Top SEO Digital Advertising Trends for 2022

Sometimes you hear people say that SEO has seen its best days, that SEO digital advertising is outdated. Well, don’t believe it for a SECOND!

Online business is more important than ever and it’s experiencing a parabolic trajectory upward with the exploding popularity of mobile phone apps like Google Lens and voice searching through virtual assistants like Alexa and Suri. Today, it’s more important than ever to establish your digital advertising brand and website footprint to reach potential customers and expand your business.

To do that, your website needs to be optimized so that search engines can not only find you but choose your specific content to satisfy customers’ needs (search results). The way to do that most effectively is to utilize Search Engine Optimization techniques.

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

SEO is the process of grooming and polishing your website to be infinitely searchable and inviting to the search engines that drive business across the internet. 

Google, Yahoo, and Bing are all examples of well-established search engines that create search engine results pages (SERPs). Once a search engine receives an inquiry from their customer for information, products, or services, it scours the internet and provides a list of millions of options ranked in order of relevance and importance.

In a split second, the person searching is provided with an ultra-comprehensive list of choices based on whatever they typed into the search bar. 

Does SEO Really Work?

According to Forbes magazine, while each results list goes on for countless pages, only 6% of searches come from the second page or beyond. That means that 92-94% of site visits are initiated from the first page. Even more defining, 67.6% of users click on one of the first five results following the ad-related entries.

So how do you compete in this mega-competitive environment? SEO! 

Optimizing your website and content to exceed search engine expectations is a vital part of a strong digital marketing strategy. It also helps that most websites (estimated to be as high as 95%) don’t use SEO, or don’t use it effectively, leaving plenty of room for those that do to get top results.

What Digital Advertising Trends Should You Be Looking Out For in 2022?

As you strategize your approach in 2022 and beyond, keep this in mind:  Google has over 92% of global search engine market share. That means they define what makes a searchable website.

And while Google does of good job of communicating their intentions, they can be secretive about their exact methods. Adding to the fun, Google also released a massive new set of standardized metrics (Core Web Vitals) in their latest release. These new metrics/algorithms have caused a foundational shift in page ranking and left previously successful companies scrambling to climb back to the top of the SERPs.

2022 Brings Changing SEO Strategies

With technology rapidly advancing and consumer behaviors shifting just as quickly, your digital marketing strategy needs to be fluid and adaptable. When you consider that it takes six months on average to get a good read on the effectiveness of SEO enhancements, you must be both nimble and patient.

Here we look at both Off-Page SEO trends (site-wide technical components) and On-Page SEO (page-specific and content related) trends. Both are important and make up a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.

Ensure Speed and Responsiveness

If speed and responsiveness were important before the new Google Core Web Vitals changes, they are hyper-critical now! Here is a breakdown of the three main components being measured as part of the Core Web Vitals:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP):  This is the amount of time it takes for your website to completely load. Improvements often take the form of installing compression plugins and compressing or resizing image files.
• First Input Delay (FID):  This measures the time from the first interaction by the user to the browser’s response time and can be hurt by unnecessary libraries that slow FID down.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS):  This is a measure of visual stability from initial rendering through final representation and can be affected by too many elements loading asynchronously.

More Than Ever — Mobile First! 

Sixty-one percent of all searches were from mobile phones in 2021. That number continues to climb following a brief drop during the pandemic (presumably because people were at home working from their laptops?). Also, it doesn’t hurt that Americans spend an average of 5 hours and 24 minutes on their phones daily.

That statistic is not lost on Google! They continue to shift their business (search results for their customers) to mobile-friendly ranking and developing mobile-friendly tools like the following:

• Site Indexing is Now Mobile First — Google uses the mobile version of most websites to index pages and content. Make sure Google can find it and use it!
• Passage Indexing — Google now uses passages within content to index (probably because Google’s technology better understands content which also impacts On-Page SEO). According to Google’s Martin Splitt, “It’s just us getting better at more granularly understanding the content of a page, and being able to score different parts of a page independently.”
• Google Discover — Discover is a new tool that is part of the Google app and available for iOS and Android devices only. It’s an ‘interest matching algorithm’ that defines a users’ experience within Google. While Google says that there is no way to optimize for Discover, relevant, long-form content is still going to help (more about content below).

AI-Assisted Voice Search

There are over 110 million users of AI-assisted voice search in the US today and growing. From Suri on your iPhone to Alexa interrupting your Zoom meetings, voice search has changed the way we shop, get information, and search for what we need.

AI-assisted voice search has also changed SEO. 

On-Page SEO is driven by keywords and phrases, and in the past, they were straightforward, e.g., red women’s tennis shoes. Now, successful keywords are more in the form of complete sentences or questions, e.g., Where can I buy red women’s tennis shoes.

That means reviewing and updating your keywords to include more voice search specific choices and then monitoring them for effectiveness.

High Resolutions Images

Images that are high resolution will be key in the visual future envisioned by Google. As an example, using Google Lens in the Google App (the camera in the search bar) allows users to search for results/products based on the image they click when using the tool. 

The better the resolution, the more likely Google’s image recognition tool will include it as a selection on the feed that’s returned to the user. It also means that original image content will be critical for products you hope to successfully market digitally.

Streamline Backlinking Efforts

A great way to demonstrate authority to Google is with a strong backlinking strategy. According to Backlinko, the #1 ranked page typically has over three times as many backlinks as pages #2-#10.

But even more important, having one or two highly authoritative sites linking to you is much more important than having a large number of smaller blogs or inconsequential or unrelated sites. Focus on quality, no quantity.

User Intent

User intent will continue to be a major ranking factor for Google. Their customer is the user that is accessing their site to find search results and they want to provide the best results possible. Remember that users have three different types of intent when searching and be sure your page or content piece focuses on one of these goals.

• Transactional — the user wants to perform an activity or buy a product.
• Navigational — the user is looking for a certain site.
• Informational — the user is looking for information.

Content is STILL King!

While users (and Google) are interested in fast websites that have super quick page loads and high-res images, they ultimately are looking for information. To get users to your site and capture their attention once they get there, you want to provide the best possible user experience which includes design features, digital advertising, and great content.

Part of your online advertising strategy should be providing a service to the customer. They have landed on your page to learn from you about something of interest. You have under five seconds to capture their attention before they bounce back to the SERP and continue looking.

Expertise, Authority, Reliability (EAT)

Use EAT when developing content pieces. It not only informs the visitor and hopefully educates or enlightens them, but it also figures into Google’s SERP ranking.

Long-Form Content

Content should be thorough which means that a site can be penalized if their content is surficial or inadequate. You can’t demonstrate authority on a subject in 500 words. According to Backlinko, pages that routinely rank on the first page have content with 1,447 characters on average.

Optimize Your Google My Business Profile

If you don’t have a Google My Business listing – get one TODAY! It used to be thought that they were only beneficial for local SERP results and businesses with brick and mortar locations.

Turns out, Google My Business is the best way to inform search engines about your business, your digital marketing services, your products, and your specific details. Be detailed and update often. You can post information, share offers, announce new products, and engage customers directly whether a business site or ecommerce site.

Moving Forward

SEO digital advertising is alive and well in 2022. For a comprehensive digital marketing strategy, be sure that your site has effectively engaged your audience and the search engine crawlers with both the technical aspects, as well as the on-page SEO that positions your business the most effective way. 

Lounge Lizard is available with expert support in compelling, results-focused SEO services. Our team is focused on driving sales and delivering outstanding ROI when optimizing your site. 

Request a proposal from Lounge Lizard today!