Is SEO Still Relevant in 2022? Here are 3 Reasons Why It Still Is!
We’ve come a long way since the early days of search engines: back then, websites simply relied on adding as many keywords as possible to their website in order to rank high in search engine results pages (otherwise known as SERPs). Now, however, search engines employ extremely technical and complex search engine optimization features that help them sift through quality content and display only the best websites for users.
But people argue: is SEO still even relevant in 2022? We have so many innovations now like video, AR, interactive content, and many more. Does it even make sense to implement certain practices that will help optimize your website, so it ranks higher on SERPs?
The answer is pretty simple: yes, SEO is still relevant in 2022. If anything, it is even more relevant now. Here are 3 big reasons why.
Content will Always Be King, and SEO Helps Keep it That Way
In marketing, the adage “content is king” has never been contested, and for good reason: it’s undeniably true. Even in 2022, where people are saying that data is superseding content as the most important technical aspect of marketing have it all wrong. Sure, you can use data to determine the kind of content your intended audience will enjoy, but at the end of the day, it’s the content you put out that people will engage with.
But what does SEO have to do with this? Well, SEO is what helps digital content achieve two things:
- It helps maintain a consistency of quality
- It helps search engines find quality content better
High quality content (or what Google calls ‘authoritative’ content) is usually content that is highly informative, value-adding (meaning it answers a customer’s pain points), backed up by legitimate sources, and drives a significant amount of traffic to a website. SEO comes in by ensuring that your keywords are placed in your content properly without ruining the content’s organic feel, not to mention ensures that photos, videos, and the general layout of your site is arranged in such a way that it makes it an enjoyable experience to your site visitors.
Voice and Image Search is Increasing
As of 2022, voice search, i.e., the use of automated speech recognition (ASR) software, makes up a whopping 41% of search volume in a single day. This makes it one of the most important ways that people access search engines. When using voice search, people will often use longer phrases rather than single words, which means that your SEO needs to adapt to this change by implementing longtail keywords and question keywords. Without a proper SEO campaign to account for this change, you’d be lost in page 3 of SERPs.
Meanwhile, Image Search is a still-experimental feature that search engines (particularly Google) will be rolling out post-2023. With Image Search, people can upload a photo to a search engine and the search engine uses an AI that goes through their index of websites to find a suitable match. Again, without a proper SEO campaign that helps you sort out and organize the visual components of your website, you’ll be left behind.
SEO Helps You Post Quality Content on Social Media
But it’s not just search engines like Google that are seeing a huge uptick in search volume: social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and even TikTok, have invested heavily in improving their search functions. As more and more people start joining these platforms, more and varied content start populating the social media business space, necessitating more complex and accurate search functions that can help people sift through the noise.
Social media platforms are a lot more discerning with the type of content people post, so if you use SEO best practices and a proper social media campaign, you’ll be able to rise above the competition and stand out in search results. The exact algorithms and signaling factors in social media search functions are different and a lot more complex, but certain key practices –like proper keyword usage and volume, optimized images (in terms of sizing), proper alt text, and everything else in between –are still good ideas to implement on social media platforms.
Let Top Results Consulting Help You Get to the Top!
Top Results Consulting is one of the most sought-after SEO consultants and digital marketing agencies in the United States. We pride ourselves of being subject-matter experts in what we do, and we want to share our knowledge with our clients! SEO is an ever changing field and we work hard to keep abreast with the latest news and developments in the entire digital marketing industry.
Want to learn more? Contact us today and we’ll book a one-on-one session with you and one of our digital marketing experts to determine the kind of service we can provide you and the help we can give to solve your unique business needs!
