Google changes its algorithm on a regular basis, and every now and then they release a more substantial update that aims to improve how it ranks various criteria in its search results. Google’s algorithm updates are aimed at improving user experience and assisting people in finding the information they need as quickly as possible. Partnering with a reliable organic SEO company will help your business to keep up with the changes in Google algorithm.
The biggest change in Google algorithm in 2021 was the Page Experience update that included the Core Web Vitals introduced a few months back. It aimed at improving the user experience. Since the rollout of Core Web Vitals, many write-ups and instructions were published all over the internet about how to modify websites to meet the new standards. The main focus was on mobile friendliness and everyone was making efforts to optimize their website for mobile phones. Some inexperienced web masters considered Core Web Vitals as the new key ranking factor for web pages. This is one of the misconceptions that circulated in 2021 and such misconceptions may be around in 2022 also regarding what could be good or bad for SEO.
It is important to understand some of the myths surrounding Google’s bigger and more mainstream 2021 updates. Here is a not-so-SEO checklist for 2022 that you should consider:
- Never give importance to Core Web Vitals over quality content: It is obvious that Core Web Vitals are important elements that your website should be optimized for in 2022. The Core Web Vitals are the metrics of your website’s largest contentful paint, initial input display, and cumulative layout shift. These are the elements of your website that load first and allow users to engage with it during the first few milliseconds of their visit. According to logic, the longer your site takes to load, the worse the user experience will be.This information is not new. We have all heard about page speed and how it affects search engine optimization. We also understand how critical it is that your Core Web Vitals work well on mobile, which accounts for over 60 percent of all Google searches. Google takes its Core Web Vitals so seriously as a ranking factor that a CWV report can now be found in Google Search Console, and CWV metrics can now be found in Page Speed Insights results. It’s because Google has clearly indicated that having a top-of-the-line page experience does not outweigh generating quality content.In SEO, content is still king. One of the most important ranking elements is being informative and answering the user’s questions. As a result, it’s a common misconception that Google will not rank you well until all of your Core Web Vitals are in good shape. Having an outstanding online content and optimized Core Web Vitals will help you perform better in organic search than a page without strong Core Web Vitals. In 2022, focus on your Core Web Vitals, but first create a strong content marketing strategy.
- Don’t assume that your affiliate product-review website is in jeopardy: Another misunderstanding that may have arisen as a result of a Google upgrade in 2021 is that affiliate sites, particularly product-review sites, were in a difficult situation following the April Product Reviews update. The goal of the update was for Google to favor in-depth and useful product reviews above spammy and vague reviews. To put it another way, it is like higher-quality material will triumph in organic search. If there was ever a time when running a dishonest, low-quality affiliate site with nonsense product reviews that were then essentially pushed out to thousands of people made sense, Google’s April 2021 product reviews upgrade started to put an end to that.The search engine now prioritizes long-form, elaborate reviews, which are more likely to earn the user’s trust and confidence. These are the types of affiliate material that will profit from Google’s upgrade, while spammy websites will continue to fall out of the top rankings. As a result, we can put to rest the myth that the update would harm good, honest, and hard-working affiliate product reviewers. You may have even noticed your rankings rising since April 2021 if you are delivering something relevant and legitimately valuable to users.
- Don’t count on Google to rewrite all of your titles: The last and final misconception that should be dispelled is the notion that you need not bother with your pages’ title tags because Google will rewrite them all in keeping with its title tag rewrite campaign in August 2021. Back in August, SEOs all throughout the industries began to notice that their page names were being rewritten, i.e., not as they had originally written them.Google soon admitted to altering page titles, but only for those it deemed to be truly ineffective in terms of user experience. Those ineffective title tags, according to Google, included ones that were loaded with keywords, unnecessarily long, boilerplate across a website, or simply missing.However, SEOs noted that title tags that appeared to be SEO-optimized were still being altered, and the new titles weren’t always derived directly from the original title. Sometimes, like Google has been doing since 2012, semantics is used to rewrite a title to make it more descriptive or better. In other circumstances, Google’s new titles were derived from H1 content, body text, or anchor text in backlinks.Google saw these efforts as a wonderful way to improve user experience during searches, and it still does. Many SEOs, on the other hand, did not view it that way, especially since Google’s rewrites were occasionally to blame for traffic losses. To put it straight, the change caused such a stir in the SEO world that Google explained their move just a month later, in September 2021. Google stated in a blog post that it uses marketers’ title tags 87 percent of the time (up from just 80 percent in August) and rewrites to improve the other 13 percent which include too-short titles, outdated titles, boilerplate titles, and erroneous titles. So now, it is a common misconception that writing title tags beyond August 2021 is a waste of time. Google isn’t interested in rewriting your title tags. They want you to create high-quality page titles on your own that are descriptive, accurate, and useful.
If you give users what they want, Google will ignore your titles. However, if you stuff a bunch of keywords in there or use boilerplate titles throughout your site, you can expect Google to clean it up for you. In SEO, title tags are quite important. Do not believe that your efforts are in vain because of the shift in 2021. You should be alright if you focus on developing title tags that are relevant to users.
Knowing misconceptions such as these is important to avoid pitfalls in 2022. You can associate with a reliable provider of affordable digital marketing services that can help you follow the guidelines, optimize for Core Web Vitals the right way, and enable you to perform well in the coming years.
