SEO is a skill that is constantly changing, as search engine algorithms are often modified to further refine the results offered to users on search results pages.
As the web becomes more and more crowded, it's important to ensure that users are seeing the best and most relevant results in search results. One way to do this is to prioritize sites that are consistently useful and relevant, and that will be the focus of upcoming search engine algorithm updates.
Let's take a look at SEO in 2022.
user experience
It's clear that Google's focus is on user experience. And providing users with websites that offer exceptional user experiences.
First page search engine rankings can be very competitive, so why serve inferior websites to users? Google wants to direct its users to websites that can provide the information or service requested by the user in the shortest possible time. At the same time, it is a consistently reliable and trustworthy source of information.
How does Google do that? They use a set of core values to determine the quality of a website:
Expertise - Authority - Trustworthiness or "E-A-T"
If you, as a website owner, can demonstrate these factors in your website and written content, you have a good chance of ranking high in organic search. website performance. Page loading speed has been a measured metric for ranking for some time. However, 2021 will see the introduction of Google's Core Web Vitals as an additional measure of website performance.
These metrics are designed to ensure that web pages load fully and properly in a reasonable amount of time. Again, it's something you'd expect for an excellent user experience. The added metrics to add to Google's ranking algorithms are:
Cumulative Layout Shift - Measures the shifting of elements on a page during loading.
Largest Contentful Paint - The total time to load the largest block of text or image in the visible area of the web page.
First Input Delay – The time it takes for a website to fully load for a user to interact i.e. click a button.
The user of a CMS like WordPress has a clear advantage when adapting a website for Core Web Vitals. As many theme and plugin providers offer optimization of both on-page code and caching to enable performance boost.
A popular example is the premium plugin WP Rocket, a plugin designed with performance in mind including page load speed.
More SEO factors for 2022
While the above factors should be the focus of your SEO in 2022, there are many current optimization techniques that should not be ignored.
While Google prioritizes user experience and regular updates of high-quality, useful content, the following factors are still hugely important.
Backlinks – Backlinks used to be considered the biggest factor in ranking a website. Backlinks are links from other websites and show authority as a form of endorsement. As a website owner, if you have links from high-ranking websites relevant to your industry, you are demonstrating your authority. Compared to a competitor with no backlinks or links from inferior or spammy websites, your website has a clear advantage.
Page title tags - These are the titles of your website pages as they appear in search results. They are still vital in showing Google what your site is about. Yes, the content is also very important, but getting the title tag right, including your relevant keywords or phrases, is essential.
Image Alt Tags – Image alt tags are descriptions to replace an image. You should accurately describe an image to someone using a screen reader. But these tags are also used to find out what an image shows, how relevant it is to your website, and to rank the images independently in Google images.
Using an SEO agency
While some SEO techniques can be performed with little technical knowledge, it is common for businesses to enlist the help of a reputable SEO agency to ensure a website is properly optimized and constantly updated to reflect current ranking factors and to keep the website content up to date.
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