SEO Trends for 2022 That You Need To Know

(Ad) 2022 has been a watershed year. The world has begun to open up after the Covid pandemic (out of an abundance of caution), and business engines have started running again. And in the same way, SEO trends have been changing as well.

SEO Challenges 2021

Source: Statista

 

SEO survived and thrived despite budget cuts, pandemic-related issues, strategy pivots, and scaling problems.

SEO in 2022 needs a holistic approach rather than tackling specific technical issues, making short-term SEO sprints to get links and build awareness.

In this blog, we’ll discuss what you should be focusing on for your SEO strategy in 2022, keeping in mind all that’s changing around us. The trends that will secure you from future shocks will propel your business to its next level of growth.

Let’s take a look at some of the top trends in Search Engine Optimization for 2022.

 

Trend #1: Content is King, and Long-Form Content even more so

There are many benefits to creating long-form content. While it gives you the advantage of talking about your product in detail, it also adds much-needed context, clarity, and storytelling. Most importantly, it also does a great job for your SEO.

As much as you would like to think that we now have the attention spans of goldfishes, there is an appetite for well-written and thought-out long-form content.

Long-form content captivates and engages readers, and it gets you more traffic. Long-form content also usually falls in the 3,000 words or more category.

But it isn’t as simple as writing a 3,000-word essay if you want to build traction for your website. Your content also needs to be structured well. Break up your content using subsections and headers like H1, H2, etc. Using header tags will help your content become more scannable and easily digestible.

Applying header tags is especially useful to keep in mind when you’re creating long-form content that will be read using a mobile device. The small screen size needs a well-structured piece of content, anything too long might even become intimidating, and your reader will lose interest rather quickly.

Long-form content also targets more search terms and helps you get more backlinks.

 

SEO Long form content

Source: PointVisible

 

Here are some long-form pieces of content that you can create:

  1. Term glossaries, frequently asked questions (FAQs), and common glossaries
  2. Blog posts
  3. Guidebooks or posts, how-to content, and educational resources
  4. Whitepapers
  5. Case studies
  6. E-books
  7. Long-form reviews

 

Trend #2: Localization of Search Engine Results

Seeing the same results pop up multiple times during a search reinforces a particular belief. Google is very mindful of this and now prioritizes fact checks and truth to build trust.

In 2022, local area-specific content likely outranks national and global content as people increasingly rely more on local information. If you’re a website targeting a particular state, you will need to create content specific to that state. Gone are the days of plastering content onto other regions in the world.

Organic SEO plays a vital role in local SEO campaigns. Localization creates more relevant content and offers personalization at a location-based level.

 

Localized SEO

Source: Moz

 

So, start optimizing your website for localized content. Localization does not only mean translating your website. Localization also means researching relevant keywords, adding your local phone number and contact address, and saving your business on Google Maps. Other ways include optimizing your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) and even localizing your URLs and meta descriptions for particular localities.

 

Trend #3: Improve your website performance, aka page speed

In an age of new smartphones launching every year, with better capabilities and processors, your website needs to be ready and be snappy enough to create stellar performance on these devices.

 

SEO page load times

 

Source: Pantheon

 

As you can see from the above image, for anything that takes longer than 5 seconds, please expect a bounce rate of 90%.

Furthermore, page speed is a significant factor for Google regarding rankings. Investing in improving your page speed helps improve the user experience and is a book for SEO.

Page speed is subjective, and every user has a different take on how long they are willing to wait to consume your content. But as a general rule of thumb – the faster, the better.

There are many ways to optimize your page speed. Here are four of them:

1. Use a reputable host

Website hosts store your website contents and provide the connection between the website and the internet. Get one that has maximum uptime and is reliable.

2. Compress images and scripts, and use CSS sprites