Stop being a magpie and focus on what actually moves the needle

Laura says: "Stop being a magpie and actually focus on what's important, and what's going to make a difference. We're definitely very guilty of liking shiny new things and forgetting about our basics."

What are the shiny new things that SEOs are spending too much time on?

"Anytime Google tweets something or makes a change, we freak out - instead of taking stock, waiting and actually seeing the impact of that on our data. We've always been prone to do it and it can lead to rash decisions.

It makes much more sense to, first and foremost, look at your basics - the foundations of SEO such as technical optimization, content, and links. Quite often these things get overlooked. Remember when FAQ schema came out, and we all took advantage of it and had 10 FAQs on every page? Did this actually have as big of an impact as having clean technical health and really strong content? Possibly not. We just got distracted and blinded by something new, rather than focusing on what we know actually works."

What does work at the moment? What are the absolutes that SEOs have to be doing in 2022?

"Having a clean bill of technical health is always going to be important. Always consider the context of things that come through when you are looking at any audits. This will help you understand whether it is actually important to fix or not. There are some things from an accessibility point of view that may not move the needle from an SEO perspective, but you want to have strong website accessibility. For instance, alt tags - they're not going to make a huge impact, but if you are in certain spaces it's important to have that accessibility angle.

We know that content is always strong, especially with the meta changes and Google pulling information from different places now - where we specifically tell them to. We also know that you can drive strong traffic from good pieces of content - and they can convert really nicely.

There's always a debate around links but there's enough evidence, from over the years and recently, to show that links can help you move those positions - particularly when you're on the first page. Everybody's got good technical and good optimization, so having those really strong links can be the difference.

It's things that we've always known, but the nuances of how we do them have changed over the years, and what we need to consider when doing them has changed slightly. It's always been those core foundations, and they will stay the same - particularly in 2022."

What are the key elements from a technical perspective that are going to deliver that great user experience in 2022?

"Definitely addressing site speed where you can and the elements of Core Web Vitals and usability. It's not easy, and it may not even be possible for everybody to have really high scores. This is where the consideration of your customer base has to come in. If you're an e-commerce store, you actually want your images to be as high quality and beautiful as possible. You may even want 360 degree views of them - but you know Google wants things to be really fast. It's about maintaining a balance. Do you want to use lower quality images, or less video, that might not actually convert?

The speed side of things, and Core Web Vitals, are really important. However, you also have to consider what the company needs, and what's going to help the company to convert more as well. 404s and crawl errors have always been important - you don't want people to be falling onto error pages or clicking on links throughout the site and getting stopped on their journey. The likelihood of these users carrying on is slim.

We're seeing canonicals, and HREFs particularly, making a big impact. On the hreflang side, we've been making sure that they're implemented correctly for international clients. Particularly for clients on WordPress sites, we've seen the plugins they're using for recipes and similar elements aren't doing the hreflang tagging correctly on the international version. These things are still quite important for international ranking, so it's a case of making everything as easy as possible for Google to crawl an index.

Google is very clever, as we all know, but we sometimes forget that it's a piece of software. It's a spider, it's a machine - it doesn't understand context. We just need to make life as easy as possible for Google to find what we want it to find."

It's amazing that around 40% of websites have WordPress as the backend. How often should you do an audit on the WordPress plugins to make sure everything's performing as intended?

"We do it every month, or every six weeks. I've found that WordPress has been updating more this year than in previous years, so we seem to have had more versions come through. Particularly if we have very plugin-heavy new clients, one of the first things we do is audit the plugins and make sure they're using things that make sense to use.

Again, the 'magpie syndrome' can come in here. For example, you might find a plugin that's going to redirect users as soon as you turn off a discontinued product. Now, there are possibly better options for the discontinued product page. You could take people to the most relevant product that still exists rather than throwing them to the homepage. We find quite a few tools that don't need to be on sites, but people are using them because they think it's going to help with something, or it's an SEO factor. However, they're just adding bloat to the site in the long run."

So, it's not about trying to achieve 100% in the technical scores - it's about you against your competition in your specific industry?

"100%. That's where our obsession with tools, scores and numbers works against us. We don't always think about the context of the client. Sometimes, we're too focused on getting 100% on our tech score, or Core Web Vitals, and it's not always possible - especially if you need high-quality images and videos. You have to get past looking for high scores because that's not what will drive revenue all the time for clients. Instead, focus on what's driving your clients' revenue and make sure you're improving in these areas."

What changes have you seen in terms of the content that works now versus a few years ago?

"Definitely long-form seems to be working really well. I know that's been around for a while, but there was a phase where SEOs were focussed on producing lots of content in terms of frequency, such as three blogs a week, rather than its depth. Now, I'm seeing a lot more content that's very in-depth. Using the table of contents element, and breaking content down into strong sub-headings, seems to be performing well and having really strong ranking longevity and breadth.

Instead of having five pieces of content driving bits of traffic, you have one that's working extremely hard and driving in the same amount of traffic as those five. It's much easier to get one piece of content to work as a conversion trigger. You can build your downloads into it, capture email addresses, and build products into that content to drive revenue if it's eCommerce. Spending more time on a smaller number of content pieces is going to be key to next year."

How has link building, and the type of links that an SEO should be looking to acquire, changed?

"It's become harder - that's for sure. Clearly, relevancy is key, and gone are the days where you could just include links about puppies! I think digital PR is brilliant for getting a large volume of links in a short space of time.

However, I think it's moving towards trying to target a smaller number of links that are super relevant to you. Rather than going for all the national press and lifestyle magazines that may have relevance, but talk about completely different things, you need to be more industry-focused and targeted. Instead of trying to create something to appeal en masse, create content specifically for one publication. That's where I see things moving in 2022."

Should a site still be looking to acquire new links on a monthly basis, or should it be an annual project?

"I think a mix of both is always good. There's always some consistent link building to be done through channels such as HARO, where you can give your expertise in return for a link credit. Keeping an eye on this is always really useful and can drive some good opportunities.

The bigger campaigns have a lot of value from a brand perspective, so I think it's good to keep running those - but think of them as having a different objective than just building links. Consider them from a branding, and maybe social virality, perspective as well.

Then, use your wholly focused, specific campaigns that you're running to one or two publications, with the consideration of improving the performance of a specific page. That way you can monitor the performance of the page based on this activity."

What are one or two things that an SEO should stop doing in 2022?

"Stop panicking and jumping to conclusions. We all need to take a step back and get back into the data. Things always change on Google - look how different things are now compared to pre-Penguin. We need to stop being so reactive to any change. Take stock of a change and make an informed decision from a place of strategic evaluation.

Just because something has worked for one person doesn't mean it's going to work for you. You've got to think about your clients and what works for them - not what everybody else is doing."

You can find Laura Hogan over at SweetDigital.co.uk.