The US alone is home to between 31 and 32 million small businesses. Of course, over the last few years, a number of small businesses that largely shunned the Internet took their businesses online. Not only does this mean a sharper competitive environment, but it also means a larger group of people who need to keep their eyes on SEO marketing trends.
For the small business owner, keeping your SEO house in order and up-to-date can mean the difference between fresh customers and stronger competitors. If you’re wondering what trends you’ll see everywhere in the coming year, keep reading for 2022 trends not to miss out on.
Back To Basics
The chase for ever-newer and ever-shinier SEO marketing methods means new website owners in particular end up missing out on the basics. After all, getting your site set up for IndexNow won’t help much if your website falls down on the essentials.
So, what are the basics you should watch out for? Some of the key areas include:
- Image optimization
- Functional Redirects
- Page Speed
- Sitemap
- Keyword Selection
Rather than thinking of these as optimization methods, you should consider them the basic bar you must meet just to get started in SEO.
Content Marketing
If you want to make any headway at all with SEO, you must give some thought to content marketing trends. A big part of how search engines rank your pages depends on killer content. This is especially true in terms of your blog and any video content.
What makes for killer content? Your content must prove relevant to your audience. Irrelevant content won’t move the needle no matter how elegantly written.
Useful content like how-to articles is excellent for content marketing. In the end, though, you need a strategy for generating this killer content on a regular basis.
Keep the EAT approach in mind as well. Good content provides expertise, demonstrates authority, and builds trust in the audience.
Third-Party Services
The rush of new businesses entering the online sphere will mean that third-party SEO services will end up a trend you see everywhere. Small business owners will need marketing industry experts to help shore up their own lack of knowledge about online marketing.
While some of those business owners may eventually move away from third-party services as they gain experience, it’s a trend that won’t go away anytime soon. For many business owners, the lack of experience and time limitations will likely make it more cost-effective to simply keep those services in place.
SEO Marketing Trends and You
While there are a lot of potential SEO marketing trends in the air right now, such as AI, interactivity, and brand optimization, most of those apply to businesses with an advanced SEO system in place already.
For business owners relatively fresh to the world of SEO and online marketing, the trends to focus on are more foundational. That means things SEO essentials, content marketing, and hiring SEO specialists.
Looking for more SEO advice and tips? Check out the posts in our SEO section.