Top SEO Trends That Need Your Attention In 2022

Those who are aware of digital marketing trends know the importance of SEO. Search Engine Optimization is one of the most efficient ways to attract targeted customers to a website. However, you need to be aware of the trend to use it in the right direction.
According to the recent stats, on average, there are 3.5 billion searches on Google every day, and amongst these, only around 0.78% of researchers click on the links that appear on the second page. This means that achieving a position on the first page is vital for a business. This statistic further states that the links that top the rank on the first page gets an average click-through rate of 31.7%.
On the other hand, the SEO industry is one of the most unpredictable industries because of the algorithm updates that Google launches from time to time. SEO trends are so volatile that you would easily notice a significant gap in a few days. Around 70-80% of users focus on organic results instead of paid listings, and around 28% of searches result in a purchase.
If you want to rank at the top, you need to focus on the critical metrics that include backlinks, traffic, social share, etc. In this article, we will talk about the most valuable Search Engine Optimization trends.

Artificial Intelligence Will Have a Prominent Role To Play

Artificial Intelligence has brought a revolution in the way people react to online content. As revealed a few years back, Google’s algorithm known as RankBrain contributes mainly to SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) ranking factors.
So, to optimize your website’s position for RankBrain, you should consider using the user experience signals as the primary determinant. These factors include click-through rate, time spent by the users on the page, etc., which would help you determine the signals. Besides, introducing helpful and organized content would also increase your page strength.
People also consider using an on-page SEO checker to access the page strength by analyzing factors like backlinks, readability, etc.

Voice Command Will Impact Searches

Voice search technology has come a long way with innovations like Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, and Amazon’s Alexa. And with the surge in the use of this technology, it is predicted that by 2022 around 55% of households will be using smart speakers.
This implies that you should consider optimizing the voice search through relevant keywords. It is vital to identify phrases that people use in their regular conversation and use keywords that sound more natural and basic. This is how you could rank your website higher on the search engine.

Mobile-First Indexing Will Impact Ranking

Google implemented mobile-first indexing, which means that the search engine primarily looks for the mobile version of the website. Surprisingly, it has been studied that close to 73% of internet users will access the internet solely through mobile devices by 2025. Therefore, it is important that you take Google’s mobile-friendly test to check your website’s position.

E-A-T: Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness Principle Will Be The Key

Content quality is crucial to rank higher on Google. But isn’t the term ‘content quality’ too wide? So, what do you understand by quality? For this, you need to understand E-A-T: expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness. These factors in the EAT principle determine the presence of helpful content on your website. Furthermore, the EAT principle is relevant in accessing businesses that come under YMYL (Your Money, Your Life) labels that include health care, finance, etc.
Now, the question is how to create valuable content. Read the factors mentioned below and get guided.

• Start with understanding your targeted buyers, and analyze the type of content they would value.

• Secondly, research the content to know what a consumer loves.

• Further, use the researched information to create the content in a format that your consumer would love.

• Lastly, keep the EAT principle in mind and back the information on your website with facts and statistics. Use the links of authoritative sites such as “.gov”, “.edu”, etc., to win the confidence of the targeted customers.

Content Marketing; Lengthy Content Will Improve SERPS

According to a report published by the state of content marketing, lengthy content of over 3000 plus words achieves 3 times more traffic and 4 times more shares. Furthermore, they also get 3.5 times more backlinks than an average-length article. Therefore, you should consider focusing on lengthy content while maintaining the quality simultaneously for better ranking.
The key here is creating content that is readable and good enough to keep the viewer engaged. So, it is advised that you break up your content into different sections and demarcate them with H1 and H2 tag to let it remain readable. Besides, it is also essential that your content has a relevant link that’s authoritative enough to look authentic. Lastly, it should be easy to share so that the reader can spread it in their circle.

Featured Snippets Will Become Game Changers

As revealed in 2017, featured snippets will be a shortcut to gaining a prominent position in Google's ranking. So, if you cannot focus on lengthy content, there's still a way to get the targeted customer's attention.
A featured snippet is a way to catch the viewer's attention instantly. They show a small part of the information, usually the most relevant information associated with a particular topic. This information is so crisp that the user gets mostly all the details through this gist. So, focus on including featured snippets to get more attention.

Predictive Search Will Improve

Google Discover, launched in 2017, is yet another Google AI-driven tool. It identifies the behavioral patterns of the user and learns their habits gradually. As a result, Discover can quickly identify the most accurate content likely to be of the user’s interest. Furthermore, it already claims to have a base of 800 million active users.
So, to rank better, you have to get Google Discover so that your customers can feel more connected to your business. You don’t have to do anything special to get it because as soon as Google indexes your page, Google Discover will already be included.

Videos With SEO trending keywords Will Become Crucial

According to Cisco, the video will surpass all other content formats in the years to come, and if you are not yet creating videos, it’s time to begin. YouTube has over 1 billion users, and that is because of the relevance of video content.
How would you optimize video content? You can do so by optimizing the name of your channel and the video name or description. Use SEO trending keywords to see noticeable results. Furthermore, ensure that the description should not have stuffed keywords. Instead, a user-friendly overview is preferred.

Image Optimization Or Image SEO Will Play a Major Role

Google has always insisted on optimizing images or image SEO and marking them properly, and it is predicted that in the future, people will use images to obtain information, purchase products, and more. So, if the images used on your website are not optimized, you need to consider doing it as soon as possible.
In this context, you should use high-quality, relevant images and customize the file name using keywords relevant to the corresponding page. Furthermore, use alt tags that crawlers use to classify images. You should add these images to your site map, making the content more readable for the users.

Semantically Related Keywords Will Get More Importance

Semantic search will gain more prominence in the time to come, and secondary keywords are equally important as the primary ones. Google is not looking at the line of words anymore; instead, it is analyzing query content to ascertain a user’s search intent. As a result, the more relevant or logical information you provide on your website, the better it will rank.
To address the semantic search, you should create content focused on answering the questions of the targeted customers. In addition, you should consider optimizing content for topic clusters besides focusing on the keywords solely. Above all, write for people and not bots.  

Local Search Listings Will Play a Vital Role

According to various studies, most people move to search engines to find localized goods and services. Does that surprise you? Yes, it is true, and if you are still thinking that people use the internet for global searches, it’s not entirely true. Therefore, local SEO is essential, and it is evolving with time.
So, how will you get your business on the local pack?
Begin creating a Google My Business page and have a strong backlink profile to let your customers reach you with ease. You can check your competitor’s backlinks and get inspired to achieve the desired results in case of any confusion.

Make Data And Analytics Your Priority To Remain Ahead In Rankings

Data Science helps you visualize campaigns, understand buyers, and create targeted messages. Analytics, on the other hand, help you verify the URLs that are getting crawled, check page loading times, identify referral courses, response errors, indexing, bounce rates, and more. You can use Data Science to pinpoint unusual traffic sources, like potential spam sites. So, all these strategies will help you attain a higher position in the search engine results. Ensure to address your problems and improve your web presence from time to time.