Google Algorithm Updates to Look Out For in 2022

2022 is around the corner and looking at the news circling; it will surely be an important year for Google. To be specific, Google algorithms. We’ve been hearing about many updates the tech giant is planning to roll out in 2022, which has already piqued our interest. So if you’re trying to find out the answers to questions like “how does it affect me?” Or “which updates are important?”, we’ve got you covered. 

Updates are not something new from Google. In fact, every year, Google updates its algorithm more times than we can even keep track of. The main goal is to improve the user experience by removing unwanted search results and providing quality information related to the search query. Over the years, such updates have been successful in doing so.

According to the speculation, ranking on Google will be more difficult in the coming years because Google will emphasize more on the content. What that means is, if a website’s content lacks usefulness and relevancy, Google will not put it in front of the users. While this has been going on for years now, Google will be more strict in doing so in the coming year to improve user experience on the search engine.

In today’s article, we will look at some of the major Google algorithm updates that we think will dominate 2022.

Google Algorithm Updates for 2022

Google has been very vocal about providing the best search experience to its users. According to Google, it has managed to bring down the number of irrelevant results to 40 percent in the last five years. They intend to do the same in 2022 and beyond. Here are some of the updates that Google plans to roll out this year.

1. The Page Experience Update

One of the biggest updates of Google Algorithms in 2021 was the Page Experience update, and it is still going to be important in 2022. The Page Experience Update, a part of Google’s core update, focuses on providing a more user-oriented search experience to anyone using Google Search. 

Google has been prioritizing pages with a faster loading speed, mobile-friendliness, intrusive interstitials, etc. With this update, they added three more criteria called the Core Web Vitals. The Core Web Vitals will include first input delay (FID), cumulative layout shift (CLS), and largest contentful paint (LCP). These will serve as ranking signals and help Google track a website’s performance, like its stability and responsiveness, which ultimately enhances the UX experience.

2. Summer Broad Core update

The Summer broad core update focused more on the quality of the website content, especially on the role played by the introductory paragraph. Users want quick resolutions, and Google algorithm understanding seems to put less value on factors like ‘time on site’ and ‘word count’. It means that now the quality of the content will be more important than its quantity.

This update from Google was initially planned to be rolled out in one phase but took two months. While a major portion of the work was already done for June 2021 but was released only in July. Both the June and July updates gathered mixed reviews from the SEO community. This is because many of the websites had to face both positive and negative effects because of the updates. Some of the industries most impacted by the Summer Updates were:

• Arts and entertainment.
• Online communities.
• Business and industrial.
• Games.
• Shopping.

Experts predict that Google will continue to work on their summer broad core update in 2022 to ensure that sites do not follow the malpractice of repetition of content to match certain word count or length. Not only that, websites using clickbait titles and or wrong keywords will also be considered.

3. MUM Update

While searching for a query on Google, users face many difficulties ranging from language and geographical barriers to multiple searches. Having to rephrase the query several times only for Google to understand what the intent of the user is or the search results being irrelevant to the geographical locations of the user were some of the common problems searchers encountered before the MUM update. To address these issues, Google launched its Multitask Unified Model or MUM update this year. Under this, the Google algorithm will help ease the task of multiple searches through artificial intelligence.

It means that now users won’t have to go through the tiring process of multiple searches to gain a better idea of a topic. The update will bring better search results on the text and will be able to tap into media like video, podcasts, and images. Further, the Google algorithm can now understand around 75 languages, enabling it to provide better results to users based on search queries. 

4. April Product Reviews Update

Though not a part of its Core updates, Google informed clearly in its official announcement that the principles of Core updates will also apply to the Product Reviews update. Under this, websites that deal in product testing and review or have in-depth research and information as content will be pushed more than the affiliate websites only relying on clicks and commission. With this update, Google wants to make the users’ buying experience more convenient and trustworthy. After this update’s launch, the websites that don’t provide much value to the customers will no longer be prioritized by Google for higher SERP rankings.

5. Link Spam Update

The Link Spam Update launched in 2021 by Google led to immense confusion in the SEO circuit globally. While this became a chance for many websites to experience a high influx in traffic, several others had to face the iron fist for their malpractices. Google rolled out the Link Spam Update mainly to tackle poor-quality websites from ranking high on the SERP. 

What this update did was it started accessing the websites that take part in link spamming and nullifying them in the rankings. In simple words, Google will now be able to recognize spammy backlinks better and ignore them for their low quality. This will have a major impact on marketers trying to manipulate rankings using a large number of backlinks even if they are not really up to the mark.

All these updates rolled by Google created a ripple effect in SEO  in 2021. And looking at Google’s approach to tackling low-quality content, it can be assumed that in 2022,  we’ll have to plan our SEO strategy keeping these updates in the loop. While users will benefit from the changes Google is trying to bring to improve its content quality, website owners and SEO experts in 2022 will need to be more careful about what practices they follow to achieve proper rankings on SERP.