How to Develop an SEO Strategy for 2023 and Beyond

How Does Google Work?

Google is the most popular search engine in the UAE (and the world). There are others like Bing, Yahoo, and Petal Search, but with 95% of all searches, Google is dominant. Regardless, each search engine works in very similar ways.

Google uses an algorithm to determine what pages appear at the top of SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). This algorithm is constantly updating and changing in order to give better results for its users. Whilst some of these updates are manual, the majority are automated by Googlebot, a program that uses artificial intelligence.

When developing an SEO strategy, you need to have an understanding of these updates for the strategy to be effective.

What Google Updates Will Affect Your SEO Strategy in 2023?

In 2023, we expect to see Google continue to release core updates that will reward websites with a good user experience (UX).

The last few years have seen some major core updates:

• Mobile-first Indexing (2019): the mobile (rather than desktop) version of your website is the primary indicator for your page’s ranking.
• Core Web Vitals (CWV) (2021): a test which measures the speed and responsiveness of your website which, if you pass, gives you a ranking boost.
• Helpful Content (2022): the importance of “people-first” content i.e. content that is written with users in mind, not search engine crawlers. Google will now reward useful, informative content more than they have done before.

These three updates are all related to providing a good user experience. This will continue to be a priority for Google in 2023, and thus UX will be the bedrock of any effective SEO strategy.

Learn more about the relationship between UX and SEO.

Off-page SEO

As much as Google’s Helpful Content Update appeared to specifically target link-building sites (sites that simply exist to build backlinks for other websites via low-value content), backlinks remain a huge part of the algorithm and will continue to be relevant in 2023.

Any good SEO strategy will have some emphasis on backlinking. There are a number of ways to approach getting (organic) backlinks, but the most direct method is outreach.

Outreach should target websites mainly within your niche. If you are able to get backlinks that have low authority but are within your niche, they will still have value. Simply asking nicely to contribute some of your expertise and get a dofollow backlink in return is a reliable method, but one you will also have to be patient with.

During your outreach, you may also find broken links on your target website and suggest fixing them with a link to a relevant piece of your site’s own content. This tactic is called broken link building.

As for an indirect method of improving your off-page SEO in 2023, write excellent content that will get to the top of search engines and, in turn, invite backlinks. Someone may be looking for a resource from an expert, find your content, and link to it!

Both off-page SEO strategies are effective, and both take time. However, for every backlink, you further show Google that you are an authority in your industry.

eCommerce Technical SEO Strategy

Speed and responsiveness are very important, especially for the mobile version of your eCommerce site. Over 60% of all consumers in the UAE used their smartphones at least once during their most recent shopping experience. Therefore, if you do not ensure your site is quick and responsive on mobile, you could be neglecting a massive amount of your web traffic!

When it comes to the technical aspects of your site, however, there are certainly some cases where user experience should take priority. Every aspect of your store should be designed to convert your visitors into paying customers, even if it is detrimental to your technical SEO (e.g. an engaging, high-quality video that slightly affects load speed). At the end of the day, if it means more sales then it is worth the sacrifice!

This balance is often not talked about, but since we have both UX design specialists as well as SEO specialists across Dubai and London, we understand the nuances of honing a digital strategy!

eCommerce On-page SEO Strategy

The aim of an eCommerce business is to generate sales. That is clear. So, when we develop an SEO strategy, we target keywords that have commercial or transactional intent. In other words, search terms that are most likely to lead to purchases.

Every blog and optimization must be tailored to getting ready-to-buy customers onto your site. It’s important to examine your competitors who sell similar products and learn as much as possible from them, including how they rank for:

• Products
• Product categories or collections
• Content

Once you have an idea of your top-performing competitors, what they do well, and how they encourage customers to buy from them, see if you can improve on their work. Write better, more in-depth articles and provide more information on your products. This will push you further up SERPs and push them further down.

eCommerce Off-page SEO Strategy

As with any off-page SEO strategy, it is best to target blogs, influencers and websites within your eCommerce niche. For example, if you sell furniture, try and land your company in a “Top 10 furniture companies in the UAE” article via outreach.

Again, examine your competitors. They will have some backlinks, many of which will be attainable with a friendly email explaining that you would like to send them content. Alternatively, offer to send them one of your products and ask for an online review!