Emerging Digital Marketing Trends 2023 + Beyond: SEO

Keeping up with emerging digital marketing trends is essential if you want your website to stay relevant and remain atop the search engine rankings. That said, new trends are popping up all the time, especially in the realm of search engine optimization (SEO). 

To that end, we have compiled a list of seven notable emerging digital marketing trends that are bound to shape SEO efforts throughout 2023 and beyond, including artificial intelligence (AI), the divisive but game-changing tech that has half the marketing world overjoyed and the other half quaking in their seats. 

7 Emerging Digital Marketing Trends to Watch in 2023

Every year, several new digital marketing trends arise, and many existing ones evolve, but just as every action has its opposite reaction, there are countless trends and passing fads that fade into obscurity without so much as a curtain call. 

With that said, if you find yourself chasing a fleeting sensation, you might temporarily bolster your site traffic and generate some quality leads, but you will constantly be overhauling your SEO plan to stay just ahead of the newest fad, and no one wants to do that. Thankfully, though, you can limit the need for repeated, full-scale reworks of your SEO strategy by identifying and leveraging trends with staying power. 

With that in mind, here are the seven emerging digital marketing trends we suggest you keep an eye on in 2023:

1. Marketers Will Continue to Explore AI…

In 2021, the AI market reached a value of $15.84B, and by 2028, experts expect that figure to exceed $107B. These numbers and predictions reveal just how quickly marketers and businesses, in general, are flocking to the latest AI marketing tools.

That said, though, the use of AI in marketing is not a new development. For years, marketers have been turning to AI and similar automation tools to power their email marketing campaigns, automatically publish their content, and streamline other tedious tasks. However, as AI has evolved, it has started to be used in the creation of new content, which has the potential to revolutionize the world of SEO.

While ChatGPT gets all the attention these days, Jasper.ai is actually the most popular AI writing tool among marketers. As of last year, one in three marketers has used the platform, which generates marketing copy, including email content, blogs, and service pages.

At first glance, these AI writing tools seem like they would be a marketer’s best friend, but they also have the potential to put hundreds of talented wordsmiths out of work. Still, we suggest reading on to trend number two to see why AI writing solutions aren’t all they appear to be.

1. …But Search Engines Will Fight Back

To be clear, we love AI at Galactic Fed, and we believe that strategically incorporating both it and machine learning into your marketing tactics can save you time and money, increase your reach, and help you maintain your edge over the competition.

However, Google’s Helpful Content Update emphasizes the importance of people-first content, ultimately preventing AI writing technologies from becoming an all-in-one copywriting solution. Content that is written for search engine algorithms first and people second is generally considered “unsatisfying” by searchers. In response, Google will penalize content that is purely written by AI, given that such copy often lacks style and personality.

Marketing guru Neil Patel put that to the test by conducting an experiment using 100 AI-generated sites. On 53 of the sites, Patel’s team published AI-generated content as it was, and on the other 47, the team optimized the copy. The unmodified sites suffered a 17.29% drop in organic traffic and fell in the rankings by eight spots. The modified sites only dropped 3.3 spots on average and lost approximately 6.38% of their organic traffic. 

The bottom line is that AI is a great tool, but you need a talented marketing team to wield it effectively.

1. Link Building is (Sort of) Changing

Over the last few years, everyone has been raving about the importance of outbound links and backlinks, and although linking should still be a critical aspect of your SEO strategy, another recent Google update has addressed spam-like linking tactics. 

If you’ve stuffed your website with links in an attempt to climb the rankings, you will have lost the ranking benefits of those links. Going forward, you need to be much more careful about where you link to and which sites you use to drive traffic to your site.

Guest posting platforms are going to be much more demanding when deciding what content to post as well. In response, you should get more creative with the format and style of your guest content. Write the content as if you were a member of the host site’s team in order to maximize the value of that copy to their core audience. 

1. Sites Must Be Optimized for Voice Search

As of last year, 58.6% of American consumers actively use voice-searching technologies, so if you want to make your content visible among such a growing audience, make sure your content is optimized for voice searches.

There are a few ways to go about doing so, including the following:

• Ensuring that content is mobile-friendly
• Using Schema Markup
• Incorporating local SEO terms
• Including question keywords in your content
• Targeting long-tail keywords

These actionable tips can help you connect with more prospects, no matter how they conduct their searches. 

1. Brands Will Differentiate Themselves with Zero-Volume Keywords

We understand that the phrase “zero-volume keywords” does not exactly inspire optimism or excitement, but the term is misleading. Referring to something as a zero-volume keyword is simply another way of saying it is a long-tail key phrase, which itself is a search term that includes somewhere between three to seven words. 

Admittedly, the search volume on these phrases is, in fact, quite low, but the user intent behind them is extremely high, which means you will likely connect with bottom-of-funnel leads by targeting such long-tail phrases. 

For instance, suppose that you own an outsourced accounting services firm and primarily serve the Austin, TX, area. Typically, you may target phrases like “Accounting services Austin” or “outsourced accounting,” but you could also aim for terms like “The best outsourced accounting firm in Austin” to differentiate yourself from competitors and rack up BoFu leads. 

1. SEO Will Transcend Websites

There was once a time when SEO was all about websites and search engines, but that time has come and gone. Today, SEO practices apply to social media channels as well. Algorithms used on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn are every bit as sophisticated as Google’s famous ranking system.

Therefore, to stand out on social media, you must optimize everything about your pages, including their hashtags, keywords, and bios, and you even need to be more strategic about who you follow, as well, as doing so will help maximize your reach.

1. Your Site Must Be Optimized for Mobile

According to Oberlo, 63% of all US organic traffic originated from smartphones and other mobile devices in 2022. That translates to billions of searches and site visits. With that being said, your website should, hopefully, already be optimized for mobile devices. 

If not, you need to revamp your pages to ensure they get properly displayed on any device. Optimizing your site for mobile activity and voice searches will maximize your reach among modern consumers, netting you more traffic and better leads and ultimately converting visitors to customers. 

What Do These Emerging Digital Marketing Trends Mean for My Business?

That depends. If you are managing your SEO strategy in-house, you may need to retool everything, including your content and the locations where you publish it, where you spend your marketing dollars, and which platforms you leverage to connect with audience members. The thought of overhauling your entire SEO gamelan can seem daunting, especially if it is currently running like a well-oiled machine.

With that said, now may be the perfect time to take advantage of white-hat SEO services. Whereas you and your staff have plenty of different responsibilities on your plate, an optimization agency eats, sleeps, and breathes SEO.

If you are already outsourcing your SEO efforts, reach out to your existing marketing partner and see how they plan to help your business take advantage of these emerging digital marketing trends. Hopefully, their response inspires confidence, but if that’s not the case, it may be time to find a new SEO agency. 

Either way, taking a proactive approach will empower your brand to get noticed, optimize visibility, and make 2023 — and the years ahead — its best yet.