According to research, search engines are the entry point for over 90% of online experiences.
In other words, optimizing your company’s website and content strategy for search engine optimization (SEO) is not a preference, but a necessity.
As part of your SEO strategy, your goal is to make your company’s website and all your products, services and valuable content readily available when people search for it. Driving traffic/customers to your website and ranking high in search engine results is a comprehensive and competitive, but achievable, endeavor.
Investing in new SEO trends is crucial to ranking high or improving your rank on search engines like Google and Bing. We’ve all Googled things we need to find and are most likely to click on websites that appear at the top of page one of the search results. There’s confidence and credibility associated with high-ranking page one search results.
Ranking high in SEO requires an investment of time and resources but equipped with the right strategy coupled with patience and commitment to analyze — and adapt if needed — you will be on track for SEO success.
Below are five SEO trends for 2022 to consider in your SEO strategy:
Artificial Intelligence Impacts SEO
Technology continues to integrate more and more into our daily routines. Apple introduced Siri years ago, and today we can ask our smartphone questions and get answers in seconds; and thanks to Amazon, Alexa can even order and purchase our groceries. For businesses, instantly responsive artificial intelligence (AI) communication tools like chatbots and voice chat are valuable customer service tools to provide customers reliable answers to their questions and concerns as quickly and easily as possible.
So how do AI tools impact SEO?
Search engines are incorporating AI and machine learning directly within their algorithms to better understand how to match the intent behind unique search queries to the best search results. This means that search engines are iteratively measuring how people interact with the web and are incorporating that into their algorithm constantly.
This also means that search results are becoming more and more unique to each individual customer. Google uses many factors to personalize search results such as location, past search history and other information to display results that have a much higher likelihood of being relevant for a particular customer than for anyone else.
Google’s EAT Metrics Improve Quality of Content and Trust in Your Company
When it comes to determining search engine rankings, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness (EAT) are very important metrics used by Google. These three metrics are used to measure a website’s content quality and whether your website is a trusted and reliable source by distinguishing between web page content that is misleading, poorly written or wrong and web page content that offers rich and reliable information. Creating a buyer persona and providing reputable source links where applicable will help improve your Google EAT metrics, according to Screpy.
Long and Quality Content Is Becoming More Relevant for SEO
Writing and publishing long blog content or whitepapers on your website improves your SEO, as opposed to writing short-form content of just a few hundred words. According to a HubSpot SEO social media study, there is a connection between publishing long-form content and earning quality backlinks — when another website links back to your website and/or specific webpage — which is important for your SEO ranking. Another benefit of writing longer content on your web pages is that it can demonstrate authority on the subject matter you are writing about. If users are interested and trust in what you are writing, they will be more likely to return to read more and click on more of your website’s content, earning you more backlinks.
Mobile-Friendly Content and UX Is Still Growing in Relevance for Search
With smartphones being high-powered portable computers, people are constantly on their phones for personal and professional reasons. So many of the websites we search throughout the day are in mobile view, which means that companies need to ensure their websites are optimized for the mobile experience. If a website opened on a mobile device loads slowly and looks wonky, then users will likely become frustrated, leave the website and not return. Your website’s user experience (UX) is critically important. According to HubSpot, close to 90 percent of web designers believe a website that loads slowly is the primary reason for a user bailing on the website. Moreover, UXCam research shows that every $1 that is invested into improving UX design translates into a return on investment of $100. When it seems like everyone in the world is on their smartphone, make sure you are providing them a great mobile experience.
Video Content Is Becoming More Important for Engagement and SEO
Does your website feature video to aid your customers or help tell your company’s story? If not, you should consider introducing a video strategy for your website. Some research suggests users will stay 2.5 times longer visiting web pages with videos than pages without any videos.
Just think about how much time you spend watching videos on YouTube, whether for movies and TV, learning a new skill, professional tutorials or continuing education. Creating and publishing videos as part of your marketing and SEO strategy, whether it is a short intro from your CEO or a demonstration of a product or service, is a powerful storytelling and business tool.
We are spending increasingly more time online searching for a wide variety of products, services and helpful information. This means it’s more important than ever to stay updated on what’s changing and evolving in SEO, like the five trends highlighted in this blog post! Investing the time and resources into updating and optimizing your SEO strategy with new elements that make sense to your company’s overall and specific marketing objectives will pay dividends down the ever-changing digital and SEO road.
If you are interested in implementing the latest SEO trends for 2022, contact the digital marketing strategists at Prototype Marketing today.