SEO Predictions to look out for in Upcoming years
SEO this year was turbulent. With several ranking updates coming face to face, it became almost overwhelming. So in order to set ourselves up for the future, I asked SEOs what they think will happen in the future in terms of rankings and SEO.
Here are some SEO predictions to look out for:
Table of Contents
What according to you can change in terms of the SEO process and ranking stuff?
Growth in JS/JamStack websites that are un-optimized for Tech SEO purposes, and therefore more “why aren’t my pages getting indexed?” and “why are so many pages ‘duplicate with no user selected canonical’ errors?” questions on SEO forums, as we all work through the intricacies of JS stacks. AKA: Growing pains!
I see this being aggravated by the growth of higher-quality AI-driven content creation – at scale, coming from all directions – that will cause Google to struggle even more with crawling, rendering and indexing the web, given the sharp time/resource constraints that will cause.
Less and less content will be indexed as they have to raise the bar over-and-over to combat this issue.
What are you most looking forward to in the SEO world?
WTSFest 2023 😉
What do you hope Google does?
1) More work to differentiate real product reviews, in addition to real experiences, vs. “content marketing” for things like the travel industry wherein the writer may or may not have visited the location they are writing about.
2) Continued explorations of how to algorithmically track and rank based on concrete E-A-T signals (perhaps via schema?)
What according to you can change in terms of the SEO process and ranking stuff?
Semantic SEO applied on page, in site (internal linking). off URL (everything happens on a URL level and not domain level). Who is in relation to what and why on all levels. You can watch my approach to build a Topical Mesh on YT. Furthermore, branding is now mandatory if you pretend to be 1st and stay there. An easy trick to know if your website is an entity worth noting is Google Trends. If your name and your brand to appear, you don’t even exist.
What will not change and what will stay the same?
Links (internal and backlinks) are still the strongest SEO asset. Understand how to increase Classic Pagerank and Topical Pagerank to align all the signals and show enough strength. You can use Majestic’s Citation Flow (PR formula) and Topical Trust Flow (Topical PR formula) to get sense of where you are. Below 40/100 is too weak. Also, TTF must be aligned with your topics.
What are you most looking forward to in the SEO world?
The world of Search. After doing text hosted on Web pages to rank on Google, desktop version, there so much to explore today.
What do you hope Google does?
Get Google Lens to pick up more traction and get the algorithms to s perform better when there is nuance.
Is there anything that’s ranking that shouldn’t be?
Illegal
What isn’t a rank signal but should be according to you?
IRL citations
Is there anything else that comes to your mind, that you would like to be quoted explicitly for in the article?
Pick up the right mentors. Choice is infinite and not easy to make. If you don’t learn from the best, it’s nit going to work. How do you choose a SEO is an important topic.
What according to you can change in terms of the SEO process and ranking stuff?
AI is finally at a stage where it can support or even automate more and more SEO tasks.
What will not change and what will stay the same?
Doing the SEO fundamentals right will remain the most critical aspect of SEO.
What do you hope Google does?
I hope Google figures out a way to deal with the coming wave of ChatGPT spam.
Is there anything that’s ranking that shouldn’t be?
Right now a lot of low-effort, medium-value, potentially wrong content based on PAAs and LLMs (like ChatGPT) is ranking.
Is there anything else that comes to your mind, that you would like to be quoted explicitly for in the article?
ChatGPT will start a new wave of search engine spam.
What according to you can change in terms of the SEO process and ranking stuff?
There’ll be less of a focus on keyword research and more of a focus on topical coverage, building a brand, and creating more product-led content. Also, big publishers will likely start using AI to develop outlines, ideas, and do basic background research. Until Google really cracks down on AI-written content, I think publishers will try to use the scalability benefit of AI-written content as much as possible.
What do you hope Google does?
I hope Google lives up to what they claim they’re prioritizing like devaluing buying links and AI-written content. I’m still seeing websites find success with these tactics, so Google still has a long way to go, but hopefully spammy links and low-quality content will be downvoted more by Google in 2023.
Is there anything that’s ranking that shouldn’t be?
Yes! Lots of bad quality, nonsensical AI-written content is still ranking high in certain niches. It looks like a game of cat and mouse right now between Google and these publishers.
What isn’t a rank signal but should be according to you?
High-quality web design should definitely be a ranking signal, but of course that’s insanely difficult (maybe possible one day) for Google’s algorithms to detect.
What according to you can change in terms of the SEO process and ranking stuff?
User-generated content will become even more important
What will not change and what will stay the same?
The importance of a dynamic website
What are you most looking forward to in the SEO world?
How we battle AI
What do you hope Google does?
Learn to identify AI-generated content
Is there anything that’s ranking that shouldn’t be?
Press releases should not be news
What according to you can change in terms of the SEO process and ranking stuff?
SEO is going to be less about creating content to check a mark. The barrier to creating readable content just got lower thanks to AI. To rank and stay on the SERPs, brands will now need to invest in original content choke full of personal examples, case studies and other hard to replicate content assets.
What will not change and what will stay the same?
The importance of content distribution will not diminish. If anything, it may rise. SEO as a distribution channel is becoming less effective by the day thanks to Google prioritizing their own ads. Content marketers will need to lean into other distribution channels like LinkedIn to max ROI.
What are you most looking forward to in the SEO world?
We’ll see SEO begin to merge with thought leadership – since content will become more original and unique to the author’s personal experience. That’s something I’m looking forward to.
What do you hope Google does?
I hope Google scales back on the snippet pulling. More searches are zero-click now. That’s something I’d like to change.
Is there anything that’s ranking that shouldn’t be?
Pinterest links? 😅😅
What according to you can change in terms of the SEO process and ranking stuff?
Much the same. Perhaps with a focus to spot AI, perhaps actually requiring proper sentences rather than just keywords. Hopefully with less of a focus on 9 million words per article
What according to you can change in terms of the SEO process and ranking stuff?
UX (User Experience)
What will not change and what will stay the same?
Content is king and engagement is queen. Quality content will stay the same.
What are you most looking forward to in the SEO world?
Backlinks
What do you hope Google does?
HCU update and spam update
What isn’t a rank signal but should be according to you?
Bounce rate
Is there anything else that comes to your mind, that you would like to be quoted explicitly for in the article?
Podcasts and voice search is future
What according to you can change in terms of the SEO process and ranking stuff?
I think SEO will remain stable in 2023; however, Google has in its to-do list the phasing out of third-party cookies. To be honest, I doubt they will do it because of a conflict of interests.
As for SEO, I think Google will in some moment act against AI content writing.
What will not change and what will stay the same?
Links as a core ranking factor. On-site optimization as a core ranking factor.
What are you most looking forward to in the SEO world?
I wish SEO would stop seeing link-building as a business (buying and selling links) so we can all get back to what was usual years ago: honest blogs sharing what they found interesting on other websites.
To make this work, the use of social media sites should reduce still more than it has done during the last few years. Bloggers need a motivation to retake blogging, including some interesting means of making money besides their donation widgets and Google AdSense.
What do you hope Google does?
Reduce tracking. Yeah, I guess I will just keep dreaming about it.
Is there anything that’s ranking that shouldn’t be?
Link-bait articles. I understand the motivation to write those (traffic and AdSense income), but the web would do a lot better with more thoughtfully written articles.
What isn’t a rank signal but should be according to you?
Simpleness. The web has just too much JavaScript and too many useless images. This article explains it better than I would: https://alistapart.com/article/webwaste
Is there anything else that comes to your mind, that you would like to be quoted explicitly for in the article?
It would be good to promote the idea that SEO should come before web design among entrepreneurs. During my career, I have witnessed many times how business owners frown their faces when I tell them their site is not optimized at all, and that we need to make many changes.
Most web owners pay a web designer to get a presence online. It would be great for all parties involved to make “speaking with the SEO guys” part of the web development process.
Final Words
Wow! These predictions are surely true and I agree with all of them.
I would like to thank everyone who contributed. What is your prediction for SEO in the future?
Tag packtedseo and share yours on Twitter
