Far ahead of social networks and paid ads (Google Ads for example), organic search alone generates more than 53% of all websites' traffic!
In other words, it's your SEO that will bring the most visitors to your website. But beware, only 0.78% of users visit Google's second page.
To benefit from this windfall and reach the top of search results, there is no miracle recipe: you have to work on your SEO!
That said, search engine algorithms are constantly evolving and what was valid in 2021 won't necessarily be in 2022. For this reason, here are the 11 SEO trends to follow in 2022!
1. The new Google algorithm: MUM
MUM (Multitask Unified Model) is a small revolution in the field of search!
Google's multimodal algorithm will be able to provide users with a brand-new experience.
Thanks to the "Personal results" feature, users will be able to perform visual searches and ask questions about the displayed image.
Practically, from a personal photo or via Google Lens, you will be able to send a specific query to the search engine.
For example, if you have a broken object, just take a photo of it and ask Google, "How do I fix it?" to be immediately redirected to relevant articles and tutorials.
MUM can analyze images, text, audio, and videos, in 75 languages, to answer very precisely the most complex queries.
With an artificial intelligence model like MUM, the days when a user had to perform many searches to find a relevant answer are over.
A single conversational query will be enough!
What SEO actions should be implemented? It's still difficult to say how the algorithm ranks web pages in the SERP.
However, we know that Google promotes sites that demonstrate authority.
For this, your SEO strategy must focus on high-quality, relevant content and on optimizing images, videos, and enhanced voice search.
2. LaMDA: Google's new language model
After the Transformer we knew with the BERT algorithm, Google has gone even further and created an AI capable of conversing on any topic.
LaMDA is a remarkable tool that can improvise responses without a predefined script.
Unlike Alexa or Siri, the AI was trained to make conversation fluid and natural while distinguishing subtle language nuances.
Ultimately, LaMDA will be integrated into Google Assistant, Search, and Workspace, but the goal is also to be able to program ultra-realistic chatbots capable of passing for a real person.
To prepare for this SEO development in 2022, there's only one solution: focus on voice search! How?
- Provide precise and concise answers to users in all your content (notably with a FAQ).
- Use conversational language, as if you were speaking directly to your reader.
- Optimize the mobile version of your site.
3. The launch of Shopping Graph
Google is finally taking e-commerce sites into account with a small new feature that should delight online merchants, but will also create additional SEO work for them!
Shopping Graph will, in a way, become users' personal shopping assistant.
The tool will sort in real time all data related to a query: price, availability, delivery times…
The aim is to provide a list of products and customer reviews that will allow prospective buyers to compare the best offers.
At the same time, Google has partnered with Shopify, which has opened Google's doors to more than 1.7 million online merchants.
Add to that a minor update to Google Shopping since late September that now includes a map from Google Maps to show nearby stores and videos related to the query.
In practical terms, you will need to optimize your product pages (title, description, image, keywords…) by adding as many details as possible if you want to appear ahead of your competitors in the Google Shopping feed!
4. Spam Update
Google is stepping up its fight against spam, and if you use link affiliation or sponsored links, a brief update is in order.
Google reiterates that paid links are not an offense and that commercial practices are part of web marketing strategies.
Provided they are not used to manipulate search results.
For this reason, Google asks webmasters to declare these links by adding the attributes "rel=sponsored or rel=nofollow" to the <a> tag to avoid being heavily penalized.
5. The rise of competition to Google
There is a lot of talk about Google, and even though the search engine remains the market leader, more ethical search engines are starting to gain market share.
Brave, for example, now has several million users, and it would be a mistake to ignore it when planning a complete SEO strategy.
In addition to emphasizing user privacy, Brave focuses on user experience rather than advertising.
Besides, users can choose between search with or without ads. Hence the importance of working on your SEO if you want to be visible on that search engine!
6. Page Experience arrives on desktop
The Page Experience update, already present on mobile, will be applied to desktop computers starting February 2022.
We talked last year about the arrival of Core Web Vitals in the 2021 SEO trends.
If originally the three Core Web Vitals criteria were intended only for mobile, you will now need to take them into account on desktop as well!
As a reminder, these three SEO metrics are used to measure the friendliness of a web page, that is, its ergonomics and UX.
The signals in question are:
- Page load speed with LCP (Largest Contentful Paint).
- Page interactivity with FID [First Input Delay].
- Visual stability with CLS [Cumulative Layout Shift].
To summarize, among the major SEO trends for 2022, you should implement every possible action to improve your website’s performance on both mobile and desktop.
Mobile-First Indexing
Although in 2022 it will be important to improve the UX of your web pages on desktop, Google still prioritizes mobile search and the mobile version of your sites will be indexed first.
If your site isn’t responsive yet, you’ll soon need to fix the problem if you hope to climb the SERP rankings!
Start by switching your site to responsive design so it’s “mobile-friendly” and avoid penalties in terms of ranking.
Responsive design is the most effective method today, because it avoids creating two versions of your site and therefore having two identical URLs and what that implies: more duplicate content, an optimized loading time and you make the crawlers’ job easier).
Passage-Based Ranking
Many sites engage in a fierce battle to reach the top position in search results, not to mention the famous Position Zero!
Implemented since February 2021, Passage Ranking has somewhat changed the game…
Indeed, instead of showing a direct answer to a query in position 0 (featured snippet), passage ranking will display an excerpt of content.
Concretely, the algorithm can identify, within a long, general piece of content, a specific passage that matches the user’s search.
The advantage for long-form content is that it can now rank for long-tail queries, which was impossible before.
If Google rolled out this algorithm, it’s because it struggled to grasp the meaning of texts that were too long, poorly structured, and poorly optimized for SEO.
So, even if the tool is effective, try to make its job easier by structuring your content:
- Write short paragraphs.
- Polish your headlines and your Hn tags so that they are as clear as possible.
9. Google wants E.A.T.
We also addressed it last year, but theE.A.T. (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) remains an SEO trend to pursue in 2022.
If you want to shine in Google's eyes, you'll have to work on three areas:
- Expertise: If you want to be credible with your audience, your posts must reflect your skills and knowledge on the subject. In other words, you are expected to be an expert in your field.
- Authority: you will need to demonstrate that your website is authoritative in your industry, notably with quality backlinks related to your topic.
- Trust: it involves several criteria such as site security (HTTPS), but also customer reviews, the presence of legal noticeterms and conditions of sale or use…
10. The growth of video search
The latest SEO trend for 2022 concerns the many improvements in video search results.
Google will be able to understand the video's topic and will offer related links to deepen your information on the subject.
Visual content was already hugely popular with internet users; it will now allow you to further increase traffic to your site.
If you're still skeptical, know that in 2022, video streaming and downloads will account for 82% of global internet traffic.
A good reason to invest in creating video content!
11. Quality content: timeless
This isn't an SEO trend — it's THE foundation of organic SEO!
But it's always worth repeating: to move up the rankings and increase your conversion rate, there's no secret—content is king!
So, in 2022, work on your keywords and semantic field, write articles based on your audience's search intents, optimize your titles and meta descriptions, be relevant and engage your readers!
Our advice
With all these 2022 SEO trends, you should see your site climb the search results.
But if there's one thing to remember, it's that user experience and customer satisfaction must be at the heart of your SEO strategy.
As for writing your web content, the best solution is to delegate their writing to professional web copywriters !
