Getting a grasp over SEO can be difficult, especially when all the blogs repeat the same advice over and over again. These would typically include optimizing the title tags, marketing the content on social media effectively, publishing good quality content rich in meaningful keywords, and more. With almost everybody having access to the internet and everyone searching for the best way to better rank their content, the biggest SEO challenge for 2022 might be the very fact that everyone is following the same advice from the same sources. However, here are some steps that could help one to rise above everyone else in terms of promoting their content on the web.
The top SEO Trends of 2022
No one could ever have predicted that everything would change in early 2020. However everyone gradually had to come to terms with the new norm and most of them were ushered swiftly into isolation, building their world online and maintaining social distancing measures. Search Engine Optimization is the process of well-researched predictions of what internet users frequently search. The old methods of ranking have improved vastly into ways that are more user-friendly and advanced. For example, the archaic method of keyword stuffing whereby a person stuffs random generic keywords in huge amounts to his content, in order for it to rank higher, will no longer work in the present scenario. It will no longer increase the traffic and search engine results.
Google ranks the results based on the relevance of the content based on the user’s query and the trustworthiness of that information. Results would show the most relevant and accurate content. Deceiving titles with extraneous content will no longer acquire the desired ranking position on the page results. Google’s algorithm is getting much more sophisticated at recognizing content with the most relevant and reliable response. By 2022, it is predicted that SEO rankings will be even more competitive, providing hyper-relevant content that is of the highest quality. The value that contributes to the user’s search journey will also continue to play a very important role. Content that merely aims to lure its audience by linking unnecessary sources will no longer be as effective as it is today. Google’s algorithm will also check the credibility of the link inserted in the content because user intent and search intent are everything. With concepts like user intent, search intent, and the buyer’s journey becoming increasingly important, Google’s algorithm has remodeled itself to better understand what the user is actually searching for when they type in a phrase or a question.
What are Search Journeys? How will it Change the SEO Demand in the Future?
Last year when Google announced their new update, nobody thought that their algorithm would change the way user search and search histories are looked at all together. This is where the ‘search journeys’ come in. why did they change to ‘search journeys’? With this change, Google uses artificial intelligence to better understand the language that a user uses in context with their search query. Search journeys use the contextual meaning to display content that is most relevant to where users are at in their journey rather than simply giving them an answer to the question. Google’s AI looks at where users have been, what they have searched for previously, and what they are likely to search for or do next. This paradigm shift challenges the way that people have previously viewed web searches.
Search journeys additionally make use of something known as ‘activity cards’ to flag articles and web pages that users have visited after searching a particular subject. There is a lot more to search journeys than the seamless consolidation of the search history into a search feed. It helps google to produce results that are more likely to match where users are in their journey rather than merely serving them with an answer to their question.
Along with search journeys and activity cards, Google has also introduced Collections. Collections allow users to store pieces of content in a collection to reference them in the future. It is similar to ‘Boards’ under Pinterest but much broader. This works in cohesion with the user’s search journey whereby Google serves more content based on what the user has stored in his/her Collections previously. How does this affect SEO? For SEO professionals and digital marketers, search journeys offer a new way to understand search and ultimately the why behind users’ searches. Google’s search journeys use AI and advanced search data to determine where the user is at.
Conclusion:
What would this SEO challenge mean for the future? Current results display the most relevant topics based on accumulative information and activities from all internet users. But Search journeys change that. So in the future, a main element of SEO will be that the search results will match the results to users according to their interests. In 2022 therefore keyword searching will yield more practical results, which would include voice search and recognition as well. Local SEO will become more prevalent as the pandemic goes on.
