A key role of any effective and useful marketing support is to ensure that clients are aware of changes and trends in the market in which they are promoting their services. It is important that anyone who is doing your marketing for you understands mediation and dispute resolution, across all sectors.

 

The ways in which Google (or other search engines) change their approaches and use new algorithms, affects how you approach your digital marketing in the short and long-term. This applies to any business that pormotes itself on the internet, whether that is by their website, a blog, or some other form of digital publication.

 

This recently published article https://www.link-assistant.com/news/top-seo-trends.html by Zlata Verzhbitskaia identifies some key trends for 2023 in the SEO world that it will be useful for mediators to be aware of when using SEO marketing in their mediation business development.

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There seems to be a trend for people searching on Google to avoid results that say, 'Ad' or 'sponsored'. They know that this means a cost attached to clicking on that result and they also see it as less authoritative and trustworthy than an organic search result. This observation re-enforces the point that content should be E-A-T

 

Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness is an evergreen trend that remains up-to-date year after year. And 2023 is not going to become an exception. Especially if paid promotion becomes less popular, and everyone will shift their focus to organic search. What’s more, Google has recently confirmed that E-A-T is applied to every single query.

 

From a mediator marketing perspective, this suits our market just fine. Mediation is such a niche area (shying away from blatant self-promotion) that any content or marketing efforts explored by a mediator, in their quest to increase business, should demonstrate their areas of expertise in mediation, authority in the subject matter and be a trustworthy source of information that informs and educates the reader.

 

So, how do we ensure that our organic search result is more attractive to the user than another mediators? This is where featured snippets play a huge part in 2023.

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Featured Snippets are short snippets of text that appear at the top of Google’s search results in order to quickly answer a searcher’s query. The content that appears inside of a Featured Snippet is automatically pulled from web pages in Google’s index. Common types of Featured Snippets include definitions, tables, steps and lists.

 

Currently in Google search results a featured snippet appears at the very top of the page and in such a prime position, is likely to attract the user more. Furthermore the information that is contained within the featured snippet, tells the user that this source (website) provides them with exactly the information they are looking for. Featured snippets can come as, 'rich snippets', 'what is queries', or a list. The best way of benefiting from this is to optimise your website pages and make sure your SEO is also fully optimised. If you don't have your own mediator website, but rely on being the member of a mediation panel/chambers, it is worth checking with them that they are fully optimising the web page that displays your mediator profile, articles or other material. Check that schema mark-up is being utilised and keywords fully optimised.

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The other, most important thing to note is the development of your personal brand.  It is important to build your mediator brand and develop your brand personas. Trends for 2023 can definitely be maximised for mediator marketing, Remember, you are your brand. Without you there is no mediation service. You should be more attentive and conscious when building and developing personal brands. The new reality makes it crucial not only to build your professional expertise but also to make people and search engines know about it. Be active in public events in your niche and participate in conferences, interviews, podcasts, and so on — all of that will help you and your brand be famous. This is also true about the personal brands of your content authors.

 

Nothing could be more relevant to mediator marketing than the above suggestion from SEO Powersuite. To re-iterate, build your professional mediation expertise and make sure you get the message across to the industry. Attend public events that are mediation and legally focussed, and create digital marketing material to enhance and build on your mediation expertise.

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The final thing worth taking away which is useful from the perspective of mediator marketing is to note the likely increase in 2023 of using AI - content creation tools. During 2022 there has been an increased trend of the development of programs and apps which you can subscribe to which help you to write content. It is important to recognise that these tools are out there and they will be used more and more in 2023. But, also remember that AI content creation cannot replace human expertise and expression. Don't be tempted to rely completely upon an AI content creation app to produce your blogs and articles. Remember that personal brands, context and emotions are all demonstrated by the written word that has come from the true and authentic self.