Page Experience, Core Web Vitals, and link spam, oh my!
Those looking for a bit of respite from the chaos of 2020 found more of the same in 2021 as the ongoing pandemic and a series of substantial Google updates and announcements kept the SEO industry on our collective toes.
Now that we’ve turned the page and 2022 is well underway, where should you focus your SEO resources, talent, and time?
What SEO trends do you need to keep on your radar to future-proof your strategy?
Miranda Miller, our Managing Editor, joined our founder and host of The Search Engine Journal Show, Loren Baker, to chat about the SEO trends our expert contributors are calling out as most impactful for the year ahead.
In the SEO Trends 2022 ebook, you’ll discover what 44 industry experts are thinking and planning around content quality, searcher intent, evolving SERP features, smart automation, and more.
Catch Baker and Miller’s commentary on their favorite SEO trends, news about specific Google features and updates, and more in this episode of The Search Engine Journal show.
Read on to learn the top 10 trends you need to know for 2022 planning from our panel of experts in search marketing and get the full ebook (free to download) for more from each expert.
1. User Intent
One of the most talked-about topics for 2022? User intent. It’s a trend that’s here to stay.
Kristina Azarenko, SEO Consultant & Founder of MarketingSyrup Digital Inc., believes it’s time for people to finally “stop thinking in terms of ‘SEO content’ and create content for users with the intent and keywords in mind.”
Himani Kankaria, Founder at Missive Digital, said, “Considering the updates like Google rewriting meta title tags and coming up with indented results on SERPs in 2021, it seems Google is working hard to identify the right intent behind a user’s search, irrespective of the type of queries.”
That’s where SEO professionals need to focus on bringing a holistic approach to your content strategy in 2022, she said.
“Be it video, blog, or web content, it must be planned for the keywords, users’ intent behind searching and consuming them, your intent behind creating them, and the stage at which your consumers are in the buyer’s journey,” Kankaria added.
Suganthan Mohanadasan, Co-founder & Technical SEO Lead at Snippet Digital, agrees.
“Search intent will become ever more important in 2022,” he said. “Understanding search intent continues to become more important than ever, particularly with the introduction of Google’s Multitask Unified Model (MUM) update.
“I think we will see more search marketers rethink their approach to content creation by focussing on understanding search intent more intelligently,” Mohanadasan added, noting that keyword research will always remain an important bedrock to organic search strategy.
Even so, we need to be able to look beyond keywords in their raw form and draw meaningful insight from them.
“Understanding the relationship between your keywords and knowing how to target them to meet
