SEO Trends To Anticipate In 2022
Updated 4th February 2022
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is an effective way to attract consumers to your online platforms – if you use it right. SEO is consistently evolving, and staying on top of the latest updates can be challenging, says digital growth agency, Grofuse.
Grofuse Digital Director, Denis Finnegan, said: “A top-ranking SEO performance requires attention to many metrics, including traffic, backlinks, social shares and more. Closely monitor your goals, performance and KPIs. To survive and thrive, marketers must keep up with trends and adapt new strategies quickly and precisely in 2022.”
The Trends You Need To Know This Year
1. Voice Search Optimisation
Voice search optimisation is the next major trend in digital marketing, with 41% of adults performing at least one voice search every day; voice searches performed in Google are up 35x since 2008.
20% of all mobile searches are voice searches knowing that, smart SEOs are starting to optimise some of their content for voice search. When this happens, Google usually picks a page that contains a) the question and b) the answer.
Thanks to innovations such as Siri and Alexa, voice search technology has come a long way. To optimise for voice search, consider your keywords. Identify longer phrases that people use in everyday conversation. Voice searches tend to do better with longer, more natural-sounding phrasing – when people type, they tend to abbreviate.
For example, a person might voice search, “What are the new SEO trends for 2022?” but type the
words, “new SEO trends 2022.” Ensure write the content how you speak it to benefit your voice
search strategy.
2. Mobile-Friendliness Indexing
Nearly 73% of internet users will access the internet via mobile devices by 2025. In 2019, Google rolled out mobile-first indexing, meaning the search engine looks primarily at the mobile version of a website, considering this the ‘primary’ version instead of the desktop version.
Read more blog content from Grofuse here
3. Content That Fulfils The ‘Google EAT Principle’ Will Rank Higher
Domain Authority used to be primarily about links. Today, Google also evaluates your site based on Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, known as the E-A-T principle.
This machine learning AI from Google focuses on contact that shows expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. This allows Google to understand how relevant content is over other websites and you will be rewarded if you follow this principle in creating content.
To help you with this task, I recommend firstly, creating buyer personas, to identify the kind of content your client’s value (their needs/intent).
Second, conduct search intent research, which helps you map out the consumer journey. This is important as it tells you (a business owner) what your audience wants. Keyword research is a great method to discover what your target audience is looking for.
Third, use this information to create content that fits the format that your users prefer. For example, if you’re catering to consumers, video is probably preferable. If you’re catering to a specialised audience, a different format may be required.
Finally, keep E.A.T. in mind as you craft your authoritative content. Back up claims with statistics and facts. Link to reputable sites, such as “.edu” and “.gov” URLs.
All of these factors help determine if a webpage has useful quality content.
4. The Importance Of User Experience For SEO
The ultimate goal of SEO and User Experience (UX) is to provide a good experience to their audience – SEO will lead a person to the content they need, and the UX answers their queries once a user ends up on the webpage.
If your website does not have a good user experience, such as slow loading time, unresponsive on different devices or not optimised for mobile, Google will penalise you and this will negatively affect your ranking on the search engine results page.
5. Improved Page Speed
Your website speed is now an important ranking signal, as Google’s mission is to serve users with the best possible experience. In turn, Google rewards fast loading websites in both Search and Google Ads.
6. Long-Form Content Will Improve SERPs
Long reads of 3,000-plus words get three times more traffic and four times more shares. Incorporate lengthier content to achieve higher search rankings. Your content must maintain quality to keep users engaged with quality information.
Segment your content into sections with H2 and H3 subheadings to make it more scannable. Secondly, ensure that you link to relevant, authoritative sources with a solid authority score. Finally, ensure your content is easy to share. Include obvious sharing links for readers to reshare.
7. Featured Snippets Will Become More Prominent
Featured Snippets are a shortcut to gaining prominence in Google – and they’re very brief, usually only 40-60 words. Snippets are the box at the top of the SERPs, above the actual results.
Gaining ranking for a featured snippet is a great way to get on the first page of results. Snippets also steal significant traffic from competitors as valuable information, often structured as a Q&A or brief bullet-point guide.
8. Predictive Search Is Expected to Improve
Google Discover, launched in 2017, is another one of Google’s AI-driven tools. The content recommendation tool identifies user behavioural patterns and gradually observes these habits.
Google Discover has more than 800 million active users. To rank for this, if Google indexes your page, it will be included. Content is ranked based on algorithms inspecting content quality and user interest.
9. An Effective SEO Strategy Will Need to Include Video
It is anticipated online video will make up 80% of all online traffic by 2021, with over 1 billion users on Youtube. If video isn’t part of your digital marketing plans, the time to incorporate it is now.
Optimise your video for SEO, Google uses your title, description and tags to figure out what your video is all about. Embedding video content into your blog posts can significantly reduce your bounce rate and improve engagement.
10. Image Optimisation Will Play a Larger Role in Search
As mentioned this is very important for site speed, however, visual image search has evolved drastically. In the future, people will be able to use images to purchase products, obtain information, and more.
Google has long insisted on the proper marking and optimisation of images including alt tags, so it makes sense that this is part of their long-term plan. It also helps you get found in different areas. e.g. customers may have disabilities so showing Google you have covered all angles will benefit their users. Doing certain things influence many different outcomes.
11. AI: Rank brain and Predictive Search is set to improve
Google introduce machine learning often to keep its search engine ahead of any upcoming competition.
Google’s AI algorithm called RankBrain — plays an important role in Google’s ranking factors for search engine results pages (SERPs) results. While the search engine giant won’t share details, experts believe that user experience signals are the primary determinant. You need to captivate and engage readers with useful, well-organised content to compete.
Google Discover, Google’s AI-driven tools were launched in 2017, unleashing a new kind of search — one that doesn’t even require a user query. Discover can identify the most accurate content most likely to interest the user. Content is ranked based on algorithms inspecting content quality, and user interest. Although Google has communicated no precise factors, it seems that location history, browsing history, app usage, calendars, search history, and home and work locations are all relevant.
12. Local Search Listings Will Play a Larger Role in SEO Strategies
Most people use search engines to find localised goods and services. For example, searching for a restaurant close by. Local SEO is important – and it’s evolving. This evolution is in part because of the rise of zero-click searches.
13. Building your brand
A simple way to always stay with Google changes is to build your brand. To build your brand, you need clear messaging to focus always on your customer and build trust and loyalty. All these factors will also show Google they can trust your brand and position you ahead of smaller names.
Would you like to request a free consultation with our team of experts to improve your digital presence for 2022? Contact our team today: NI/UK +44 2871 228820 ROI: +353 1 247 5294.