In this article, we will describe five SEO trends that we believe will be prevalent in 2022 and how you can prepare yourself to take advantage of the opportunities they present.

1. Content strategy over keyword strategy

In 2022, online marketers and content developers will focus less on ranking for specific keywords and more on crafting a cohesive strategy that finds balance between user intent, topic relevance and search engine optimization (SEO). This means that it will be more important than ever to make sure your content is written with the user in mind rather than at the search engines.

What does this mean as a photographer? If you have a photography website that you blog on, it’s still important to focus on targeting keywords, but Google is telling us that user experience and how they enjoy the article is even more important.

2. Mobile-first indexing

We believe that mobile-first indexing is here to stay, which means internet users are relying more and more on their mobile devices to surf the web. In turn, search engine algorithms are shifting to prioritize mobile-friendly websites in search results. It is crucial that your website is able to adapt to this shift by allowing for easy reading, navigation and interaction via a mobile device.

If you have a photography website, be sure to check how it looks on mobile.

Check your website speed with the Google Pagespeed Insight tool to make sure it is not failing Core Web Vitals.

Voice search is the act of using natural human speech to ask questions and receive answers from digital assistants like Siri, Cortana or Google Assistant. As voice search technology continues to grow in popularity it will become more important than ever for online marketers to make sure their site is optimized for voice search, ensuring that what users are searching for can easily be found within one or two clicks.

If you are a photographer, test this yourself using your own phone.

If you have a photography website and you ask Siri to “find photographers near me,” are you showing up in the results or not?

If not, make sure to optimize your website for local SEO.

As the world becomes more globalized and interconnected it will become increasingly important to make sure your website has a strong presence in both local and global search results. The use of local search is growing rapidly, especially when it comes to mobile devices, meaning that in 2022 there will be even more reasons than ever to make sure your website has strong local SEO. This can be done by optimizing your business’ location on your site’s search engine, social media profiles and within your content.

5. Dependency on search engines

More and more, online marketers are moving away from dependence on search engines for traffic acquisition and building content directly with their users in mind. Many have begun using social media platforms to build community and networks of shareable content, while others are focusing on diversifying traffic sources by relying more heavily on things like email newsletters and advertising.

By 2022, online marketers that continue to solely rely on search engines for traffic will be considered behind the times.

What this means for you as a photographer?

Make sure you take the time building an audience on multiple platforms and become a personal brand in your niche.

Have you thought about starting a YouTube channel, Instagram page, or Twitter page but you are nervous? Let it be this year that you take the leap, after all, it doesn’t hurt to try!