Top 9 SEO Trends in 2022

Two years into the pandemic, businesses are picking up steam and starting to operate at full capacity. Now that the SEO landscape is gaining traction, you should know where to focus your resources, time, and capability to efficiently and effectively deal with Google algorithm updates.

In this post, we look into the top 10 SEO trends you need to know in 2022 and how they impact your Google ranking.

1. Mobile Search and UI

Recent trends indicate that the overall mobile experience plays a more vital role than attention to the tiniest detail, as more users rely on digital platforms for shopping, payment, and information.

Optimising your site for responsive scaling and a mobile-based experience will improve its on-the-go usability, security, and mobile-first indexing – which is taking over Google by storm.

2. Search Intent

One of the hottest topics in 2022 is search intent. As Google focuses on user intent more than plain keywords, understanding how to target them using SEO will be vital for your campaign.

You can also target multiple search intents simultaneously, so multiple users with varying intents will find the same page and content useful. The key to creating engaging content is empathising with your users and addressing specific and implicit concerns in your content.

3. Multimedia Content

Images and videos impact how you address search intent. People who want to shop for products would look for high-definition product photos, just as people looking for a cooking recipe would appreciate video tutorials on your page.

Besides, investing in high-quality multimedia content lets you take advantage of Google Lens. As a result, your page gets a boost for using original media content since you contribute information to improve the algorithm.

4. Content Quality

Content quality is a timeless trend for SEO and Google. Focusing on long-term SEO efforts with high-quality blog posts and pages will make your site future-proof in 2022.

Instead of posting hundreds of thin content, understand your users’ interests and organise them by topic and relevance. That way, you get bespoke content objectives that match your business goals.

5. Localisation of Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)

Mobile search goes along with local intent as another SEO trend. With more people back in the streets and CBDs, we predict a rise in local search intent and an influx of content localisation.

We’re already seeing country-specific content outranking globally-focused pages on Google’s first pages. In 2022, local search intent will strongly impact SERPs, even for online businesses with no physical store.

6. Machine Learning

Google’s ability to identify subtopics from broad content implies that well-designed pages perform better for long-tail queries than before. Red Search believes combining Google’s machine learning algorithm and Natural Language Generation in 2022 will strengthen your ranking power and position as an authority.

7. Automation

The pace of breakthroughs in SEO will continue to increase in 2022. Additionally, well-ranking sites are becoming more complex over time, implying that automation will become a necessity rather than an optional feature.

We more sites and SEO campaigns to implement automation on technical audits. Moreover, automation and machine learning can help organise audit results and determine technical issues from raw data, thereby making SEO audits streamlined and more intelligent.

8. E-A-T

Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness or E-A-T is 2022’s talk of the town, with many experts arguing if it’s a crucial Google ranking factor.

However, Google stated that its Search Quality Raters’ Guidelines (SQRG) include E-A-T to improve the quality of its search results. Regardless of your SEO strategy, Red Search recommends demonstrating E-A-T in your content pages, technical SEO, and link building.

9. IndexNow

Microsoft and Yandex first launched IndexNow – an indexing protocol that lets businesses notify search engines to crawl and index their pages without waiting for search crawlers to find them.

IndexNow is by far one of the biggest breakthroughs in 2022, making most SEO timeframes significantly shorter than before. Moreover, the protocol lightens system load on web server from excessive crawling, allowing small and medium-scale businesses to kick off and rank efficiently.

Final Thoughts

Sticking to the fundamentals of SEO is as important in 2022 as the previous years.

Additionally, with rising competitiveness of the digital space, businesses should also pay attention to emerging technologies, Google updates, and changes in user behaviour to ensure they are actively staying ahead of the curve