Is SEO Still Worth It in 2023? The 8 reasons why SEO still has a role to play in your digital marketing strategy

If you are a business owner trying to get the biggest bang for your marketing buck, you may have heard that “SEO is dead”. 

Now, we may be a little biased, but there is a good reason we haven’t shut up shop and applied for a job with Amazon- SEO is as relevant as it has ever been. Arguably, more so. 

In answer to the question “Is SEO still worth it in 2023”, here we rebut 8 of the most common (and fatally-flawed) arguments.

Here we go…

The way people search for information has changed drastically over the years, and search engines have evolved to meet these changing needs. With that in mind, it's worth considering whether SEO is still relevant in 2023.

The answer is yes.

SEO is still highly relevant in 2023, and it's likely to remain so for many years to come. While the tactics and strategies involved in SEO may have changed over the years (for the better, we hasten to add), the core principles of SEO still hold true. 

SEO is all about making your website better so that it ranks higher in search engine results pages. In 2023, people are still using search engines to find information (where did you read this article?!), and businesses still need to be visible in SERPs to attract potential customers. 

In fact, with the rise of mobile devices and voice assistants, the importance of SEO has only increased. 

Mobile search is now the dominant form of search, and voice search is on the rise too. This means that businesses need to optimize their websites for these types of searches if they want to remain visible to potential customers.

However, the tactics and strategies involved in SEO have changed over the years. Search engines are now much smarter than they were in the past, and they use a variety of factors to determine which websites to rank at the top of SERPs. With a much greater emphasis on user experience (UX) and mobile-friendliness, businesses need to focus on creating high-quality content that provides value to their target audience, while also ensuring that their website is easy to use on mobile devices.

SEO is still highly relevant in 2023. The goalposts may have moved, but the goals are still the same. 

On-page optimization is the process of optimizing individual web pages in order to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. It involves optimizing a web page’s content, HTML source code, and other on-page elements to make it more appealing to both search engines and users. 

Search engines use a wide range of signals to determine which web pages are most relevant to users’ search queries. In 2023, their algorithms place a greater emphasis on user experience (UX), and on-page optimization plays a key role in this. 

A well-optimized web page not only helps search engines understand what the page is about but also makes it easier for users to navigate and find the information they are looking for. This, in turn, can lead to a better user experience and improved engagement metrics, such as time on page, bounce rate, and click-through rate.

In addition, on-page optimization can also help businesses stand out in competitive markets. With so many websites vying for attention in search engines, businesses need to make sure that their web pages are optimized for their target keywords and phrases. 

By doing so, they can increase their chances of ranking higher in SERPs and attracting more relevant traffic to their website.

Yes, on-page optimization is a task that requires ongoing attention. But it is an effort that is richly rewarded, and its influence is only getting stronger alongside the growing emphasis on UX.

The rise of voice search has revolutionized the way people search for information online. Voice search allows users to perform searches without typing, making it a more convenient and accessible way to search. Alexa. Siri. You’ve likely used them yourself. It has left many asking, "Where does this leave SEO?”

The rise of voice search actually makes SEO even more important. Voice search queries tend to be longer and more conversational than text-based queries, and they often include natural language phrases and questions. 

So businesses need to optimize their websites for these types of queries to ensure that they are visible to potential customers.

To optimize their websites for voice search, businesses need to focus on creating high-quality, conversational content that provides value to their target audience. 

They also need to ensure that their website is technically optimized for voice search, including optimizing for local search, using structured data, and ensuring that their website is mobile-friendly.

Voice search is not a replacement for SEO; it's simply another way for users to perform searches. As such, businesses need to continue to invest in SEO to remain competitive in a voice-first world.

Local SEO is the practice of optimizing a website to rank higher in local search results, such as "near me" or "in [city name]" searches. Local SEO is still a crucial part of any small business's digital marketing strategy in 2023. With the rise of mobile search, voice search and the increasing importance of online reviews, local SEO can help small businesses stand out in a competitive market and attract more local customers.

One of the ways that local SEO helps small businesses is by improving their visibility in local search results. By optimizing their website for local keywords and phrases, small businesses can increase their chances of appearing in local search results, attracting more local customers to their website.

In addition, local SEO can also help small businesses improve their online reputation. With the increasing importance of online reviews, small businesses need to make sure that they are actively managing their online reputation. 

By optimizing their website for local search and maintaining their online business listings, small businesses can improve their online reputation, attract more positive reviews, and increase their chances of converting potential customers. Which improves their reputation, attracting more customers and more positive reviews. It’s very much a virtuous cycle!

While social media and SEO are different tactics, they work together to help businesses achieve their online marketing goals. In other words, social media can indirectly impact SEO, and vice versa.

One of the ways that social media impacts SEO is by driving traffic to a website. By creating and sharing engaging content on social media platforms, businesses can improve their brand awareness and provide value to their audience. 

This, in turn, can lead to better engagement metrics on their website, such as time on page, bounce rate, and click-through rate.

This can also lead to more backlinks to the website, which is a crucial factor in SEO. Backlinks are links from other websites that point to a business's website, indicating to search engines that the website is valuable and trustworthy. They are possibly the single most influential factor the search engines use in helping them rank sites' credibility and value. 

By actively managing their social media presence and engaging with their audience, businesses can improve their online reputation and attract more positive reviews. This, in turn, can lead to more trust from search engines and higher rankings in SERPs.

A well-structured and targeted social media campaign works in tandem with SEO efforts to improve your online visibility, attract more relevant traffic to your website, and achieve your online marketing goals.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed the way businesses approach SEO in recent years. With the rise of AI-powered tools and technologies, businesses can now automate many of the tasks involved in SEO, such as keyword research, content creation, and link building. 

The result?

AI can help businesses achieve better results in less time, providing a competitive advantage in a crowded digital marketplace.

One of the ways that AI impacts SEO is by improving keyword research. With AI-powered tools, businesses can analyze vast amounts of data to identify the most relevant keywords for their target audience. This can help businesses create more targeted content that resonates with their audience, leading to better engagement and improved SEO rankings.

In addition, AI can also help businesses create better content. With AI-powered content creation tools, businesses can generate high-quality content at scale, saving time and resources. 

This can lead to more frequent content updates, which is another crucial factor in SEO. Fresh, relevant content improves your website's rankings and attracts more organic traffic to the site.

With AI-powered personalization tools, businesses can provide a personalized experience to each user, based on their preferences and behavior. This can lead to better engagement metrics and, again, that all-important User Experience (UX).

In short, far from signaling the death of SEO, AI has provided tools that can help businesses achieve better results in less time. What’s not to like about that?

Link building has been a crucial part of SEO for many years, and we touched briefly on the importance of backlinks above. The reason why link building is still important in 2023 is that links are still one of the most- if not the most- important ranking factors used by search engines.

Links are like "votes" for your website. They show search engines that other websites think your content is valuable and trustworthy. The more high-quality links you have pointing to your website, the more authoritative and relevant it appears to search engines, which can then improve your rankings.

Link building is also important for increasing brand visibility and referral traffic. When your website is linked to by authoritative websites in your industry, it can lead to increased visibility and referral traffic to your website- helping you build brand awareness, generate leads, and increase conversions.

However, as George Orwell may have said (if he was a digital marketer): “not all links are created equal”. 

The proliferation of link farms and PBNs- attempts by unscrupulous digital marketers to game the system- have led to Google crackdowns. In 2023, it's crucial to focus on high-quality link-building rather than quantity. 

Low-quality links or links from spammy websites can actually hurt your website's SEO and reputation, so it's important to focus on building links from high-authority websites that are related to your industry.

Additionally, it's important to invest in diverse link building strategies. This means building links from a variety of sources, including guest blogging, social media, influencer outreach, and more. 

By building links from high-authority websites and diversifying your link building strategies, you can create a strong, natural link profile that appears to search engines as authentic and authoritative, and which will be rewarded as such.

Now, we get down to brass tacks- the Return On Investment. Is SEO worth the money? And it is here, SEO makes its final, defining argument. 

One of the main reasons why SEO is still worth investing in in 2023 is that it delivers RESULTS. 

SEO is different from other marketing strategies because it has a compounding effect that can lead to long-term growth. It’s a long-term play for long-term gains. With ROI that dwarves traditional advertising methods like TV or print ads. 

SEO targets users who are actively searching for products or services related to your business. This means that SEO is more likely to turn users into customers, which gives a higher return on investment. 

And ROI of SEO can be measured more accurately than other marketing strategies. 

With tools like Google Analytics and Search Console, businesses can track their website's traffic, conversions, and revenue generated from SEO efforts. This gives businesses valuable information about how well their SEO strategies work and lets them make data-driven decisions to improve their ROI.

By continually optimizing your website's content, structure, and technical elements, you can ensure that your website remains relevant and authoritative in the eyes of search engines, driving sustainable growth over time.

The advent of the internet has changed forever how we search for goods and services, and how businesses market them. 

This has been, is, and will be reliant on searches, be they text or voice. 

Reports of SEO’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. SEO will always have a leading role to play.