2023 SEO Strategies for Enterprise Companies to Implement

Although we’re only a few months into 2023, the pace at which we’re receiving industry updates is unlike anything we’ve experienced.

As we enter into the year’s second quarter, now is the perfect time to take a step back and reflect on how your digital marketing efforts have been going so far. 

We’ve compiled a list of the most effective SEO strategies that have staying power for the year ahead.

Without further ado, let’s get into our list of strategies!

Table of Contents:

1. Leverage AI in Everyday SEO Practices
2. Use Generative AI for Content Creation at Scale
3. Focus On Creating High-Quality Onsite Content
4. Use Automation to Execute Faster 
5. Measure Rank Position by Visual Real Estate, Not Your Typical Web Positions
6. Implement Schema Markup to Improve CTR and Visibility in a Crowded SERP
7. Leverage Google Shopping
8. Utilize SEO Segmentation

For an updated list, head over to our 2024 SEO strategies for enterprise companies!

1. Leverage AI in Everyday SEO Practices

The speed at which the SEO industry evolves makes it nearly impossible for SEOs to manually implement effective strategies–especially at the enterprise level.

In 2021 alone, Google made over 5,000 improvements to search and ran over 800,000 experiments. 

Without automation, humans simply can’t process and implement strategies fast enough to keep up with constant algorithm updates and shifting SERPs at the lightning-fast rate that they evolve.

As such, utilizing AI in everyday SEO practices has become a necessity.

SEOs should leverage AI-driven technology to simplify and scale several everyday practices such as:

• Content tests 
• Product descriptions 
• Image optimization 
• Internal linking
• Summarizing insights 

And many, many more.

For a more detailed look at how to leverage AI-driven technology for SEO, check out our perspective on AI and the Future of SEO.

Of course, AI can’t replace SEOs, but it allows them to direct and implement the best-informed strategies at scale in a fraction of the time.

As more AI tools and services emerge, SEOs must determine how AI helps scale their SEO efforts and identify where human intervention is still required.

That’s why we strongly recommend investing in digital marketing tools and platforms that already have proven AI capabilities. For example, seoClarity seamlessly integrates all SEO data, metrics, and capabilities and leverages AI to provide the fastest and most scalable insights.

2. Use Generative AI for Content Creation at Scale

The use of interactive chatbots in search creates a new need for SEOs to focus on search model optimization. 

Recommended Reading: Google and Bing Unveil AI Chat Search: What Does It Mean for SEO? 

For example, to be found in AI-generated results related to "the top 10 list," your products or services would need to be referenced in articles that talk about being one of the best options.

As we’ve seen, these models take a while to train. According to OpenAI, “GPT-4 generally lacks knowledge of events that have occurred after the vast majority of its data cuts off (September 2021).” 

When it comes to training large language models to incorporate your brand in the way you want it to be incorporated, a huge advantage goes to the fastest content creators. 

Content that is published and crawled first will likely have an advantage when it comes to influencing the model and being assessed. As a result, websites that take a long time to produce content may suffer because the model will have already incorporated all the information it needs.

Using generative AI can help companies produce and publish content quickly so that it can get crawled and indexed as soon as possible. 

Of course, the content will still require human influence to finetune the content, make sure it prioritizes searcher intent, and ensure it meets Google’s quality standards.

For AI in content ideation and creation that prioritizes searcher intent, seoClarity has several solutions:

• Topic Explorer: AI-powered topic research for SEO.
• Content Fusion: AI-driven content optimization.
• Automated Content Briefs: AI-generated content briefs

3. Focus On Creating High-Quality On-site Content

As off-site factors become less of a ranking factor, creating high-quality on-site content is more important than ever in 2023.

But don’t just take our word for it.

Google search expert John Muller predicts that Google’s algorithm will rely less and less on inbound links as a ranking signal in the future.

Well, it’s something where I imagine, over time, the weight on the links at some point will drop off a little bit as we can figure out a little bit better how the content fits in within the context of the whole web.

Instead of chasing backlinks, SEOs should prioritize creating high-quality content to achieve long-term success in the SERPs.

To do so, keep Google’s E-E-A-T acronym in mind. And yes, you read that right. Google added a second E to their quality rater guidelines in December of 2022.

In addition to creating content that showcases expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, the copy should also illustrate first-hand experience in the topic.

Of course, quality content also needs to be accessible. That’s why we suggest adopting an approach to SEO that’s focused on the searchers’ experience by following our URA framework. 

Ultimately, content that is accessible provides an optimal user experience, and is written with authority will win.  

4. Use Automation to Execute SEO Optimizations Faster 

One of the biggest challenges SEOs face is executing their projects.

Our research study of the top priorities and roadblocks in enterprise SEO found that 86% of SEOs believed that organic revenue would increase by at least 50% if they could implement outstanding changes. 

So what’s the hold-up? Based on our survey, a lack of SEO and dev resources forms the main roadblock to implementing changes.

Fortunately, automation can deploy site updates so SEOs can execute important optimizations faster without waiting for the dev team.

Recommended reading: Cost-Effective SEO Execution: Devs or Tech?

That being said, SEOs still have full control over what optimizations and updates to automate in execution.

To execute impactful SEO tasks at scale, ClarityAutomate, our SEO execution platform implements rule-based automation.

Our technology allows SEOs to set rule-based changes and follows set parameters while still providing final approval over implementation. As a result, a single person can instantly implement changes across an entire site with just a few clicks.

5. Measure Rankings by Visual Real Estate, Not Your Typical Web Positions

SERPs have become increasingly crowded with space-consuming results such as product ads, image packs, and knowledge panels. A high rank position doesn’t always directly correlate with a high click-through rate anymore.

When comparing seoClarity’s CTR Study results for just desktop from 2016 to 2021, position 1 CTR dropped from 19.3% to 8.17%. For mobile, it dropped from 27.7% to 6.74%, respectively.

Even as the traditional rank position remains the same, websites may experience a decrease in traffic due to the increase in visual SERP features. 

That’s why we suggest taking a visual approach to rank tracking. 

Visual rank tracking provides a more accurate view of how your pages perform in the SERPs. With this knowledge, you can uncover opportunities to go after the competition above your listing–whether that’s a domain or a Google-owned entity like People Also Ask, Local Pack, or Google Products.

seoClarity’s Visibility Share, a forerunner in enterprise visual rank tracking, serves as a true replacement for rank position. It is the only platform that provides pixel depth to help SEOs measure and forecast the actual visibility of their ranked results in the SERPs.

6. Implement Schema Markup to Improve CTR and Visibility in a Crowded SERP

Pages that obtain rich results such as featured snippets, popular products, carousels, and other visual elements in the SERPs have a higher chance of visibility and traffic. 

According to an audit conducted by Milestone Internet Marketing, rich results get an average of 58 clicks per 100 queries compared to 41 clicks for non-rich results. 

When it comes to getting into these desired SERP features, we suggest implementing schema markup as a key strategy. 

Schema markup provides structured data to search engines so they can understand your content better. As a result, your content becomes eligible for rich results

Recommended Reading: What Is Schema and Is it Important for SEO?

With hundreds of schema types to choose from, here’s how to determine the right type of structured data for your page. 

For enterprise brands, incorporating and updating schema on thousands of web pages poses a significant challenge. Fortunately, seoClarity has a solution.

Rather than deploying schema one page at a time, Schema Optimizer allows users to build, test, and implement schema at scale. After setting custom parameters and variables, the schema will be applied instantly to the predetermined pages. 

7. Leverage Google Shopping

As Google integrates more products into the SERP, it’s a huge opportunity to expand your visibility into that SERP feature and into the Google Shopping experience. 

In our recent Ecommerce Industry Report, we found that 40-60% of ecommerce queries result in at least one Google Products Listing. These product results take up 80% of visual real estate in the SERPs for many formats.  

As such, ecommerce brands should track and optimize their product information that gets fed to Google Shopping. Doing so will increase their chances of improving visibility within the Google products search feature.

To start, get your product feeds from Google Merchant Center. Then, to track Google shopping results, export data from the Merchant Center dashboard or append parameters to product URLs in the product feed. 

Recommended Reading: Google Shopping SEO: How to Drive Organic Search Traffic

To simplify and scale the optimization process of product feeds, seoClarity offers an AI-driven content optimizer, Content Fusion. With the aid of AI, Content Fusion empowers you to optimize each of your product listings, ensuring that no crucial features are omitted from your product feeds.

8. Utilize SEO Segmentation

Frequent algorithm updates and an ever-evolving search landscape constantly impact rankings, traffic, and conversion rates. 

As previously stated, Google made over 5,000 changes to search in 2021 alone.

To deliver the best search experience possible amidst these fluctuations, it’s important to conduct meaningful analysis.

By taking too broad of an approach to your website’s organic search performance data, you may find it hard to understand trends, issues, and opportunities on your site.

That’s why we recommend SEO segmentation. This strategy involves breaking website data into meaningful groups to make it easier to draw important insights and inform your next steps. 

The three steps in a typical SEO segmentation framework include:

1. Identifying elements
2. Determining common characteristics between the elements
3. Creating a group and conducting analysis

Recommended Reading: SEO Segmentation to Scale For SEO Success

For enterprise websites with thousands of pages and constantly evolving site taxonomies, however, grouping keywords, pages, and categories manually isn’t an option. 

To implement SEO segmentation at scale, seoClarity is the only SEO platform that provides pre-built and dynamic categorization. With custom segmentation and filters, the platform automatically organizes data to quickly identify trends and opportunities on massive, ever-changing sites.

Here’s how a major retailer saved over 960 hours by implementing dynamic SEO segmentation.

Missed last year’s list of strategies? Here’s what we covered in our 2022 SEO strategies and predictions. What would you have included?

Conclusion

That wraps up our list of the top strategies for SEO in 2023!

As you can see, automation and AI are a must in 2023 if you want to keep up in such a fast-paced industry. Leveraging technology that keeps you at the forefront of industry advancements is critical.

Here is the list of strategies one more time:

1. Leverage AI in Everyday SEO Practices
2. Use Generative AI for Content Creation at Scale
3. Focus On Creating High-Quality Onsite Content
4. Use Automation to Execute Faster 
5. Measure Rank Position by Visual Real Estate, Not Your Typical Web Positions
6. Implement Schema Markup to Improve CTR and Visibility in a Crowded SERP
7. Leverage Google Shopping
8. Utilize SEO Segmentation

As we kick off the second quarter of the year, there’s still plenty of time to reflect and revise your strategy for a successful 2023.

Best of luck!