How to Get Google’s Attention in 2022

Nowadays, in digital marketing, SEO is a top priority.

To maintain online visibility, businesses try to keep up with the latest SEO techniques and stay in line with the recommendations and guidelines of search engines.

And it’s all worth it, because gaining organic traffic, and consolidating your reputation in the SERPs can do wonders for your online business success.

However, what happens if, despite your best efforts, Google fails to notice your pages?

In this article, we’ll be talking about how to get Google’s attention in 2022 and will provide a mix of SEO ideas and Google SEO hacks with a pinch of advanced SEO tips. These can get you on Google’s radar and boost your SERP presence.

Read on and take notes!

1. Create Quality Content

First and foremost, to get Google’s attention, you need to create high-quality content. Otherwise, even if you manage to fool the search engine bots, you are highly unlikely to retain your positions.

When people click on your links in the SERPs they expect to satisfy their search intent all in one place. If your content disappoints them, they will be quick to leave and find the answers they seek elsewhere.

This type of user behavior indicates to the search algorithm that your page doesn’t live up to the user’s expectations. As a result, Google is likely to demote your content, because it wants to provide users with the best UX possible.

Furthermore, your content needs to be created with the user in mind, and not search engines. In other words, the goal should not be to publish pages just for the sake of ranking – you should strive to provide real value to the user.

To ensure this, in 2022, Google launched the Helpful Content Update which aims to prioritize the pages that focus on UX and value, rather than SEO alone.

Of course, you still should optimize your content to make it visible to search engines and increase the likelihood that it shows up in the SERPs.

However, by employing a user-first approach, you can create meaningful pages that are equally pleasing to your customers and search engine robots.

2. Use the Right Keywords

While keywords are not all there is to SEO, they are certainly one of the most important aspects of your optimization efforts.

Google uses natural language processing and semantic analysis to figure out what the content on a page is about. However, it doesn’t understand the text the way a human might.

To build the full picture of what your content is about, the algorithm needs to gauge a few things. It will identify phrases that not only match what a user might key when searching, but that correspond to different aspects of the pertinent topic.

When you use secondary and long-tail keywords related to the main subject, the algorithm can understand that you are providing enough context. This means that you are, indeed, talking about the topic at hand.

And this shows Google that your content is exhaustive and comprehensive – i.e. it is more likely to provide value to the user.

To that end, you should research the keywords that your target audience uses in their searches and analyze their intent. Also, you should list related topics and subtopics and find the respective secondary keywords.

However, keep in mind that you shouldn’t stuff your page with keywords and use the same phrase over and over again – this is an outdated practice that is annoying both to humans and robots.

To avoid that, research keyword variations and related search terms and try to use them naturally in your content.

3. Links, Links, and Links

Google uses links to understand how pages are related to other content on your website and the rest of the internet. The algorithm sees information as a network of nodes and if your page is a lonely dot among the sea of connections, it somewhat loses its meaning.

In other words, if there are no inbound and outbound links leading to a page, to Google, it’s practically irrelevant, because it can’t understand its place in the big picture.

Similar to keywords, links make it easier for the bots to understand what the page is about and put it into context.

Furthermore, links define the authority of pages.

Here are the there types of links that you need to care about and how they affect the way Google sees your content:

Internal Links

When it comes to internal links, the more links that lead to a page, the more important it is. That’s why you should be mindful of your website information architecture and structure, and ensure that it is not only well-organized but that there are no orphan pages (i.e. pages that are not related to any other page on your website).

Furthermore, when building a blog, you should consider using pillar posts and topic clusters. This way, you will put the main page (the pillar) into context and boost its authority, and, at the same time, will expand on the related subtopics and show Google that you have all the pertinent information the user may need.

External Links

External links, i.e.links leading from your website to third-party pages, are also important because they provide additional context to the bots, and show them how your content relates to the rest of the internet.

It’s best to link to high-authority pages because, although it’s minimal, external links transfer some link equity, and may boost the authority of your own page.

Furthermore, by associating your page with high-authority sources, you boost the credibility of your own content and increase its quality.

Backlinks

Backlinks are the best way to get Google’s attention.

These are links that lead from third-party websites to your pages. They show Google that you are a credible source of information, and function as a form of recommendation.

However, similar to external links, backlinks only have value if they are relevant, because, otherwise, they fail to provide context.

If high authority websites in your industry link to your pages, this shows Google that your content is meaningful and valuable. To the algorithm, this means that your pages are probably worth showing to other people as well.

As a result, Google is more likely to feature your links in relevant SERPs. If they provide a satisfying UX, your ranking will grow.

4. Implement Schema Markup

As mentioned, robots don’t understand pages the way humans do.

The more additional information you provide to Google’s crawlers, the more likely they are to correctly understand what your page is about, index it properly, and show it in relevant search results.

The easiest way to provide Google with the information it needs is to implement schema markup.

The markup includes data that literally explains to Google what’s the type of the page, the different pieces of content on it, and the purpose of it all.

The point is that once the bots start crawling the page, they are presented with this structured information, and the content they crawl makes more sense to them.

Furthermore, this type of information can be used to create rich snippets and other types of special search results. These are highly clickable and can boost your traffic and engagement.

And the more traffic and engagement you have, the more attention Google is likely to pay to your pages.

5. Be Diligent With Your Meta Data

Meta data provides Goole with additional insight about the elements on the page, their role in the content, and their meaning.

The most important meta data to add to your pages includes, but is not limited to meta description, title tags, image alt text, and canonical tags.

https://twitter.com/JohnMu/status/864190235822899200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E864190235822899200%7Ctwgr%5Ebf583b0c475732cfae4b16c01ff5f9a25d3b90bb%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.semrush.com%2Fblog%2F20-seo-experiments-to-get-more-organic-traffic%2F

These pieces of code not only allow Google to better understand your content, but may also contribute to the user experience and affect how users interact with your links in the SERPs.

That’s because most of them are directly related to how your links are displayed in search results.

The algorithm can automatically pull this information from the content on the page, but if you provide it yourself, it’s likely that Google will use your version. This provides you with some control over what people see in the SERPs associated with your brand, and can boost your click-through rates.

6. Create a Buzz Around Your Brand

Google loves to hop onto trends. It strives to always show its users pages that are relevant AND popular.

This means that in order to gain organic traffic, you should build traffic from other sources as well.

Furthermore, you should find ways to encourage your audience to search your branded keywords and engage with your website content.

Consider regularly launching word-of-mouth marketing campaigns that will not only keep your brand at the forefront of your customer’s minds, but also show Google that you are a hot topic that is worth its attention.

If your website is getting loads of hits, and people spend a lot of time on your pages, it is more likely to appear on SERPs for relevant non-branded queries as well.

7. Fortify Your Online Reputation

Your authority and reputation are vital for your online presence. The more credible your brand image is, the more likely Google is to notice you and rank your pages.

Google has a set of page quality signals called EAT – expertise, authoritaty, trustworthiness, that are explained in detail in the compay’s Search Quality Evaluation Guidelines.

Based on them, the algorithm judjges the credibility of websites in regards of the topics that they publish on.

This is to ensure that the information on SERPs is of high quality, accurate, and reliable.

However, even if your content matches the description, Google still needs proof of your credibility.

To that end, you should consider investing the time and effort to work on your online reputation as a reliable business, thought leader, and someone who values quality and customer experience.

In order to ensure this, pay attention to the following:

• Mentions. Set up Google Alerts to keep track of how your brand name and products are mentioned online. Whenever there’s negative publicity, do your best to issue a response and make amends.
• Reviews. Monitor and manage brand reviews on third-party platforms. Do your best to thank happy customers, and fix the problems that cause discontent.
• Social Listening. Use social listening tools to stay in the loop of what people are saying about you on social media platforms. Join discussions, and keep up the engagement to maintain a positive brand image.
• Social Profiles. Be active in your social media profiles on relevant platforms to build a strong community that you can rely on. This can help you in creating word-of-mouth and reputation management campaigns.

Also, these types of profiles confirm your brand’s legitimacy and show search engines that you are a real business.

• Directories. Add your business to relevant local and industry directories. These entries have little value as backlinks. However, they are another way to confirm your brand’s authority and  expertise.

8. Provide an Immaculate UX

Over the last several years, Google has launched a number of updates that focus on quality and user experience.

The search engine company has stated time and again that it wants to deliver to its users SERPs with links that not only provide high-quality and relevant information, but also a top-notch user experience.

That’s because, nowadays, users have high technical standards and expect websites to be fast, responsive, and user-friendly by default.

Google doesn’t want to disappoint them and neither should you.

To ensure that only the best websites rank on page one, Google deployed a set of page experience signals, that it plans to regularly expand with new additions.

So far, the main focus is on speed, page responsiveness and stability (the core web vitals), design and usability, mobile-friendliness, security, and accessibility.

Google is taking it slow with some of these factors.  Also, it doesn’t directly penalize websites that don’t live up to all criteria. However, the company warns that, over time, websites that fail to deliver on technical quality may suffer reduced rankings.

This means that if you want to get Google’s attention and stay on its radar, you should keep up with your technical SEO chores, and strive to always deliver an immaculate UX to your website visitors.

Bottom Line

SEO is an ever-changing field. Thus, if businesses want to remain relevant, they need to stay in line with the recommendations of search engines. So, make sure to keep up with the latest SEO techniques.

Due to the digital transformation of businesses, it is challenging to stand out and get Google’s attention.

However, what doesn’t fall out of fashion with the search engine company is high-quality content and stellar UX.

Businesses need to do their best to deliver on these two aspects of SEO. Then, all that remains is to optimize their pages to make them more visible to the robots.