We’re getting closer to wrapping up the year and welcoming a new one. With that, digital marketers should start planning their content strategy as early as now.
What does this all mean for your SEO content strategy in 2023?
Doing it now will save you the trouble of panicking when publishing content at the last minute. Planning will also give you more than enough time to assess your strategy from the previous year and allow you to make necessary changes to make your next strategy more streamlined.
We have content marketing guides to help you get your site to the top of search results for years to come. Follow these best practices to ensure that your SEO foundation is strong.
Let’s start with tips and inspiration for content creation and planning. This could be your first resolution for the New Year.
Firing Up Your Content Planning for 2023
Brainstorm
The content creation phase is fun, whether you’re working with a team of people or on your own. You can start by looking at your social media metrics to see what is working and what isn’t. The previous year’s performance will guide your social media content ideas for the following year.
Once you have a clear idea of what is working, it’s time for you to begin brainstorming ideas for your social media channels. At the beginning of each year, channel your audience’s mindset. Ask yourself these questions: “What New Year-specific issues can I solve?” or “What celebrations might they be celebrating?” Creating posts with your target audience in mind will create more valuable content that resonates and engages.
Make Content Buckets
Once you have gathered valuable insights from your audience, you can create content buckets. Content buckets are topics or themes you use to create consistent content that aligns with your brand. Q&As and product unboxing are just a few examples.
Research what other people in your industry are posting on social media. Write all the ideas you have once you’ve gathered them. A simple list is sufficient since you are still in the brainstorming phase. This is a crucial step because you never know what content trends and ideas might make it through your holiday feast. Great ideas can be lost or forgotten during the holiday rush. Remembering to write your ideas so you can organize them later is more manageable.
Get Visuals
Once you have all these brilliant ideas, it is time to look for visuals to support them. You should organize photo shoots if you don’t already have a collection of images or video content. Historically, video often performs better than any other medium, but it’s best that you mix things up to keep things more interesting.
For your 2023 New Year’s post, try to get in front of the camera. Especially for small-business owners, it will help your audience build a genuine personal connection with you.
Content batching is another way to simplify your life. Streamline the content creation process with batch tasks such as creating visual content or writing captions can be done together.
Planning for Success in 2023
Now that we’ve covered how to start planning for a content refresh, it’s time to look at tips on how to create a content strategy for new leads.
Start the year by understanding where your metrics are now and where you want them to be in the future. Check the effectiveness of content marketing efforts and start drafting your plan.
Here are more tips to help you get started.
1. Get to know your numbers and set goals.
Spending time going through your metrics when planning your SEO strategy is crucial. What metrics are important to consider going into 2023? Check your stats for the following:
- Total organic traffic: The number of people who land on your site via a search engine.
- Organic click-through rate (CTR): The number of searchers clicking on links to your site in the SERPs, divided by your impressions.
- Keyword rankings: How your pages rank in the SERPs of keywords you rank for.
Once you are comfortable with these numbers, you can examine your domain rating and page speed analytics.
What SEO Goals Should You Set for 2023?
Different websites require different SEO requirements. For the best SEO results, we recommend you strike a strong and balanced goal between all pillars.
If you are looking for specific numbers to reach in 2023, then consider the following:
- Increase your organic traffic by a certain percentage. Look at last year’s MoM growth, and increase it by 5%-10% this year.
- Set a goal for your Total Keywords and Keyword Positions.
2. Keep your competitors’ metrics in mind.
You want to achieve a higher domain rating than your competition. Knowing where to target is only part of the battle. You can use free SEO tools like Ahrefs’ Website “Authority” Checker to compare your domain authority and domain rating with your competitors.
When you look at your competitors’ websites, note what keywords they rank for and any gaps.
3. Create a winning content calendar.
Now you have a list of ideas and a large folder of photos and videos. It’s now time to make your 2023 content calendar.
A blank calendar can seem overwhelming, almost like a box of puzzle pieces. You can start solving puzzles by marking off all major holidays. For example, add captions and photos for the “set in stone” days. Next, you can take the rest of your new year’s post ideas and add them to the calendar in a way that makes sense.
4. Check and reorganize your links.
Broken internal and external links can cause a Google crawl to be disrupted, hurting your SEO in the process. Use the Page Explorer tool to perform a Site Audit.
- Use the Inaccessible or Orphaned report for broken links and pages not loading.
- First, fix the pages with the most Search Impressions or Organic Traffic.
- Redirect or replace internal and outbound links with newer, more relevant ones.
5. Pull out old and irrelevant content.
Once your content strategy is in place, you can start updating your existing content. Updating your content signals Google that your content remains relevant, allowing you to increase the depth of your blogs, and keep the effectiveness of content marketing strategies.
Remember to update meta tags when updating blogs and landing pages, especially for pages with strong impressions or low CTRs. Rich media can be a great way to spice up your pages. Don’t forget accessibility as well.
Beat Expectations, Break Records This 2023 with Advanced Digital Media Services.
Are you planning for record-breaking organic traffic in 2023? Clearwater SEO company Advanced Digital Media Services can help you welcome the new year with the best SEO insights to improve your site’s performance. Contact the team today for more information about the latest trends in content marketing and see the effectiveness of content marketing for yourself.
