Three SEO Content Tips For 2022

What should you be doing this year in terms of SEO and content? The landscape of digital marketing changes further with every passing year, so let’s take a look at how you can succeed in 2022. As there are plenty of articles already on digital marketing trends for every year, we’ve picked out just three tips to help you write successful SEO content.

1. Plan For Short Consideration Spans

It’s a common misconception that people have short attention spans these days when it comes to consuming media. The massive amount of content we can choose to spend our time watching or reading means that it’s true the competition for our attention has never been more fierce. But that doesn’t mean that people won’t spend a long time looking at your content, or that you should keep it short, because in fact, people still love long content (and so does Google). it’s not that we have a short attention span, but a short consideration span. With so much to look at, whether on social media, in our inboxes or in SERPs, there is only a short amount of time people will spend considering whether to stick with a piece of content before moving on. This doesn’t mean that people don’t want long-form content - if the content is great, then it can be as long as it needs to be. What it does mean is that your content needs to grab users’ attention quickly and make a great first impression so that they keep reading, watching and coming back to discover more of your content.

2. Target Topics, Not Just Keywords

We all know that the days of keyword stuffing are long gone. But did you know that there has also been a shift from simply targeting SEO keywords, to targeting entire topics? SEO best practice dictates that to optimise for a keyword, you should focus on one page for that keyword because you want to put your best page forward in the rankings, rather than several pages that may or may not help nudge users towards converting. However, one page per keyword doesn’t mean one keyword per page, and in fact, one page can - and often should - be used to target several related keywords. (Think how many similar pages you might end up with if that wasn’t the case!) This means that you may have one page that targets several related keywords or even an entire topic, and this is beneficial for several reasons. Firstly, it means that users can find relevant information all in one place, and it’s more likely that the page in question will be a comprehensive, long-form piece of content. Secondly, it means that you can mention several related or synonymous keywords that will all drive traffic from users who have searched for a variety of different but similar terms. But perhaps most importantly, it means that you’re giving Google and other search engine bots a wider context when they crawl your site. You’re telling them not only that the page is about one keyword you’ve targeted, but an entire topic and this can help to send more relevant traffic to your website and provide users with the relevant information they need. So next time you write a blog post or another piece of content, don’t just think about which keywords you want to use, but the topic you’re writing about as a whole, and how you can provide rich information around that.

3. Consider Search Intent

Search intent will continue to be an important part of SEO this year and it’s an essential factor when it comes to planning your content and SEO strategy. This means interrogating each keyword you research to discover the user intent behind it. For example, a user searching for “red shoes” may be in the market to buy, while someone searching for “best way to clean leather shoes” is looking for information or educational content. This should then inform which pages you use to target these keywords - after all, you wouldn’t want to send people looking for advice about a product they already own to a page where they can make a purchase (unless, in this case, you also sell shoe cleaner). Similarly, if someone is ready to buy, you’ll want to send them to a product page rather than a blog post. Wherever a user is within the buying process, we always want to bring them closer to purchase or repurchase, and this should factor into your SEO strategy - as well as the rest of your digital marketing system.

With these three tips in mind, 2022 should be the year for creating content that grabs users’ attention quickly, targets wider topics rather than just one or two keywords, and is aligned with the search intent of users - who may ultimately become happy and loyal customers.

If you would like any help creating and implementing a successful SEO strategy in 2022, get in touch with SilverDisc.