In honour of the end of 2022 (I’m lying, this is a long text), I will summarise what I believe are the most important guidelines to ensure you don’t lose your way in search engine optimisation. I’ve also added a bonus tip that was particularly relevant in 2022.

From a search engine optimisation perspective, 2022 has been intriguing. Over the past year, Google Search has released more than 20 major updates. For those interested in minutiae, a complete list of updates can be found here. If SEO is your thing, follow the Search Central Blog occasionally to keep up to date.

One of the freshest trends that emerged this year is the use of images in Google Search. In addition, speed, search intent, and trustworthiness have become more significant in search engine optimisation.

Next, I’ll briefly cover each of these topics. After that, I will delve deeper into each of my tips and provide practical advice at the end of the blog on how to quickly discover new perspectives with the camera on your phone.

Website Speed and Usability

This isn’t a new topic, but as a rule, your website must be developed to be faster. Don’t forget maintenance! An introduction to this topic can be found in this old blog post.
TL;DR Ensure your website’s Core Web Vitals metrics show green in Google Search Console. 

> Click here to read more about this

Search Terms and Search Intent

Intent? Intention? Essentially the same, but it's an interesting combination of traditional keyword analysis seasoned with the leg length of the search terms and the searcher’s potential purchasing intent ;)

TL;DR Identify the question posed to Google and answer it correctly. Ensure your website’s metadata is in order and that you have utilised microdata in your product information.

> Click here to read more about this

Trustworthiness (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)

Google assigns each domain a ranking score based on the site’s trustworthiness and credibility. High trust is earned in Finland by sites like Wikipedia and Yle, while online stores making empty promises sink into oblivion. TL;DR Your content must be produced by experts and be trustworthy. Ideally, you would be cited outside of your website, which is always a good thing!

> Click here to read more about this

Bonus! Visual Searches on Google

I’m not referring to reverse image searches, but to what the smartphone camera and Google Lens service can perform!
> Read more and test it out! 

Keep Your Website Speed in Check

One of the biggest updates to Google's search algorithm was the Core Web Vitals update, making site speed measurement an essential element of technical SEO.

Think of technical SEO like a car; if a seemingly impressive vehicle has an underpowered engine, it won’t surpass others in the fast lane.

The more critical your website is to business, the more essential it is for your site to load at lightning speed. 

According to Google research, a one-second improvement in site speed can boost conversion rates by 27%. The positive impact on mobile use (around 70% of users) is even more significant. 

Essentially, Google measures your site’s load speed. But it also detects structural changes or delays in the interface post-load that could ultimately cause user issues.

The Google Search Console tool is crucial for identifying problem areas. While using the GSC itself doesn’t require special skills, interpreting and correcting detected issues does need a web developer’s expertise.

In the example, the overall picture of the website (for mobile devices) is reasonably good, but the Core Web Vitals report shows red.

A deeper dive reveals issues with the LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) report. Practically, this problem relates to the first “viewport” loading of individual pages, which according to Google's prescribed thresholds should occur in less than 2.5 seconds.

In such a situation, the web developer must examine the Lighthouse report in more detail and develop a solution based on data (e.g., image optimisation, code minimisation, etc.). 

This blog post allows you to delve deeper into interpreting Lighthouse report results and provides tips for resolving issues.

Recognise Search Intent and Structure Content

Website content is essential. “Content is King,” as Bill Gates said in 1996, and it still holds true – Google's bot army visits your website several times a week and notes every small update you make.

A business website should be a goldmine of content for its respective industry, with no restrictions on content length. Google still appreciates long articles, but they must be well structured to make the information more organised and serve different types of readers better.

What is Search Intent?

The SEMRush service also explores this topic, but it’s essentially Google’s interpretation of the underlying (likely) intent behind a specific search query, which can be classified into three different categories depending on perspective:

1. Navigational Intent

The need behind the search is to reach service X from Google. Practically, the search terms directly refer to the service provider’s name, as who today would bother typing a full web address, especially if it’s lengthy and the search is done on a smartphone.

Although a large portion of searches are done with brand keywords, generic terms may also be included. For example, taking a “lazy” search term like “used cars,” which is searched about 10,000 times a month in Finland. Likely, the players in the TOP10 are strong, and many left behind want to join the competition.

You’ll do better on Google when… your website is well organised structurally and has clear landing pages for essential search terms. Also, ensure you have used structured data in all content.

2. Informational Intent

The user seeks information on subject X. They will likely ask a question and want a straightforward answer. 

The clearest example of a question-and-answer setup is a recipe. Let’s ask Google how to cook porridge:

This way, you can start your morning porridge straight through Google. The content is concisely formatted with a clear structure. This type of information is easy to comprehend at a glance and fits on a small mobile device screen.

Continuing with the car example by asking “best electric car.” In this case, we end up inevitably in “TM-tests” type content, taking the user one step further toward a purchase decision. 

You’ll do better on Google when… you know what searches and questions your customers make on Google. The aforementioned structured data greatly aids. With the SEMRush tool, you can easily identify different questions and keyword variations.

3. Commercial Intent + Transactional Intent

SEMRush differentiates these two stages, but from my perspective, the boundaries are blurred. Often in these stages, service providers are compared and it's crucial to recognise that a potential customer is ready to purchase, making the positioning of the product/service high in Google’s search results critical.

Searches may feature “X vs. Y” type terms and direct “buy XYZ” keywords, but often one generic-sounding term might imply an intention to purchase the product.

You’ll do better on Google when… you offer tight facts; pricing, availability, tabular, and comparative data, along with enriched product information. Not forgetting an easy path to purchase the product if the customer does make a decision then and there!

Good tools for optimising content are SEMRush or AHREFS. These will delve into your own – and your competitors’ – search engine visibility and identify search phrases relevant to your business.

Authority, Trustworthiness, and Expertise of the Website

A longstanding cornerstone of search engine optimisation is the concept of Backlinks. (I just made one towards Wikipedia). 

When domain A links to domain B, a backlink is created. When B starts getting hundreds of links, B becomes an authority because it’s heavily referenced. Google notices this and the context of such citations. If A and B both link to each other, both benefit. 

I'll use the automotive industry as an example again. A singular car dealership would be thrilled if Tekniikan Maailma linked to its used car selection. 

But what if B gets links from source Ö, which is seen by Google as a notorious spam site. This isn’t good for B, and Ö needs to be disavowed in Google’s view.

Backlinks have a bit of a bad reputation because they have historically been easy to purchase from so-called link-farming entities, sometimes even successfully. This is not a shortcut to success. 

– Tsk-tsk, if you’ve done so! Links must be earned, not bought.

Create Such Good Content That You're Referenced

Earlier I elaborated on structured content production and mentioned that long-form content remains favourable to Google. It's magnificent if a company can summarise its offerings into one headline, but behind it must be knowledge, professionalism, and vision in a multimedia form!

Content production is easy to outsource, but be sure to verify that the writer knows what they’re talking about.

Aim to be a reliable source of information in your industry!

Bonus - Visual Image Search

Admittedly, many searches are still conducted using a keyboard, but features based on AR technology are inevitably a part of the future. Have you used your smartphone’s camera for Google searches? If not, many others have, since Google Lens has been used over a billion times. 

Many are familiar with using the camera for text scanning and translations, but the Google app on a smartphone can find visual matches via image search and, in the best cases, link directly to the online store selling the product. 

Try it: take a photo, perhaps of a coffee cup on your desk, using the Google app and see which online shop sells the same (or at least the same-looking) mug.

Visual search serves many different situations:

• Product information

• Route searches and landmark recognition

• Text recognition and translations

• Recipes

I’ve been marvelling at the internet and digital marketing communications for over 20 years. Progress evolves, and the pace accelerates, but the traditional spreadsheet remains in the toolkit. At Crasman, I lead a rapidly growing interdisciplinary data team with a mission to bring facts to the table and drive out the “gut-feel” types from the conference room. If data-driven growth, development, or optimisation interests you, get in touch!

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