­ber of HTTP requests, and min­imis­ing the use of exter­nal scripts.
• Sim­pli­fy con­tent: Mobile users tend to have short­er atten­tion spans, so it’s impor­tant to sim­pli­fy the con­tent and make it easy to con­sume. This can be achieved by using short para­graphs, bul­let points, and head­ings to break up text and improve readability.
• Use mobile-spe­cif­ic fea­tures: Mobile devices have unique fea­tures like touch screens, loca­tion ser­vices, and push noti­fi­ca­tions that can be lever­aged to improve user expe­ri­ence. For exam­ple, busi­ness­es can use push noti­fi­ca­tions to alert users of new con­tent or loca­tion ser­vices to pro­vide per­son­alised con­tent based on the user’s location.

3. Optimising content for voice search

Opti­mis­ing con­tent for voice search involves under­stand­ing how peo­ple use voice search and tai­lor­ing your con­tent to match their search queries. Here are a few ways that busi­ness­es can opti­mise their con­tent for voice search:

• Use con­ver­sa­tion­al lan­guage: When peo­ple use voice search, they tend to use more con­ver­sa­tion­al lan­guage than they do when typ­ing out a query. As a result, busi­ness­es should cre­ate con­tent that uses nat­ur­al, con­ver­sa­tion­al lan­guage to match the way peo­ple speak.
• Answer com­mon ques­tions: Peo­ple often use voice search to ask ques­tions, so busi­ness­es should cre­ate con­tent that answers com­mon ques­tions relat­ed to their indus­try or niche. This can include cre­at­ing FAQ pages, blog posts that answer com­mon ques­tions, or videos that pro­vide detailed explanations.
• Use long-tail key­words: Voice search queries tend to be longer and more spe­cif­ic than tra­di­tion­al search queries, so busi­ness­es should use long-tail key­words that match these longer search queries. This can help their con­tent rank high­er in the search results and attract more tar­get­ed traffic.
• Opti­mise for local search: Peo­ple on the go will often use voice search to find local busi­ness­es or ser­vices, so busi­ness­es should opti­mise their con­tent for local search by includ­ing loca­tion-spe­cif­ic key­words and infor­ma­tion on their websites.

4. Adapting to developments in AI

As AI con­tin­ues to advance, busi­ness­es need to adapt their con­tent opti­mi­sa­tion strate­gies to keep up with the chang­ing land­scape. If you’re not sure how to do that, here are some steps you can take:

• Utilise AI-pow­ered tools: There are var­i­ous AI-pow­ered tools avail­able for busi­ness­es to opti­mise their con­tent. These tools use machine learn­ing algo­rithms to analyse data and pro­vide insights on improv­ing con­tent per­for­mance, help­ing busi­ness­es gain a com­pet­i­tive edge and stay ahead of the game.
• Focus on user intent: By under­stand­ing what users are look­ing for, busi­ness­es can cre­ate more rel­e­vant and engag­ing con­tent that res­onates with their audi­ence. AI algo­rithms are becom­ing increas­ing­ly sophis­ti­cat­ed at under­stand­ing user intent and analysing data on user behav­iour, which busi­ness­es can har­ness to cre­ate con­tent that meets the needs of their tar­get audience.
• Opti­mise for voice search: With the increas­ing preva­lence of voice-acti­vat­ed devices (e.g., Alexa), busi­ness­es need to opti­mise their con­tent so that it is eas­i­ly dis­cov­ered and under­stood by voice assis­tants. This means using nat­ur­al lan­guage and cre­at­ing con­tent in a con­cise, for­mat­ted way that can be read aloud.
• Per­son­alise con­tent: AI algo­rithms can be used to per­son­alise con­tent based on user behav­iour and pref­er­ences. By analysing user behav­iour data, busi­ness­es can tai­lor their con­tent to the spe­cif­ic needs of their audi­ence, lead­ing to high­er engage­ment rates and bet­ter con­ver­sion rates.
• Stay updat­ed with AI devel­op­ments: As AI tech­nol­o­gy advances, new oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges will arise. By stay­ing informed, busi­ness­es can stay ahead of the curve and take advan­tage of new oppor­tu­ni­ties as they arise.

5. Creating and optimising video content

Keep­ing up with an increased demand for video con­tent can be chal­leng­ing, but there are sev­er­al strate­gies that busi­ness­es can use to cre­ate and dis­trib­ute more video content:

• Devel­op a video con­tent strat­e­gy: Before cre­at­ing video con­tent, busi­ness­es should devel­op a strat­e­gy that out­lines their goals, tar­get audi­ence, mes­sag­ing, and dis­tri­b­u­tion chan­nels. This can help them cre­ate more effec­tive, tar­get­ed video con­tent that res­onates with their audience.
• Repur­pose exist­ing con­tent: Busi­ness­es can save time and resources by repur­pos­ing exist­ing con­tent into video for­mat. For exam­ple, they can turn blog posts into videos, cre­ate ani­mat­ed info­graph­ics, or film inter­views with indus­try experts.
• Use live video: Live video can be a great way to engage with your audi­ence in real time and cre­ate a sense of urgency around your con­tent. Busi­ness­es can use live video to host Q&A ses­sions, give behind-the-scenes tours, or pro­vide prod­uct demonstrations.
• Col­lab­o­rate with influ­encers: Part­ner­ing with influ­encers with large social media fol­low­ings can help busi­ness­es reach new audi­ences and cre­ate more engag­ing video con­tent. They can also col­lab­o­rate with oth­er busi­ness­es or indus­try experts to cre­ate infor­ma­tive and engag­ing video content.
• Invest in equip­ment and tools: While cre­at­ing video con­tent does­n’t nec­es­sar­i­ly require expen­sive equip­ment, hav­ing a good qual­i­ty cam­era, micro­phone, and light­ing can make a big dif­fer­ence in the qual­i­ty of your videos. Addi­tion­al­ly, invest­ing in video edit­ing soft­ware and oth­er tools can help busi­ness­es cre­ate more pol­ished and pro­fes­sion­al-look­ing videos.

By using these strate­gies, busi­ness­es can keep up with an increased demand for video con­tent and cre­ate more engag­ing, infor­ma­tive, and share­able con­tent that res­onates with their tar­get audience.

How­ev­er, cre­at­ing video con­tent isn’t just about meet­ing the increased demand. It’s also impor­tant to opti­mise it for SEO. Here’s how you can do so:

• Opti­mise video titles and descrip­tions: Like writ­ten con­tent, video titles and descrip­tions are essen­tial for SEO. By includ­ing rel­e­vant key­words and phras­es in the video title and descrip­tion, busi­ness­es can help search engines under­stand what their video is about and improve its rank­ing in the SERPs.
• Use video tran­scripts: Adding tran­scripts to video con­tent can help improve its SEO by mak­ing it eas­i­er for search engines to crawl and index the con­tent. Tran­scripts also make the con­tent more acces­si­ble for view­ers who are hear­ing impaired or pre­fer to read the con­tent, increas­ing the reach of your videos.
• Cre­ate high-qual­i­ty con­tent: Search engines pri­ori­tise high-qual­i­ty con­tent that pro­vides val­ue to view­ers. Busi­ness­es should cre­ate engag­ing, infor­ma­tive, and enter­tain­ing video con­tent that keeps view­ers engaged and encour­ages them to share the video with others.
• Opti­mise video tags: Adding rel­e­vant tags to your video con­tent can help search engines under­stand the con­text and con­tent of your video, which can improve its rank­ing in the SERPs.
• Use video sitemaps: A video sitemap is an XML file that pro­vides search engines with infor­ma­tion about the videos on a web­site. By sub­mit­ting a video sitemap to search engines, busi­ness­es can help them dis­cov­er and index their videos more effi­cient­ly, improv­ing their rank­ing in search results.
• Share videos on social media: Shar­ing video con­tent on social media can help busi­ness­es reach a wider audi­ence and increase the vis­i­bil­i­ty of their video con­tent. Social media plat­forms like YouTube and Vimeo are also search engines them­selves, so by upload­ing videos on these plat­forms, busi­ness­es can improve their vis­i­bil­i­ty in search results.
• Include calls-to-action: Includ­ing calls-to-action (CTAs) in video con­tent can help dri­ve traf­fic to a busi­ness’s web­site. As well as improv­ing click-through rates, these exter­nal links can show search engines that yours is a high author­i­ty site.

6. Encouraging user-generated content

User-gen­er­at­ed con­tent (UGC) refers to any type of con­tent cre­at­ed and shared by web­site or social media plat­form users. It can take the form of reviews, com­ments, pho­tos, videos, and social media posts.

UGC can improve a web­site’s SERP rank­ing because it sig­nals to search engines that your brand is pop­u­lar, trust­ed, and con­stant­ly gen­er­at­ing fresh and rel­e­vant content.

Users also like to see UGC because it serves as social proof that your prod­ucts or ser­vices are valu­able and trust­wor­thy. User-gen­er­at­ed reviews and tes­ti­mo­ni­als can help con­vince leads to choose your busi­ness over competitors.

UGC can also help increase user engage­ment and attract new users because they’re more like­ly to engage with con­tent cre­at­ed by peo­ple in their demographic.

To encour­age UGC on your web­site, here are a few best practices:

• Make it easy for users to cre­ate and share con­tent on your web­site: This can include adding com­ment sec­tions to blog posts, allow­ing users to sub­mit prod­uct reviews, or incor­po­rat­ing social media shar­ing buttons.
• Offer incen­tives for users to cre­ate and share con­tent on your web­site: E.g., rewards such as dis­counts, coupons, or entry into a giveaway.
• High­light UGC: Fea­tur­ing user reviews or shar­ing user-gen­er­at­ed pho­tos and videos can show users that their con­tent is val­ued and encour­age them to con­tribute more.
• Engage with users: Engage with those users who cre­ate UGC by respond­ing to com­ments and reviews and shar­ing their con­tent on your social media platforms.
• Mon­i­tor UGC: Ensure it is appro­pri­ate and aligned with your brand val­ues. Remove any con­tent that is spam­my or inappropriate.

Final thoughts

Recent advance­ments in the dig­i­tal world may be intim­i­dat­ing to some, but things like voice search and UGC offer fan­tas­tic oppor­tu­ni­ties for busi­ness­es to con­nect with their audiences.

Although chang­ing your con­tent opti­mi­sa­tion strat­e­gy may seem daunt­ing, it will ulti­mate­ly help your busi­ness reach a wider audi­ence and stay ahead of the com­pe­ti­tion. By embrac­ing new trends in social media and tech­nolo­gies such as AI and voice search, busi­ness­es can bet­ter cater to their cus­tomers’ evolv­ing needs and preferences.

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