Recent Trends In SEO Introduced By Google To Optimise Your Website
Simply put, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) enhances your visibility online. In other words, the more your website is visible to people, the more online traffic it will generate, therefore improving the chances of people availing your product/service.
SEO is ever dynamic and constantly evolving to cater efficiently to consumers across the globe. We are living in an era where technology has erased all barriers to communication and networking.
Why is SEO important?
Given that Google has just 10 spots on its search page, chances are the customer might entirely miss your website if it does not rank among the first ten. With our time growing ever limited, very rarely does a customer venture off to the second, or even tenth page of the search results.
Who does not their brand to show up on the first page alongside its competitors?
SEO not only helps with visibility, but it also helps build the customer’s trust organically. When customers have a positive user experience on your website, more web clicks are generated which amplifies traffic in return, thereby enhancing your SEO. As this takes place organically over a certain period, your position rises on a search engine result page (SERP), bringing you closer to the top ten.
Change is the only constant. With a new year rolling out, you need to be up-to-date with some SEO trends to optimize your ranking on the Google search page.
Page Experience as a Bigger Ranking Factor
As the name suggests, Page Experience refers to the experience a user has on a website. Think of it as an experience of walking into a store. A well-lighted, properly organized store would ensure a smoother experience. Similarly, factors that govern page experience are loading speed, interactivity, HTTPS security, etc.
Back in 2021, Google had made the gradual reveal of the Page Experience Algorithm. This algorithm would cover several user-experience check-points and evaluate a user’s overall experience with the page.
Earlier which applied to just mobiles is now deemed to be applied to desktop search results as well.
This calls for re-evaluating your page performance by passing it through checkpoints like Google Search Console, Page Speed Insights, Chrome User Experience Report, etc.
The key is to enhance User Experience as far as possible. You might consider redesigning your website and ensuring that it is secure with HTTPS.
Prioritizing mobile user experience
After years of wait, Google finally released its Mobile-First Indexing (MFI) in March 2021, which means that Google will focus primarily on indexing and ranking pages that are mobile-friendly.
By now, most websites have turned to MFI, combined with the Page Experience Algorithm. To not lag in the search rankings in 2022, it is recommended to switch to responsive web design (RWD) and improve the page load speed to minimize glitches and allow browser caching and cookies.
Featured Snippets will Gain More Ground
Everyone enjoys a bit of shortcut now and then. The good news is, one does not need to produce long-term content anymore to jump up the Google page ranking ladder. Producing content in which will feature in a snippet is an easy way to show up on the first search page.
Snippets typically appear in the form of a small box at the top of SERPs, above the actual search results, and contain a chunk of information in the form of a Q&A, bullet points, and relevant keywords.
With time being limited, and user searches getting more specific and intentional, snippets lead the way to the future.
For your content to show up on snippets, focus on long-tail keywords and find out exactly how your audience is likely to frame their search queries.
Aim at making content that is relevant to your content and not bot-based.
Content needs to Fulfil Google’s EAT principle
There are tons of reasons why Google tops the list of most opted-for search engines, EAT principle being one of them. Google has forever stressed on quality content. And by quality, Google means your content has to pass through its EAT check: Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
These factors help determine if your page has relevant content. To pass Google’s quality check, you need to create buyer personas to figure out the kind of content your customers are seeking. Next, it’s important to enquire into search intent which maps out a customer’s journey. This can help reveal the kind of formats your users prefer. For instance, teens might prefer a video format while for an older audience, a video might seem less appealing.
One needs to stick to EAT principle from start to end while crafting content and back up the content with relevant facts and statistics from reputable sites like “.edu”, “.gov” URLs.
Be aware of MUM to improve Google Rankings
With the world rolling into 2022, there is no way that technology cannot serve us. You plan a trip to Mt. Everest and take a picture of your snow boots and search “Can I use this to hike at Everest?” and get ready to be bowled over. With the help of MUM and AI, Google can now interpret image and text queries and direct you to a blog on appropriate hiking gears.
Multitask Unified Model (MUM) which was developed in May 2021 has paved the way to answer the most complex questions searched comprehensively. MUM is multimodal, which means it can interpret various data in the form of images, webpages, etc overcoming language and format barriers to provide better search results than ever before.
To suit the need of the times, you need to create high-quality content by incorporating optimized images, videos and structuring your content so that it is comprehensible to search engines better.
You think of sending flowers to someone across the globe, Google will back you with ten relevant sites that will cater to your need. You need medicines at your doorstep in an hour, Google has got you covered with services that will do the same. Any business which strives to serve its customers better will want to show up on the much-coveted first page on Google. To ace the rankings, you need to be au fait with these SEO trends and create your content accordingly in order to help your customers better.
