If there is one characteristic that distinguishes SEO professionals, they can stay calm under pressure. Google updates its algorithm regularly, rendering months of effort ineffective once the new ranking variables take effect, as has happened recently.
Not surprisingly, industry insiders are obsessed with keeping up with the latest SEO trends, and every major upgrade – for example, the BERT update, the Maverick update, etc. – introduced new techniques that fundamentally changed SEO.
Read on and learn more about the latest SEO trends for 2021 and the years to come. But what’s the question everyone is asking?
Is search engine optimization still be relevant in 2022? Absolutely! It has become more complex. Its focus has shifted (from keyword stuffing to user intent), and it has become more difficult to rank in the Google search engine results pages. However, it is unquestionably here to stay.
Take a look at the 5 most critical SEO trends that you’ll need to be aware of to get a leg up on your competition for next year
Artificial intelligence as a key role
The relevance of artificial intelligence (AI) in SEO will grow as AI changes how people interact with online content. Notable is Google’s AI program RankBrain, which will likely become one of Google’s SERPs’ most important ranking determinants in 2022. Many businesses have questioned since Google disclosed RankBrain how it would influence SEO. How can you optimize content for an AI algorithm?
Although Google has not revealed how RankBrain learns and evaluates content, experts feel user experience is a key ranking component. This means that RankBrain will prioritize content based on click-through rate and time spent on a page.
Say Goodbye to BERT & Say Hello to MUM
BERT was a novel way for Google to service voice assistant users. People were uttering search queries, not typing them. People now speak in a more conversational and fluid style; thus Google had to update its algorithm using NLP and AI.
But BERT was just the start. Google revealed a new paradigm for interpreting and serving its users, dubbed Multitask United Model (MUM), during the Google I/O 2021 conference.
Simply said, MUM is an AI model that understands the user’s feelings, context, abstractions, and intent to give personalized solutions. With MUM, users won’t have to repeat queries until they locate the perfect keyword.
Optimize Your Videos
We are all aware of the value of video marketing for generating traffic and leads, as a recent SEO trend.
To get a piece of the “Suggested Clips” tab from your videos, John Mueller, Google Search Advocate, revealed two new video structured data types during Google I/O:‘Clip Markup and Seek Markup’
Google started providing video extracts with timestamps and titles in its search engine in 2019 — but they created important moments from YouTube videos.
Shift to Long-Form Content
To attract and engage website visitors, you will need to adopt a long-form content strategy. Short-form material gets less traffic and shares than long-form content of 3,000 words or more. Focusing on quality long-form material can dramatically enhance search rankings.
To keep readers engaged, divide your content into sections using H2 and H3 subheadings to make it more scannable. The idea is to make your information easy to peruse, especially on mobile devices, where large blocks of text might intimidate users and overwhelm a small screen.
Mobile-Friendliness
Since Google introduced mobile-friendliness as a ranking criterion in 2015, it has been a cornerstone of SEO. In 2019, Google introduced mobile-first indexing, making it more important than ever to optimize content for mobile devices, which means that when ranking content, the search engine will look at the mobile version of the site, not the desktop version. Many people were not surprised by this change, as it is expected that by 2025, about 75% of Internet users will only use mobile devices.
Fortunately, Google’s free mobile test makes it easier to assess your site’s performance. Use Google’s Mobile Usability Report to see if your mobile site is experiencing difficulties and what you can do to fix them.
Conclusion
If you’ve made it this far, you know that these 5 SEO trends represent a chance to differentiate your site from your competitors and make the most of the competitive SEO environment.