Even in this year 2022, there’s one digital marketing strategy that has still remained to be a constant effective one: search engine optimization (SEO). This refers to your SEO approach or SEO techniques, however way you’d like to call it.
The point here is that SEO refers to all the processes relating to planning, outlining, and implementing all the necessary steps that can help improve search rankings and specific goals like improving your direct mail process, among others. When you’re running a website, you ought to know by now that SEO rankings is very important. This is the only way for you to make it big with your website, given the high competition that websites are all facing. Without good SEO, then you’ll simply si
This is a short guide for you to stand out with SEO in 2022. These are trends and strategies that are working well now, will bring you results, and will achieve the ultimate goal of making your website rank well.
Let’s begin.
1. Go Through Keyword Research
There’s no denying that the competition is now very stiff. So, to stand out, it’s not enough to abide by SEO standards. You’ll have to make sure you also make it big with the standards. First, there are the keywords.
These are important to have all over your website and content, so your website can rank high and well. But, you have to take it one step further by ensuring that you’re not just putting keywords at random. These keywords also have to be relevant and good quality ones to work more effectively.
If you want to dive deeper with your keyword strategy, here are a few tips you can apply:
- Understand the different keyword types, to wit:
- Head keywords, which are usually just one to two words;
- Body keywords, typically running for around two to three word phrases with a good search volume;
- Long tail keywords, which consists of around four or more words that are strung together.
- Get to know the different ways that search engines use and interpret keywords, such as:
- Navigational, wherein the Internet users search for a specific website;
- Informational, which means that users are looking for answers to a specific question;
- Investigational, whereby users are looking for information that could eventually lead to a final transaction.
- Utilize keyword research tools to your advantage.
Recommended Reading; How to do Keyword Research.
2. Core Web Vitals Are A Big Google Ranking Factor
Core web vitals are going to be a very important Google ranking factor in 2022. This means that you’ll have to do everything that you can to get your website ready for this important Google update.
Generally, a website’s core web vitals circles around three metrics:
- Cumulative layout shift;
- First input delay;
- Largest contentful paint.
When you take these three together as a whole, it can directly impact your search rankings.
To help you along this line, here’s a step-by-step guide on how you can improve your core web vital scores:
- Open ‘Google Search Console’, then click ‘Core Web Vitals’;
- Study the graph on how the pages on your website stack up.
When you study these graphs, you have a better understanding of how each of your page fares with Google. This also means that you can make more accurate changes as soon as possible as to what you have to do to improve your website. You can also start to let go of content that doesn’t rank well or that are only wasting your time and resources.
3. Analyze The First Page Of Google
Once you have a list of keywords, now’s the time for you to test these out. You can also start by listing certain topics that you think Internet users are searching a lot on – within the niche your business belongs to. Then, do a test search on Google to analyze the first page of its landings.
Here, the process should be as careful and thorough as possible. Go through the top 10 search results, and look for patterns relating to their headlines, keywords, and even their tags. By doing this, you can have first-hand insights on what you should do to make your content also rank consistently in the top 10 search results.
Another benefit you can gain from going through this process is that the more you study the top search results, you may also get insights on the websites that have consistently made it to the top 10. You can then take time to focus and study these websites to learn from their example as to the proper keywords to use, among other things.
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4. Google Passage Ranking Will Be Important
There’s also now another metric known as ‘Google Passage Ranking’ or ‘Passages’. Apart from just ranking the entire website in toto, ‘Passages’ now allows the ranking on different pages on Google. In fact, it can even go as specific as to point out the certain passages or points on a certain page that made that page and, subsequently, your website, rank higher.
The advantage with this is that if you’re able to keep up, ‘Passages’ will give every single page of your website now a higher chance to rank well. Of course, this is given the pre-requisite that your website is well-organized and optimized for Google searches.
That said, here’s what you can do to make it well in this pursuit:
- Organize your content into different categories or sections, so that various types of information are properly grouped together such that there’s a seamless system on your website;
- Create extra effort to focus on long form content, which means that each page should go as long as to include everything in a particular topic and not break them up into different page links.
5. Creating Something Better And Different Is Even More Pressing Now
Given the tough competition that businesses today are facing, it’s all the more pressing and important to focus on creating something better and different. This means going above and beyond what your competition offers. In doing so, you can stand out.
Here’s a quick explanation on how to go about these two different options:
Option 1: Create Something Different
Creating something completely different and one that hasn’t yet been offered by your competitors before is truly one of the best ways to ensure that you stand out. Because it stands out from the competition, it’ll create buzz all over the Internet. It’ll gain shares, comments, and likes, among others.
Option 2: Create Something Better
If you can’t create something different, then you can also put up something better. But, don’t just aim to be a few steps ahead. This improvement should be as great as 10 times better than what’s already out there. For instance, if the competition lists only five tips, then go for fifty. Yes, this will make your post long, but if you abide by the content principles on keeping things interesting, your website visitors will keep reading and thank you for your tips. Because you offered more, the next time around, these readers will eventually trust you as the authority website on your niche.
6. Visual Search Will Rise
The year 2022 is going to be all about the visuals: images, graphics, and even videos. If your website has long prioritized its focus on having only text as your content, it’s time to switch things up quite a bit and have more visuals. This is still one of the best ways to keep your website interesting so that your visitors will keep coming back for more.
It’s as simple as this fact. Think about the rise of Pinterest. It surely came after Facebook and Twitter. But, today, its popularity can equal and sometimes even rival Facebook and Twitter. That’s because sharing visuals can easily capture the attention of people on the World Wide Web.
When you begin to understand visual search, you’ll know that many Internet users love to use visual search across these different niche categories:
- Nutrition;
- Shopping or retail;
- Recipes and cooking;
- Information like directions;
- Travel.
Along the lines of visuals, this also means that videos will also continue to emerge as effective. There are more videos out on the Internet, through the rise of Instagram stories, TikTok, and YouTube, for instance. Hence, it’s safe to say that if videos aren’t yet a part of your digital marketing strategy, then you’re missing out on so much.
Just be sure that when you put up videos, you’re also able to optimize these for SEO. This means that you’ll put in the right tags or alt tags on the videos to ensure that those who are browsing with a slow Internet connection can still get a glimpse of what your videos are all about. Plus, remember the tags and keywords that can help your website to rank even better.
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Conclusion
With this guide, now you’re ready to put your best foot forward as you go through the year 2022 for your website. You still can’t go wrong with SEO, given its effective ability in driving more customers to your site. But, it’s not just enough to say that you’ve started applying SEO to your websites. You also have to learn how to use these techniques the right way, or else you’ll still fail in that pursuit. If you’re still at a loss as to where and how you’ll start, the tips above can be your best step forward.