We have created an updated version of this guide. Please refer to the post Guide for SEO in 2023 for updated information on how to rank your website to the top of Google in 2023.
This three part SEO guide is for you, the person asking this question, who want to become wiser about search engine optimization and how to get your website featured in search results in 2021.
But, before we go too much in depth with what you can do to search engine optimize your website, you get a definition of what SEO is and what it’s good for.
An introduction to SEO in 2022
SEO is a way to make your website more visible in search engines. The SEO techniques focuses on a website’s content and setup, also called on-site SEO, and also on internal and external links, which is called off-site SEO. We will deal with both on-site and off-site SEO in detail further down this article.
Search engine optimization is a continuous work, as a search engine ranking is dynamic and therefore under constant change. Therefore, it does not take much advantage of giving the site an SEO overhaul if work on the website’s content, links, and ability to engage the visitors is not continued. Search engine optimization is a continuous work which means, among other things, that many smaller companies outsource work to SEO agencies that are experts in the field. SEO can be a time-consuming work if you are not up-to-date with it’s know-how and it’s usually not worth hiring a person to dedicately work on it inhouse, if you are a small company.
If you have the expertise, on-site SEO is the area that is safest to invest internally in the company. However, large portions of off-site SEO will usually require experts. For both areas, however, it is important to have the expertise and resources to get around in all the habits in order to be able to do it yourself. The advantage of a agency is that there are several SEO specialists employed with different skills and specialists are working full time with their SEO campaigns so they can easily follow new updates and trends. This provides better prerequisites for creating an effective SEO strategy that makes a significant difference to the business.
If you have decided that you would like to try search engine optimizing your site yourself, Social SEO Team would like to help you get started. That is why we have written this article that gives you an overall knowledge of what it takes and where to spend your time when you need to search engine optimize your website.
SEO Trends For 2022
Google updates it’s algorithms and algorithms regularly.
Before you get started with your SEO campaign, it’s a good idea to get an insight into what Google accepts or penalizes when it comes to search engine optimization of your website. As you know, Google’s search engine builds on an algorithm that through keywords helps the user to find exactly what they’re looking for. It is important for Google that their users find value on the pages that appear at the top of the search results so users get a good experience using their search engine so that Google will remain the users preferred search engine. Unfortunately, it’s not always the case that users get valuable results when they make use of Google’s search engine. In the past, website owners found ways to manipulate Google’s algorithms so that their pages were unjustifiably published at the top of search results.
Impact of major Google algorithm updates in 2022
Major updates released by Google will continue to anaylze your website using 200+ different factors to position it ot the right positioning. However, as the technology progresses, these algorithm updates will become even more powerful in 2021. That’s why it’s important that you understand the basics of how these updates will affect website ranking on Google search listing.
Google Panda Update
Google’s algorithm called Panda deals with your website’s on-site value. The Panda was rolled out in February 2011 with the purpose of getting high quality pages to appear higher on Google as well as low-quality pages to shrink lower. This especially affected the types of websites that collect information from many different sources, often stolen from other websites, with the sole purpose of relying on many different keywords in search results. Google Panda, among other things, considers that the following creates poor value for the users: • Thin pages- A thin page is a page that creates very little value for the visitor. The page should not necessarily be in a certain number of words, but quite often a page with very few words rarely gives information. If you have many subpages on your website that contain only 1 to 2 sentences, you will almost certainly be penalized by Google Panda.
- Duplicate content – There are several types of duplicate content that could harm your website. One of them is if your website contains text copied directly from other websites. However, you may also encounter problems if you reuse your own content in several places on your website (read more about this under the Duplicate Content section).
- Low-quality content – When publishing content on your website, it is important that it is content that Google considers to be of high quality. Google has in the past advised website owners to post blog posts / news every day. But if the content you provide is of low quality, it does more harm than good (read more about good content in the Content section.
Google Penguin update
The Google algorithm Penguin was initially rolled out in April 2012. The purpose of Google Penguin is to reduce the trust some websites have achieved through cheating by creating unnatural links from external sources – also called spamdexing.
In short, Google Penguin focuses on getting websites that rank exclusively high on unnatural links to fall in ranking for those websites that have higher quality content as well as natural links from proper websites.
A natural link from a different website (external link) can be seen as a recommendation of your site. If a well-respected larger website links to your website, it therefore gives your website value and a higher trust with Google. Linking a smaller and unknown website to yours will also give a little value, but not nearly as much. However, the links from the small pages can make a big difference if you have many of them – and especially small-scale links play a major role in your overall link profile if these pages are relevant to your content (You can read more about external links under the Link Building section).
Google Phantom algorithm updates
Google Phantom was rolled out on June 2016 and, unlike Google Panda and Penguin, it is not a algorithm, but an addition to Google’s overall algorithm. Despite their differences, Google Panda and Phantom are very similar to each other. Both updates have the task of rewarding high quality pages and punishing pages of low quality so users only see results that are worthwhile for them.
Where Panda and Phantom differ from each other though is Phantom’s focus is on user behavior. Phantom’s primary focus is that user requests are met by relevant results that match what the user is looking for. This has also affected the way in which SEO professionals work with keywords: instead of focusing exclusively on implementing a specific keyword in a text, it now focuses on responding to what users request when entering a particular keyword in the search engine. This is a little more discussed under the Content section.
Phantom punishes websites that create a bad user experience in the form of click-bait and pop-up advertisements. This focus on user experience has Phantom in common with Google’s latest algorithm update, Fred, from March 2017. Peace goes for advertising heavy pages that earn earnings before the user experience, i.e. Websites that destroy the user experience through excessive amounts of advertisements. This is especially true for websites that at the same time have thin and bland content.
Google’s algorithms Panda and Penguin, as well as Google Phantom and Fred, try to fight what you call Blackhat SEO, where you manipulate and cheat on a better ranking in search results or push for just advertisements and spam. At Social SEO Team, we work exclusively with Whitehat SEO, and this article focuses on the same SEO practices. Whitehat SEO aims to create good content on a website and make sure it has an optimal setup that creates a good user experience and makes it easier for Google to identify your website and what it offers.
Here’s the list of main topics we are going to cover in our guide to SEO in 2022.
Guide for Keyword and competition Analysis in 2022
Search and analysis o relevant keywords should be at the fore front of any SEO campaign, if you are not careful with selection of the keywords to rank your website on Google for, you’ll have hard time getting right traffic to your website which can affect your business growth negatively. That’s wy we’ve created this in-depth keyword research guide for 2021 to help you select right keywords for your SEO campaigns.
2022- On-page SEO guide
Once you’ve completed keyword research and selected the right keywords for your campaigns, it’s time to optimize every page of your website to improve their relevancy in the eyes of Search engines. In our guide for on-page SEO in 2021, we will teach you how to optimize your website visually and technically to improve the user experience and also make it more accessible to Search engine robots.
2022 – Off-page SEO and Link building Guide
As we’ve mentioned many times in our previous SEO Guides, its very important to create high quality link building campaigns to improve off-page SEO for your website. The authority of your website is directly dependent on the number of pages that links to it, and authority of those pages. In Link building and off-page SEO guide for 2022, we will go through the process of link building in details to help you acquire quality links for your website.
In Conclusion
Content is is very important, but not a magic cure for all your SEO problems in 2022, It’s just one of the most important factors to improve the ranking of your website on Search engines. There are many avenues for success in the SEO field. Use our SEO guide for 2022 and dfiversify your strategy and you will inevitably find the strategy that works for you.
Last Updated on January 5, 2023 by Social SEO Team
