SEO is always evolving and if you are refining your strategy for 2023, you need to know what to expect including the challenges you are likely to face. Various reports are already circulating about the state of SEO in 2022 and the challenges coming in the following year. Here are some of the things SEOs are worried about.

Machine Learning and AI

Machine learning and AI are already proving to be a big part of SEO. They are being used for content optimization, link building, keyword research, and a lot more. There are two main problems with machine learning and AI.

First, search engines and people will start scrutinizing content a lot more as AI gets better. The potential issue is good content being ignored or not ranked because it is deemed as created by AI. Remember that Google only wants to rank content written by people for people.

Second, SEOs will have to learn how to leverage these tools so they can help instead of hindering their efforts. SEOs will also not want to compete with these tools but instead combine their capabilities with the experience and expertise SEOs have.

Google Updates

Google updates are always a challenge for SEOs every year, especially because most do not know what is coming until it hits them. While we might not know what updates are coming in the following year, we can expect the effects of Google E-A-T to start being felt.

EAT (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) is going to become critical as the internet becomes increasingly crowded and Google starts looking for ways to differentiate between good and bad content.

Google Zero-click Pages

According to data company JumpShot, over half of all Google and search engine searches end without a click. Why? Because these search engines have made it easy for people to find what they are looking for without visiting any pages.

Think about Google map results, Google’s Knowledge Panel, and Google’s direct answers, all of which are found on the first search engine results page. As such widgets have been added to the homepage, more searches are ending in zero clicks.

This is a massive challenge for SEO because you need to ensure your website ends up on one of these “widgets”. Additionally, you have to make your content so good that people click on it when it appears on search result pages.

You might also want to consider other sources of traffic including social media and paid ads.

About Third-party Cookie Depreciation

Although Google initially wanted to depreciate third-party cookies in 2022, it moved that plan to 2023, and then to 2024. This is not something you need to be worried about in the coming year but is still something to keep an eye on.

This is especially when you consider Google switched to targeting by topic in place of the FLoC system they wanted to put in place. In short, keep an eye on how targeting by topics evolves in the coming year.

Conclusion

A lot is going on in the SEO world, and we expect a lot to happen in the coming year. The best thing you can do is stay vigilant so you know what challenges you might face and how to do so.