8 minute read
Good Business
from SBT issue 458
Top SEO Trends for 2022
Stu Davies, Head of Agency at Creative Bloom, search marketing specialists based in Brighton, shares inside tips to help you shift the dial on your search marketing.
Like it or not, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation aka getting found on Google better) is an essential part of any website that deserves attention. But, as with everything else in the world, it’s everchanging. Google is continuously moving the goal posts and many marketers do not know where to start with it. Fear not, we live and breathe this stuff so are happy to bring you our inside view on top trends for 2022 to help you get ahead of the curve.
What is SEO?
Put simply, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. In other words, it’s the practice of optimising your website so that its visibility on search engines is boosted. And, with more visibility, you can expect more visitors and more success. Sounds good, right? Doing your research and placing highly
Good relevant, good quality keywords within your Business content is an important signal for Google and, in turn, SEO - so good job if you’ve done that or are doing that already - but it’s just the start - and there’s plenty of even more sophisticated SEO trends around the corner that will all have an impact on the ranking factor of your website.
Top SEO trends for 2022
1. Artificial intelligence (AI) in SEO
Yep, we’re going in with the meaty stuff straight away. You may have heard about an intelligent algorithm on the web that shows us the things we like at the top of our feed. This is all down to AI, and we think it will become even more crucial if you want your website to appear in 2022.
Google’s AI algorithm, part of which is called RankBrain, ranks and analyses content across the web - as the AI evolves and the value placed on content and web elements changes year by year. It’s the responsibility of SEOs to diagnose what the AI now values and to help businesses decide what strategies need to be implemented in order to continue to rank well. Of course, while we don’t know for sure what Google is looking for when it analyses content, the general consensus is that there needs to be a healthy balance between great content, technical website best practice and great user experience. The answer? Create a well-organised website structure with content that’s engaging, educating and useful so that users remain on your website and go from page to page. You cannot game an algorithm, but if you get your basics right you will always be ahead of the curve.
Creative Bloom’s practical SEO tip: Read your home page content out loud, and
that of your competitors - ask yourself - do you deserve to rank on Google?
2. Create long-form content for
Voice Search and Search Engine
Page Features.
If you’ve done any research into SEO, you’ll see that content is king, but not just any old content. Long-form content, which is over 3,000 words, is proven to get more engagement compared to your typical shorter pieces. And you guessed it, this improves your rankings in search results.
It’s not just a case of writing 3,000 words though. Oh, we wish it was that easy. Long-form content needs to be quality content with headings, subheadings, bullet points, links and often, pictures to help break up the text. This careful structuring helps make your article easy to scan and therefore improves the web page user experience. If your content is easy to share on social media, you get extra traction too.
Writing conversationally will increase your chances of getting ‘voice search’ results and ‘people also ask’ results which will propel you into those top spots. Our view is the use of long-form searches via voice assistant will increase in 2022.
Creative Bloom’s practical SEO tip: Ask a question in Google and click on the answers that come up in the ‘people also ask panel’. Look at how that content is being structured and why Google may be choosing to show that particular article over others - they are in that top spot for a reason. Mining these questions will also give you great content ideas.
3. Mobile optimisation, UX and website speed for SEO
Way back in 2015, Google’s mobile update penalised sites that had poor mobile UX. Since 2017, Google has also launched successive Core updates that penalise slow, poor UX and poorly performing mobile sites. Each year mobile searches increase as a percentage of total searches. So the mobile-friendliness of your website plays a HUGE part in how high your website ranks on Google search engines. It is estimated that by 2025, 73 per cent of internet users will access websites using mobile devices only. So, if you do one thing in the next few months, make sure your website is optimised and working for mobiles.
It’s not a case of making changes and crossing your fingers though. Google has their very own website test that checks out how mobile-friendly your site is. Best of all, it’s completely free! Their Mobile Usability Report also identifies any issues with your site and gives you reports on what to address. Creative Bloom’s practical SEO tip: Get on top of this. If you have a budget to spare ensure your mobile site is quick and efficient. Use Google’s test and work with developers to get the most out of your mobile site. It will become more important to have a slick, quick mobile site.
4. Video SEO
Thanks to TikTok and Instagram, online video has exploded in recent years. So it probably won’t surprise you that video is essential if you want your SEO strategy to be successful in 2022.
Of course, it goes without saying that the more engaging your video and the more people that share it, the better your rankings. But there’s also a few things you can be doing behind-the-scenes.
Pack the video description and video name with user-friendly text as well as those all-important keywords, and create extracts for the video so you can rank for the content traditionally. Hosting your videos on YouTube means they will also be present in more of Google’s search landscape.
Creative Bloom’s practical SEO tip: Using video software or even Social Media interfaces will provide transcript extracts or subtitles for your video for you to quickly bang it into shape to
Stu Davies
create accompanying content for the video embedded on your website page. Don’t forget to do the SEO on page basics too.
5. Semantically related keywords
Remember when we said that keywords were just the start?! Well, in SEO, you have primary keywords and secondary keywords. In 2022, you need to be focusing on both.
Google will no longer be looking at a string of words but also analysing the reason that someone is searching for that certain keyword. For example, if someone is searching for doughnuts, semantically related keywords could be: ‘fluffy doughnut recipe’, ‘how to make doughnuts without yeast’ and ‘types of doughnuts’.
Put simply, if you try to provide as much information as possible, using primary and secondary keywords, your content will be ticking a few boxes.
Creative Bloom’s practical SEO tip: Start designing topic clusters, based on what you want to talk about and what users search for - consider a search-based user journey too - you want to be present for many search terms along that journey. Use primary and semantically linked keywords in that content and Google will rank you higher in relevancy for that topic. SEO is super important if you want your content and website to land in front of the right people. We have a deep understanding of what you need in order to get digitally recognised. If you need some help please do get in touch with us.
Follow our Digital Marketing Podcast: The Creative Bloom Boom for further insights into the bewildering world of search and digital marketing presented by Stu and Ollie from Team Bloom.
* Stu Davies is also the local Brighton rep for Surfers against Sewage, local surfer and environmental campaigner.
With 15 years working for large corporations, learning his craft as a digital specialist, analyst and strategist, Stu now brings that know-how to our clients, to the SMEs and organisations with the potential to really change our world for the better.
Stu helps leaders, managers and marketers to understand how their marketing works, where they need to change, and what it will take to really make a difference, for the benefit of themselves, their people, their clients - and all of us.
He shares everything he knows and believes with his clients, equipping them to make their own smart, strategic, datadriven choices. Because the world of business needs good people with good ideas - and Stu has chosen to ensure those people succeed.
Creative Bloom exists to help good people to run good businesses that thrive and make a positive contribution to the world. It only works with green businesses, charities, and local businesses - and has been helping the ‘good guys get found’ since 2014.
It prides itself on its ethical position as an agency. It has a people and planetfirst attitude, and manoeuvres the great and the good into the spotlight to increase ethical consumer choice.
Truly ethical businesses are driven by passion and love - but they need digital marketing strategy and insight in order to perform. That’s why Creative Bloom is here.
At Bloom, we work with the people who believe in better business. We bring digital marketing strategy, data and commerciality to the mix, giving valuesdriven leaders and their businesses the tools they need to grow, and to bring their positive contribution to the world.
