Seo 2022 Highlights: E-A-T, Chatgpt, Search Essentials & More
In the ever-evolving world of SEO, 2022 proved to be a year of significant changes and challenges. Like a whirlwind, Google swept through with updates and refreshes, leaving no stone unturned.
From the renaming of the Webmaster Guidelines to Google Search Essentials, to the introduction of Policy circumvention, double verification for business profiles, and improved meta descriptions, Google left no aspect untouched.
Quality rater guidelines were updated, redefining YMYL and low-quality pages, while emphasizing the importance of trust in the E-A-T family. SERPs underwent transformations with continuous scroll, multisearch, and featured snippets.
Meanwhile, the SEO industry witnessed notable events, including Moz’s temporary deindexing, Semrush’s study on zero-click searches, and the rise of AI tools like ChatGPT and GPT-4.
With expectations of further algorithm and core updates from Google, the SEO landscape in 2022 was a dynamic and ever-changing terrain.
Key Takeaways
– Google made significant updates to its Webmaster Guidelines, now called Google Search Essentials.
– Google implemented a new spam policy called Policy circumvention.
– Google updated its review guidelines to prohibit discouraging negative reviews and incentivizing customers to remove or modify negative reviews.
– Google emphasized the importance of trust as the most crucial aspect of the E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) family.
Key Changes in 2022
In 2022, significant changes occurred in the field of SEO. Google refreshed its Webmaster Guidelines and renamed it to Google Search Essentials, providing updated guidelines for webmasters to follow.
Additionally, there were updates to the review guidelines, which now prohibit discouraging negative reviews and incentivizing customers to remove or modify negative reviews. Google also introduced a new spam policy called Policy circumvention to tackle deceptive practices. These changes reflect Google’s ongoing efforts to improve the quality and reliability of search results.
Furthermore, the Quality Rater Guidelines (QRG) were updated twice in 2022, reframing the definition of Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) and low-quality pages, and emphasizing the importance of user experience and trust in evaluating content quality. These updates highlight Google’s commitment to providing users with accurate and trustworthy information.
Google Guidelines Updates
Guidelines governing Google’s search engine have experienced several updates throughout 2022, including the renaming of the Webmaster Guidelines to Google Search Essentials and the addition of a new spam policy called Policy circumvention. These updates highlight the importance of following Google’s guidelines for website owners and SEO professionals.
Some of the key changes in the guidelines include:
– Google updated the review guidelines to prohibit discouraging negative reviews and incentivizing customers to remove or modify negative reviews.
– Google added a new valid page metadata help document, providing guidance on how to structure page metadata effectively.
– Google merged SafeSearch help information into a single new document, making it easier for users to understand and implement SafeSearch settings.
– Google reframed the definition of YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) and low-quality pages in the quality rater guidelines (QRG), emphasizing the importance of trust and expertise in evaluating content quality.
– Google stated that trust is the most important member of the E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) family, signaling its significance in ranking factors.
These updates highlight the evolving nature of Google’s guidelines and the importance of adhering to them in order to maintain a strong online presence.
Spam Policy and Review Guidelines
The recent updates to Google’s guidelines have introduced a new spam policy and revised review guidelines, indicating the search engine’s ongoing efforts to combat spam and promote the integrity of online reviews.
Google’s new spam policy, called Policy circumvention, aims to address tactics used by websites to manipulate search results and deceive users. This policy emphasizes the importance of adhering to ethical practices and avoiding any attempts to circumvent Google’s guidelines.
The revised review guidelines have significant implications for online reputation management. Google now prohibits discouraging negative reviews and incentivizing customers to remove or modify negative reviews. This change underscores the search engine’s commitment to providing users with accurate and unbiased information. It also highlights the importance of businesses maintaining a positive online reputation by providing excellent products or services and addressing customer concerns in a transparent and ethical manner.
These updates to Google’s guidelines reflect the search engine’s continuous efforts to improve the quality of search results and provide users with reliable and trustworthy information. Adhering to these guidelines is crucial for businesses and website owners to maintain a strong online presence and ensure their SEO strategies align with Google’s evolving policies.
SERP Changes and Featured Snippets
Google’s continuous updates to its search engine result pages (SERPs) have introduced significant changes, including features such as continuous scroll, multisearch, and featured snippets, which have transformed the way users interact with search results and navigate through information.
Continuous scroll allows users to seamlessly scroll through search results without having to click on additional pages, providing a more streamlined and efficient browsing experience.
Multisearch enables users to view multiple search results side by side, allowing for easier comparison and decision-making.
Featured snippets, on the other hand, provide users with concise and relevant information directly on the search results page, saving them time and effort.
Additionally, Google has utilized its Multitask Unified Model (MUM) to determine consensus for information in featured snippets, ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the displayed content.
These changes reflect Google’s commitment to enhancing user experience and making information more accessible.
Acquisitions and Industry News
Acquisitions in the SEO industry have been significant, with companies like Semrush, Conductor, BrightEdge, NP Digital, and SimilarWeb acquiring other SEO-related businesses, indicating the continued growth and competition within the industry.
Semrush made notable acquisitions of Backlinko and Kompyte, expanding its capabilities and offerings.
Another notable development is the growth of DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused search engine that has seen an increase in daily average searches. This indicates a growing interest among users for alternative search engines that prioritize privacy.
These acquisitions and industry developments highlight the dynamic nature of the SEO landscape, with companies seeking to enhance their capabilities and meet the evolving needs of users and businesses in the digital marketing space.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Google determine the consensus for information in featured snippets using MUM?
Google determines the consensus for information in featured snippets using MUM (Multitask Unified Model).
MUM is an advanced language model developed by Google that can understand and generate natural language.
It helps identify the most relevant and accurate information by analyzing multiple sources and considering different perspectives.
By leveraging MUM’s capabilities, Google aims to reduce false premise results and provide users with reliable and comprehensive answers in featured snippets.
Examples of SEO tool bugs reported in 2022 include:
– A Discover performance report bug
– Mislabeled structured data errors as errors reporting issue
– Search performance report data logging issue
– Pages not indexed reported as indexed bug
– URL inspection tool bug
– Missing data in Crawl stats report
– Performance reports data issue
– Drop in image search performance data caused by a logging issue
These bugs impacted the accuracy and reliability of data provided by SEO tools, making it challenging for users to analyze and optimize their websites.
Algorithm updates in 2022 also had an impact on SEO tools, requiring them to adapt and incorporate new ranking factors and guidelines.
Can you provide more details about the acquisitions that took place in the SEO space in 2022?
In 2022, the SEO industry witnessed several notable acquisitions and industry mergers. These acquisitions included:
– Semrush acquiring Backlinko and Kompyte
– Conductor acquiring ContentKing
– BrightEdge acquiring OnCrawl
– NP Digital acquiring AnswerThe Public
– SimilarWeb acquiring Rank Ranger
These strategic moves highlight the trend of consolidation and expansion within the SEO space, as companies aim to enhance their capabilities and provide comprehensive solutions to their clients.
Such acquisitions have the potential to reshape the competitive landscape and drive innovation in the industry.
What was the impact of a DMCA request on Moz and how did they handle it?
The impact of a DMCA request on Moz was temporary deindexing.
Moz experienced a temporary deindexing of its website due to a DMCA request. This resulted in their website being removed from search engine results pages.
However, Moz promptly addressed the issue by resolving the copyright infringement concerns raised in the DMCA request.
They took appropriate measures to rectify the situation and restore their website’s visibility on search engines.
How did the growth and decline in daily average searches affect DuckDuckGo?
DuckDuckGo experienced both growth and decline in its daily average searches. One interesting statistic is that during a certain period, DuckDuckGo’s search growth reached a peak of X%, indicating an increasing number of users relying on its search engine. However, there was also a decline in daily average searches, which could be attributed to various factors such as competition from other search engines or changes in user preferences.
This fluctuation in search activity highlights the dynamic nature of the search market. Additionally, the SEO tool acquisitions in the industry further exemplify the evolving landscape and competition within the SEO space.