SEO Changes You Shouldn’t Miss in 2022
Written by ndngroup
SEO Changes You Shouldn’t Miss in 2022
The SEO updates Google has been bringing forth in recent years are enough to make our head spin. That is why we, as a SEO company in Hong Kong, are here to remind you of the most significant upcoming SEO changes in the next few years. Along with a few frequently asked questions, we are going to call your attention to three changes that may just affect your SEO strategy.
SEO Change #1 User Intent: Create content by thinking about what users need
According to GE Capital Retail Bank, 81% of retail shoppers conduct online research before buying in 2021. The overwhelming majority of retail consumers start their journey with online research.
Keywords are important when creating content to target your audience. However, instead of stuffing keywords related to your brands and products, it is now time to rethink the SEO content strategy to take users’ search intent into consideration when building the keyword list.
If SEO experts or digital marketers are using SEO tools such as SEMRush, they can adopt more keywords by search intent. For example, for content that drives conversion, keywords of “commercial” and “transactional” intent are more preferred than “informational” and “navigational” keywords.
SEO Change #2 Mobile Optimization and User Experience
Users are more likely now to engage with content on mobile devices than they were in the past. In 2021, Google introduced new tools to support the optimization of mobile as well as page experience, with features including a new Page Experience report in the Search Console. Google’s SEO changes show that the entire mobile experience from discovery to engagement will be just as important as the content experience has become over the past few years.
The mobile-first index is another change coming to Google’s search algorithm. It means that Google will consider a website’s mobile version when it ranks websites in its search results. Any changes will affect Google’s main index, which includes desktop and laptop computers, but not its “mobile-friendly” index, which includes only websites that are optimized for mobile devices.
SEO Change #3 Visual Search & Image Optimization
The rise in visual (including video) search engines like YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram has led to an increase in image optimization efforts by companies looking to improve their SEO ranking in search engines. It’s important that you optimize your images with proper alt tags.
In 2022, image and video optimization will be a major focus for SEOs. The reason is that visual search queries have already surpassed text-based queries on mobile devices. This means that if your website doesn’t have high-quality images optimized for search engines (and people!), your competitors could be stealing away your traffic!
However, if you think stock imagery is enough, then you are wrong: younger internet users prefer unique images over staged ones, and informative visuals such as infographics will also be here to stay. For YouTube videos, don’t forget to optimize your title, tags and descriptions with SEO keywords.
SEO Change #4 Voice Search & Voice Optimization
Voice search is another trend we expect will continue to grow over the next five years. Voice search allows people to interact with their devices by speaking out loud instead of typing or tapping on their touch screens. This means that in order for your site to rank well in Google’s voice search results, it needs to be optimized for voice queries as well as for traditional text-based searches.
More importantly, it means that you need a strategy for talking with your customers. According to Hubspot, 44% of internet users in the US use a voice assistant. SEO strategies around voice search will be important if your customers are asking questions about your products and services through Google Assistant or Alexa.Good SEO will still be important in 2022, but the landscape will undoubtedly be much different. We hope that this piece on SEO changes in 2022 has helped you think about what optimizations you can make now to benefit you and your website down the line. As SEO company in Hong Kong, our versatile team of SEO experts, UX designers and SEO-friendly content is waiting to take on this challenge with you and provide you with strong SEO services in Hong Kong. To learn more about our SEO services in Hong Kong, reach out to us today!
Q&A
Q1: What are the next big things in SEO in 2022?
As people continue to search just about anything online, the intent of their searches should be factored into every SEO change in 2022.
Q2: Why is voice search the future of SEO?
Consumers are increasingly searching for products using voice on platforms such as Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, so keywords you use, how optimized your website is, and factors relating to rankings will all change.
