Our San Marcos, Texas SEO company has written about this topic in the past, but today we’ll be looking towards the future of our industry. While no one can say definitively what will happen in 5 years, trends have been going on in the industry over the past few years. They will likely continue, so we can get a good idea for what’s coming in 2022.
Featured Snippet
Search engines will continue to extract and emphasize featured snippets from web pages. Featured snippets now appear on about 15% of all queries, making them much more common than Knowledge Graph cards. While it’s not yet clear if they’re increasing click-through rates significantly over regular results, featured snippets make it easier for searchers to get what they want without clicking through several results.
Image Optimization
People are more likely to click on images than simple text, so it makes sense that Google and other search engines are starting to factor image labeling and optimization into their algorithm. Getting your images properly labeled, optimized, and managed with SEO best practices will be an ongoing job for everyone who manages images on their sites or blogs. It doesn’t require work after launch but needs ongoing attention as you add new content.
Long-Form Content
Typically when people think of content marketing, they envision short pieces used for online advertising. However, long-form content is also an excellent strategy for search engine optimization in 2022. Take advantage of the trend by making your long articles around 1,500 words or more, and go into great detail about the topic. This is highly beneficial to readers who want in-depth information on a certain subject. Long-form content ultimately ranks higher on Google since these pages have higher quality scores.
The EAT Principle
EAT is an acronym that stands for Experienced-Authoritative-Trustworthy. This means that your site’s content should come from a source that is experienced or authoritative on that topic. These sources may have a slight edge over new ones. You can use other sites as sources, but make sure you attribute authorship appropriately and do not violate copyright laws.
When a business offers specialized services or products that relate directly to their industry or location, it’s probably safe for them to have EAT-compliant content on their site. A company selling products or services on a particular topic will have far more credibility than someone who is not selling. For example, would you trust content from a non-doctor about which medical treatments are effective? Most likely not.
Mobile Optimization
As today’s consumers and business owners use their smartphones and other mobile devices as their primary means of connecting to information and services, SEO professionals will need to take note of these changes and re-evaluate how they’re marketing themselves. For example, more than 1.5 billion smartphone users do a Google search or visit a site that includes a Google component every day. We predict that over 87% of all site traffic will be coming from mobile phones in 2022.
Conclusion
SEO is an ever-changing field. While 2021 was a bit of a slow year for updates, expect 2022 and beyond to bring more updates on algorithm changes and guidelines regarding content and website optimization. Our approach as marketers will be sure to change as well based on those new regulations. We’ll need to ensure that we’re providing high-quality and engaging information for users, and keeping up with these updates will make it easier for businesses online.
Digital Marketing and Search Engine Optimization in Austin
Is your business struggling to keep up with the latest digital marketing trends in the Austin area? Our San Marcos, Texas SEO company has a lot of experience in this competitive market, and we’re ready to lend our expertise. Contact us to learn how we can help you stay on top of the ever-changing SEO landscape to get your business more online leads!
