As we all know by now, SEO is the basic tool for driving more organic traffic to your site. The better your pages are optimized, the higher you’ll rank, and the more people will click on your links. However, SEO is constantly changing, and if you want to stay relevant, you must stay on top of the latest trends. If you’re still relying on the strategies you used years ago, it’s time to forget them and learn a new thing or two. So, today we’re taking a look at the SEO trends you won’t be able to ignore in 2022.
Now, why do you need to learn new things about search engine optimization? You see, in the best-case scenario, if you use old strategies these days, they won’t give you any results. But the truth is that things like keyword stuffing and relying on link farms will harm your SEO. So, you’ll end up with something worse than you already had.
It’s clear that you don’t want that to happen, and to prevent it, you must adapt your SEO tactics to the latest trends. Do it, and you’ll get more people to your site and increase your website sales. Of course, tracking the SEO evolution is an overwhelming task, and most business owners don’t have time to deal with it. But that’s why we are here.
So, here are the things you need to pay attention to in the following year.
AI will play a bigger role in SEO
Artificial intelligence has been changing how people interact with content online for years, and that wasn’t anything new. However, it is becoming more and more prominent, and thanks to that, it’ll play a key role in SEO from now on. Experts expect that in 2022, Google’s algorithm RankBrain will become one of the main ranking factors. And that’s what scares many businesses. They don’t know what to expect and how to cater their strategies to an AI.
Of course, Google didn’t share any insights about how RankBrain works or analyzes the content. No help from them here, but that’s how things always are. They introduce a new thing, and then SEO professionals try to figure out how it works. And this time around, they’re confident that the AI focuses on user experience.
So, the things you should pay attention to are your click-through rates and the time visitors spend on your site. If people click on your site and then bounce right back to the search, you won’t have great results in the future. Try to make content that will offer value to your readers, and you won’t have problems.
Long-form content is making a breakthrough
As the goal is to keep visitors on your site for as long as possible, you need to shift to a long-form content strategy. And as a matter of fact, articles that are 3,000 words or longer show better results even now. They get more traffic and more shares than anything else on the web. Another great thing about them is that they leave you enough space to find the perfect balance between SEO and the quality of the content. So, they’re great for improving your place on the SERPs.
Aim to create content that is scannable and easy to read on mobile devices. Make sure to use enough H2 and H3 subheadings, as big chunks of text can seem intimidating on small screens. Moreover, ensure that the content is easy to share. Put the sharing links at the beginning and the end of the article so the users can do it with a click of a button, and you’re all set.
Mobile-friendliness will be critical for your rank
Since Google made it a ranking factor back in 2015, mobile-friendliness has been very important for SEO. However, these days, almost 55% of all web traffic comes from phones. So, when a search engine looks at your site to rank it, it looks at a mobile version of it, as it considers it to be a primary one.
Luckily, Google has a thing called a mobile-friendly test. It’s a free and easy way to check how the mobile version of your site works and how effective it is. If something doesn’t seem right, check out Google’s Mobile Usability Report. It can pinpoint some of the problems with your mobile website, and it will tell you what you need to do to fix them.
Don’t be afraid of using as many tools as possible. The more of them you use, the easier it will be to find and fix the issues you have on your site. And if you want to take it even further, you can check out the top tools used by data analysts to get more insights into the performance of your pages.
Pay attention to Google’s EAT principle
Google has been saying that content quality is of the utmost importance for ranking for quite some time now. However, most people still don’t know what they mean by that quality. And if you’re one of them, make sure to refer to the EAT principle when creating your content. It stands for:
- Expertise
- Authoritativeness
- Trustworthiness
According to Google, your content will be quality only if you fulfill all three of these factors. But to be able to boost your content marketing game, you have to make buyer personas first. When you figure out who your target audience is, it shouldn’t be hard to understand what kind of content they want to see.
Be sure to include video
If you didn’t do it already, now is the time to incorporate video into your SEO. Platforms like YouTube and TikTok have exploded in the last couple of years, and more and more businesses use them to engage their customers and connect with them.
The optimization of your video content is a whole other game, but the principles are the same. Optimize the descriptions and explain what the channel is all about. Feel free to use keywords and hashtags, but as with text, be careful not to push it too far. Do the things that will be interesting to your audience, and you’ll do just fine.
The bottom line
All in all, SEO still plays a critical role in your rankings, and it will remain as important as it is now. However, it’s evolving and becoming more complex each day. Knowing about SEO trends you won’t be able to ignore in 2022 should help you stay informed, but if it all seems a bit too much, you can always contact an SEO agency and ask them for help. You don’t have to deal with it if you don’t want to. Let the experts do it for you.
Author bio:
Ben Andresen is a freelance writer and SEO expert living in San Francisco. He’s working with companies from all over the world and helps them to get the online results they’re after. In his free time, he plays his guitar and searches for the best pizza in the Golden City.