SEO doesn’t have to be boring, as 2022 demonstrated.
Is 2022 considered the Year of AI, or the Official Dawning of AI Technology? It’s hard to resist the urge to play hours with ChatGPT for the past month.
There were also many algorithm updates, new features and tools, acquisitions and many other changes.
The one constant in all of it? Search Engine Land covered the most important stories for just like we did in 2022.
We look back on the most important SEO news for 2022, including Google, other search engines and tool providers as well as the community.
Google news
Google Search Essentials, and other documentation changes
Google updated its Webmaster Guidelines, which were 20 years old. It also changed the name to . These updated guidelines have been simplified and updated to provide clear instructions for building sites that are useful.
Although Search Essentials was Google’s largest update to its documentation in 2022 there were many others.
Google has updated several Feature Guides Help documents
Google:
A study done by SEO tool company Ahrefs revealed that half of GSC clicks went to hidden terms. . This made hidden Search Console query data very rare.
Google also offers other document changes
The QRG and E-E-A–T
Google’s search quality rating guidelines (QRG) were last updated in , and again in .
gave her excellent breakdowns on what happened in the two updates to QRG.
Google rewound its definitions of YMYL and low-quality webpages for the July update ( )
Ray also covered this in his December update ( ).
“The inclusion of experience indicates content quality. This can be assessed by understanding how much the creator of the content has actually experienced the subject.
Google has reframed E-EA-T and stated that trust is the central concept of this idea. It is also the most important member of E-EA-T’s family.
We learned via Google, that E-A t was synonymous with good content quality before it became E-E A-T.
E-A-T stands for Evaluation of a Site. It is applied to all queries and results. According to Hyung-Jin Kim (VP Search at Google), it is pervasive in all that we do.” Hyung Jin Kim spoke at SMX Next November. You can dig deeper by reading ).
Although this may seem obvious, SEO pros should still be able to explain why Google makes the decisions it does.
Scrolling, Multisearch, Featured snippets, Continuous Scroll, and Other Search Features
Google constantly tests its SERPs to make sure that users get the right information and answer.
Google’s continuous scroll feature (don’t call it infinite!) was one of the most significant changes. Google brought continuous scroll (don’t cal it infinite!) to the desktop in early March. It’s official: it is time to end the phrase “Page 2 Google” and instead focus on positioning when discussing rankings.
Another important change was , which allows you to search by image first and then add text for that image.
Google experimented with featured snippets in this year’s Google+. They tested .
now to decide if there is consensus on information for feature snippets. Google reported also that MUM reduced false premise results 40%
Notable: A SERP analysis revealed that . PAA was also mentioned because , but later .
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And if all of the components that make up Google’s interface are confusing to you, Google has launched a visual library which documents 22 elements.
We take a look at some of the features added to or tested by Google in its search results for 2022.
Algorithm Updates
There were 10 Google algorithm updates in 2022:
At SMX Next we were informed by Kim from Google that Google’s Panda algorithm has evolved to a . This was a new discovery about an old Google algorithm, but it was nonetheless interesting.
John Mueller, Google’s webmaster confirmed that Google has stopped using the page speed signals for 2010 and 2018. These were .
A document Google provided to the U.S. also revealed this information. Copyright Office discovered that .
. It included algorithm that were no longer used to rank or had been integrated into new systems.
Google has also added a “algorithmic enhancement” to how it chooses when the titles are written in different languages or scripts from the content.
Barry Schwartz has a recap that will give you a deeper look into this year’s algorithm updates. For all the most recent news, guidance and information about algorithm updates, make sure you visit our .
Machine learning & AI
In the last weeks of 2022, ChatGPT was the buzzword in SEO. You can rest assured that we will be hearing more information about these (and other) innovative AI technologies in the coming years, with GTP-4 just around the corner.
Many sites will undoubtedly attempt mass production of content with AI tools. Be careful, Google warns that .
It was ironic because . Surprisingly, these weren’t so bad.
Google Search employs artificial intelligence. Another way Google considered using AI was to local listings. Google officially introduced in 2018, its AI-based system for preventing spam.
Despite the positive aspects of AI and how it can be used to great effect, there are always negative sides. We reported this in Avoid fake DMCA links from AI-generated lawyers .
Search local
There were many local news headlines in 2022: review issues, new attributes and Google Business Profile updates. Scams also featured.
New features:
Google Business Profile and Maps, as well as reviews
Scams:
Google News: More
Microsoft Bing
IndexNow
Microsoft Bing continued pushing its Initiative, including . In August, it was announced that over 16 million websites used it, publishing more than 1.2 Billion URLs daily to the IndexNow API, as well as adding numerous new integrations.
Get more Microsoft Bing news
If you have missed the many reminders to use Google Analytics 4 up to now, it is time to get GA4. Universal Analytics will cease to be . We hope you’re ready.
In an unusual bit of branding, . Google claimed it is “unifying” all Google’s business intelligence products, including popular Google Data Studio product, “under the Looker umbrella.”
Google Search Console
Google Search Console has many new features, tools and reporting enhancements. These are some links that will take you to the coverage we have:
We reported in December on Content ideas experiment feature. We learned a few days later. Coincidence? Perhaps we will find out by 2023.
GSC had its fair share of bugs reported by other departments in 2022.
Also, we said goodbye to the which Google claimed had “low value”, the and .
Did you receive one of the intrusive notices by GSC?
SEO Space Acquisitions
It looked as though we were set for an exciting year of acquisitions in 2022. The pace of things slowed around midyear. But, take a look at the significant changes that we witnessed this year in the SEO technology industry’s largest companies.
Moz deindexed
An DMCA request took SEO tool Moz out of Google search within just 12 hours. No matter how many hours it takes, being removed from Google Search for your brand term is a nightmare in SEO.
Zero-Clicks: An alternative view
Semrush put out an interesting study on zero-click searches. The study found that . This is a significant drop from the previous – we’ll call it “suspect”. Zero-click research.
Search engines that are not listed above
Ahrefs was a big deal when it released details on its general-purpose search engine . It’s not a Google-killer, but it is an improvement on existing search engines.
DuckDuckGo was the best-known privacy search engine. In January, . Until April. This was when DuckDuckGo’s daily average search volume to below 100,000,000. DuckDuckGo’s search volume has declined to this level in months.
In memoriam
On May 17, 2022, we lost Bill Slawski , an influential SEO expert and pioneer . His greatest accomplishment was helping people understand search patents. He was most well-known for his work on SEO By The Sea. After it was briefly taken offline, of information. We also found some disturbing Google search results after his death.
A fourth tragic loss is that of who was chief accountant at SE Ranking and was among four killed by a Russian attacker in Irpin in Ukraine.
SMX Advanced & Next
This year, we ran two events digitally – SMX Advanced June and SMXNext November. Each show was packed with actionable SEO insights and tips.
Here are some links that will take you to Advanced’s coverage on the SEO track.
You can also expect to see a lot of coverage on the SEO track by SMX Next in the weeks ahead at Search Engine Land.
SEO for 2023
Here’s what we know as we look forward:
You must accept GA4 and not abandon Google Analytics unless you intend to do so. The current GA expires in July. If you still have not migrated, Comparing year-to-year data will be more difficult. You should also save any historical GA data that you have, as Google can delete them all. It’s deleted once and for all.
ChatGPT: Should you be scared or excited? Yes. I mean, it depends. Remember that ChatGPT is only good for stuff up to 2021. GPT-4 will be coming very soon.
It will be fascinating to see what Google does to deal with the potential flood of duplicate AI-generated content, given AI’s increasing popularity. It won’t be a good thing for these sites if that happens. There are many tools capable of detecting AI content, and Google is aware of the situation.
Also, we know that there will be Google algorithm upgrades. Google confirmed that there will be 10 major updates for 2021-2022. It is clear that there will be some core updates, and possibly more with the help content update. Search Engine Land will report it as soon as it occurs.
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