It’s true that the basic principles of SEO still exist but some SEO algorithms are subject to updates and trends that affect the way we carry out optimisation on our websites.
This is 2022 and SEO improves and updates its technology every year, how does this affect your strategy? Well, below are some of the top SEO trends you’ll likely come across in 2022. They’re very important as they’ll affect the traffic your site gathers and your website Keyword ranking.
- Core Web Vitals optimization
Last year’s page experience update is considered one of the best search upgrades in recent years. Page experience now measured by Core Web Vitals is now recognised as one of Google’s ranking factors. Core Web Vitals include the following performance metrics:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This is the amount of time it takes for the biggest content asset on the page load.
- First Input Delay (FID): How long it takes for your site to respond when a user first enters the page.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): How many unanticipated layout shifts happen during the lifespan of the page.
Of all the SEO trends in 2022, one of the best trends that are worth your investment is improving Core Web Vitals signals across your page. It will have the most significant effect on your search engine performance. This may likely require that you employ the service of professional web developers. But if you can’t afford that, then you can use these free tools that will be essential in identifying where your web pages require improvement.
These tools include:
- Google Search Console:The Experience feature of your Google Search Console account will help you know which pages are adding up or falling short of Core Web Vitals standards. It also outlines the problems affecting your pages.
- PageSpeed Insights: In addition to the information that Core Web Vitals data provide, Page Speed Insights reports can provide an additional look into your web pages and how good they’re performing for daily users.
In the SEO industry today, we’ll likely witness agencies and SEO providers include page experience and Core Web Vital optimisation as part of their services. If you can’t perform this technical optimization by yourself and you don’t have a team in-house then you need to hire an SEO service provider.
- People also ask
A recent study of 2.5 million search inquiries revealed that Google’s “people also ask” feature now comes up for about 48.6% of searches.
Because of its location that’s right above the SERP, (and most of the time, above position one), everyone will want their content to rank in the people also ask section.
To get there, you have to ensure that answers to common questions are answered in your content. Use the SERPs or use keyword research to determine long tail questions among your audience.
Then you provide easy-to-understand answers including the questions in your headings (H2s, H3s, H4s or you might as well add a FAQ section). This is one of the SEO trends in 2022 that can help you gain more visibility and increase your ranking on search engine result pages.
- Keyword clustering
Keyword research is the bedrock of SEO. But as Google’s natural language processing (NLP) technology has improved, effective keyword targeting has now become a difficult process.
The days of optimising your landing pages and blogs for just one keyword are now in the past. Now, Google ranks your websites according to how many keywords are in them, this means that 2022 is a year to introduce more keywords into your content.
Keyword clustering is a better keyword strategy to increase your keyword rankings. It involves finding multiple keywords with the same search intent and writing content surrounding those keyword clusters. You could create an interview software with Keyword clusters like:
- interview scheduling software
- interview scheduling tool
- online interview software
- virtual interviewing software
If you’re looking to increase the total keywords your website ranks for, then you should hold on to the keyword clustering trend. Although this trend requires time for it to be effective, its results are worth all the time spent.
- AI-generated content
The machine learning model GPT-3 (third-generation Generative Pre-trained Transformer) was introduced to the general public sometime last year through openAI. Since then AI-assisted SEO content tools have sprung up.
Examples of some of them include CopyAI, Headline, Jarvis and many others. These tools can produce unique content at an alarming rate. They can generate topics, titles and content with just a few inputs and they can even get all the meta tags in the right places.
Although it is not entirely advisable to neglect your human SEO copywriting with AIs completely, AI-generated content seems to be one of the SEO trends in 2022. We’ll likely see more AI-generated content this year.
Below are some effective ways to use AI content tools effectively.
- Title/topic generation: When you’re unsure of what to write, you can use AI to get more ideas on a particular topic.
- Meta tag generation: You can use AI tools to produce original and different page titles and meta descriptions at scale.
- Outlines/first drafts: Once again, AI should serve as a helper, not a replacement. AI tools still give themselves away and you can easily tell that the content wasn’t written by a human. You’ll still find errors, that’s why it’s important to use AI as a starting point for your content, not your replacement in writing the entire content.
- Content optimization software
Content Optimisation software is another SEO trend you can’t afford to miss. These optimisation tools can help in creating top-notch and semantically rich content that ranks.
These tools use similar NLP algorithms; to Google, what they do is point out keywords, subtopics, and synonyms, and even normally ask questions that search engine crawlers need to help rank content.
We’ll likely witness more sites trying to incorporate the power of these content tools into their content this year. The most amazing thing about this trend is that they have an almost instant effect on the total keywords and the position of a website on search engines.
- More structured data & rich snippets
Schema markup is a vocabulary of microdata that assists Google in understanding and removing content from your page’s app that can be displayed as rich snippets which users find more attractive and clickable.
Snippets are a fast-rising trend because it helps search engine crawlers show users the content they’re looking for. This consequently makes for a better user experience. And every year, Google supports new schema markups. Also, from the look of things, Schema markups don’t seem to be fading away anytime soon.
Any business that’s taking advantage of this schema markup is already outperforming its competitors because many digital marketers still don’t know its benefits.
- Long-form content
Google likes to rank content that is top-notch and high quality. Although, you can say the length of content is not a determining factor in how high a page ranks, the length of content still determines if it gets a better ranking or not.
How is this so? Because with long content, you’ll likely find the E-A-T signals that Google thinks makes up quality content. They include in-depth content, original research and analysis and expert authorship and sourcing.
As Google continues to update its NLP algorithms, it will keep getting better at discerning quality. So, let your content be able to provide quality and comprehensive information. Not only that, you should be able to work your way around the necessary keywords.
- Good ol’ boring SEO
Although Google has been doing a great job in improving and updating its algorithm, the core values and principles of Google still stand. To have SEO success in 2022, you still have to follow the basic rules that apply:
- Content quality: Always create accurate and up-to-date content that provides the information that your users need.
- On-page SEO: Ensure your meta titles, meta description, header tags, body texts, and images are optimised so Google can have a better understanding of your content.
- Backlinks: Never forget that backlinks play a huge role in increasing the rank of your site on search engines. You can get backlinks from different sites, guest blogging and public relations.
- Technicals: Ensure you build a fast-loading, responsive website that users can find easy to navigate themselves.
- The democratization of search
Nowadays, Google is better at recognising quality content and page experience signals on web pages, hence the role of authority has been downplayed as it no longer holds much significance as it used to.
Although backlinks and Domain Authority still make up a huge ranking factor in 2022, search is becoming more democratic.
Some individuals will not be able to depend on their authority signals to maintain top keyword positions and newer websites will have a better chance of ranking if they provide top-notch content and a better website experience for their users.