2022 is almost upon us. But what does it mean for online businesses? Simply put, the need for competent SEO to stay relevant in the game can’t be overlooked. It also means that if you’ve been using the same SEO tactics for years at a stretch and somehow getting by largely unaffected then that will no longer be the case. SEO, like a living organism, is evolving, and if you and your SEO tactics don’t evolve accordingly, your business will soon be extinct. That is absolutely not overstretching it. To make certain that you see good results from your SEO strategy and see your business flourish, here are some SEO trends that are already in play and are likely to have an even bigger impact in 2022. Ignore them at your own risk.
AI to Play an Even Bigger Role in Defining your SEO Strategy
Siri and Alexa are already changing the way how users search for content using voice commands and that is just one tiny portion of the use of AI in SEO. It is a core component of search engine algorithms including Google’s AI Algorithm, RankBrain. Agreed that there is a whole lot more to it and we will probably get to know it better as time passes, one thing that is for certain is it is going to have a huge impact on how it changes your SEO strategy by helping you analyse data in a more efficient way, from finding burning hot topics to bridging the content gap.
If You Want to Go Long, Think Long-form Content
It’s no secret, and something we have been advocating for a very long time, but if you want to attract and engage your site visitors, you will need to start churning out long-form content on a regular basis. Long-form content (anything over 3000 words), time and again, has been proven to get more traffic than its shorter counterparts. That being said, quality is still the key and the most defining ranking factor when it comes to content. So if you haven’t already started doing it, now would be a very good time to start because 2022 is just at an arm’s reach.
Being Mobile-friendly Equals Being SEO-friendly
A report published by Statista on 12 July 2021 states that nearly 57% of the global online traffic comes from mobiles or other handheld devices. That is a big chunk. And that figure is likely to touch 75% by the time 2025 arrives. It is quite needless to say that mobile-friendliness is an important ranking factor that is going to be even more important. Top that off with the fact that even Google moved to Mobile-first Indexing in 2019, and yet many continue to optimize their websites for desktops first. It’s high time you start aiming towards mobile-friendliness of your website more seriously.
Website that Loads Faster Ranks Better
If you have to reach your goal, you better get there fast, because that goal is not just yours alone but of millions of website owners. The goal is to rank better, preferably No. 1. This means you need to optimize your website to load as fast as possible on both mobile and desktop devices. Going by the buzzword, page-load speed has become an even bigger ranking factor than it was before. With the advent of 15-sec videos dictating terms all across platforms, it is no secret that attention spans quickly on the decline. If you don’t catch them by the hook, you don’t catch them at all. And then you don’t rank (higher) too.
Include Videos to Make Your SEO Strategy More Potent
If you haven’t already done it, it is about time you tweaked your SEO Strategy to include videos as well. The fact that videos and their subsequent platforms have quickly taken over their written counterparts in terms of consumption should not come as a surprise. YouTube, TikTok, Instagram Reels, and so on, it’s all selling like hot cakes on a cold, rainy evening. So going forward, it is crucial that you use one or more of these platforms and use them to engage with your customers as well as likely customers to your business’ advantage.
Google’s EAT Principle is Going to More Important than Ever
Churning out regular content shouldn’t come at the expense of quality, because quality content remains an all-important ranking factor as per Google. But does Google exactly mean when it says quality content? It means the content should fulfil three criteria: Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. In short, the E.A.T. Principle. So, the next time your writers get down to writing, make sure they have the E.A.T. Principle at the back of their minds. And that it should be written for the target audience, in a way that they find it appealing as well as easy to understand, by using information from reliable and coveted sources.