5 SEO Predictions for 2022

This is a big topic every year in the SEO world. This time of year, I’m writing this on November 28th and we are heading right into the shopping season, of course, but we also are seeing people planning for 2022.

SEO in 2022 Prediction 1: Continued growth in Intent Based Search

Prediction number one is that Google will continue pursuing intent based search. What we mean by this is they’re trying to fully understand what it is that people are searching for.

It’s not just so much that people are searching for keywords anymore. People are actively asking Google questions. They are trying to have a conversation with Google.

I think this is evident because I personally think Google has struggled with this throughout the course of this year.

Meaning through 2021, I think they really have been trying hard to make sure they are delivering people the best results possible, but the world of people searching for things has gotten so complex that it’s hard for Google to keep up with it.

So that’s why you’re seeing not so great search results, to say the least.

I know I personally would be looking for some information about something and I would get just really bizarre things that are completely irrelevant to what I’m looking for. So I would have to search two, three times, rewording what it is that I’m looking for each time, because I needed to find certain information and it wasn’t available for me.

So we’ll probably see a lot of algorithm updates just like we did in 2021. But you know, if it means that, Hey, we’re going to continue improving what we’re finding on search, then that’s totally cool with me.

SEO in 2022 Prediction 2: Google will continue being critical of content quality

There’s a big trend where people just kind of basically look at a competitor and say “okay, this site has 500 words. I’m going to go ahead and write 520 words, and that’s going to help me rank above Google.”

And there is a certain degree of effectiveness of that kind of for the time being. However, what we really need to understand is that Google’s intent is to serve up intent based on what it is that exists on our website. So if we’re just writing 500 for the sake of writing 500 words, I don’t know about you, but if I’m just writing 500 words because I need to hit that number and I’m going to keep checking in Google docs, as I’m typing to get to that 500 word mark, I’m probably not writing the highest quality stuff and Google recognizes that.

So they want to make sure that you are really using the words that you have on the screen for, you know, the best quality and the best intentions possible.

Think through the different avenues before you write content just for the sake of content, consider questions that you could answer, consider all kinds of different ways of defining what it is that you want to put on the screen because is going to be looking at the quality of what it is that you’re putting on the screen.

SEO in 2022 Prediction 3: More Multimedia Content

I do believe that Google is going to get better at utilizing different multimedia efforts. I believe that that we’re going to see a video rolled into this specifically.

I don’t mean just, you know, okay, we checked the box, we put video on our website. I think Google is going to continue getting better at scanning videos on websites, understanding what’s being said in the videos and then delivering results based on what people are saying again, wrapping this all up to the idea of intent behind everything.

Google is going to look at the words that you say in between your keywords.

For example… I’m talking about SEO predictions for 2022. Let’s say that that’s what I’m trying to optimize this post for. They’re also looking at everything in between to know that, oh, he’s talking about Google, he’s talking about predictions, he’s talking about “whatever” so they’re trying to put the whole picture together so that they understand the intent of what it is that I’m talking about.

Another example… if you were making a video about red widgets and your website was trying to sell red widgets, your video that you’d produce would be a whole lot different than something that was purely informational, Hey, information about red widgets. We don’t sell them, but we’re a research firm dedicated to red widgets. That content would look totally different.

Google knows that your user definitely knows that, but you also want to make sure that you are delivering what is the most relevant to the end user of your website.

SEO in 2022 Prediction 4: Google will break away from “The Big Tags” as a ranking factor.

I believe one thing that Google is going to move towards is doing away with the big tags. What I mean by that, your title tags, your H tags, image alt tags, etc.. I think we’re going to be moving away from Google depending on those to determine where you should rank based on what you’ve implemented in these tags and what they’re going to be depending on instead is what does your website look like?

What does your website sound like?

They’re going to be really looking to make sure that your experience is what should be expected of by your customers. That’s what they’re really going to be judging you on. We’re already starting to see that a little bit with the doing away of the weight of the H tags on Google. Instead, they’re saying “Hey, this piece of text is pretty big. That must be pretty important,” no weight of a tag in there whatsoever.

SEO in 2022 Prediction 5: Google will lose % points of it’s market share among Search Engines.

Of course, they’ll continue dominating of course by all accounts possible. So let’s not kid ourselves and believe that somebody is going to take over as the top search engine. Definitely not. But I think we’re going to see them slide back a couple of points as far as the percentage of what piece of the market dominance that they have two big reasons

First: Microsoft has done a very good job at making sure that they are pushing right up against the boundaries of copyright infringement to a certain degree. They are really trying their hardest to make sure that people think they’re on Google even though they’re on Bing. Then of course, factor in the fact that being is the default search engine on the default browser on the type of computer people mostly buy.

The second reason is the growing interest in more privacy focused search engines. The search engines like duck, duck go, come up out of the woodwork and we’re already starting to see that starting to grow in popularity.

I hope you found this helpful. I hope it gets you a little bit of food for thought as we’re moving into the great year, that’ll be 2022. Feel free to get in touch with any questions!