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9 SEO Predictions for 2022 (and How to Prepare for Them) - read the full article about seo updates april 2022, Search engine optimization and from Matt Diggity on Qualified.One
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- SEO in 2022 is gonna be a lot different than its ever been before.
And in this video, Im gonna be sharing my top nine SEO predictions for 2022.
And most importantly, what you should do to prepare for these changes.
My name is Matt Diggity, and Im the founder of five 7-figure SEO businesses, Diggity Marketing, LeadSpring, Authority Builders, The Search Initiative, and The Affiliate Lab.
At any given time, I have at least 50 websites under management.
Im also consistently running single variable SEO tests to uncover the nuances, patterns and trends of the Google algorithm.
And Im about to share nine SEO predictions that Ive come up with based on my own experience, plus from networking with the best in the industry.
Bear in mind, Im not gonna be giving you generic SEO advice that you typically hear in videos like these.
Stuff like "Google is gonna take more of your organic clicks so they can make more room for paid ads." "Voice search is gonna dominate in 2022." By the way, its not.
That stuff is obvious and you deserve better than that.
Youre gonna be getting some insightful predictions that will actually make a difference in your SEO strategy, in 2022.
But first, lets talk about why its so important to get ahead of these changes.
According to Search Engine Journal, Google releases thousands of algorithm changes per year.
Most of them go completely unnoticed, but nonetheless, you feel them.
And many of them are publicly announced as "Google core algorithm updates." And thats when you see SEOs running around like their hairs on fire.
The point Im trying to make is that ultimately, you can count on SEO changing significantly in 2022.
SEO is about staying ahead of the game.
When youre able to understand the direction Google is going, you can prepare your website beforehand, and you end up with nice, steadily improving traffic graphs like these.
And then at the dinner table, you can tell your wife or husband, "Im a (beep) genius" repeatedly.
But if you ignore the trends, dont be surprised to see a declining traffic graph that descends into the bells of hell itself.
And you end up on the streets, just thinking about the glory days when you actually had a website that was on page one of Google.
The thing is you can pretty much guarantee that your competition is doing everything thats considered current industry standard knowledge.
And the way you get ahead is by future-proofing.
Thats what this video is for, preparing you for 2022 and beyond.
If you like what Im doing here, let me know by giving the like button a future, by pressing it.
Studies show that a like button that gets pressed has a 57% greater chance of getting a college degree, and a 71 higher chance of finding true love in their life.
But in all seriousness, it helps my channel a lot of bunch.
It also helps the YouTube algorithm figure out what you like, so you can get more videos like these.
My first SEO 2022 prediction is that AI content software will get better and better.
And its adoption will grow exponentially.
Since OpenAIs GPT-3 deep learning language model came out, a whole slew of AI content generator software has entered the market.
Some of the most popular ones are Jarvis from Conversion AI, Article Forge and Rytr.
And in 2021, even in the first iterations of this type of software, its already getting deployed by SEOs around the world.
People are using AI content for easy stuff, like product descriptions on eCommerce sites, for guests post content, and often even on their own rankable websites.
Im running a fun experiment myself, building a website from scratch using 100% AI generated content.
And Ive already completed some very interesting single variable tests.
Theres a concept called topical authority.
In a nutshell, the more coverage your website has on a topic, the larger the chance that Google will deem you an authority on the topic, and thus rank you higher.
Well talk more about this later.
So for example, if you wanted to be an authority on apples, be like Healthline and write 81 articles on them.
To learn more about topical authority, check out my interview with Koray Tugberk after you watch this video.
I left a link in the description.
Back to AI content, I ran an experiment creating 12 new articles with Jarvis, for a website on a topic like apples, added them to the site and monitored the rankings and traffic.
This is the result from the SEO testing software.
If the black line is above the blue line, that means that my apple content increased ranking compared to the control group of oranges.
To some, the result, the AI content was good enough.
That said, in my opinion, the technology hasnt matured enough to deploy completely.
The process is clunky and doesnt come out too great without a lot of handholding.
They also dont write SEO optimized content thats driven by a powerful technology like Surfer.
Jarvis is leading the pack on this, and is currently working on developing integration with Surfer.
But in 2022, my prediction is that the tools will continue to mature.
Theyll get more user-friendly, the content will get better, and theyll integrate better with content optimization tools.
And because of this, people will start using AI content more frequently on critical content pieces on their website, such as rankable content that has the goal of conversion.
So what should you do to prepare for this? Start playing around, get a trial license of the content writer of your choice.
Get familiar with these tools because I truly believe theyre gonna become mainstream in the SEO workflow.
My second SEO prediction is that Google will continue to put backlinks up on a pedestal as one of the most important ranking factors, if not the most important.
Its blatantly obvious to anyone whos looked at Google results for high competition queries.
Page one of Google is dominated by sites with huge backlink authority.
This keyword, best coffee machine, doesnt have any coffee websites ranking on page one.
Its all high authority media sites.
Authority trumps relevance in todays algorithm, and I expect this to carry over into 2022.
Last year, going into 2021, I had actually predicted that relevance would get a comeback, but we saw none of that going on and I dont expect that to change.
And the reason relates back to my first prediction.
If AI content improves drastically and runs rampant, then Google will need to scale back the ranking weight on content, and apply it to other places, like links.
So what should you do about this? Continue to put an emphasis on link building.
This table illustrates where Im putting my backlink efforts.
30% of the links I build are in the category of white hat link insertions.
Im manually outreaching to websites I want to link from, and asking to get a link placed into existing articles, preferably with some links going to them.
5% of my links are coming from directory citations, even for my affiliate sites.
And for that Im using SEOButler and Citations Builder.
15% of my links are coming from editorial level sites.
Were talking DR 70 and above.
For this, were using HARO, link exchanges with high authority competitors and digital PR campaigns.
And lastly, the main bulk of my link building at 50%, is coming from guest posting through Authority Builders.
To learn more about link building, Ive left a link to an entire playlist in the description.
Make sure to check it out after you watch this video.
My next SEO 2022 prediction, is that parasite SEO will continue to work.
What is parasite SEO? Its when you put content on another website or platform, leverage their authority and start to rank for keywords.
Check out the search result for best male enhancement pills.
No one ranking has any sort of relevance on the topic of penises.
Theyre all huge authority sites.
And with the exception of Amazon, its all sponsored content.
In other words, parasite SEO.
This has been around for years now, and I believe this will carry on into 2022.
Mainly because Google will continue to value authority.
On this one, lets see though.
Im like 60% confident with this prediction.
- Are you sure about that? - It seems like something Google would really want to fix.
And what can you do about this? Unfortunately, I think for US parasite SEO, you might be a little late to the party, if you havent already started.
Many of the media outlets that will sell placements, wont publish twice on the same topic, and theyve already been rinsed.
So what Im doing is turning my own sites into mega authorities just like these.
If you cant beat them, join them.
My next SEO prediction for 2022 is that Google will continue to experiment and change the search result page more and more.
In 2021, we already saw a lot of this.
For example, the SEO community blew a fuse when Google started rewriting title tags, and for good reason.
In this case that Lily Ray found, Google was displaying a freaking anchor text instead of the title tag.
We also saw stuff like Interesting finds, which shows up on mobile, and displays personalized recommended content, based on what youre searching for.
Well talk about personalized content later.
Then we have the local top sites or things to do feature that gives you suggestions on what you can do in a local area.
And also visual stories, which comes up a lot on mobile searches.
Expect these experiments to continue.
Some will go away and some will stick.
But the writing is on the wall, youll see more different types of content on the single search result page.
Like here where theres video results for a query.
Video seems to be the biggest thing that Google wants to push.
In my humble opinion, what you should do is ride the wave and start producing video content.
In 2021, Ive added significant effort to YouTube for both this channel and the channels for my affiliate sites.
The synergy is great.
You get discovery traffic from YouTube through their amazing discovery algorithm.
Then you can send that traffic back to articles on your website.
You can then take your high traffic pages on Google, embed videos into them from your channel, then grow your channel at the same time.
And let me tell you, YouTube definitely converts.
Make sure to check out my interview with Nick Nimmin, to learn how to elevate your YouTube game.
My next SEO prediction for 2022 is that the amount of personalized content you see in your search results will increase.
When youre logged into Google Chrome, Google can track what youd like to read, watch and consume.
Doesnt it make sense that what I get for certain queries, might look completely different to what you might get from the same query? In my opinion, Google is learning a lot from the success of YouTube, which is an extremely personalized experience.
I mean, if you really want to get to know someone, take a look at their YouTube homepage.
Preparing for this is easy, you should be doing this anyways.
The solution is to focus on my next SEO prediction of 2022, which is that user engagement will increase as a ranking factor.
This goes back to once again, the success of YouTube.
The YouTube algorithm is almost entirely based on engagement.
Namely, how long people watch your videos and how much they interact with them.
My prediction is that the Google Search algorithms will increase the amount that engagement, time on page, and goal completion have in the ranking algorithms.
What do I mean by goal completion? If someone lands on your page, reviewing the best wireless routers, and theyre only on your page for one second, but they click on one of those buy now buttons, thats not a bad thing.
Thats called a happy searcher who got their goals met.
And its not what some people incorrectly call a bounce.
What you do want to watch out for is pogo sticking.
This is when someone lands on your page, doesnt like what they see, then goes back to the search result and clicks on something else in search of their answer.
This is not a good thing, and its the opposite of what you want your users to do.
Its a terrible signal to Google.
Heres how to prevent pogo sticking.
As soon as someone lands on your page, let them know theyre in the right place by showing imagery and a big headline related to their search query.
Next, you want to hook them with a strong introduction paragraph.
Check out my video on intro paragraphs in the description.
After that, use trust signals to show that youre legit, and that youre an expert on the topic.
And lastly, give them their answer theyre looking for, right away, as fast as possible.
The next SEO 2022 prediction is that the concept of topical authority will become standard SEO practice.
We touched upon this a bit earlier.
The more you write on the given topic and "cover it," the more that Google thinks youre an authority on that topic.
But it doesnt stop there.
The articles need to be linked together in an intelligent way.
And each article in itself needs to be optimized with all the entities and phrases that are expected in a top ranking article for its query.
Many SEOs have been operating like this since the Stone Age.
But many SEOs are just learning about it now.
Its my prediction that in 2022, itll become widespread.
One of the most challenging parts of the topical authority strategy is creating a topical map, which is basically a list of keywords that need to be covered in order to completely blanket a niche.
At my companies, LeadSpring and The Search Initiative, we personally have been working on in-house processes to automate the topical map generation process.
And whether it is us or some other tool provider that brings a solution like this to the market, or if and when we share this technique in The Affiliate Lab, the adoption of topical authority will grow.
And as a result, I expect SEOs to put fast publishing at the forefront of their efforts.
The people who can publish quality content the fastest and cover their niche completely, will win.
What can you do to prepare for this? First, watch my video on topical authority.
- See what you did there.
- [Matt] And then for example, if youre in the fishing niche, start experimenting with publishing, with the goal of complete niche coverage on your website.
Publish everything you can about fishing, not just the topics thatll make you money, like best fishing poles.
Even publish content that will have zero search volume.
Weve seen excellent results with this strategy, and so have members of The Affiliate Lab.
Why? Because it works.
My next SEO prediction in 2022 is, and I hate to be a party pooper, but the frequency of Google core algorithm updates will increase.
As mentioned in the intro, Google releases thousands of updates per year.
Most of them are completely unannounced.
Or theyll release them in secret and announce them later.
This is what I think happened with the Google product reviews update.
This was announced on April 8th, 2021, but I truly believe that it was released in some shape or form in the December, 2020 update, which had a profound effect on affiliate sites.
Expect the frequency of these updates to stay the same or to increase.
And expect at least two of them to be about something that doesnt (beep) and affects literally no one you know, but the entire SEO industry will react to them like theyre the biggest deal in the universe, and every SEO conference will have at least one presentation on it.
Im talking about you, Core Web Vitals.
Anyhow, to prepare for algorithm updates, in The Affiliate Lab, we have a motto, "Do all the things." SEO is really a holistic endeavor.
Make sure to get your website up to scratch in every SEO department.
Your technical SEO needs to be on point with no loose ends, with regard to site speed, redirect issues, crawl problems, et cetera.
Your content needs to be on point.
Each page needs to answer its search intent perfectly.
Content should interlink in an optimized fashion.
And your backlinks should be diverse, clean, and authoritative.
"Do all the things." The next SEO 2022 prediction is that SEO will finally completely be utterly dead.
Just kidding, SEO cant die.
Its been dead already for years.
Thanks for watching this video.
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Matt Diggity: 9 SEO Predictions for 2022 (and How to Prepare for Them) - Search engine optimization