Predictions for the years 2021 and 2022 in SEO

What's new with everyone? And thank you for visiting Hack My Growth. In this video, we'll take a look back at the year 2021 and see how it influenced SEO.

We're going to look through some of my predictions from last year, and I'll make some new ones for the year 2022.

My SEO Predictions for 2021

So, as we near the close of another incredible year, we're going to take a look back at 2021 and conduct a year in review, and I'm going to make some predictions for 2022 in the world of SEO,as we always do on this channel.

So the first thing I want to do is go back to 2021 and check how well I predicted. Please leave a comment below if you disagree with any of my rankings. I'd love to hear your feedback to see how I fared this year,but since I'm alone in my office, I'm going to grade myself.

And my initial prediction was that natural language would become more widely used within Google, NLP, NER, and NLU. I also predicted that the value of links in the search ranking algorithm would continue to decline. I expected that there would be a lot of turbulence in the news findings, as well as a rise in direct responses.Finally, we should expect an increase in search across Google's competitors.

Prediction 1: NLP, NER, and NLU will grow in popularity.

So, in terms of natural language extension, name, entity, recognition, and natural language understanding, I feel I was spot on. So we saw the introduction of MUM this year, which is a really complex model, and we have a whole video on MUM that you can watch on this channel as well, and this will allow Google to better grasp context across many content kinds. It's been rolling out for a while now.

It began to roll out just a few months ago, and it will continue to do so for the rest of the year.

It's based on the T5 text to text transfer transformers, and it'll take search to a whole new level in terms of what users can accomplish, as well as how we can better interpret search queries.

Prediction 2: The Value of Links Will Depreciate

The second reason is that links would lose their value. Now I'm going to say that this is just partially true. I don't believe it was 100 percent accurate. Now, good links are still quite valuable. Although links are definitely a ranking factor, spam links took a significant knock in 2021. When people perform link building, they frequently do so in a spammy manner. We used to spend a lot of time creating links. We have films on this channel regarding link building, and there is still usefulness in link building in some cases, but in 2021,we saw three very focused adjustments for link spams.

Now, I believe links are valuable, but even at our agency, we are seeing a lot of other things that produce a far larger ROI today than links. Links used to be a game-changer, but they aren't the same anymore, and it's also crucial to remember that not all links are made equal. I'll give myself a partially true rating, but if you disagree, please leave a comment below. That is something I would want to discuss with you.

Prediction 3: In the News Results, 'Rank Turbulence'

In the news, rank the turbulence. We saw it not only on the news, but on every channel as well, so this is just a snapshot of the last 30 days as we're preparing this video. And, as you can see, for the past 30 days, we've seen either high or very high fluctuation. It's only been a few days since it's been pleasant. So, not only do we see it in the news results, which is correct, but we've also seen it throughout the most of the year on every other channel.

Prediction #4: The number of 'Direct Answers' will rise.

Increase the number of direct responses. On this, I'm going to give myself a bogus rating. Now, as you can see, we're comparing organic and SERP features, and I focused on SERP features that included featured snippets because it's a more immediate response. And we'd see 82.7 percent of ordinary organic results in 2020, as you can see here. All of these are different types, perhaps just with featured snippets or with video, and individuals were also polled, so look at the percentages.

However, as you can see, it was 82.6 percent of the time when it came to organic results plus featured snippet. Last year, 82.7 percent of the total was organic against the other options. Now, we did see some areas improve, organic featured snippets improve, people also asked, so we did see some growth in some other areas, but it wasn't enough for me to say that yes, I was 100 percent correct because the organic results plus feature snippets and videos, all these different features, we didn't really see a massive change across the board,especially if we just looked at maybe the feature snippets themselves here.

As you can see, we'd get 95% of the results plus a feature snippet instead of just the organic. Then, if we go back and look, because this data is only from November 2020, I want to make sure I'm doing everything at the same time. It isn't a significant change. It's almost completely flat.

Prediction #5: Increased Search Across Google's Rivals

As a result, a rise among Google's competitors. Now I'll say correct, and the reason for this is Google's enormous market share. Despite the fact that billions of people use search engines, their use has decreased. They fell from 92.16 percent to 91.4 percent, and as you can see, Bing gained ground while Yahoo remained flat, because, let's face it, it's just not the search engine of choice. Baidu has gained some ground. Duck Duck Go wasn't as weighty as Duck Duck Go. I expected it to expand significantly, especially with the amount of advertising they've been doing recently.

Then Yandex started to gain traction, but there was a little more fluctuation here. Google continues to be the market leader. We're still shooting for a 90% market share. However, as a result of this, competitors are beginning to push back. In the past year, we've seen Bing grow in this area.

Significant Changes at Google in 2021

To say that Google has had a busy year would be an understatement; we've seen a number of both verified and unconfirmed ranking modifications throughout the year, and I've just included a few of them here as a sample of what we've seen so far. As I make this video, December is almost over, and I wouldn't be surprised if we have a few more as the year progresses.

It began in January with some unverified information. We witnessed passage ranking in February. We had the review ranking in April. It was particularly active in June. There was a first core update, a start to the page experience, and two anti-spam improvements.

We did another core upgrade in July, as well as a link spam update. On the 17th, we witnessed Google perform the H1 title switch. The page experience went live in September. In September and October, we received a number of unconfirmed updates. On November 3rd, we received our third anti-spam upgrade of the year, as well as our third core update. Then it was recently announced that Google was performing a local search update from November 30th to December 8th. Then there was the so-called product review update on December 2nd.

So these are just a few of the highlights from 2021, which has been an absolutely insane year for SEO. And, as you can see, the sheer volume of these updates has blown my mind time and time again.

As SEOs, we must pay attention to these modifications to ensure that we're doing the right things, that we have a good foundation, and that our sites are optimised first and foremost for our users, while also ensuring that the search engines understand who we are as a company.

Prediction for the year 2022

So, let's have a look at my 2022 predictions.

1. Artificial Intelligence and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are Here to Stay

First and foremost, AI and SEO are here to stay. MUM has just added another layer to the already AI-driven search landscape, and I expect Google, Bing, and the other search engines to keep pushing AI forward with new features.

I believe the most common application will be in subject exploration, with the goal of keeping people on search engines longer and providing them with a better user experience within search engines where they can bounce between different pieces of content and dig deeper right within the search results.

2. Google will expand its own search footprint.

I believe that Google will continue to increase its own search presence. This is something we've seen for a few years, and I believe they'll continue to push in this direction, especially as more multimedia material ranks in search.

So stuff like YouTube and Google pictures, as well as all of the other Google properties, will be more visible in Search. I mean, Google My Business is quickly becoming the central hub for local businesses, to the point that you don't even need to visit their websites.

As a result, SEOs will need to branch out and ensure that they are present on these other platforms, as well as optimising for them, in order to control visibility across all of them.

3. Google will continue to release updates on a regular basis.

I believe Google will continue to release updates on a regular basis. As you can see, there were a lot of improvements, and those are only a few of the high-level ones I included in that list for 2021, and I believe this is the standard. I believe it will be just as active, if not more, in 2022. And if you stick to the trends, if you keep trying to outsmart Google, you'll lose.

Make certain that you have a solid foundation. The webmaster guidelines must be followed. We have a video on webmaster guidelines and what you should do to ensure that your site has a solid base.

Follow SEO best practises and give your users a lot of value. You'll be successful. Fluctuation is unavoidable; it's the nature of the beast. However, if you play the game correctly, you will win.

4. Google's SERP Features Will Be Expanded

Number four, I believe that the SERP features, including adverts, will be expanded. I believe Google will add additional SERP features to the results to make them more interactive and interesting, as we discussed previously. However, I believe they will use a lot more of this space for advertising.

In many cases today, you won't find an organic listing above the fold; instead, you'll have to scroll down through all of the advertisements at the top, any of the knowledge panels on the side, the highlighted snippet, and the 'People Also Ask' to see the organic listings. As a result, SEOs and marketers will need to collaborate in order to increase visibility in the SERPs.

5. Google will add user data to its Knowledge Graph.

Finally, I believe Google will include user data into its knowledge graph. This is a leap for me, but I believe structured data has progressed far enough, and that enough people are adopting and using schema.org in the appropriate way, that Google may now use the connected open data from these sites to better inform their own knowledge graph.

I believe they're probably doing it right now, but they want to make sure the data is reliable, authoritative, and comes from a reputable source (EAT signals).

As site owners begin to use and publish more linked open data, and we move closer to a true semantic web, I believe Google will be able to leverage this much more deeply, allowing site owners who have built structured websites and structured content to influence not only their knowledge panels, but a lot more features within the search results.

Important Points to Remember

That's all there is to it, guys. We've done a 2021 summary. It's been a wild year, but I'm excited to see all the new developments we'll see in 2022, which will keep us on our toes and help keep SEO and the search community alive. Because, really, the more changes there are, the more job security we all have, and the more opportunity we all have to grow, expand, and try new things, which is what makes this area so fascinating and exciting.

Please leave a comment below if you have any questions about anything we discussed today. We'd want to continue talking with you about it. Please, if you have any insights you'd like to share with the community, please do so. Make sure you subscribe since we publish fresh articles every week to assist you in getting the most out of your digital marketing efforts. And until next time, good luck with your marketing.