With 24 blog posts being published every second, the web is continuously being flooded with new content.
But what can make your content stand out from the rest is search engine optimization.
However, SEO is constantly evolving and is in fact unpredictable because of the algorithm updates that Google launches from time to time.
Hence, it is crucial to be aware of what’s coming up next to prevent possible penalties, or a massive drop in your site’s ranking.
In this blog post, we’ll talk about a few emerging trends in SEO in 2022. Let’s get started!
Distribution of Total Organic Search Visits in US
Here are Top 6 SEO Trends That You Should Know in 2022
Heavy Focus on Core Web Vitals
Google’s new page experience update that was announced in May 2020, rates websites based on three key metrics related to website speed, responsiveness, and visual stability.
Now that they have launched the complete update this year, it is crucial for your organization to focus on optimizing customer experience.
The following four Core Web Vitals are expected to be the main focus in 2022, hence giving a new meaning to UX:
Top 4 Core Web Vitals Parameters
1. First Contentful Paint (FCP): It is when the browser renders a part of the content from the DOM and provides your users feedback that the page is loading.
2. First Input Delay (FID): It measures the time a user takes to interact with the webpage. Google recommends an FID of less than 100 milliseconds.
3. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): It measures the loading performance of a website. After a page starts loading, an LCP of less than 2.5 seconds is recommended by Google.
4. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): It measures a website’s visual stability. According to Google’s recommendation, you should aim for a CLS of less than 0.1.
Google’s EAT Signals are the Future
EAT are the Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness factors that help determine the quality of a webpage’s content.
Google has emphasized several times that the quality of your content is critical to the ranking of your website. Hence, EAT factors should be taken care of.
Google’s EAT Factors
Adding authoritative links in your content is a great way to fulfill the EAT principle.
So in 2022, delivering expert-level content and aligning your website with Google’s EAT signals should be on your list.
Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning to Impact SEO
In 2022, Artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) will continue to dominate how people interact with content online.
Google’s AI algorithm, RankBrain, is more likely to become one of the most important ranking factors for Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) in 2022.
AI & ML Techniques in Google Search Algorithm
Experts believe that the click-through rate and time spent by users on a website will be major factors that RankBrain will use while prioritizing content.
Since search engine algorithms are getting smarter and using AI and ML technology to recognize valuable content, it is vital to redefine your SEO strategy and create well-organized content.
Voice Search Will Continue to Rise
The next major SEO trend for 2022 is Voice Search. Google’s voice search has an accuracy rate of about 95%.
Voice Search – Statistics
The competition for voice search is going to rise, therefore you should consider optimizing your content for voice search so that it increases your organic reach.
Let’s look at four voice search optimization strategies:
1. Restructure your content and make your answers short and concise.
2. Make use of conversational language while answering a voice search query.
3. Target long-tail keyword phrases since voice searches are comparatively longer than typed search queries.
4. Build a mobile responsive website and optimize it for voice search since mobile is the future of search.
Long-form Content Is Here To Stay
When it comes to SEO, ‘Content is King’.
According to a study, articles with a word count between 2,250 to 2,500 earn the highest organic traffic.
Average Long-form Content Length
Therefore, to keep readers engaged, create quality content that is divided into multiple sections under H2 and H3 headers.
Ensure that the content is readable for both desktop and mobile users, since mobile devices will obviously display the content in huge chunks of text.
The readability of such long-form content can be improved by creating a table of contents at the beginning of the piece with clickable links. This will take the user directly to the set of content they want to read.
Video Marketing Will Become the Norm
We’ve seen how video content platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram have achieved massive success. This has led to digital marketing experts predicting that video content will be a determining factor in website ranking.
As a result, Google has rolled out the two new features to help users locate information quicker using videos:
a. Clip markup
b. Seek markup
These features will help businesses create video structured data that can help gain more visibility on the SERPs.
Video Structured Data
So, make sure you include videos as part of your SEO strategy for 2022.
Wrapping Up
And that is a wrap on 6 SEO trends you should know in 2022 to build a highly-effective strategy!
Don’t forget to tell us in the comments which of these strategies you think will be the most important in 2022.
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