Do you want to know which ranking factors will affect your SEO campaign in 2022? As Google makes multiple algorithm updates every year, you should know what things you need to take care of. Let’s have a look at a few major updates & factors that can affect your SEO strategy.
The urge of showing the most relevant & accurate search results is the reason behind thousands of algorithm updates every year. Searcher’s experience is enhanced in last 4-5 years, due to the decrease in irrelevant results.
Let’s have a look at major updates you need to pay attention to:
Page Experience Update
Google started rolling out the long-awaited Page Experience Update in June 2021. Announced its completion on September 2.
This update brought a Page Experience score that marketers can view in a new report from Google Search Console.
Page Experience can be explained easily. It was created to enhance the user experience on every website.
This score includes:
Core Web Vitals – A collection of metrics that measures page performance from a UX perspective.
Mobile usability: The page must not have any mobile-related errors.
Security problems: All pages of a site that are subject to security concerns will be removed from a Good Status.
HTTPS use: To be eligible for the Good page experience status, a page must be served over HTTPS.
User Experience: Sites must not employ advertising techniques that distract, interrupt, or are otherwise not in keeping with the user’s best interests.
Google Update on Link Spam
In July, Google warned marketers that its Link Spam update would affect & produce measurable results.
Google recommended that SEO professionals and marketers follow best practices for outgoing links, creating quality content, as well as building inbound links.
The announcement stated, “Promote awareness about your site by using appropriately tagged hyperlinks and monetize it through properly tagged affiliate links.”
Product Reviews Update
Google has released an April update that rewards higher quality product reviews and gives them greater visibility in Search.
Google stated at the time, Although this is separate from our regular core updates, the advice that we provide about producing quality content for those is also relevant here Click To TweetThe search engine suggested that content creators must think about their product reviews.
- Express your expert knowledge of products
- Show the physical appearance of the product or show how it is used with unique content beyond that provided by the manufacturer.
- What sets your product apart from the rest?
- Discuss similar products and explain which products are best for specific uses.
- Based on your research, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a product.
- How product is changed from other models in order to make it more user-friendly, fix issues or help them make a buying decision.
- Determine the key factors that are important for your product’s category. A yoga mat review could determine that eco-friendliness, safety and quality are the key decision-making factors. Then rate the product’s performance in these areas.
Google recently announced that another Product Reviews update will be rolling out in the next three weeks. This update is intended to reward genuine, high-quality reviews.
Apart from all these algorithm updates, you should keep an eye on ever-changing ranking factors that may help you increase your SEO performance.
Here are some tips for optimizing ranking factors in 2022:
Publishing Consistent Engaging Content
It has been four years since engaging content has taken over backlinks in Google’s search algorithm. In 2022, content retained its share of the algorithm while links declined. Google has confirmed that it tests new content published to determine if it is eligible to respond to the keywords’ search intent. It is promoted if the behavior of searchers indicates that they are satisfied with the page’s content. Google’s AI rewards thought-leadership content produced at a minimum twice per week.
Niche Expertise
Google started to favor websites it recognize as niche experts in mid-2017. A group of 10+ authoritative pages that revolve around the same keyword is considered a “niche expert”. The keyword “digital marketing” could be used as the hub keyword in a digital marketing company. It might have industry landing pages for “digital marketing” services, “digital marketing” for real estate and “digital marketing for small businesses“; FAQ landing pages for “digital marketing” pricing and “digital marketing” advantages, and “best digital marketing strategies”. Because the hub keyword is consistent across all pages, it creates magnetism. The site attracts any Google search that contains the hub keyword.
Smart Internal Links
This factor was more prominently highlighted by Google in 2017, which is often mentioned alongside hubs. As long as they have internal links linking them, the more pages that contain the same keyword in the title tags will result in a higher site ranking for that keyword. Linking blogs or articles about different aspects of the subject to one authoritative page is a powerful way to express that page’s worth and confer a higher ranking.
Increasing Page Speed
Google has always valued user experience over everything else. This is why it invested in thousands of data centers across the globe to ensure that search results are served in milliseconds. Google has a lot to say about page speed. To receive full credit for this factor, pages should load in as little as 3 seconds. Google stopped giving extra weight to pages that load in less than one second (1-second load speed) or extremely fast pages (1-2 seconds load speed), but Page Speed still matters. Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool can be used to test your page speed.
Schema markup or Structured data
Schema markup, a modern version of meta tags is code you can add to your website’s pages in order to help Google deliver more visual search results like snippets. You’re likely to have seen schema markup in search results. It can be used to highlight important data, list the site’s main pages, provide a ranking system, or list events. Schema markup is preferred by Google because it makes search results more useful for searchers. They also make search results stand out from the rest on the page, which is a bonus.
I hope that all this information on shifting SERPs opportunities, major Google updates will help you analyze your site’s performance data. Gear up your SEO strategy 2022 by keeping in mind all these major algorithm updates and SEO ranking factors. Pull your socks up to turn last year’s challenges into this year’s success.
Happy Marketing…
