The digital marketing industry is ever-changing, and so is SEO. What worked before may not work in the future. The best way to stay ahead of your rivals is by keeping up with the latest trends, such as:
- Voice Search: with the increased use of smartphones, voice search is becoming more popular. For instance, Android smartphones come with an inbuilt digital assistant that allows you to search the internet by simply talking.
- Search Intent: this is what a user is after when they visit a search engine. In the future, you’ll need to create content optimised for getting users to the end of the sales funnel.
- Content Depth: ensure that your target knows as much as possible about your business. Despite the busy nature of today’s lives, people are looking for more information, more than ever. Sites with comprehensive content tend to have more traffic.
- Automation: investing in automation tools is a no-brainer – they help you save time, and more importantly, they are useful for creating better content.
- Local Search: Google recently started prioritising local news in search results, an indicator that local SEO is here to stay.
SEO 2022 – Comprehensive Marketing Trends and Tips
2022 will be a huge turning point for SEO. It will be a year of change and no change for SEO.
You probably haven’t noticed, but Google hasn’t fully unleashed all of its capabilities yet. SEO has just started to see big algorithm updates that they have been working on for years.
It’s like an overhaul that doesn’t change anything but adds layers of perfection to the existing structure.
It turns out Google doesn’t want you to over-optimize anything. They don’t want you to get too creative with your content, and they certainly don’t want you to get carried away with SEO anymore.
The best SEO in the world right now isn’t done by optimizing content. It’s done by creating as much high-value content as possible.
Google wants you to produce tons of high-quality material for your niche, and they’ll do the rest.
You no longer need to make a huge effort with SEO. Google will take care of it.
Google’s algorithms are getting more and more complex, but at the same time, they’re also becoming more common sense. It will be like Google is checking on your site every second of each day, just to make sure that all is well.
Trend 1: Online Shopping
Big brands have to catch up.
They’re going to have to make sure that their products and services are well presented online. They will be forced to provide video tutorials for individual products, price comparisons, and discounts galore.
The number of digital buyers is expected to hit 2.1 billion people by the end of 2021, up from 1.66 billion in 2016.
That’s nearly a third (27.8%) of the world’s population.
Source: Statista
In 2021, online shopping sales are predicted to reach $4.89 trillion. That’s more than double the amount that was spent in 2015.
This will lead to a huge shift of interest from traditional physical stores to digital e-commerce shops and marketplaces.
It also means a new breed of consumers with little or no real-world shopping experience.
So, what does this mean for SEOs?
Google is shifting towards creating a more seamless online shopping experience. Retailers can now list their products on Google shopping for free — no commissions or any other fees.
That means Google is making space for retailers, eliminating the struggle for expensive premium listings.
To top it off, they introduced the shopping graph, which helps sellers put their products in front of more buyers, and buyers find the right products.
The shopping graph is AI-enhanced. Meaning it can understand different types of products and brands. It can also analyse their relationships with other products to improve relevance.
As a result, shopping results are now showing far more product content than just titles and prices. You can expect to see star ratings, availability estimates, and full product descriptions in the future.
The shopping graph is also integrated into the Google search engine. That means that products will appear in your results, depending on how relevant it is to your search.
Google shopping puts a lot of emphasis on the following information:
- Your website
- Product prices
- Reviews
- Videos
- Inventory data and SKU
Using this information, Google will deliver the most relevant search results and product pages in real-time, and that’s just part of the generated shopping experience.
Even better, Google has also implemented a new feature that allows users to run their search queries using screenshots. If someone sees a product they like, they can use Google Lens to search for it on the internet.
For example, let’s say you see a friend with a shoe you like. You can just take a screenshot and search for that shoe on Google.
Google will identify the shoe and give you similar options on where to buy it.
How to Optimize Your Site for this Trend in 2022
Learn to create keyword-rich product listings. Google will use the information you provide to determine your product’s relevancy to the queried search. For e-commerce sites, instead of optimizing your entire site for product keywords, focus on individual products.
Go through your products and focus on optimizing them individually. Include lots of images, videos, and descriptions to provide shoppers with a rich information environment.
Be sure also to reference other products in your listings to draw a relationship between them.
Modern SEOs need to look into the future and start building their brands, not just content.
Trend 2: Conversational Queries
Next up is conversational search. In 2022, people will search for information naturally. They’ll ask questions, and Google will understand what they’re asking.
Google’s algorithms are getting better all the time. With conversational queries, you can ask follow-up questions to get more info about a product or service. It will even anticipate your question and offer answers.
Let’s say you’re on the phone with a customer support rep, and they’re helping you find something. You’ll just ask Google: “How does this work” and it will pull up the information on the product, so you can see how it works. That is especially helpful in services like real estate or insurance where people need more information.
Around May (2021), they launched LaMDA (short for Language Model Dialogue Application), a machine learning model built for dialogue. It’s an open-source neural network architecture recently invented by Google, and it’s changing the way people interact with search engines.
The model is based on the concept of memory networks which has grown in popularity. It uses short-term memory — known as working memory — to facilitate deeper dialogue, so Google can understand complex questions and generate more accurate answers.
How to Optimize Your Site for this Trend in 2022
Simple, start optimizing your site for voice search. Also, think about how you engage with customers in your business. Create a friendly conversation where they feel at ease asking questions.
Also, consider creating FAQ pages for your products to give people the information they need before reaching out to customer support. Updating your blog with voice search optimized posts will help too.
Voice search focuses on Natural Language Processing (NLP) to interpret the user’s intent. It’s more complicated than a keyword search and requires a more human-like understanding of language. NLP is already prevalent in smartphones, home assistants, and voice assistants like Siri and Alexa.
Here’s how you optimize your site for voice search:
- Targeting Phrases: The way users phrase typed queries isn’t the same as how they phrase verbal queries. For instance, a user can type “the best digital marketing agency in Singapore,” but verbally, they’ll search “what’s the best digital marketing agency in Singapore.” Optimizing for verbal phrases is the best way to target conversation keywords.
- Keeping Answers Short: Hit the nail on the head by focusing on simple answers. Your content should have a short blurb where you directly dive into the question and provide an answer and more detailed coverage in the content that follows.
- Consider Vernacular: Different regions have different dialects, so consider these when optimizing your site. Focus on words that are specific to where you’re targeting. For instance, dialects in Portugal make use of words like “seguranca” (security), while Spain prefers “Seguridad.” These small localization changes can help you rank better.
Trend 3: The Rise of Visual Search
Visual search is the cover that no one wants to leave out.
Voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Home are driving the trend. These devices have image recognition capabilities that allow them to receive images from users using terms like “What does X look like?” or “How can I style my hair like this?” Then they deliver results by recognizing the object in the picture.
Also, according to Invespcro, more than 36% of online shoppers say they have used visual search. It’s also predicted that within the next couple of years, visual search will dominate mobile commerce.
In fact, more than half of users say they find visual search more beneficial to them than text queries.
As the technology progresses, visual search will become even more accurate. Currently, visual search can only recognize simple images like plants, machines, and books. But in the future, it will be able to identify people’s faces and discern objects by comparing them with other product images.
How to Prepare Your Site for Visual Search
Make the most of your images. When you upload pictures to your website, consider optimizing them with SEO basics like naming and alt-text.
Tag Products in Photos: When people search by image, they want their results to be more precise. Tagging products in photos will help Google place better results on relevant pages and rank them higher.
Use Geotagging: Take advantage of Google’s business pages and add geotagged photos for products with specific attributes, like size, colour, or shape. Also, consider including them in customer reviews.
Trend 4: Video Marketing
Even with the surge in visual search, videos are still one of the best ways people can learn about your products. Video marketing is also vital to highlighting your business’s culture and giving customers personal insight into what you do.
More than half of consumers say they rely on videos to make purchase decisions, and approximately 1/3 of people are more likely to buy the product after watching a related video.
Along with YouTube videos, users can also search “How to” keywords on other platforms, like Facebook or Twitter. For instance, if you own a health supplement company, one of your videos might show how to take the supplement correctly.
Additionally, Google is rolling out new features that allow users to find information quickly using videos. Here are a few of the features:
- Clip Markup: You can markup specific points in a video to provide users with specific information about the content. This way, they can pull up your video on YouTube and open it directly to the part where you discuss product features or benefits.
- Seek Markup: Seek markup informs Google about the URL structure of your video. That way, Google can display key moments of the video. Using machine learning, Google can automatically examine your video and segment its content.
While you don’t necessarily need to add SeekToAction properties, you can still use them to help Google understand your URL structure better and direct users to the most relevant parts of your video.
How to Optimize Your Site for this SEO Trend in 2022
Simple, start by incorporating more videos into your site content. If you already have videos, consider using the markup tools mentioned above.
Keep your video content short and to the point. Don’t waste people’s time – get right into what they’re there for!
Spend some time brainstorming questions that people might have about your product, then answer them with a video on one of your landing pages.
As for the Seek Markup and Clip Markup, you want to make sure you’re using detailed, keyword-rich markups. These will direct users to the most relevant portions of your video and help Google understand your video context better.
For example, if you have a video on money-saving tips, you do not want to label your markups as tip 1, tip 2, etc. Instead, you want specific keywords to reflect the steps of your video.
For instance:
Markup 1: “How do I save money on groceries?”
Markup 2: “Turn off lights when you leave a room!”
Trend 5: Answering Complex Queries
Google will focus on answering complex questions come 2022.
We’re used to them providing direct answers for simple questions like:
- Where can I find a good cup of coffee near me?
- What is the Best Cell Phone Data Plan (2GB, Unlimited)?
- When does Starbucks open and close?
Now, they’ll start providing more complex answers as well.
For example:
- What’s the cheapest way to fly from New York to Seattle?
- What should I bring to an interview?
- Who should hire me?
Keep in mind that these are not direct answers, but rather Google providing multiple resources for users to learn from. The goal is to supply them with all the information they need in one place.
For that reason, Google introduced MUM (Multi-task Unified Model), an AI-driven model that minimizes the steps that users have to take to find the information they need.
For example, say you’re planning for a trip to Singapore. They may issue separate results for flight schedules, hotels, attractions, and food. MUM will provide you with the relevant information only instead of querying everything related to the keyword.
They may issue queries like:
- Best hotels in Singapore
- Cheapest flights to Singapore
- Discounts on parks in Singapore
- Weather for Singapore
- Top places to visit in Singapore
Users need all this information to plan their trips. The problem is that they have to run multiple, separate queries and sort through the results to find what they need. With MUM, everything will be in one place.
If you’re a site owner, this means that your content should cover all major types of queries. For example, if you have a travel blog, make sure it’s got information about flights, hotels, food recommendations, and travel tips.
MUM is an algorithm update that considers the user’s intent and prioritizes the information they need. It also learns from users and personalizes results based on their needs.
How to Optimize Your Site for this SEO Trend in 2022
Start creating content that fully answers complex queries. Focus on providing useful content rather than just links to more information.
Try to be as comprehensive as you can, tackling multiple queries in a single article, blog post, or piece of content.
For example, if you’re writing about travel tips for Singapore – include information on flights, hotels, attractions, and food recommendations. Focus on giving your user everything they need to plan their trip in one place.
The point is to try and create content that prevents the users from going elsewhere to look for more information. Do your research and make sure you have everything the user needs to make an informed decision.
Trend 6: Core Web Vitals
Google’s core web vitals is an algorithm update that focuses on site speed, mobile-friendliness, and page load speed. It was first released in May 2020.
The name refers to the core metrics that Google will monitor for a website: loading speed, mobile compatibility, and page size. They’re all directly related to the user’s experience.
According to Google, if your site or page loads in more than 3 seconds, 53% of users will abandon it. Google wants you to know that site speed matters. That’s why they’re on a mission to make mobile pages load faster, regardless of the device used.
That said, here are three core web vitals to focus on in 2022:
- First Content Paint (FCP): This is the time it takes for a page to display its first bit of content. The point here is to make sure that your pages load with the most relevant information right away.
- First Input Delay (FID): This is the time it takes from when a user clicks or interacts with an element until that action is shown on the screen. In other words, this is the time between a click and when something happens in response to that click.
- First Meaningful Paint (FMP): This metric measures how much meaningful content is displayed within your site. Google wants your pages to load as quickly as possible. So, if you can display at least 50 meaningful pixels in under 1 second, then you’re on the right track.
- Cumulative Layout Shifts (CYS): These metric measures page layout changes over time. It’s used to identify when the layout of a page or site has changed, which is an indicator that it may be done improperly.
- First Interactive Element (FIE): This metric measures how long it takes for a web page to become interactive and respond to user interactions and actions.
How to Optimize Your Site for this SEO Trend in 2022
Make sure your site loads in less than 3 seconds, ideally less than 2.
Page load speed matters. You should measure the performance of your pages via Google’s Lighthouse and Web Page Test tools.
You can also use speed racer tools to see how quickly your site loads against your competitors’ sites.
You can improve your site speed by:
- Minifying JavaScript and CSS files
- Optimizing images (compression, file size, etc.)
- Removing unnecessary plug-ins or widgets
- Using a content delivery network
- Reduce the number of HTTP requests for your site’s assets by bundling them together. Optimize your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to load as quickly as possible
- Upgrading your hosting to a web hosting plan that is optimized for speed
12 SEO Tips for 2022
If you’ve been following the latest SEO trends, then you should be.
If not, now is a good time to start.
In 2022, these are the core SEO strategies that will give you an edge:
First-party Data Hub with SEO Traffic
With companies like Google pushing to retire third-party cookies, there is a growing emphasis on first-party data.
First-party data refers to the information you collect about visitors who interact with your sites, such as email addresses or purchase history. That way, you don’t have to rely on tracking pixels or cookies.
Search plays a big part in this.
With Google evolving into an AI, its search results will be more personalized. To stay ahead of the trends, you need to create your own data hub on your website connected to your SEO strategy.
With SEO, you can attract qualified visitors to your site, after which you want to nurture them into leads and eventually customers through email newsletters, remarketing, and more.
Creating a first-party data hub is essential, as you want to connect your different marketing channels and build your brand.
If you want to increase the ROI of your business by 2022, then make sure that all of your tools are connected via one central platform.
Refreshing Existing Content
In 2022, the most successful businesses will be those that constantly refresh their content.
This is a big deal for SEO. If you want to stay relevant to Google’s algorithms, you need to continue refreshing your website’s content.
That’s because refreshing old content, especially those published two or more years ago, helps revive it.
Refreshing your content also means making the necessary changes that the internet requires over time by incorporating new video formats, images, and other features.
Most importantly, it means creating fresh content in line with the latest trends in search engines, including voice searches.
Personalized Search Results
As we’ve mentioned before, personalized search results have been on the rise and will continue to be in 2022.
This is primarily due to the increasing use of AI by search engines.
What does that mean for your SEO strategy?
It helps to focus on creating content relevant to your target audience: use demographic data, customer personas, and psychographics to inform your content creation.
Outbound Links to Relevance
By 2022, there will be a significant shift in the number of outbound links search engines use to rank websites.
It all boils down to relevance.
Search engines will focus on giving users results that are more relevant and useful.
If you want your site to be relevant, you need to link to other relevant sites.
This is especially important for authority websites or site with large followings online—the more reputable the link, the better.
SEO Will be Integrated into Customer Service
In 2022, there will be an increase in businesses that use SEO as a customer service tool.
SEO can be used to provide instant updates on topics related to your business. That means developing resources that are easily discoverable by customers.
A prime example is how some companies are incorporating SEO into their FAQs.
By adding keywords and information about your products or services, you can make it easier for customers to find what they’re looking for.
Increased Use of Voice Searches
Voice search is on the rise, and by 2022 it will be the primary way people search for information online.
If you want your website to be successful in the future, then you need to start focusing on optimizing your content for voice searches.
You can do this by using long-tail keywords, natural language, and FAQs.
Optimize for Different Search Media
Text will always be the dominant search medium in 2022.
However, there will also be an increase in image searches and voice-activated assistants, including smart speakers such as Google Home or Amazon Alexa.
What does that mean for your SEO strategy?
To stay relevant, you need to optimize your site’s content for both text and images.
Make sure users can search using their voices or images.
If you haven’t already, start incorporating long-tail keywords into your website’s content and optimize it for visual search.
SEO Will be More Targeted Towards Specific Industries
SEO is no longer an industry-wide strategy.
By 2022, it will be more focused on specific industries and niches.
This is because different industries require different strategies to rank high in search engines.
What does that mean for your business?
You need to start focusing on niche-specific SEO tactics.
You can do this using long-tail keyword, developing customer personas, optimizing for local SEO, and using SEO tools specifically designed for your industry.
Greater Use of Artificial Intelligence
By 2022, AI will be used extensively by search engines to deliver better results to users.
What does that mean for your SEO strategy?
SEO will become more personalized.
Meaning should start focusing on creating personalized content tailored to the individual needs of your site visitors.
Start using demographic data, customizing your messages for different personas, creating FAQs, writing comprehensive blog posts (covering everything the user needs), providing instant updates, and more.
Focus on User Search Intent, Not Keywords
In the past, SEO was all about using the right keywords to rank high in search engines.
However, this is no longer the case.
By 2022, user search intent will be the primary focus of SEO.
What does that mean for your business?
Always wear your customer’s mind, and focus on creating content relevant to their needs and interests.
This can be done by understanding what they’re looking for, using long-tail keywords, and providing valuable information that meets their needs.
Be sure to cover everything you suspect your searchers might want the answer to before they even think to ask.
Leave no room for doubt that your content will answer their question and resolve their concern.
So, how do you meet users’ search intent?
You can start by looking at what’s already ranking for your search term. For example, if you’re targeting the keyword “planning a trip,” go to the search results and analyse the sites already ranking for it.
Then, try to understand why those websites are ranking high.
- What type of content do they have?
- What kind of keywords are they using?
- What are their tone and approach?
Once you have a good understanding of what it takes to rank for the keyword, you can build your site’s content around it.
Build Dynamic Evergreen Content
In the long term, you want to build content that is evergreen.
By this, we mean content that is relevant and provides value for a long time. Evergreen content does not become outdated because it’s constantly updated and maintained.
What does that mean for your SEO strategy?
You need to focus on building high-quality dynamic content that is relevant for years on end.
Think about critical topics in your industry and start creating comprehensive content around them.
Don’t be afraid to go in-depth and provide valuable information that your audience will appreciate.
You can start by listing down all the questions and concerns your customers have and then address them one by one in your content.
For instance, if you run a liquor shop, then here are some of the questions that people might have:
- How many types of liquor are there?
- What is the difference between vodka and gin?
- What is the best way to serve a martini?
By answering these and other questions, you’re providing value to your readers and creating high-quality content that’s relevant for years on end.
Optimizing for Google Discover
Google Discover is an advanced search engine that provides users with personalized recommendations.
It’s now one of the most popular Google features, ranking right behind organic search results and Google Ads.
What does this mean for your SEO strategy?
One key element of SEO in 2022 will be optimizing for Google Discover.
This means adding visuals to your content since this feed uses visuals when displaying content to users. So, make sure you have a cover photo to accompany your article.
You also want to make sure you’re creating targeted content that caters to your specific audience.
2022 is just around the corner, so it’s time to start gearing up for these changes.
We hope this guide has been helpful and given you a good understanding of what you need to do to stay ahead of the curve.
