Working in SEO is a whirlwind right now, with non-stop discussion around the pros and cons of AI to Google announcing huge changes to search engine results pages. As time goes on there are a lot of myths in content marketing being believed. It’s all enough to make anyone worry whether we should carry on with our current approaches or go back to the drawing board. Luckily, there are some constants that are still important to focus on with your content strategy in 2023. Take a look below.

Build Topical Authority

It has never been more important to be the all-round expert in your website’s relevant fields. Back in December Google announced the implementation of ‘related topics’ – where search results now feature related topic suggestions to refine searches. This has recently been brought to desktop after being featured for several months across mobile.

The launch of this feature not only highlights Google’s focus on tangentially related topics and how they are linked but also gives further insights to marketers to help them research what search engines deem ‘relevant’.

What is important here is to establish your core products or services, then build out your broad topical authority and the types of content subjects that make sense for you to be discussing. A thorough content strategy can do just this when set by an experienced content marketer. Your strategy should zero in on key opportunity topics and gaps being missed, not just publishing for the sake of it.

Utilise Experts

A key focus for content marketers right now is utilising experts to build trust in online content. Google favours content which is created or supported by the expertise of a trusted source in the content’s subject matter. If you are a beauty brand, as an example, you should be providing advice from skincare experts and professionals in the industry to add weight to information you are putting online on your blog.

This will help your content to rank better (be sure to detail the source of the advice and their credentials), it also is more trustworthy for the reader to know they are getting credible information.

Not every piece of content necessarily needs an expert, this depends on the topic, but it’s certainly beneficial to add experts where you can – especially when you are giving advice or commentary.

Connect Your Onsite Strategy to Your Social Strategy

Recently Google has shared it will launch a new ‘perspectives’ filter that will allow users to toggle what types of results they want to see such as: video, forums or blogs. This will integrate social media more than ever before, as users can see specific videos and have easier access to watch these direct from Google.

This will offer much more in terms of content types, with videos, Q&A content and social content getting more favour. Closing the loop between your SEO and social strategies is crucial for success in this new age of Google. You should be serving content in the right channels for your audience and also sharing information in various different ways to suit different channels (where relevant, of course). This brings me to the next tip…

Diversify the Types of Content You Create

If you only write blogs but aren’t using video, look at how you can expand your content offering. The changes Google is looking to make will make search results pages much more diversified, having content served across different platforms in different ways will give you stronger results across the board.

Say you are a travel brand who are producing onsite guides to ‘places to visit in Scotland’, think about how many more people you could reach by storyboarding this into a TikTok or Instagram video (created to the same brand guidelines for consistency). Now imagine getting an expert in UK travel or established travel journalist or blogger to create this content and talk from experience about where to stay/what to eat/things to do, this is the type of strategy Google wants to see in 2023.

Focus on Quality Over Quality

It can be easy to get carried away and try to serve all types of content to all channels but the key here is to strategise cleverly to focus on quality over quantity. Choose your core topic areas to build authority in and make your strategy focus on these few topics to begin with.

With the risk of AI mass-generating content at scale, no one can realistically keep up with the volumes AI can produce. What you can do is stick to what you know and produce high quality content that is maintained and refreshed over time. Understanding the intent of your onsite content is crucial to this.

If you’re interested in reading more, take a look at the content and digital PR sections.