A new year calls for new SEO tips, and while we might be late to the party, we still made it. 2022 is already shaping up to be a big year for SEO, and with more updates on the way, you want to make sure that your business is ready to handle anything that Google has in store. To ensure that you get the best out of your SEO practices this year, we have compiled a list of tips based on expert opinion. And the first thing you would want to get underway in 2022 is:
A/B Testing: A/B testing, also known as split testing, compares two versions of a web page to see which one performs better. By creating two versions of a page and testing them against each other, you can determine which version is more effective at achieving your desired goal, whether it’s more clicks, sign-ups, or purchases. Your users are unique, have a unique taste, and react to changes differently. These can become a massive barrier when implementing certain changes, especially those related to user experience. And the best way to make sure that whatever you are doing sits well with your customers is to implement A/B testing.
Author Pages: Google has already updated its advice on author pages and schema markup. This means that if you haven’t already, you need to set up author pages on your website and add schema markup to your content. This change was first announced in December 2020, but it’s still not too late to get on board.
Bing Webmaster Tools: While most people focus on Google for SEO, Bing is the second-largest search engine globally, with a market share of 12.59%. And if you want your website to rank well on Bing, you need to make sure that you submit your site to their webmaster tools and follow their guidelines.
Google Title Rewrites: In February 2021, Google announced that they would be rewriting titles in the search results to match user queries better. This means that your title tags need to be well-optimized and accurately reflect the content on your page.
Getting rid of the fluff: We can’t believe we are talking about this in 2022. Many businesses make the mistake of stuffing their content with keywords in an attempt to rank higher. But not only is this practice no longer effective, it can actually hurt your rankings. Google’s algorithms are now sophisticated enough to determine when a page is trying to game the system, and you will be penalized for it. So, instead of keyword stuffing, focus on creating high-quality, relevant, and informative content that will help your website stand out from the rest.
Gated Content: Gated content is content that is behind a paywall or requires some sort of registration to access. While this can be effective in generating leads, it can also hurt your SEO. This is because gated content is not accessible to crawlers, so it cannot be indexed or ranked by search engines. If you have gated content on your website, make sure you have an alternate version available to everyone.
Faceted Navigation: Faceted navigation is a method of organizing and filtering search results. It allows users to narrow down their options by choosing from various criteria, such as price, color, size, etc. While this can be helpful for users, it can also be detrimental to your website’s SEO. This is because faceted navigation can create duplicate content issues, which can hurt your ranking. If you have faceted navigation on your website, make sure to properly tag and label your pages to avoid penalties.
Hreflang Tags: Hreflang tags are used to indicate the language and region. They are important for international SEO as they help search engines determine which version of a page should be shown in which location. If you have a multi-lingual website, make sure to implement hreflang tags to avoid any penalties properly.
Deep Linking: Deep linking means linking to internal pages on your website instead of just your home page. This is important for SEO as it helps search engines index your website more effectively and allows users to directly access the content they are looking for.
Reduce Redirects: Redirects are used to send users from one URL to another. While they are important for various reasons, they can also hurt your website’s SEO. Each time a user is redirected, it takes longer for them to reach the final destination, which can lead to a higher bounce rate.
There is no telling what update Google will roll out next. The best we can do is cover our bases and hope that whatever’s in store will not disrupt our SEO goals of 2022. While we have listed some tips to help you get started, this is not all. The more you learn about SEO, the more there is to do. So, make sure you do your research and continue plugging at your SEO efforts
