Google is constantly changing. That’s why so many businesses have trouble keeping up with the new Google algorithms and updates. If you aren’t keeping a close eye on the changes, your blog could be left in the dust.
This article gives you some quick tips to help you make your blog ready for Google 2023. Are you ready? We’ve seen big changes in Google algorithms this year alone.
From the January update that targeted low-quality content to recent updates like June’s mobile-first index and August’s conversational search update.
And everything in between has been part of their continuing efforts to surface high-quality content to users and de-emphasize low-quality content and spam sites in its search results.
Summary of 2023 Google Algorithms
The main algorithmic changes in 2022 are:
– The Reduction of Click-Through Rates – Because Google wants to reward sites with high-quality content, CTRs will take a hit. The difference in CTRs between high- and low-quality content is already significant.
– The Death of Clickbait: Because Google wants to reward sites with high-quality content, clickbait will become almost non-existent on the web.
– The Rise of Voice Searches: The increase in voice searches will mean that content scanability becomes even more important than it is now.
– The Introduction of Real-Time Results: Real-time results will also become more important, especially considering that Google has announced that it will be taking into consideration the freshness of content when ranking sites in 2023.
– The Expansion of AMP: AMP will continue to get more and more popular, and it is also likely that there will be more AMP-like variations on pages
Let’s get going on how to make your blog rock
1. Focus on User Experience
The best way to prepare your blog for Google 2023 is to focus on user experience. You should be thinking about what type of content will best serve your users, and how to best present that content.
Google has said that it tries to create a “positive user experience” when surfacing content in its search results, so if your blog doesn’t offer a good user experience, you’re likely to see a drop in your organic traffic. User experience is more than just the design of your blog. You also have to think about the user journey once the visitor arrives.
Does your content make sense? Is it easy to navigate? Are there any barriers that could prevent people from finding what they’re looking for? You also have to think about the user culture. What are the expectations of your industry? What are the trends of your niche? How can you contribute to these trends in a meaningful way?
2. Make Your Content Discoverable
Google has said that it is aiming to serve “high-quality content” in 2023 and that it “uses a variety of signals to determine how to rank content, including click-through rate, site speed, user satisfaction, domain authority, backlinks, and more.” In other words, you have to make sure that Google can find your content.
You have to let Google know that your posts exist and that they’re worthy of ranking in the search results. You can do this in a few ways: – You can add metadata to your blog posts like titles, descriptions, and featured images.
These can be edited in the admin panel of your blog, but we recommend using an SEO plugin like Yoast SEO to make it easier. – You can link to relevant resources. If you’re writing a blog post about the best hiking trails in New Zealand, you probably want to link to a map of those trails.
This way, the map will be indexed by Google, and your blog post will link to it. – You can encourage social shares. Google takes social signals into account when ranking content, so you have to make sure that you have opportunities for readers to share your content.
3. Try Out Dark And Bright Colour Schemes
Google has said that it will be favoring “saturated” colors in 2022 and that it is “moving towards more vibrant colors.” This is part of Google’s attempt to increase the “visibility of high-quality content” in the search results.
So if you want to stand out in the SERPs, you have to make sure that your content is colorful and vibrant. You can use an online color palette generator to choose two colors: a primary color and a secondary color.
You can then use these two colors to create a dark and a bright color scheme. You can use these schemes to create your blog design, images, and almost any other type of content.
4. Add Rich Media Elements
Google is emphasizing the importance of “engaging visuals” in 2023. This is part of Google’s effort to “provide users with a positive experience when they’re searching.”
In other words, Google wants to show users high-quality images in the search results, and you can help to make that happen by adding rich media elements to your blog posts. Also add images, charts, graphs, gifs, videos, and infographics to your blog posts.
You can also incorporate interactive elements like clickable images, call-to-actions, and carousels. You can also add 360-degree views, but make sure that you have the rights to these images if you don’t create them yourself.
5. Keep Track of User Behavior
Google wants to show high-quality “useful content” in 2022, which means that it is prioritizing “user behavior signals” like click-through rate, bounce rate, time spent on site, and user reviews.
If you want to rank highly in the search results, you have to make sure that you’re tracking these metrics. Google Analytics is the best tool for this. But you can also use a plugin like Google Analytics by Yoast to make the tracking process easier.
Also, make sure that you’re tracking your competitors. You can do this with a tool like SEMrush that tracks organic and paid search results.
6. Add Responsive Elements
Google is prioritizing “user experience” in 2022, which means that it is going to favor “highly accessible” content.
This means that you have to make sure that your blog is accessible for all users, especially users with disabilities. You can do this by adding alt text to your images, adding transcripts to your videos, and making sure that your content is scannable.
If you want to make sure that your blog is accessible to all users, you can use the following tools: – Accessibility Check – This Google tool will let you know how well your blog is accessible.
You can use it to find any accessibility issues that you might not have been aware of. – Accessibility Plugin – You can use an accessibility plugin like the Accessibility Plugin by Yoast to make your blog more accessible. This plugin will let you know how you’re doing with regard to accessibility and help you make improvements.
7. Create an e mail listing
An effective email marketing campaign can be a cost-effective way of reaching out to current customers and potential customers, provided that you have a sizeable email database. This post will provide you with some creative ideas for building your email list.
If your email list is short, scant on information, full of errors and redundancies, or just not on-track with your targeting, that poor-quality data can be worse than having no data at all! Without a good email list, all your other digital marketing efforts are little more than wheel spinning.
8. Make Your Content scanable
Google is prioritizing “scanable” content in 2022, which means that you have to make your content scanable. You can do this by adding subheadings to your blog posts, breaking up large blocks of text, and adding “click to read” links. You can also make your images more scanable by adding alt text.
There are a few things that you have to keep in mind when you’re making your content scanable: – Make sure that your subheadings are unique. If you’re using a subheading like “what is SEO”, you’re going to have a lot of competition for that phrase.
It’s better to use more specific subheadings, like “why your blog needs to be SEO-friendly”. – Break up large blocks of text. If you have a blog post that’s 2,000 words long, you’re going to be competing against a lot of other content on the SERPs. It’s better to break up your content into smaller chunks
9. Begin a month-to-month/weekly publication
Are you curious about how often you should publish on your blog or SaaS company’s website if you have one? Do you prefer Databox’s daily updates or Brian Dean’s less-than-once-a-month ones? Or is there a happy medium?
Publishing articles can be a difficult and time-consuming process, whether you’re a full-time freelance writer or an aspiring essayist looking for their first publishing opportunity.
Having a great story and a distinctive style won’t guarantee that your article gets published. Once you are finished writing, your job is just beginning.
10. Maintain giveaways and contests
It can take months to get a business up and running. In other cases, growing a business is like running a marathon. Is it really necessary to take that long? Perhaps not.
A giveaway contest can help you boost your business by appealing to your target audience. By tailoring a giveaway to achieve specific goals that contribute to your business’s success, you can increase website traffic, boost subscribers, increase brand awareness, and more.
Driving massive traffic to your website, gaining new followers, and generating targeted leads for your business are all things that can be accomplished by holding an online giveaway and contest. Are you wondering how to do it?
What Is An Online Giveaway Contest?
Online promotions in which users compete for prizes are known as giveaways, contests, or sweepstakes. Digital marketers often utilize giveaways, contests, and sweepstakes to achieve their online marketing goals.
A Giveaway is a great way to boost your engagement and draw in new viewers and followers. It’s a tried-and-true method to drive engagement that search engine algorithms cannot help but notice.
Use hashtags, likes, and comments to incentivize participation in contests and giveaways on social platforms to increase engagement directly on your social posts.
11. Get on Social Media
You’ve put in a lot of effort to get where you are now. It’s time to celebrate yourself. We understand that operating your own website can be difficult—and that’s not even taking into account the challenges, learning curves, and (likely) late nights we’ve endured in order to get where we are right now.
However, no matter how much effort you put into publishing your content online, nothing is more demobilizing than seeing low traffic to your blog or website.
Of course, quantity is not everything, and there is certainly a delay in traffic, but you might have started producing content with the hope that you might get people to view your website. We want the same for you.
Explore the specifics of each social media channel and how you can use them to promote your blog in order to expand your marketing toolbox and drive rush-hour-loads of traffic.
Recommended Reads: Guest Posting Best Practices For Your Content Marketing