SEO Insights for 2022 - Things to focus on in 2023

Consumer behavior has evolved in multiple dimensions. The pendulum of marketing doesn’t rest at a single end but is in continuous movement. What works for someone may not work for others, or what was once a proven method may no longer be an effective one. Things evolve, and sometimes they are visible, but there are times when everything seems to be static, but in actuality, they aren’t; even microscopes fail to monitor the changes taking place. Marketing isn’t alien, but the methods involved in it have further solidified the rampant modifications taking place. Search engine optimization isn’t the same as it was once. Backlinks are one example, an inbound link on any website was considered a great ranking factor, but now the links from quality and authoritative sites are considered to be good; otherwise, your website is destined to be doomed. 

In 2022, some significant changes have taken place, and google has surely turned things difficult for the marketers but is trying to escalate things to a whole new level for the users by providing them with a smooth and trustable experience. Especially the content update in which AI-generated content was completely annihilated from the spectrum. Previously, the blurriness on the horizon about AI-generated content is now completely cleared by Google. The search engine giant will only rank the web pages that provide quality and freshly written content. 

This blog post is specially curated to look back at the SEO insights for 2022 to look forward to the things to focus on in 2023. 

Product Reviews Update 

Google has always stood at the forefront to facilitate users and readers when it comes to providing them with the information that can actually help them. Similarly, the new update, which has been rolled out in 2022 and will further get advanced in 2023, is about product reviews. The update aims at only rewarding high-quality product reviews. Now, the reviewers would have to provide insightful analysis and will have to conduct extensive and genuine research. Google will also only prefer to rank the web pages that are written by experts and the ones who have actually used those products. 

The update’s core aim is to evaluate the content of a product review, and the evaluation will be processed on a single-page basis, not the whole website. If a site has written vast content on product reviews, then any of its pages could be evaluated. This update is quite significant and is being considered as a part of the core update. Webmasters, marketers, and bloggers as well should not ignore this update, and they would have to revamp their content as per the new update. 

 The Spam Update 

Google’s automated systems are working to detect search spam on a regular basis. The search engine makes changes and improves the algorithms to ensure that spam can be captured easily for the ease of users. SpamBrain is one of the updates that is carried out by Google. It is a system that is updated on a regular basis and helps the search engine spot spam activities that are being carried out. 

Cloaking is one of the spam activities, and it is caught by the search engine easily. The intent of cloaking is to present different information to the search engine and users. It is malpractice and is used to manipulate search ranking and mislead users. Many people often show pages to users about drugs and travel destinations to search engines. That’s how the spam update catches the activities carried out by people who are into malpractice. 

Helpful Content Update  

The helpful content update is about giving a better and more satisfying experience when it comes to the content being offered. The update focuses on the content, and if a webpage is not offering any value to the user, then it will not perform well on the search engine result page. Search engines have an automated system that analyzes the usefulness and value of the content from the user’s perspective and then rewards the web pages accordingly. The search engines crawl the web and rank the web pages that have more helpful content, dropping the ranking of pages that has low value for the users. The content becomes helpful when it is relevant to the user’s query. Suppose someone is looking to buy a pair of ripped jeans and a webpage is not offering the product but general information about ripped jeans and has used the keywords; then their ranking will be automatically dropped.  

Is it Essential to Focus on These Updates? 

You might have a question in your mind that are these updates really essential to build your focus? The fact is that 70% to 80% of web traffic is generated through Google, and you cannot take the policies of the search engine giant for granted. There is a need to keenly apply these recommended methods by Google and try to avoid all the practices that are deemed not to be right by the search engine giant. For that reason, to get success in 2023, you would have to work on the Google updates that have been rolled out in 2022. 

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