Every year, we see SEO trends and how it affects and changes the SEO landscape. 2022 is no different. In the midst of the pandemic that has been ongoing for almost 2 years, there are SEO trends that you need to pay attention to so that your rankings and traffic continue to improve. 

Top 3 SEO Trends for 2022

Core Web Vitals

The most important trend that was observed in 2021 was the update related to page experience. Page experience is now quantified and it is called Core Web Vitals. The Core Web Vitals are divided into three main metrics – loading time, interactivity and visual stability.

The technical term used for loading time is Largest Contentful Paint or LCP. It is defined as the amount of time it takes for the largest content asset to load on the page. This means if the largest content asset on your page is a high-resolution image, then the time it takes for the image to load would be used to measure LCP.

For interactivity, the technical term is First Input Delay or FID. It is defined as the time it takes for your site to respond to a user’s input on the page. This includes clicking another link on the page or clicking on a fillable box to input the required data. What FID shows is how fast your site responds to this initial input from the client.

The Cumulative Shift or CS pertains to the visual stability of the page. It is defined as the number of unexpected layout shifts as the user is browsing the page. This can be described by answering the question, did the page behave the way it is supposed to behave when it was being viewed by the user. In unstable websites, you can observe their pages shifting as you go through them.

In summary, the Core Web Vitals assesses the overall User Experience for users who view your page.

Featured Snippets

Featured Snippets have been in Google search results since 2013. They were previously called Quick Answers. As the years went by, the look and content of Quick Answers improved. In 2016, Quick Answers officially became Featured Snippets. In 2017, further improvements were made as Google requested feedback for their Featured Snippets results. 2018 was the year when Featured Snippets was formally reintroduced to Google Search users in its current form.

Featured Snippets appear at the top of the search page. According to a report, 5.6% of search results have a Featured Snippet. This means Featured Snippets are taking a lot of clicks away from the number 1 search result. The Featured Snippet is selected from the top results depending on which one seems to directly answer the query of the user.

Google Passage Ranking

Google passage ranking started in 2020. How this works is that Google ranks sections of a web page separately. What Google used to do was to assess the relevance of an entire page. This time they also assess the relevance of the different sections of that same web page. Google clarified though that they will continue to evaluate entire pages, and this will just be an additional ranking metric.

SEO Tips for 2022

What do you need to do to ensure that you’re optimising your page based on 2022’s Top 3 SEO Trends? Make sure that you have very good Core Web Vitals and users would have a good experience when they check your web page. If the page has a fast-loading time, responds quickly to the user’s input and is visually stable, you’re all set.

For the Featured Snippets, look for opportunities by checking the keywords you already rank for. As mentioned above, Featured Snippets are chosen from the top results so keywords where you already rank are your low hanging fruits. After that, create a 40 to 60 word block of content that you specifically designed to become a Featured Snippet. In one study, it was noted that most Featured Snippets and most of them have 40-60 words.

For Google passage ranking, you must fix your content and ensure that they are organised into sections. However, see to it that these sections are good independently because Google may look at the sections as mini web pages. At the same time, the sections should go well together to form a cohesive web page. Each section should have a subtopic and be marked by an H3 subheading so Google can assess the content under every H3 subheading as a mini web page.

Do you want to continue ranking high on search engine results pages? Make sure these top 3 trends are part of your SEO strategy in 2022! Let us help you make this happen! Call us now on +353 (0) 89 466 2000 or +353 (0) 1 960 9023 or click here to send us a message.