Local SEO is an important marketing strategy for small businesses. It allows them to promote their products and services to local customers at the right time and place. Search engines are constantly changing and evolving, so businesses need to stay up-to-date on the latest trends. Here are some of the top local SEO trends to watch out for in 2022:
1. Increased use of voice search
Voice search is becoming more popular every year. In fact, ComScore estimates that 50% of all searches will be voice searches by 2020. This trend is being driven by the increasing use of smart speakers and virtual assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Home.
As more people use voice search, businesses need to optimize their websites for this type of search. This means using natural language and long-tail keywords that are more likely to be used in a voice search.
2. The rise of mobile-first indexing
Google has been moving towards mobile-first indexing for a few years now. This means that the company will primarily use the mobile version of a website to determine its ranking in the search results.
This trend is only going to become more important in the coming years. More and more people are using their smartphones to search for information online. As a result, businesses need to make sure that their mobile websites are optimized for both users and search engines.
3. The growth of local search
Local search is also on the rise. This trend is being driven by the increasing use of mobile devices and the popularity of “Near Me” searches.
As more people use their smartphones to find local businesses, businesses need to optimize their websites for local search. This means including your city and state in your website’s title tags and meta descriptions. You should also make sure that your NAP (name, address, phone number) information is up-to-date and consistent across the web.
Related Post - How Do I Optimize My Website For Local SEO?
4. The importance of structured data
Structured data is a type of code that helps search engines understand the content on your website. This information can be used to display your website in the search results in a more user-friendly way.
This trend is only going to become more important as Google continues to roll out new features that make use of structured data. For example, the company recently started displaying “Q&A” boxes in the search results that are powered by structured data.
5. The rise of visual search
Visual search is another trend that is on the rise. This type of search allows users to find information by using an image instead of a keyword.
This trend is being driven by the increasing use of mobile devices and the popularity of visual social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest. As more people use these platforms, businesses need to make sure that their images are optimized for visual search.
