Technical SEO trends to follow in 2022

With a new year around the corner, it is time for you to evaluate your current SEO – more specifically, your technical SEO.

For some, this will be the first time you check in months, and for others, it will be the 1000th time in the last week.

Either way, this piece will highlight some of the most prevailing technical SEO trends to follow going into 2022, as the only thing better than keeping up with trends is getting ahead of the curve.

The Basics

The one thing that will never go out of fashion is the basics. If you haven’t perfected this, you shouldn’t even think about tackling anything else.

SEO isn’t linear but having the essentials down is a good way to cover all your bases and futureproof yourself against the changing tides of search engine algorithms, no matter how big they may be.

To actually name the fundamentals, they are:

Quick page load times
Responsive pages
Easy navigation
Safe and secure connections
Internal and external links
No broken links
Good URLs
Strong Domains
No duplicate content

These are the bare minimum to having a functioning website that has a chance of reaching the first page.

Going into 2022, some of these factors will only grow in significance due to Google’s increasing focus on user experience as a factor, so start working on them now.

Mobile-first SEO approach

Since 2018, Google has been incorporating mobile-first indexing into their algorithm, and there is no doubt this will continue into 2022.

This means that your website needs to be accessible and technically sound on mobile devices alongside desktop versions.

For pre-existing websites, this means maintaining good website speed, adapting content for a more compact screen and things of that nature.

However, new websites should follow the mobile-first approach, which means building your website for mobile devices and then adapting it for desktops.

As we said, it appeals to Google’s new way of doing things, but it also makes sure your website is usable on a broader range of devices instead of desktop, which only focuses on one type.

Furthermore, it forces you to be concise and concentrate on what is essential to a good user experience rather than overloading your desktop with features and content due to the abundance of space.

Mobile SEO has its own rules, but the fundamentals of good technical SEO still apply to it, so again be sure to tick them off first.

SEO Videos

Videos used to be an underrated component of SEO, but now they are picking up well-deserved traction.

A good video can do so much for you.

build links
increase exposure
increase conversions
Increase retention

And improving the overall user experience which we’ve established is increasingly more important.

Videos can be incorporated either by uploading the video to youtube (or any other video sharing platform) and embedding it to your page or by creating the video and directly incorporating it into your website.

Which one you should do depends on your goals as both of these come with compromises. For example, the youtube route may be better for exposure and link building but hosting your own video is significantly better for increasing conversion rate.

Using both isn’t too outlandish but this runs the risk of overloading your page, which is bad for user experience as it can slow down your website which is actually counterproductive.

In the past, the videos tab used to be populated almost exclusively by youtube videos, but as you can see, self-hosted videos now take up more of the space, making this ripe ground for companies to swoop in.

Even the ‘key moments’ feature is a testament to how much emphasis Google is starting to place on videos.

As I said, there are many ways to use it to your advantage, so you must set clear goals and know what you are working towards in order to choose the right way for your brand and avoid wasting resources.

Contextual Linking

This is an extension of internal and external linking, a technical SEO fundamental, but it is no longer enough to just have a large number of links.

They need to be meaningfully placed, each with a clear purpose.

Internal linking should be all about an intertwined but simple web of connections for users to follow.

When done correctly, it can make the web developer’s job easier as they can use these to guide the users instead of search bars or excessive menus that users have reported to be cumbersome.

To make your internal linking effective, you have to keep it natural, predict customer behaviour and choose the best anchor words AND phrases.

External links are just as important and should be chosen intentionally despite their different goals.

External linking is more about establishing credibility, which means you need to choose the right places to input authoritative and reliable sources.

You need to use a certain amount to benefit from the long-term effects for both types. Still, you can’t abuse it as too many can achieve the opposite effects, so be aware of how many you are using and remember – it’s quality over quantity.