Implementing the latest SEO strategies is one of the most important aspects of online marketing. Even big, international brands use SEO to reach new customers and grow their business. For instance, Coca-Cola implemented digital marketing strategies to restore its connection with consumers and boost its brand exposure.
With most consumers searching for content online, SEO proved crucial for Coca Cola to reconnect with consumers and expand Coca Cola’s organic reach. With a multi-national SEO strategy, Coca Cola’s SEO activities resulted in an astounding 4 million organic visits.
SEO can be a complex and time-consuming process, but as you can see, it’s one of the most powerful ways to get your content in front of potential customers. It helps with generating organic traffic, which means more sales. However, SEO is not a one-size-fits-all strategy, and it doesn’t happen overnight. Like running a marathon, it takes time, dedication, and consistency to see results.
Here we’ll walk you through the best SEO services for 2022 that will help you improve your website’s organic ranking and increase your online visibility!
What are the top three SEO strategies?
The Evolution of SEO To Date
The SEO landscape is in a state of constant change. What worked last year might not work this year. At the heart of any successful business is its ability to stay relevant and competitive in an ever-changing marketplace.
Whether you’re a small local shop or a major global brand, it’s crucial to invest in high-quality SEO techniques to ensure you’re always on top of consumers’ minds when they search for products or services that you offer online.
Staying abreast of the best SEO practices can give you a real competitive edge and achieve your business goals.
So, what are the significant changes that are set to take hold in 2022? Here’s a sneak peek at what’s coming for SEO this year, which will inevitably set the stage for what’s to come next.
Topical Authority
Google is always looking for ways to improve the user experience, and one way they’re doing that is by focusing on topical authority. Topical authority is a measure of how well a website covers a specific topic.
In the past, Google would rank websites based on keyword density. But now, their focus is on expertise and quality over quantity. They want to see comprehensive websites that cover all aspects of a topic.
For example, let’s say you want to be the authority on food supplement products. Instead of writing a single article about it, your best bet would be to write blog posts covering everything from the benefits of food supplements to the best way to take them.
You would also want to make sure your website has a lot of high-quality content, including product reviews, buyer’s guides, and informative articles. By becoming an authority on food supplements, you’ll be able to rank higher on Google for relevant keywords.
User Intent
What we do in the past years is more than just optimizing content for SEO. In 2022, it’s time to stop thinking of SEO content, instead, we need to think more about the user and discover how to add value to their experience.
This is evidenced by the recent Google update in 2021 when the search engine started to rewrite meta title tags on SERPs. Furthermore, this is also in light of the introduction of the Multitask Unified Model (MUM), which is a new Google algorithm with multimodality that understands text, audio, images, and videos.
With all these recent updates, SEO experts and business owners need to focus on a more holistic approach to their content strategy in 2022.
For this, your approach to SEO should focus on strategic content creation that involves thorough planning including:
– Keywords
– Users’ intent
– Your intent
– The specific buyers’ journey stage
Although keyword research will always be a crucial part of your SEO, in 2022 and beyond, marketers need to think further to draw valuable insights from them. Diving deeper into these keywords to understand how they can be used to meet search intent will be a game-changer.
By doing so, businesses may be able to better empathise with their audience and deliver a better end-to-end search and user experience.
Video Content
You’ll see more video content in the next few years because people love watching videos.
From 2016 to 2021, an increase from 61 per cent to 86 per cent was recorded where businesses use video as a marketing tool and are predicted to remain the same until 2022.
Video is a powerful digital marketing tool, and it’s only going to become more critical as time goes on. Google has been increasingly prioritising videos in its search results, so better incorporate video into your SEO strategy.
To sum up, SEO will change a lot in the next few years. So, better start incorporating these into your SEO plan if you want to stay ahead of the curve.
11 SEO STRATEGIES TO IMPLEMENT TODAY
Examples of SEO Strategies for 2022 that you need to start using now!
Website owners know very well the importance of SEO strategies for their business. Some might even try and implement it without the support of an SEO Agency. But, with SEO in a state of constant flux, business owners without the technical know-how usually find themselves producing a large amount of SEO content while ignoring the more complex side of SEO.
1. Voice Search
Voice search has come a long way since Siri first made its debut in 2011. Back then, it was a novel idea to be able to ask your smartphone a question and have it scour the web for an answer.
Today, voice search is an integral part of our daily lives. We use it to ask for directions, find information about businesses, and even shop online.
In fact, 27% of the global population uses the voice search feature on their devices. As more and more people adopt voice-activated devices, the need for accurate voice search optimisation will become increasingly important. Brands that fail to adapt their SEO strategy to include voice search optimisation could be disadvantaged.
Whether you want to optimise your website or take your sales and marketing strategy a notch higher, voice search is on the line as a promising SEO tactic in 2022 and in the years to come.
2. Long Tail Keywords
Get your website ranking quickly with longer and more specific keywords. Long tail keywords are search terms that are at least three words in length. This type of keyword has more specific information to satisfy the searcher’s intent.
Although ranking for long tail keywords proves to be more challenging, once you do, you can get more click-throughs and conversions than a short-tail keyword. Furthermore, long tail keywords have less competition.
When there’s a low volume keyword search, there’s less competition.
For instance, “SEO Strategies for Small Businesses in Brisbane” is more likely to get you ranked than just “SEO Strategies”.
What are the 4 types of SEO?
There are also four types of keywords you need to know to ensure you’re using keywords that suit your strategy and will meet your goals.
1. Informational
2. Navigational
3. Commercial
4. Transactional
If your goal is to increase sales and revenue, transactional keywords may be a better choice because they attract customers ready to buy.
If your objective is to increase brand awareness and visibility, navigational keywords may be the best option because they target potential customers who already have a specific brand or product in mind.
If you’re targeting users who are still undecided on which brand to buy products or services from, commercial keywords are best to use.
And finally, informational keywords are used for users who are looking for an answer to a specific question.
At the end of the day, the best choice for your SEO campaign will depend on your unique goals and objectives.
3. Image Alt Text
Image Alt text, also known as “alt descriptions,” is used in an HTML code to describe the look and purpose of an image on a website. It improves image context/descriptions for search engine crawlers, allowing them to properly index an image.
With an image alt text, visually impaired persons who use screen readers will be able to make sense of an on-page picture. In addition to this, if an image file can’t be loaded, the alt text will instead appear in place of the image.
In addition, alt text ensures your website images are included on the search engine results page. Thus, it is one of the keys to improving user experience as part of your SEO strategies.
A perfect example of this is when you’re searching for a “stadium” image. Google or other search engines can provide you with different image results and relevant websites.
However, if you’re looking for a more specific image, you can search using the keywords “stadium with athlete and pillar,” and Google Images will present a variety of contextually related images.
4. Optimised Headlines
Headlines are crucial for your website to appear on top of search results.
It gives your readers a sneak preview of the content they will be reading and it’s an opportunity for you to bring value.
Optimising headlines for SEO focuses on using strategic words to attract organic search traffic.
Here are some points to consider when writing a good headline.
SEO Headline Best Practice
– Be concise: A good headline should be no more than 70 characters and should stand out in the sea of content.
– Consider the context: Headlines that work well on blogs or news sites might not work on a video or social media. The context and audience of your content should be considered.
– Target the right keywords and synonyms: Good headlines should use a combination of relevant keywords as well as synonyms.
– Include the benefit to the reader: All of us have seen headlines whose only goal is to engage us with a sound bite, but do not give us a hint of what the story is about. This may be okay for a social media post, but a search engine is another story.
– Keep it simple: The key to writing an engaging headline is simplicity.
Remember, great headlines work as headlines: They must be able to stand on their own without being placed on the article.
A great example of an engaging header from WebMD is “Tips to Get Rid of a Headache Quickly.” This type of headline usually piques readers’ interest and makes them want to know more because it provides precisely what they’re looking for, a solution to their need or problem.
While clickbait is not advisable in SEO, you can still use an engaging headline that accurately reflects the value of your content.
6. Multimedia Content
Enhance audience engagement and provide more website content by including infographics, thumbnails, audio files, videos, and GIFs. By incorporating multimedia content, you also give your website more opportunities to be found on SERPs.
For instance, an infographic about the “Top SEO Strategies for 2022” is more likely to be remembered and shared than a blog post with the same content.
Visual media help in processing information quickly, so it’s more likely that your target audience will remember your content if it’s in a format they can easily consume.
7. Internal Linking
To achieve a better ranking and create a higher page authority, linking your web pages to each other builds a strong internal link profile that helps Google crawl your website. Plus, a well structured internal link profile also signals positive ranking factors to crawlers, helping your website move up the ranks.
An excellent example of effective internal linking is Wikipedia. When you search for a term on the website, it shows you related articles and phrases that you might be interested in.
This type of linking keeps visitors engaged on your website for an extended period, making the customer’s journey as smooth as possible.
It also helps reduce the number of steps or clicks that a customer has to take to get to their desired product or information, and is one of the best SEO strategies that results in increasing the conversion probability.
8. Core Web Vitals
In November 2020, Google confirmed Core Web Vitals, a report that measures a website’s performance, as an official ranking signal and should be a core component of all SEO strategies. It is now one of the key factors Google uses to determine whether a website should rank in the search results.
The report includes three metrics: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): measures the loading performance of a page or how much time it takes a website to display complete information. Ideally, the LCP should be 2.5 seconds or less.
- First Input Delay (FID): measures the interactivity of a page or the length of time when the searcher first interacts (i.e. click a link, click a button) with your website to the instance when the browser responds to the interaction. The goal is to have FID be 10 milliseconds or less.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): measures the stability of a page. The goal is to have a CLS rating of 0.1 or less. This is critical because when a searcher is attempting to interact with the page, web page elements should not shift so as not to cause a bad user experience.
By making sure your potential customers have a good page experience, you’re increasing the chances of ranking higher in the search results and conversion.
If you want to see URL information for specific web pages, website owners can access core web vital reports on mobile and desktop devices.
9. High-Quality Backlinks
Backlinks are important because they are like votes for your website. The more high-quality backlinks you have, the more popular your site will be.
To avoid getting penalised for spammy links and being flagged for black hat SEO strategies, here are some Google Penguin updates to resolve the following issues:
- Avoid Keyword Stuffing
Keyword stuffing is one of the oldest SEO strategies that’s fallen out of favour in recent years. The practice involves cramming a webpage with large numbers of keywords or repetitions of keywords to manipulate rank via the appearance of relevance to specific search phrases.
For example, a page with the following content would be considered keyword-stuffed:
“Are you looking for the best SEO company in Los Angeles? Look no further than 123 Company! We offer the best SEO services in Los Angeles. We are a top SEO company in Los Angeles.”
From a user perspective, this is poor-quality content. It’s also an attempt to game the system by repeating the keyword “SEO company in Los Angeles” multiple times.
Google would likely penalise this content because it’s not relevant or valuable to the user.
While it may have worked in the early days of SEO, today’s algorithms are much more intelligent and can quickly spot keyword stuffing when they see it.
In addition, it’s often viewed as spammy behaviour by users and search engines, which can result in a ranking penalty.
So if you’re thinking about stuffing your next page with keywords, think again, as this is one of the SEO strategies Google dislikes the most.
- Implement Link Schemes
Link schemes are a popular SEO tactic employed by many people looking to game the system and improve their ranking on Google. The idea is simple – by acquiring or creating backlinks from low-quality or unrelated websites, you make an artificial picture of credibility and relevance, which encourages Google to bestow high rankings.
For example, let’s say you own a website about shoes. You create many low-quality websites and fill them with content about your shoes. Then, you link back to your shoe website from these low-quality websites.
From Google’s perspective, it looks like your shoe website is relevant and popular because so many other websites are linking to it. As a result, they’re likely to rank your website higher in the search results.
However, this tactic is no longer effective because Google’s algorithms have become much more sophisticated and can quickly identify link schemes. In fact, using this tactic can actually result in a ranking penalty from Google.
There are plenty of other ways to build links that are both White Hat and effective. Focus on those instead, and stay away from link schemes!
10. Include Video and Podcasts in Your SEO Strategy
Like most SEO strategists, you’re always on the lookout for updates to reach your customers and promote your brand. But sometimes, the most effective tools are right under your nose.
Video and audio content are often overlooked in favour of more traditional methods, but they can be effective tools for building backlinks, driving conversion, and connecting with your customers.
Video and audio links are among the most shared media online, so you’re missing out on a massive opportunity to promote your brand if you’re not using them. And with the rise of social media, there’s no better time to start using video and audio to reach your target audience.
But before you hit the publish button, do not forget that just because multimedia is shiny and new doesn’t mean it’s exempt from optimisation. In fact, videos and audio files often need more optimisation than plain text summaries, tagging, rich snippets, and streaming on multiple devices. Additionally, they are often poorly positioned in site navigation.
Keep Up with the Latest in SEO Techniques and Strategies
So what’s the solution? Multimedia should always be accompanied by articles, calls to action, and related serendipitous content to advance customers down the funnel.
With a little bit of planning, you can avoid technical SEO pitfalls and ensure that your multimedia content is engaging and effective.
The amount of time needed to see results from SEO services depends on the strength of your competition and how far along you are in optimising your overall web presence.
For a new website just starting out with SEO strategies, you can expect to invest anywhere from 6 to 12 months before seeing significant improvement.
So if you’re looking for quick results, SEO is not the answer. But if you’re looking for long-term, sustainable growth, then investing in up-to-date SEO strategies is a smart move.
To make your investment worth your while and to ensure that you’re getting the most out of your SEO strategy.
