Top Trends 2022 - Search Engine Marketing

By TechDogs Editorial Team

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Overview

What’s the best place to hide a dead body? Well, the second page of your Google search results! Of course, we did not come up with that! You get the point though, right? You don’t go beyond a couple of results when you google something.

Nor would your customers or target audience. That’s why you need to be on the first page – and for that you need Search Engine Marketing, or as the millennials call it SEM. It is a digital marketing strategy that is used to increase the visibility of your website on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).

With the changing times when everything is going online - from shopping to education - the face of search has also evolved. All thanks to Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Whether you are a small business, an entrepreneur, or even looking to increase your brand value, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is the way to go. #YouCantDoWithoutSEM

Wait – Google and other top search engines keep updating their algorithm every minute (slight exaggeration but you get the point). So, how do you keep up? Well, you subscribe to TechDogs (obviously!) and read this article to find the top SEM trends for 2022!

Ever searched anything on Google? What a bizarre question! Don't you agree that Google has become an integral part of our lives? After all, we all say, 'Google it' or 'Okay Google' more than the names of our pets on any regular day. #GoogleRulesAll

However, do you know Google - your go-to search engine - can be your marketer too? Yes, you heard us right! The strategy is called Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and with growing digitalization, SEM is also gaining traction. Who are we kidding? It’s already one of the most crucial marketing strategies to have in the digital era.

Why wouldn’t it be – after all over 95% of users are using search engines in today's world to find information about products and services. So, you got to be where your audience is! #GiveEmWhatTheyWant

Enough with the preamble? We thought so too. We know you know that SEM is important. Why would you be reading an article about Top SEM trends otherwise. So, without further ado, let’s look at the leading Search Engine Marketing trends for 2022.

Trend 1: Artificial Intelligence Will Rule Every Aspect Of SEM

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AI is here too? Of course – Artificial Intelligence is everywhere! #ALittleScaryButTrueInAGoodWay

It's no wonder that AI will be one of the top trends in SEM in 2022. The question that still remains unanswered is - how? Fret not, #TechDogs is here for your rescue. AI in SEM will be used to rank webpages, videos and other content in the search result.

Like Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, search engines have a reputation to maintain, thus, they need to update algorithms which results in generating a lot of content. AI will be used to separate the high-quality content from the low-quality spam to maintain the ranking in the search pages. #QualityIsTheKey

In fact, most of the content that you see and interact with on social media sites has been finely tuned with AI to keep you engaged for a longer time. AI is so amazing that its use in SEM is likely to reach $190 billion by 2025 which indicates that digital marketers would have probably made the best use of it by then – so you should too!

TechDogs' Opinion: While a lot has been said about how Search Engines are leveraging AI, we believe that AI has much more to offer to the marketers too. First and foremost – when it comes to Search Engine Marketing, you can leverage AI to find the right target audience using intent algorithms. Post that, AI can provide extensive information on keywords (which ones to use) and their value for organic or paid search – making the process less time consuming and more efficient. #EffienciencyIsLove

Wait that’s not all – we are sure AI would also help you optimize marketing messaging by playing around with different message, learning the performance of each and utilizing it to modify messages that work the best (without you having to manually A/B test everything!). There’s more – AI would also help you with your ad bidding strategy on different Ad Serving and Retargeting Platforms. (That’s how you run ads on search engines – you bid on different keywords!) Bookmark this one – AI is going to be your best mate for SEM in 2022!

Trend 2: Everyone Will Voice Their Searches

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A decade ago, could you imagine calling devices in your house and your mobile phones with names like Alexa, Siri, Google and Samantha (the virtual Artificial Intelligence assistant from the movie Her)? Everyone would have stared at you like they did when Harry spoke Parseltongue!

Now, we all have spoken to our voice assistants and used them to do voice searches too. Okay Google, what’s a Dementor? People are increasingly doing voice searches on their iPhones, Android phones or smart speakers – a technology that has rapidly grown popular since advent in 2012. Invariably, this year, we’d find a lot of development and increased use of voice searches which marketers would have to consider while preparing their SEM strategy.

In fact, large corporations are already investing a lot of money to develop voice assistants and to improve the search experience. We’re sure their decision is based on market insights and the fact that the number of voice searches has skyrocketed by 3,400% in the last ten years, making it more important than ever to make your website easy to find by voice. This also indicates that voice searches will evolve over the next few years to become as effective and accurate as text-based search. (Yes- that’s not the case right now!)

TechDogs' Opinion: We think that the next revolution in voice search would be brought in by Natural Language Processing (NLP). Okay wait, before you go “isn’t NLP already a big part of it?” - yes and no. Voice search as of now is based on Automated Speech Recognition, which is essentially using a lot of data to analyze and understand what the person is saying – and that’s where NLP comes into the picture which understands natural language you’re speaking, works with the system to find the answer and then produces it again in natural language. While there is NLP used in recognizing voice search queries – it is not as accurate as you would want it to be. That’s because everyone speaks differently – dialect, phonetics, accents (and noise around them) and NLP is yet to evolve in that domain.

Going ahead, we believe that development around NLP would be more voice-focused wherein NLP would be able to differentiate between accents, separate background noise from a meaningful statement (separating signal from noise) and the overlapping of conversations etc. On the output front, it would be able to give you results that are more conversational and relevant to the context of your search.

Trend 3: You Will Have To Follow E-A-T or Be Eaten (By Your Competition!)

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Have you heard of Google's EAT over the past few years? EAT should not be confused with eating, although it does remind us of pizza. Yum! Coming back to the SEM trends, Google has always emphasized that the quality of content is paramount. For SEM purposes, the content should surpass Google's EAT standard. What’s that now?

EAT stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. Essentially, that means Google would always rank you based on how authoritative and trustworthy your content is and your subject-knowledge about the content. Google uses these factors to analyze the overall quality of content and rank you! If you need to play your SEM game on point, you need to be aware of the EAT concept while developing content for the websites. #GoogleRocks

If we look at the numbers, 93% of the most effective B2B content marketers prefer content marketing over any other strategy (as per Content Marketing Institute) – they know quality matters! This makes it even more important to ensure that you are creating quality content. It is crucial to understand the content your target audience values. This will also help you retain the target audience.

TechDogs' Opinion: For the longest time, marketers and webmasters have believed that E-A-T is relevant for organic search. We think that’s not going to be the case – at least not in the future. Now, you would have to worry about E-A-T even for paid advertising. So, going forward we believe that paid search would not be based on a ROAS (Return On Ad Spend) strategy but a customer-centric strategy.

You would have to deliver more data-driven and search intent-based content to audiences on all fronts. We think data and Machine Learning would be your best ally there. They would help you understand your customer better and then base models that work on different search algorithms. Of course, you can double-check the performance of Google's quality rates too!

Trend 4: Video Will Make Its Grand Opening In The Search Engine Space!

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Have you noticed that online video platforms have exploded in the past few years? No, then you are missing out a lot. Many businesses have already started to use online platforms such as YouTube to expand their reach and why not? In the US alone, YouTube has 153 million users.

Creating optimized video content can be an integral part of your SEM strategy. Why, you may ask? Well, go do a random search. What is the 3^rd or 4^th search result? Videos, right? So, surely your videos can be there too! You can do this by creating a description, including a user-friendly overview of what your channel is about and adding useful keywords and hashtags to deliver your content to the intended audience. #VideoStrategyForSEM

We are not saying this just because Google now shows video search results – we are saying this because people also prefer watching videos more than reading long-form content. Not only video content, live-streaming viewers have also increased. If we look at the numbers, live viewing on Facebook has increased by 50%, while it has increased by 70% on Instagram since last year. The data directs that this trend is likely to continue in 2022. You have got to give the people what they want, right?

TechDogs' Opinion: We would like to add some perspective here. We recommend that you shouldn’t just go for video content just to rank on the SERPs. Videos can help your Search Engine Marketing in more ways than one. Videos on your website can keep your viewers engaged and improve your bounce rate. Video content will also help you build your presence on Youtube – the largest video platform as of now. Not just that, video content can be leveraged for Social Media Marketing. #TwoBirdsWithAStone

Wait, that’s not all. We think you should leverage video beyond just a visual aid but as a great data machine. Based on views, average watch durations, pauses and other data, you can use video analytics to create better content. Going forward, we are looking for better tools for video analytics with actionable insights. #AlwaysUpForBetterTech

Trend 5: Reverse Image Search Will Give Help You View The Search Differently

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Can we ask you a little secret? Did you ever search for an amazing outfit or new shoes or glasses that a celebrity was wearing using Pinterest Lens? Fantastic feature, right? You just need to upload the image in the search bar rather than entering the description. Not only Pinterest, Google Lens and other similar applications transform a user's camera into a search bar. Your users are probably using these lenses too. So, if you're not using visual Search Engine Marketing in your strategy, then you're missing out.

Optical search engines are becoming more popular as more and more people use these search engines to find what they want instead of keywords. Companies can benefit from visual search by adding high-quality images tagged with descriptive keywords to online inventory, implementing an image search and advertising it on platforms such as Pinterest. #SearchWithImage

Visual search has been around for some time; however, it became an integral part of digital marketing in 2021. Why? The answer is simple millennials and Gen-Z consumers are drawn to visual search capabilities more than any other technology. Marketers need to follow these generational tendencies closely. If numbers are to be believed, Pinterest's Lens has recognized 2.5 billion home and fashion objects to date and this number is expected to increase by 140% in 2022 and beyond. Thanks to the visual SEM strategy!

TechDogs' Opinion: Visual search is on the rise – that’s undeniable. We think it’s only a matter of time that it will enhance to deliver more. For instance, imagine you’re walking on street and come across a new property. All you would have to do is take out your phone, point it and find out whether it’s available, the asking price and maybe even the owner’s contact details.

Imagine getting a postcard from your friend in Paris and scanning it to find the best flights available in the next week. Imagine looking at a sofa and being able to augment how it would look in your living area just by scanning. Wait, did we mix two technologies? Oh, that’s going to happen in the future. Visual Search will leverage Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence to make it more effective and accurate. It’s quite simple - the more people start using it, the better it will get.

To Sum Up

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Today Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is more than advertising and marketing. Digital marketers have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to adapt to significant changes. Even though the search engines have undergone massive algorithm changes, the underlying fact will remain the same - customers will come to you if you create valuable and relevant content. To be at the top, it is essential to adapt and develop improved ways to connect to the customers and meet their demands.

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Search Engine Marketing Trends SEM Marketing Trends Search Engine Marketing SEM Digital Marketing Artificial Intelligence Voice Search Google EAT Live-Streaming YouTube Visual Search SERPs

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