Tip for SEO Ready Digital Business For 2022

If nothing else, 2021 had shown everyone how important digital marketing is for just about every business. Many business owners finally made the jump and started advertising online and building out a better web presence. SEO continues to play a huge roll in any digital marketing and it is crucial to understand the changes to expect in SEO for 2022.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), as most businesses are aware, plays a huge roll in driving traffic and ultimately sales to their website. SEO is always changing and you must stay up to date with the latest trends to ensure that your content strategies remain effective.

However, affiliate marketing is also exponentially evolving and new platforms like Affdeals are offering latest tools and tricks for website publishers for sustaining growth.

If you still rely on the same SEO techniques you have used for years, it is time to learn new SEO strategies. Many older strategies are no longer effective in today's SEO landscape. In fact, some old tactics like keyword stuffing can actually negatively impact SEO.

1. Google Algorithm Updates

In the past, Google has rolled out multiple updates (some verified and some not) that have made huge differences in what websites rank and why. Although Google still rolls out what they call Core Updates, what most SEO's call "Google Updates" are no more than the system self correcting itself. Google is now an AI driven system that is constantly changing what ranks and why - so it's natural to see constant fluctuations in the final outcome. Get used to it :-)

2. Artificial Intelligence will Play a Greater Role in SEO

This next one goes directly along with #1...You may start seeing a pattern here.

Artificial intelligence (AI), which continues to transform the way people interact with content online through its algorithms, will play an increasingly important role in SEO strategy. Particularly notable is Google's AI algorithm RankBrain.

Although Google has not revealed the exact workings of RankBrain's content analysis and learning process, experts believe that it is a key ranking factor. RankBrain will prioritize content based on click-through rates and time spent on a website. It is crucial that you have well-organized, useful content to engage and captivate readers when you are evaluating your SEO strategy.

2. Shift to Long-Form Content

You will need to switch to long-form content strategies in order to engage and capture readers to your website. Long-form content of at least 3,000 words is more likely to be shared and get more traffic than short-form content. It is possible to improve your search ranking by shifting your focus to long-form quality content. You may need to revisit some old blogs and double the word count.

It is vital that your content be broken down into sub-sections with H2 and/or H3 subheadings to keep readers interested. This will make your content easier to scan. Your goal is to make it easy for readers to navigate your content, especially on mobile devices.

Large chunks of text can seem overwhelming to some readers and can overwhelm small screens. To improve your SEO, you should make sure that your content can be shared easily. Make sure to include clear sharing links at both the beginning and ending of your content. This will allow readers to share it easily.

3. Google Rankings are Critically Dependent on Mobile-Friendliness

Since 2015, mobile-friendliness has been an integral part of SEO. Google made it a ranking element in 2015. It is now more important than ever to optimize your content for mobile devices. In 2019, Google launched mobile-first indexing.

The search engine now prioritizes the mobile version of a website in ranking content. This is because it is the primary version and not the secondary. Many people didn't notice this change as almost 75% of internet users plan to access the internet exclusively via mobile devices by 2025.

Google's mobile-friendly test makes it simple to determine how effective your mobile website is. To find out if your mobile website is not working properly, you can use Google’s Mobile Usability Report.

These tools can help you identify and fix any mobile-related issues on your website that could negatively impact your SEO. Mobile devices are becoming more popular, so you need to make sure that your content is mobile-friendly.

6. AI Driven Content

We expect to see content created by artificial intelligence to be indistinguishable from purley human created content. Notice that we say AI created. What we are referring to is content created by AI but then edited by a human being. Content created in this fashion is far less expensive and time consuming and can be put in parity with total human written blog posts.

This lets the SEO agencies that leverage this type of content creation to have a strategic advantage over other digital marketing companies. Content creation is one of the most expensive aspects to a successful search engine optimization campaign. The ability to leverage the same writers but have them simply edit and revise the AI written copy cuts the price of content marketing and increases the ability to produce a lot more, quality blog posts.

4. Google's EAT Principle Should Be Fulfilled by Content

Google has always stressed the importance of content quality for ranking success. This often leaves businesses wondering about what Google means when it refers to "quality content". It is crucial to remember the EAT when coming up with topics and and the quality of the final blog post.

EAT stands for:

• Authority
• Trustworthiness
• Expertise

These factors are used by Google to determine whether a website provides quality content.

Are you an authority on the subject? Do other thought leaders in your industry quote you or give you backlinks?

Are you trustworthy? Are you quoting other, well recognized people? Do other people in your industry have backlinks to your website? Are the backlinks that you have from within your industry? Do you have spammy backlinks pointing to your website?

Are you an expert in your field? What do other people in your industry have to say about you? Can things that you have done, created, invented or said be found in other parts of the internet?

When creating content, it is important to keep EAT in your mind. You should back up any claims you make with facts and statistics, and link to reliable sources. It is a great way of fulfilling all the requirements in the EAT principle by having authoritative links in your content.

5. Video is essential for effective SEO

It is essential that your SEO strategy includes video if you haven't done so yet. Online video platforms have boomed in recent years. You may have even seen how many businesses use platforms such as YouTube and TikTok for customer engagement and expanding their reach.

Optimizing video content should be an integral part your SEO strategy. How can you optimize your video content? You can optimize your video channel description to give viewers a clear overview of the content.

Optimizing your video content will also require keywords. Although you don't want to overuse keywords in your video descriptions, there are some keywords and hashtags that can help direct your content towards its intended audience.

Conclusion

SEO plays a crucial role in driving traffic to your online business. However, SEO is constantly evolving and becoming more complicated. You can't just stuff your content and build spammy backlinks if you expect to be competitive.

To outrank your competition for competitive keywords is hard. It is challenging even for the SEO company that spends their life studying the subject. For competitive online industries, you have to be better than all of the other digital marketing agencies out there.

That requires constantly changing and creating strategies that "shoot for the puck" (working towards what Google will do in the future) and don't try to leverage a vulnerability in Google's algorithm.