5 SEO factors that will get you on Google's podium in 2022
2021 was undoubtedly a year where the Google team tested the SEO community's ability to quickly adapt their thinking, preparation and SEO magic.
Google pulled three major updates out of the hat, all intended to embrace the user experience. And for the seasoned SEO geeks, new updates almost always mean new ranking factors to consider!
2022 is 100% the year of the consumer, so of course you need to be ready to deliver stellar content to boost your ranking as much as possible. But how much impact will these updates actually have on your website's Google ranking? And how do you best prepare yourself to comply with the Googlebot's new way of assessing your content?
I try to help you on your way in this blog post where I go through the most important new updates and 2022 trends that you should pay close attention to.
2024 update: My tips in this post are very much still relevant in 2024. But if you want even more tips for best practices in 2024, you'll find a large section on this in Amplify's big SEO guide.
1) UX and site experience as a major ranking factor
Last August, Google rolled out its Page Experience Algorithm. The update will affect several user experience factors, most notably their Core Web Vitals, which is the overall assessment of the user experience on a website.
The update was initially applied to mobile versions of the website, and is expected to be applied to desktop searches by the end of March this year, when Google rolls out the final part of the update.
That said, we can figure out that user experience becomes a key ranking factor.
User experience is not just mobile-friendliness and responsiveness. It's also about page speed, interactivity, visual stability and HTTPS - all an important part of the Page Experience Algorithm.
But what can you do to improve your website?
- Analyze and review your current design using Google Search Console, Pagespeed Insights, and Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX).
- Focus on usability and usability if you're doing a website redesign.
- Make sure your website is secured with HTTPS.
2) Focus on mobile UX
It is said that by 2025, up to 72% of all internet users will exclusively use their mobile to access the internet. That's why it's more important than ever to enhance the mobile version of your website.
March 2021 saw the release of Google's long-awaited Mobile-First Indexing (MFI) update. In short, this means that Google now prioritizes indexing and ranking websites that are mobile-friendly.
If we combine this update with their Page Experience Algorithm, we can predict that non-mobile friendly websites that provide a poor UX experience will suffer huge losses in their rankings.
How do you prepare your website for the update?
- Implement a responsive design
- Improve page speed on mobile and enable caching and cookies
3) The machine gets smarter: better answers to complex questions
Last May, Google released their Multitask Unified Model (MUM), which is a language learning algorithm that Google says is 1,000 times more powerful than BERT (their previous language algorithm).
MUM helps Google intercept information on websites that can provide more comprehensive answers to complex questions. It's a big upgrade from the Passage Ranking Update they released in 2020 because MUM is multimodal; meaning it can simultaneously understand information from different sources (images, landing pages, videos) to provide a more comprehensive answer. It also aims to overcome language barriers.
Google used an example about MUM:
What can you do to prepare for the MUM update?
- Writing high-quality texts that contain long tail keywords and are combined with optimized images and videos
- Add structured data to help Google understand the page
4) Upgrading featured snippets
In addition to the major updates that have been implemented by Google over the past year, there have also been some smaller improvements to their algorithms - for example, the Passage Ranking Update.
With the implementation of the Passage Ranking Update, Google indexes not only entire landing pages, but also smaller passages from the page - also known as featured snippets.
This is especially useful for very specific searches and voice search, as it makes it easier for the user to find exactly what they are looking for. Searches are becoming more intentional over time and featured snippets will become more and more prominent in searches in the coming years.
What can you do to improve your featured snippets?
- Focus on strengthening your long-tail keywords. Research your audience to find out what information is important and what your target audience is looking for to find that information.
- Create high-quality content. Always think about your audience and users, not Googlebot.
5) Voice searches
Thanks to innovations like SIRI, Alexa and Google Assistant, voice search technology is rapidly evolving and has become much more popular in recent years.
Households in Europe are starting to wake up to smartspeakers, and every year the number of smartspeakers in households increases dramatically .
To improve voice searches, focus on long-tail keywords, as voice searches tend to be longer keyword combinations and phrases. When users type on Google rather than voice search, there is a tendency to shorten the question down.
Get even smarter
Whether you're a generalist or a marketing specialist, our specialists have put together some great advice for you on our blog.
