SEO is the most diverse, fast paced industry and it so important to keep up to date with the latest trends to ensure your strategies are still effective and relevant. Google constantly changes its algorithm, and each update brings new ways of working, transforming SEO. We will talk about how SEO is changing coming into next year and the new trends and updates to look out for.
Voice Search
Google Voice Search is a product that allows users to use Google Search by speaking on a mobile phone or computer initially released back in 2012 starting as a small project but is expected to rise and make a big comeback in 2022. We already use Alexa, google dot and Siri daily and they now play a crucial role in the day to day lie of many people, its only a question of when will the voice search be a main form of search.
This will change how marketing teams work, to focus on their vocabulary to translate written content to natural language and to understand what language the users will use to voice search, optimizing your website with that in mind. Google will be introducing LaMDA (Language Model For Dialogue Applications) which allows Google to talk back to you, designed for conversation.
Trained to read words and understand how those words elate and what they would possibly say next. There are any ways you can start optimizing your website to facilitate voice search including, using long-tail keywords which will help your website be the most relevant answer for the search as they are more specific and targeted, using keywords which are broad will decrease the chances of your site appearing during searches.
Most voice searches are used for local searches for example ‘Chinese takeaway near me’ so making sure your google my business profile is updated is very important as this will boost your traffic and rankings. Another simple feature you can add to your website is frequently asked questions (FAQs) where you can write out questions that are popular within your industry and write out responses that are in a conversational format to appear in voice searches. These people who are asking a question are looking specifically for that and by you fulfilling their needs, Google will reward you with higher rankings.
Shopping online in 2022
Voice based shopping is predicted to spike and Google are adding and updating many features to add searchers when online shopping. During covid-19 online shopping was huge as shops were closed and so many people spent time indoors on their technology as this was their only option, e-commerce stores experienced an influx in orders.
Google shopping has been around for a long time however has never really become popular, but they want this too change. They have recently announced the idea of ‘shopping graph’ which is a model created to understand products, sellers, brads and reviews. Therefore, making the users shopping experience much easier and provides them with the help they require as Google shows them listings from millions of merchants related to their search. This works in real-time meaning you can also see whether it’s in stock, so with this you must ensure your information on your site is correct such as showing the right stock levels, product information and prices, update this regularly. Also, ‘open cart tabs’ is another idea Google has introduced which is a feature which shows your current open carts when you open a new tab allowing customers to pick up where they left off.
Video Content
Video content is rising in popularity and will hugely impact SEO and the use of videos have major benefits. Individuals are becoming more visual with apps such as TikTok on the rise, people like to watch videos about businesses products or services to get more of an insight and may aid their decision whether to purchase. Having video content on your site allows you to be seen as an authoritative and a helpful source, as a result Google will place you higher up on search engines. To optimize your content, update your video channels descriptions by using keywords which are more user-friendly and to make sure it explains what the video/channel is about.
Also, you must optimize the featured snippets especially for question-based videos to capture the attention of the user at the top of the search informing them straight away what they will benefit from watching the video. This will allow you to stand out from competitors as you will become a leader on answering questions users ae interested about.
Overall, the updates and changes to Google will affect SEO and it may feel overwhelming staying up to date but its crucial to know what’s happening so that you can alter your practises and implement changes to your site so your campaigns are effective. Here at MR SEO we can assist you on how to optimize your site in the most effective way and take your business to the next level.
