1. Core Web Vitals (SEO UX-Driven) and Core Website Experience.

Google has stated that website experience is a significant ranking factor, and they’re constantly looking for ways to measure it. In May 2021, they released the “Core Web Vitals” initiative, which comprises three key metrics: loading time, interactivity, and visual stability. These metrics will become increasingly important over the next year, so ensuring your website scores well on all three is essential. Google has stated that it will have ranking signals for page experience on desktop websites enabled by Feb 2022.

“A “page experience” is a group of indicators that evaluate how people feel about the pleasure of engaging with a web page across other dimensions. According to Google, this update “refines some aspects of the ad unit.” 

Aside from a variety of other variables, the update focuses on three factors of user experience known as “Core Web Vitals“: maximum contentful paint, cumulative layout shift and first input delay. The most important thing to remember is that these on-site components must be taken into account for the user experience to improve beyond EAT-based evaluation criteria.

2. EAT.

EAT stands for “Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness”. It’s a set of criteria that Google uses to evaluate websites, and it’s become increasingly important in recent years. If your website ranks well, you must ensure it meets all three criteria. Here’s a brief overview of each:

Expertise:

This is all about the quality of your content. Google wants to know that you’re an authority in your field and give valuable and accurate content. To show Google that you’re an expert, ensure your content is well researched and backed up by reputable sources; this will show Google that you know what you’re talking about and that you can be trusted.

Authoritativeness:

Authority is all about trust. Google wants to see that people trust you and your website. To build trust, make sure you’re providing accurate, reliable information. You can also build trust by linking to other reputable websites and by being active on social media. The more people trust you, the higher you’ll rank; this is why EAT is vital for SEO.

Trustworthiness:

This one is pretty self-explanatory. Google wants to make sure that your website is trustworthy. So to show Google that you’re trustworthy, ensure your content is accurate and up-to-date. You should also avoid making false claims or shady SEO practices. If you can show Google that you’re a trustworthy source of information, you’ll be more likely to rank well.

So if you want to rank well in 2022, ensure your website meets all three criteria of EAT.

3. Citations and Link Building.

Citations are mentions of your business on other websites. They’re important for SEO because they help Google verify your business exists, and they help improve your local SEO. Make sure your business is listed on popular directories like Yelp, Google My Business, and Bing Places to get citations. You can also build citations by getting mentioned in news articles, blog posts, and other online content.

On the other hand, link building is getting other websites to link to your website. This is important because links are one of the significant ranking factors in Google’s algorithm. 

The more high-quality links you have, the higher you’ll rank. To build links, create great content that other people will want to link to. You can also contact other website owners and ask them to link to your site. Quantity is also necessary for links, so don’t focus on quality to exclude quantity.

4. Voice Search.

Voice search is a relatively new technology, but it’s already having a major impact on SEO. With voice search, users can speak their queries into their devices instead of typing them out; this is important for SEO because it’s changing how people search. 

Voice searchers use natural language and are more likely to ask questions than typed searchers. This means that keywords are becoming less important, and content must be optimised for questions and long-tail keywords.

If you want to make your website responsive for voice search, ensure it’s well-researched and contains the answers to frequent queries in your field. It would help if you also focused on creating long-form content, as this is more likely to be featured in voice search results. Additionally, ensure your website is mobile-friendly, as most voice searches are done on mobile devices.

5. Low-Quality Links, Spam, Stuffing, Cloaking, and Other “Toxins”

Google has redoubled its efforts to exclude websites that use “spammy” optimisation tactics. In November 2021, Google modified its algorithm. And this was preceded by the June/July core updates, which were focused on reducing low-quality information. Deceptive SEO techniques are known as “toxins.” They represent questionable tactics that go against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

Avoid the following five methods to ensure that your website is secure:

Low-quality links:

These are links from spammy websites or websites that don’t have much relevance to your site. Google has said that low-quality links are a significant ranking factor. So if you want to rank well, ensure you’re only getting links from high-quality websites.

Cloaking:

This is a black-hat SEO technique where website owners show different content to users and search engines; this is done to manipulate the search engine results. But it’s a major violation of Google’s guidelines and can result in a penalty.

Keyword stuffing:

Keyword stuffing is stuffing keywords into your content to manipulate the search engine results. It’s a severe infraction of Google’s standards and might result in a penalty.

Heavy ad design:

Websites overloaded with ads are often penalised by Google because they provide a poor user experience and often try to game the system by cramming in too many ads.

Duplicate content:

Google penalises websites with duplicate content because it’s interpreted as a try to game the system, which confuses customers. So if you have duplicate content on your website, remove it or canonise it.

So those are some of the major changes in SEO in recent years. As you can see, the landscape is constantly changing, and staying up-to-date on the latest trends is essential if you want to rank well on Google.