At the request of WirtualneMedia.pl, Bluerank summarizes the past year in SEO / SEM and the mobile segment, analyzing the most important events, changes and trends of the past year, and wonders what 2022 will bring.
The event of the year
The SEO area was full of all kinds of events this year. Eight confirmed algorithmic changes, three unconfirmed and probably hundreds (or maybe even thousands) of minor adjustments that require processing huge amounts of data to be noticed, BERT, MUM, Core Web Vitals.
If I were to point to one event of the year, it would probably be Core Web Vitals implementation. Not because it was the biggest or most serious change, but because the password became the second year of mobile (and not surprisingly, because global mobile traffic accounts for about 54% of all Internet traffic). While Google was cleverly trying to show that website owners should focus on mobile platforms and pay more attention to user expectations and experiences, the communication of this initiative in the media suggested that the Internet might end. Core Web Vitals, which, contrary to many, did not turn our industry upside down, but definitely influenced the scope of work carried out in the area of SEO and SXO.
Core Web Vitals has expanded the scope of SEO work to include important and valuable UX areas, but also set a certain direction for the next year (and maybe even years). A direction with an even stronger focus on intentions, managing user expectations, building long-term trust and monolithic authority.
However, it is hardly surprising. After all, over 92% of mobile traffic is generated thanks to the Google platform.
Data sources:
% Mobile Traffic: https://www.statista.com/
Google mobile market share: https://www.netmarketshare.com/
The most important trends in 2021, the trend for 2022
I think here we will quite smoothly enter 2022 with trends dominating or starting to dominate in 2021. In one breath: AI, intentions and UX. The amount of data we analyze and the need to identify and understand the intentions and needs of users require the use of tools based on the latest technological solutions. In the past, Excel was enough for us to analyze data, today we continue this path with the use of AI. And this trend will not slow down for sure.
Let’s not forget about cooperation as well. Each subsequent year will deepen, so that the synergy between SEO and other channels, such as PPC or PR, will be stronger and stronger.
What has the pandemic changed in my industry in 2021?
I would like to list quite a lot of items, because it changed quite a lot. And while the pandemic generates many challenges and additional difficulties, it also forced some valuable changes. For example, the aforementioned emphasis on UX, which in our industry has never been as strong as it is today, and ensuring that the user does not abandon the site during the purchasing process (as a user, I really appreciate any changes that make shopping easier for me). We saw a significant reduction in operating budgets in the industry in 2020, a period that I do not need to remind anyone. On the other hand, 2021 shows that online is doing better than ever. We see an extremely fast development of the entire e-commerce market, an increase in investments in modern solutions based on AI, NLP or simply … faster and faster purchases (deliveries to the door even a few hours after placing an order!).
The turn of many companies towards strong and decisive actions in the Web definitely paid off (just look at the financial results of LPP), but at the same time, the pandemic forced many companies to invest heavily in the online sales channel to fight for the customer. In an environment where the competition is getting stronger and more and more – it is not easy.
And this is important because, according to a study prepared by Gemius, as many as 77% of Internet users have made online purchases at least once in 2021.
There is also a spoon of tar in all of this, because one cannot fail to mention the difficulties in comparing or forecasting data due to the anomaly of the previous year and the unpredictability of changes in trends or the need to very quickly adapt to changing conditions. These are challenges that did not exist a few years ago. For this reason, SEO teams should have specialists with competences in the areas of UX, Data Science and programming.
The biggest challenge for 2022
Undoubtedly, it will be comparing and forecasting data and building unique competences in SEO Teams. I cannot fail to mention the adaptation to changing conditions – primarily algorithmic, but also pandemic or social situations. In the past, isolating changes made by Google was not complicated enough, but now the complexity of Google’s systems … is unimaginable. This will have an impact on many areas of SEO, but probably the strongest in planning and creating valuable content. I used the word break on purpose, because just look at how massive the competition is in each industry. Did I mention the intentions? 😊
SEO is becoming an increasingly complex process year by year. The need to focus strongly on profitability and monetization due to the rising costs of SEO activities will force increasing efficiency or searching for a deeper business justification for the proposed marketing activities.
Originally published by Bluerank as “Podsumowanie roku w SEO/SEM i segmencie mobile“
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