New year, new design trends, new Google updates, new social media guides… as a digital marketer, it’s super exhausting to keep up with everything. But, as you may already know, we always want to make things easier for you. So, we conducted detailed research, and we want to share with you the latest trends in the SEO world.
Aside from these trends, first, here’s an SEO checklist that you need to follow in order to improve your overall Google rankings because it is pointless to follow SEO trends when you do not have a solid foundation.
We’ve chosen five things that you need to implement and follow if you want to stay on top of your SEO game in 2022 (and beyond).
AI
Artificial intelligence will inevitably be the future for everything, including SEO. More and more AI SEO tools can help marketers and businesses optimize their websites. And in a not so far future, there will be more content created by computers than by people 🦾 Thanks to artificial intelligence, you can automate and improve many processes, including:
- keyword research;
- site audit;
- content creation;
- website traffic.
Moreover, Google’s ranking system is using AI and ML in the ranking process for a long time ago. And they are having major success in delivering the right results to the right people, even in a situation when the searcher does not really know how to search the proper query. Here we are not talking only about written but also spoken queries because voice search is also on the rise (we are also covering voice SEO in this guide 🔊).
And while we’re on the subject of how Google understands queries, we can not skip this part without covering the Multitask Unified Model.
MUM
Multitask Unified Model or MUM is a new AI milestone of Google, which is a gamechanger! MUM has a new way of understanding information. It has the potential to transform how Google helps you even with complex needs and tasks.
Some of you may remember BERT. Well, Google claims that MUM is 1000 times more powerful. What’s even crazier, MUM is multimodal. That means that it can understand any kind of information across text, images, and in the future across audio and video modalities. Another great thing about MUM is that it can find information written in 75 languages. So if the most appropriate source is in another language, it can pull that information and translate it to your language.
MUM’s purpose is to find and deliver the best possible answer for searchers. That means that you still need to implement SEO on your website, but pay attention to quality. Write high-quality content that answers the right questions. If you write the most helpful content, it will lead to a satisfied visitor who spends more time on your page, and that is something that the algorithm will surely notice. Therefore, customers should always be in your focus!
Voice Search
Did you know that now you can hum, whistle, or sing a song to Google, which will show results that match the right music?
So, if you were looking for a sign to start optimizing your website for a voice search, then this is it! Because if you don’t implement voice SEO, you’re risking losing website traffic in the future. Voice searches use voice assistants like Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa, and if you want to optimize for a particular one, you can search for more information online. Here we will cover some general SEO tips and rules that apply to all voice assistants:
- optimize your page for mobile devices;
- optimize your Google My Business listings;
- focus on long-tail and conversational keywords;
- optimize for local searches (include phrases that may be used in that particular area);
- create a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page;
- include short and straightforward answers;
- create content with more conversational language.
Keep in mind that when people do voice search, they usually ask questions and use longer queries.
UX
The user is constantly in the focus of Google’s algorithm. That includes the user’s experience. And Google always says it out loud and clear that you can’t expect to be ranked at the top of the first page if your website has a bad UX. That is nothing new, but it’s super important! If you compare two identical pages, one of which has poor usability, you’ll notice a big difference in the ranking.
Therefore, all of your web pages need to be optimized, easy to use and navigate through. And don’t forget that user experience also includes site speed and mobile-friendliness. Also, none of the above will matter if the content is bad. Keep your audience in mind when creating content, including video content which is also quite important (and below you can see why).
Video
As you may have already noticed, there’s video content everywhere. For example, when you scroll through your Instagram feed, most of the content is videos and Reels. And even more and more often, there is video content in the top 5 organic results on Google. If that’s not a sign, I do not know what is.
Now’s the right time to invest in videos. You do not need to buy fancy and expensive equipment. Sometimes all you need is your smartphones’ camera and a pinch of creativity. But this process does not stop with the recording of the video, next you will need to optimize the video content. Make sure you use captions so that hearing-impaired people can understand what the video is about. Add a title and description that contain keywords and explain well what the video is about. Depending on the platforms where you’re planning to share your video content, you can use hashtags to get more insights. And don’t forget to implement voice SEO for your video content as well.
Customer behavior is constantly changing, so it’s super important to keep updated with SEO trends and rules. Here’s something SEO-related that you might not know about 👉 if you think your domain name must include a keyword, you are fooling yourself. You can check out this Domains and Keywords section to learn why’s that.
Let’s cut to the chase: implement good on-page and off-page SEO techniques regularly, create high-quality content while keeping your customers and their requests in focus, and keep an eye on Google’s algorithm changes!
