4 SEO Trends to Watch Out for in 2022

The year 2021 is a year of many changes for the digital marketing industry, with Google fully rolling out two huge algorithm updates. As user behavior continues to evolve, and search engines like Google adapt in response, what will SEO look like in 2022?

Here are the top 4 SEO trends that are predicted to take center stage in 2022:

1. Page experience as a heavier ranking factor

Earlier in 2021, Google began the gradual rollout of the Page Experience Algorithm. This algorithm update will span several user experience signals, including the Core Web Vitals, which is basically an evaluation of a user’s overall experience with the web page.

The update was first applied to mobile, and it’s slated to finish by the end of March 2022 — and the final rollout will include desktop search results. With that said, we can surmise that page experience will be a heavier ranking factor for both mobile and desktop websites.

Page experience isn’t just about mobile friendliness and responsiveness. Among the metrics that the Page Experience Algorithm assesses are the loading speed, interactivity, visual stability, and HTTPS security.

What you can do to prepare your website:

• Recalibrate the performance of your page by checking with Google Search Console, PageSpeed Insights, and Chrome User Experience Report.
• Focus on usability and user experience (UX) when redesigning your website (if applicable).
• Ensure your web pages are secure with HTTPS. More details on how to migrate from the default HTTP to HTTPS can be found here.

2. More focus on mobile user experience

Google has finally wrapped up the rollout of the Mobile-First Indexing (MFI) last March 2021 after years of anticipation. What this means is that Google will prioritize indexing and ranking of websites that are mobile-friendly.

By this time, all web pages have switched to MFI. Couple this update with the Page Experience Algorithm, we can predict that non-mobile-responsive websites and sites that offer poor UX will suffer greatly in their search rankings in 2022.

What you can do to prepare your website:

• Implement responsive web design (RWD), if you haven’t already.
• Improve page load speed by optimizing images and videos, minimizing redirects, and enabling browser caching and cookies.

3. Better featured snippets

Other than the big updates that Google recently implemented, they have also added small tweaks such as the Passage Ranking Update. This update is closely tied with Google BERT, which is a deep learning algorithm that helps search engines process words better in relation to the context of other surrounding words.

With the implementation of the Passage Ranking Update, Google can now index not only whole web pages but also individual passages from that particular page — otherwise known as featured snippets.

This is particularly useful for very specific search queries and voice search results to make it easier for users to find the exact answer they are looking for. And with users being more intentional and specific in the ways they phrase their search queries, featured snippets are seen to take a bigger role in the years to come.

What you can do to prepare your website:

• Target long-tail keywords in your content. Research your audience thoroughly to know what content is most relevant to them and how they are most likely to phrase their search queries.
• Focus on quality content. Have your audience in mind when you write content, not search engine bots.

4. Smarter answers for complex questions

As a related update, Google also released their Multitask Unified Model (MUM) updated in May 2021, which is also a natural language model similar but significantly better than BERT.

MUM helps Google use contextual information to present more comprehensive answers to complex search queries. This is different from the Passage Ranking Update, as MUM is multimodal; meaning, it can simultaneously understand information from different sources (pictures, webpages, etc.) and provide you with more relevant content in response. It also aims to overcome language and format barriers to deliver better search results.

Google used the following example: You can take a picture of your boots and inquire “Can I use this to hike Mt. Fuji?” With MUM and the power of AI, Google can analyze the picture and the text query, then point you to a blog with a list of recommended hiking gear.

What you can do to prepare your website:

• Produce high-quality, authoritative, and valuable content, coupled with optimized images and videos.
• Add structured data to aid search engines in understanding your content better.

Optimize Your SEO Strategy this 2022

Google has taken great strides in improving the quality of search results this year, and it’s important for marketers to adapt and evolve alongside these updates as well. If you need help in refining your SEO strategy or with any of your digital marketing needs, Ilfusion is here for you.

Give us a call at 888-420-5115, or send us an email at [email protected] to get started!

Categorized in: Articles, SEO