2022 SEO Trends to Dominate Search

In 2021 Google launched some major changes to its algorithm, rolling out MUM, which Google says is 1,000 more powerful than BERT. Basically, this is the way Google is processing content and understanding what a page is all about, from text content to video and images, MUM works to determine the topic and message of your page and then decides where it should rank. As MUM gets tweaked throughout 2022, we’ll see more and more ranking fluctuations.

Want to watch an AWESOME 2022 SEO trends video with Justin Smith & Jason Dutt?

Yes, Content Is Still King In 2022

It seems every year writing this article we’re starting with the same thing. “Content is the most important part of your site”. And how could it not be? At the end of the day, Google looks at a term searched and best decides what the searcher is looking for. That means:

• What do they want to read
• What images do they want to see
• What videos do they want to watch
• And what supporting content might they want to navigate to

MUM was built to factor all of these elements together and produce the best search results, meaning search intent is more important to SEO than ever.

Content Created Based On Search Intent

If Google is trying to match up a user’s search with the best page possible, Google is trying to determine the search intent of that user, meaning what do they really want to read? When creating SEO content, content that you’re developing to try and rank for a specific keyword, it’s extremely important to consider what the user will want to read and see, not what you want to tell them.

The easiest way to determine the type of content and messaging Google is looking for is to search the keyword for yourself. What types of pages and content rank?

Google often favors a variety of content/page types:

• Blog posts/articles
• Long-form content
• Product pages
• Category pages
• Service detail landing pages

If you’re running an eCommerce SEO campaign and looking to rank for “best gaming laptop”, chances are you’re going to need to write a really informative, long-form content piece to have any chance of ranking at the top of Google. If you try to optimize a category page for a term like “best gaming laptop” Google will filter your page out based on search intent. The intent of the searcher in Google’s “mind” is to read an article, not be presented with a list of laptops on a category page.

Always consider search intent, especially in 2022 as MUM is refined even more.

Artificial Intelligence Content Writing

AI is heating up and AI SEO tools seem to be popping up everywhere. The trend of writing copy using AI will be huge in 2022. So, how can AI help? Google has said that they’re not looking to rank AI-written content, but content assigned by AI and edited by a human may pass the test. We’ve tested many of the tools out there, and to be honest, the content they produce is unreadable. With that being said, watch for these tools to be refined in 2022. We’ve seen applications for writing quick one-liners, headlines, and ad copy, but still feel we’re far away from complete AI article writing.

Core Web Vitals Are Critical for Google Rankings

With the roll-out of Google Core Web Vitals, it’s safe to say Google will begin weighing scores more and more in their ranking of web pages. As with many new ranking factors, Google rolls them out slowly so at first, it’ll only slightly affect your rankings, but over time it’ll play a more integral role in the algorithm.

Core Web Vitals score your desktop and mobile site separately, so a shift to mobile optimization is coming. It’s estimated that by 2025 over 75% of internet users will be using a mobile device.

We expect in 2022 not only for Core Web Vital scores to become a bigger part of the ranking factor but also companies to heavily invest in making sure their scores are top-notch. We’ve already seen a large influx of inquiries for Google Core Web Vitals optimization and business owners are still scrambling to land positive scores. Landing perfect scores can be very tricky, so be sure to work with an SEO consultant (like us).

You can check the score of your website using Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool.

Video Plays a Huge Role In SEO

Video content has exploded over the past few years, whether it’s YouTube content or quick videos on a social platform, Google knows users want video content. In 2022 more and more businesses will invest in video content to support their text content, meaning creating videos around the topics they write about, just like we did in this article.

If you create a long-form article, also create a video to add to the page. Not only will this video help boost the rankings of that page, but it can also be optimized on YouTube directly, giving you brand exposure across multiple channels. Keywords also play a huge role in optimizing video content, so be sure to name your video using the keywords of focus and optimize your video descriptions in a similar way you would your website content.

Another big advantage of integrating video on a page is the amount of time a user spends on your page will often go up. As they spend a few minutes watching your video, your average visit time rises. In the world of SEO, it’s thought that the average session duration & dwell time plays a part in rankings moving up or down.

The bottom line is video is a win-win all around and will be a huge part of 2022 SEO trends and trends well into the future.