Just 10 years ago, SEO promotion specialists needed to perform a certain basic set of functions. Now, to stand out, you need to constantly monitor current trends and implement them in your work. So what are the trends of SEO in 2022?
SEO Trends 2022
The main ones we can distinguish are the following:
- SEO with video
- Page Experience
- Artificial intelligence
- The quality and length of the texts
- Content actualization
- Adapting of mobile versions
1. SEO with video
Every year, video content is becoming more and more popular. Firstly, it is demonstrated by the popularity of such social networks as TikTok. Following TikTok, the emphasis on the video format is done by Instagram (creating a format of video Reels, which had a significant impact on the content of bloggers and SMM specialists). Let's also not forget about the YouTube platform, which has about a billion registered users. So videos are definitely being watched right now. And they are watching more every day. Based on the experience of popular social networks, this kind of SEO tool will be really effective.
What our experts recommend: if possible, place video content on the pages you're promoting. As we know, the «dwell time» of the user on the site is a very important indicator for search engines. By watching videos on the pages of the site, the user's dwell time will greatly increase.
2. Page Experience
Page Experience — one of the most important conditions for page promotion in Google. The priority here is the comfort of using the site by the user. Although the algorithm was introduced back in 2020, now it is only gaining momentum. So what metrics are particularly important for the Page Experience? These include both the security of user data and page loading speed, as well as the usability of the site, and a well-tuned UI/UX design. Therefore, you should not neglect to hire a professional website development team, its design and layout should be top-notch.
Google has an excellent article on how «page experience» works. We recommend that you read it.
What our experts recommend: regularly check your site in services to assess its usability. For example, Page Speed Insights will suit you and if the service shows any problems with the usability of the site — send the site to your team for revision.
3. Artificial Intelligence
Probably every Internet user has at least once noticed that it is worth once to search for new sneakers in your browser, so the advertising banners on each site will begin to inform you that their sneakers are even more comfortable and of higher quality. That's roughly how artificial intelligence works in SEO. It adjusts content for the user, based on criteria such as the amount of time on a particular page, or the number of clicks. Artificial Intelligence algorithms are constantly updated and improved so that the use of the site is becoming more and more comfortable.
An example of the work of this algorithm is the service Google Ads.
What do our specialists recommend: set up contextual advertising of your resource? In this case, your site/application/service will be shown to those potential customers, who have previously visited your competitors' sites or searched for your product (or its analogs).
4. Quality and length of the texts
Longreads should be used to increase your reach and traffic. The time spent by the user on the page is certainly important, but the length of the text does not guarantee its quality. Much more important is to make the texts interesting and readable. To do this, you first need to choose relevant topics. It is also advisable to use visual ways to increase interest: divide texts into headings and subheadings, paragraphs and subparagraphs.
What our experts recommend:
- Splitting the text into meaningful paragraphs
- add subheadings that capture the essence of the text segment
- use of formatting and bulleted lists
- addition of graphical objects to illustrate and simplify the understanding (photos, diagrams, charts, diagrams, infographics, videos)
5. Updating the content
Quality SEO requires constant updating of content over time. This applies not only to articles that have lost relevance, but also, in general, to outdated content. Search algorithms encourage consistent updates with effective promotion.
What our experts recommend:
- Updating information to reflect the latest changes in the topic or niche
- addition of graphical content
- optimization of texts for new / missed queries
- specifying the date of the update
6. Voice search
A seemingly insignificant feature, but it also affects the SEO of your site. Again, it's about providing user comfort in every possible way. It is much easier to ask a question by voice rather than typing by hand, especially while driving or in other uncomfortable typing conditions. Also, this feature covers users with special needs, which increases the accessibility of your site.
Additionally, we note that the share of voice search is growing rapidly and in 2020 alone the share of voice search exceeded 30%, and more than 71% of mobile device owners anticipate that they will use voice search more often in the future.
What our experts recommend:
- Add long, low-frequency keywords and phrases to your semantic core
- Study the interests of your target audience
- Make sure you include "near me" queries in your campaigns
- Optimize content for mobile devices
Now these recommendations may seem vague and uninformative, but in the future we will prepare a separate article on the subject of voice search, as optimization for voice search — a trend in 2022.
7. Adapting mobile versions
Every year, the number of smartphone owners is constantly growing, and the age of the target audience is increasing. You don't want to lose a really large segment of your audience that could potentially use your site. The mobile version should be adapted to all smartphone formats and tested on different devices.
Below is an infographic from as far back as 2012 — 2015 for a pension fund website with over 300,000 (!!!) users per month. As we can see, even then there was a significant increase in mobile user.
Google has an excellent article on "Ways to adapt your site for mobile devices". We recommend that you read it.
What our specialists recommend: the best way to check the usability of your website is to order Usability-testing from experienced specialists. Specialists will form a checklist for you to fixes that would be desirable to make on your resource to improve the user experience on mobile devices, and on personal computers. You can order Usabilty-testing from us.
Conclusions
The main SEO trends that define the nature of search promotion in 2022 suggest that Google continues to move purposefully in the direction of user-friendliness. Therefore, the focus is on quality. Only those sites whose owners and optimizers are committed to bringing value to their target audience stand a good chance of making it to the top of the search rankings.
The work of promotion does not become more difficult, it becomes more responsible and serious, which makes the competition more exciting.
By following these simple steps, combined with basic settings, SEO will be effective and the number of active users will constantly grow.