While hosting good content will always be a top priority, businesses today know that growing organic traffic to their website is equally important for increasing their online visibility. As a result, there has been a renewed interest and focus on SEO strategies that can help in growing website traffic.
Digital marketers are keeping abreast of the latest trends and techniques in search engine optimisation and how to leverage them in recent times.
So what do marketers need to focus on in 2022 when it comes to leveraging SEO? Let’s find out.
Core Web Vitals
The Google algorithm uses certain page experience signals to determine the quality of the websites and rank them accordingly. In June 2021, Google added three new page experience signals that are collectively called the Core Web Vitals. These three web vitals are-
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
LCP measures the time taken by the largest visible image or block of text on the web page to load.
- First Input Delay (FID)
FID measures the time delay between the user’s first interaction and the browser’s response to the user interaction.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
CLS measures the stability of the website content while the site is still loading.
The emphasis is on page rendering speed and stability. While websites with simple and static contents are unlikely to be immediately affected by the core web vitals, dynamic websites that host advertisements can get affected in the google ranking algorithm.
However, digital marketers can start reviewing their SEO strategy and make changes before they experience any drastic change in their ranking in Google search. Furthermore, Google had publicised these changes well in advance, showing the intent to help the SEO and developer community to better prepare their web content.
Making Websites Mobile Friendly
The smartphone penetration, along with affordable internet services, has been phenomenal even in developing economies. For instance, India has many households where there is a smartphone but no desktop or laptop PC.
As a result, most internet surfing today is happening through mobile phones. Therefore, it was inevitable that the Google search algorithm would prioritise mobile-friendly websites.
So, it is no surprise that starting from 2019, mobile-friendly websites are indexed first by default.
Understanding MUM
The Google Multitask Unified Model, or MUM, will use an AI-powered algorithm to improve the online search experience. MUM aims to remove the need for multiple searches by the user. Instead, it aims to interpret the search context through text, images, videos, and audio to understand the user’s needs.
Furthermore, it understands 75 different languages. Thus, it has the potential to refine over time to understand complex queries used in human-to-human conversations.
While MUM will be currently introduced as an update to Google Lens, it has a vast potential to change the online search experience completely.
Therefore, digital marketers will be keeping an eye on how things turn out with MUM. But, for now, marketers need to focus on image optimisation through alt tags, geotagging, etc.
Emphasise on Voice Search
We have already witnessed the launch of some fascinating voice-based apps and products such as Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, or Google Assistance. It is therefore imperative for businesses to make their websites more conversation-friendly.
This means more query-based segregation of contents where conversational-style questions are framed to get favourable search results.
For example, consider using the query “ How to open a bank account?” instead of using the traditional “Steps to open a bank account”.
Google Does Not Want Searchers to Visit your Website
About 49% of Google Searches lead to no-clicks. Google wants brands to answer people’s queries without taking them away from the search engine. Snippets can help you rank better, but it also is a double-edged sword as it could mean the visitor may not click on the link and may be satisfied with the answer provided. While this may seem detrimental for your SEO, featuring snippets can help you get a better ranking and build your brand value. This, in turn, can impact your overall SEO score.
Rank Better in 2022 with SEO
Creative advertisements, quality content, and storytelling will remain integral to brand-building and sustained business growth. However, SEO is likely to play an equally big part, if not more, in shaping the online visibility of businesses.
With Google tweaking its algorithm every once in a while in addition to incorporating new features or parameters, the world of digital marketing will surely witness some interesting times ahead.
