Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most important factors to consider to ensure your content ranks well on the search engines like Google. However, keeping up with the SEO trends is not always easy as there are frequent changes in algorithms and changes in the best practices of SEO.

Read on to learn more and stay up-to-date with the SEO trends in 2022. Here are the top five SEO trends in 2022 that you should know about:

Voice Search

According to statistics, about 44% of the internet users in the U.S. use a voice assistant to do searches via platforms like Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, or Microsoft Cortana. 

This suggests that voice search is integral to our regular lives. Nevertheless, optimizing the content to ensure people get the relevant information for their search queries is essential.

Developers and businesses must focus on optimizing their websites and applications for mobile. As most of the voice searches are taking place on mobile and smart devices, it is important for the websites to be mobile-friendly and have a fast speed to satisfy the users. 

Another important strategy is to write SEO-friendly content by including the frequently asked questions and using long-tail keywords suitably in the headings.

Page Headers

Since 2021, Google has allowed websites to rank specific sections of a page through the 'Passages' feature. These sections are semi-independent from the page. In other words, Google now scores for the relevance of specific sections instead of considering the relevancy of an entire post. Therefore, you must use suitable H2 and H3 headings in your blog posts.

Most marketers already pay attention to organizing a post and marketing campaigns. Therefore, they will not be affected by this change. However, it is still a good idea to go through the page headers to offer better context for various sections and allow Google to analyze and understand the content with a well-organized structure.

Engaging Headlines

Most of us click on headings that are engaging and compelling. A lot of research and time have gone into identifying perfect headlines and ensuring only relevant and engaging headings are being shown to the users. Statistics suggest that headings with positive sentiments have about 7.5% higher CTR than those with negative sentiments.

Add Video

The popularity of YouTube videos in Featured Snippets is increasing because a lot of users search for 'how-to' tutorials, and videos are the best way to answer such queries. For instance, if you search 'how to fix a broken laptop,' you will get the following result:

Over the next year, it is highly expected that Google will start adding more videos to search results. Therefore, you should optimize your videos for search by following these tips:

• Add chapters to the YouTube videos, wherein you break them down into sections. Google can easily identify them and show relevant snippets.
• Add closed captions (CC) to enable YouTube and Google to understand the entire video.
• Optimize the title, tags, and meta description of the videos, just like the web pages and blog posts.

These are some of the most important tips you should implement to optimize the videos and rank them higher on SERPs. Ultimately, SEO-optimized content that includes images and videos will outperform content that lacks relevant and engaging media.

Answer Common Questions

Google has a ‘People Also Ask’ question in which various commonly asked questions are available related to a keyword. Whenever you are writing an article or a blog post, you must answer these questions in your content to improve the content relevancy.

It will also help you in increasing your chances of achieving a better ranking on SERP. If you have not added these questions to existing content, you should modify it to enhance your chances of getting a prominent position on SERPs.

The majority of the search queries start with question words and phrases like who, what, when, where, why, and how. Therefore, incorporating relevant questions and answers to your content is a reliable way of reaching the target audience. You can use a keyword research tool like Ahrefs to find the long-tail question keywords and include them accordingly.

Generally, creating a FAQ section at the end of the web page is a good way of answering common questions and summarizing a blog post for the readers. It improves the writing style and also helps you get SEO benefits.

Marketing Help in Raleigh

The SEO world is constantly changing due to algorithm updates and evolving policies of popular search engines like Google. If you thoroughly follow the 5 SEO trends discussed in this article, you will be in a very good position to get the maximum benefits of SEO, rank better on the search engines, and enjoy more organic traffic.

If you need SEO or marketing help, contact the experts at AlphaGraphics of Downtown Raleigh. To learn more about how AlphaGraphics of Downtown Raleigh can help with your printing needs, you may request a quote, email us, or call us at (919) 832-2828.