SEO professionals spent the most time conducting keyword research and implementing technical SEO this year, according to a new study released by Search Engine Journal.
The State of SEO Performance, Salaries and Budgets for 2023 report looks back at the strategies SEOs have implemented during the last 12 months, while teasing potential new trends and changes for the next year.
Following the roll-out of Google’s Page Experience update in early 2022, it’s perhaps no surprise to see ‘technical SEO’ at the top of the list of priorities for professionals in the industry.
Of the 3,600 SEOs polled in the study, 15% said they dedicated the most time optimising websites to ensure Google’s bots crawl, index and rank content effectively, and pages load quickly.
The joint second most popular activities were keyword research (13.5%) and SEO strategy and planning (13.5%), which were just ahead of on-page SEO (12.9%).
Looking ahead to 2023, SEOs believe machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) will have the biggest impact on search optimisation.
SEOs also expect the latest Google updates, which include broad core algorithm changes, to be almost as disruptive as advances in cutting-edge technology.
In terms of specific search factors in search, 10.8% of respondents believe the Core Web Vitals will become the most important during the next 24 months.
10.2% said the same for ‘E-A-T & Trusted Sources’, which is related to the expertise and trustworthiness of news, articles and blogs.
While the last two years have been challenging for SEOs, most are happy with the impact of their efforts overall.
The study found 61.3% are either ‘very satisfied’ or ‘satisfied’, while fewer than 10% are either ‘very dissatisfied’ or ‘dissatisfied’.
