6 Buzzworthy SEO Trends to Improve Your Ranking Impact
If there is one consistent SEO Trend over the years it is that SEO is always evolving.
With each passing year we see SEO becoming increasingly competitive, complicated, and complex. SEO is no longer about inserting a few keywords onto your website and building a few links.
In order to win SEO in 2022 and beyond you need a multi-disciplinary approach to Search Engine Optimization that involves multiple skill sets, departments, and big picture thinking You need to keep your focus on engaging content, useful and reliable website properties, and sustainable practices that ever strengthen your brand.
In this article we’ve pulled together some of the top buzzwords and SEO trends in 2022 to help familiarize yourself with what’s expected by Google in order to rank well.
SEO Trend #1: E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)
E-A-T is part of Google’s algorithm and incorporated into Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines to assess whether your website content is valuable to readers and if it should rank well for certain search queries.
The three letters of the acronym direct Google search quality evaluators on how to assess the quality of the content and should also impact the way you write, display and promote your content:
- Expertise of the creator of the content
- Authoritativeness of the creator of the content, the content itself, and the website
- Trustworthiness of the creator of the content, the content itself, and the website
We’ve recently published a full article explaining What is E.A.T. and why it matters to your website and SEO strategy – be sure to check it out!
SEO Trend #2: Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals is one subset of Google’s Web Vitals initiative designed to provide “unified guidance for quality signals that are essential to delivering a great user experience on the web” (web.dev/vitals/).
Specifically, Core Web Vitals reflect the real-world experience of a critical user-centric outcome. The current three aspects of Core Web Vitals are:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – measures loading performance of website.
- First Input Delay (FID) – measures interactivity of website pages.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – measures visual stability of website.
Why does this matter? Without strong Core Web Vitals (Google recommends being in the 75th percentile for each of the three metrics) it will be difficult to create a good user experience and develop strong, sustainable search visibility.
SEO Trend #3: User Intent
This is another buzzword or trend that has been around for years and only grown in importance for SEO. Essentially, user intent is the original goal or intention an internet user has when they enter a search term into a search engine.
When looking at the search queries people are actually using to find your website or when creating a list of search queries you would like to be ranking for, keep in mind the Do-Know-Go concept and how it applies to your visitors:
- Do – transactional queries – what do visitors want to do on your website? This could be purchase a product, request a quote, etc.
- Know – informational queries – what do visitors want to learn about a specific subject on your website? This could be understanding your return policy, finding the right type of insurance policy, etc.
- Go – navigational queries – what do visitors want to know about your brand or location? These type of searches are clearly linked to your brand and the top ranking may not be as easily obtainable by your competitors.
Interested in user intent? Check out SEJ’s How People Search article where the above Do-Know-Go concept is adapted from.
SEO Trend #4: Long Form Content
While not an entirely new concept, SEOs across the industry have been buzzing about the opportunity of publishing long form content as part of a successful SEO strategy in 2022. In fact the concept of long form content is listed on nearly every “SEO Trends in 2022” type article.
Winning at long form content (over 3,000 words) typically means getting more traffic and shares than shorter content. Your search rankings can improve when your content is carefully crafted to engage the reader and provide all the relevant information they are interested in.
Be sure to learn more about What is Long Form Content if you’re thinking of putting more resources and effort into content this year.
SEO Trend #5: Zero Click Searches
Zero click searches are queries in search engines that do not result in an actual click through to a website result. They aren’t entirely new other than the fact that we are seeing their frequency steadily increasing.
Why does this matter? Search Engine Land reports that as many as 65% of searches in 2020 were zero-clicks which is a significant jump from 50% in June 2019. Having a top ranking may not deliver as much traffic as it used to if Google is showing other results (such as an Instant Answer) that do not require navigating away from the search results.
What can you do? Make sure you are optimizing for featured snippets and adding schema markup correctly across your website. These two advanced SEO strategies can add interest to your website listing increase the chances it will be clicked.
SEO Trend #6: Site-wide “Content Quality” Effect
A newer concept many leading SEOs are buzzing about is the idea of site-wide content quality and how it can impact websites, especially in the coming months and years.
The idea behind this is that Google evaluates your website as a whole. Low quality content could risk bringing your website down in visibility. It is extremely important to make sure that every asset on your website contributes to an engaging user experience that builds trust, expertise and authority.
Learn more about What is an SEO Content Audit and how it can help boost your side-wide content quality effect and overall search visibility, or contact our team to book your SEO Content Audit.
Take Your SEO the Next Level with Our Experts
Feeling unsure of how your website measures up to these upcoming trends and worried you may be missing out on traffic and new customer potential? Talk to our team of SEO Professionals about your current SEO approach and biggest concerns. We’ll help create a sustainable strategy SEO strategy to achieve better results in 2022 and beyond. Call 1-888-262-6687 or connect with us online today!
