Organic search is one of the most important avenues businesses can use to build their brand and fuel growth. And to reach the top of the results page, focusing on SEO best practices is necessary.

SEO—search engine optimization—means building content with Google’s algorithm in mind (or Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc.). However, these algorithms aren’t static. They’re in constant flux with frequent tweaks and updates. 

So, brands must stay on their toes and prepare accordingly. To help with that, here are four of the top SEO trends you need to know in 2022. 

Utilize First-Party Data

The days of third-party data are waning. For tech giants like Google and Apple, user privacy has become paramount, which has led them to push for a cookie-less world by leveraging anti-tracking tech and opt-in policies. As a result, brands that were once heavily reliant upon third-party data to learn more about their customer base and then target them must readjust their SEO strategy. 

Steps you can take to prepare for this include: 

  • Use several methods for first-party data collection, such as:
    • Your website and mobile homepage
    • Email lists
    • Social media activity
    • Surveys
    • Search engine analytics
  • Make a specific plan about how you’re collecting data and what data you specifically wish to gather.
  • Optimize your website to measure and improve user engagement, dwell times, bounce rates, return rates, and conversion rates.
  • Include PPC to better understand leads and user base.
  • Build email and SMS lists.  

Adapt to Mobile Friendly 

With each passing year, having a mobile responsive website is becoming more and more imperative. Mobile search adoption and use rates continue to swell. Per Statista, mobile search accounted for more than 60% of all organic search engine visits. As a result, Google will continue to give sites that are mobile-friendly higher SEO scores than those that aren’t. 

Put simply, if your site isn’t fit for mobile users, many of your other SEO efforts will be moot.   

Optimize On-Page Experience

In 2021, Google rolled out one of the largest SEO updates in years by emphasizing on-page experience. This is now a quantifiable metric via Core Web Vitals. And improving your Core Web Vitals is an essential way you can rank higher. According to Google, these metrics include: 

  • Largest contentful paint (LCP) – This measures a site’s loading performance. The faster your LCP the better. The benchmark for an LCP is: 
    • X < 2.5 seconds.
  • First input delay (FID) – This measures the interactivity of a webpage. An ideal FID is: 
    • X < 100 milliseconds
  • Cumulative layout shift (CLS) – This measures the visual stability of a page. To create a good user experience, the optimal CLS will be: 
    • X is < .1 

Consider User Intent 

Google continually takes steps to better identify user search intent, especially as the company rolls out its Multitasks Unified Model (MUM) update. In response, marketers and brands need to stop focusing on producing SEO-focused content and instead prioritize building content that’s geared for users with their search intent and keywords in mind. 

Here, building quality content around the framework of long-tail keywords should be your primary goal, seeing as more than 70% of all organic search queries were made with long-tail keywords. 

Semgeeks—Your SEO NJ Experts 

A new year brings new opportunities to reach customers and grow your brand. And SEO is one of the primary vehicles you can leverage to drive results. 

Need help with that? 

As a digital marketing agency, the team at Semgeeks can help you build out a comprehensive digital marketing strategy that leverages these and other SEO trends.

So, if you’re ready to drive more traffic to your site and improve conversions, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s talk. 

Sources: 

Bloomberg.Apple and Google Are Killing the (Ad) Cookie. Here’s Why. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-26/how-apple-google-are-killing-the-advertising-cookie-quicktake

Statista. Mobile share of organic search engine visits in the United States from 3rd quarter 2013 to 2nd quarter 2021. https://www.statista.com/statistics/297137/mobile-share-of-us-organic-search-engine-visits/

Google Developers. Page Experience. https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/experience/page-experienceSearch Engine Land. Back to basics: What does the ‘long-tail’ keyword mean? https://searchengineland.com/back-to-basics-what-does-long-tail-keyword-really-mean-311910

Ashley Rodriguez
Lead SEO Strategist

Ashley Rodriguez is a SEO Strategist with a degree in Marketing from Sam Houston State University. With a passion for top of funnel awareness, she is able to provide insight and direction regarding strategic planning and initiatives, while driving improved results and organic visibility for all web properties. In her free time, you can find her at the beach or watching sports.