Despite facing an ongoing pandemic and a lot of updates, SEOs have faced the challenge. Here is a recap of the most important SEO stories and news of the year.
In 2021, SEO faced a number of Google updates (including highly anticipated but possibly over-experienced page updates), new search results page features, such as continuous scrolling, and countless other updates that could affect brand visibility. their – all while operating in the middle of the second year of the COVID pandemic.
From basic updates and title changes to improved shopping options and new ways to track data, this year has been full of surprises. Here’s a look back at the most shocking news, tactics, and SEO tools of 2021
Google Algorithm Updates
Basic updates. Google has released three major updates – one in June, one in July, and one in November. The first caused high search volatility, with instruments such as MozCast reaching 107.3 ° F on June 3rd. The July update continued this growth until it all stopped around July 12th.
On November 17, Google announced a third, somewhat surprising, basic update just days before Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday. According to many tracking tools, this update was more volatile than in June and July. Due to the rapid launch and widespread changes in the rankings, many SEOs have rightly wondered why Google chose this time of year to launch such a big update.
The page title is rewritten. Of all the algorithm updates in the last year, the changes to Google’s page title rewriting on search engine results pages (SERPs) have been the most controversial. Marketers began noticing significant changes in their SERP titles in mid-August.
After a lot of feedback supporting huge declines in the quality of results, Google canceled some of these updates later in September. But many sites are still experiencing major ramifications in the coming months, including our properties.
Spam updates. Google has released a number of major spam updates throughout the year. The first set was released on June 23 and 28, although there was no significant impact on the rankings.
The second update, released on July 28, was aimed at link spam. Instead of penalizing sites with bad links, Google said it focused on ignoring those signals.
The final spam update was released in November. Google did not provide many details about this update, but the volatility of the search has skyrocketed since its launch.
Product review updates. This year, Google released two updates to help combat spam and/or thin product reviews. The first update was released in April, and the sequel came in December. Both were designed to prioritize in-depth reviews, including “content written by experts or enthusiasts who know the subject well.”
Indexing passages. Google introduced in the SERPs in early February, indexing passages, a change in the algorithm that ranks content segmented on a page. Google now displays these passages as presented snippets and links users to that particular part of the page.
The year in SEO news
SERP. Google added an “about this result” box to the SERP in February, giving searchers more information about their results. He extended this position in July
Similarly, Microsoft Bing launched Page Insights in November, featuring a light bulb icon next to each search result that gives searchers more details about them.
Google added free listings to search for hotels in March. Later in December, it allowed hotels to use Google Posts in a limited way to expand their local coverage.
Google also launched a continuous mobile search in October, which seemed to encourage more clicks on first-page results. SEO is still measuring the impact this change has had on CTR.
COVID-related updates. As many marketers know, the pandemic has sparked a growing interest in SEO as companies look for new ways to connect with customers. This interest in SEO has remained high over the last year, but there have been a number of additional trends. These included an increase in searches for local businesses and pandemic-focused topics.
In April, Google announced that Google Search will display additional information on travel notices related to COVID to help plan your trip. It has also expanded its Explore section for its travel site.
In December, Google launched a search feature that allows users to see if a doctor or healthcare provider is taking out insurance – no doubt boosted by the increased number of COVID cases aggravated by holiday gatherings and the Omicron variant. .
Yelp has introduced the “Vaccination Proof Required” and “Fully Vaccinated Personnel” profile attributes. It also added a community feedback feature on health and safety measures to help consumers learn more about local businesses’ compliance with health and safety. And, to prevent customer confusion, he added a virtual restaurant attribute.
SEO documentation. Google has released updates to its search documentation over the past year, although some of these changes have not been officially announced.
The company quietly released new manual actions targeting the News and Discover penalties in February. In June, Google provided an SEO guide to address HTTP status codes, network issues, and DNS errors. Also in October, it refreshed its search quality rules to extend the concepts of YMYL content and the lowest quality content.
Microsoft also released a list of Bingbot IP addresses in November to better alert users when they crawl their sites.
Structured data. In May, Schema.org launched its schema markup validation tool in response to Google’s withdrawal of its structured data tool. It’s for more general use than the Google Enriched Results tool.
In August, Google updated its help document with structured data for articles to reflect changes to the author’s properties. Added an author URL property to make it easier to identify the authors of articles.
Industry and legal news. After postponing the indexing deadline on the mobile device for the first time – first moving it from September 2020 to March 2021 – Google has decided to leave the deadline open. It is said that there are still many sites that are not ready to change because of the unexpected challenges they face.
Mozilla tested Bing as the default search engine for 1% of Firefox users, which led many SEOs to reconsider the importance of non-Google search engine optimization.
DuckDuckGo surpassed 100 million searches in a single day on January 11, showing how important private search experiences are to a growing number of users. Also in December, the company announced that it was working on a desktop browser, further signaling support for greater search privacy.
Reporting, analysis, and tools
Google Search Console (GSC). In April, Google launched a pilot tool in the Search Console that allowed users to report indexing issues; was released in full in August. Google has also added data on rich practice issues, providing more information for educational content publishers. We also saw an update to the AMP troubleshooting section, which now links users to the AMP page experience guide.
To improve accessibility and user experience, Google has introduced a new design for the Search Console.
Retail and e-commerce
In April, Google began enforcing a policy requiring merchants to show the actual price of items throughout the payment stage. The company has also updated the Google Merchant Center product data specification requirements to encourage optimized ads for Google Shopping and organic listings.
Google Shopping and WooCommerce partnered in June to help merchants show their Google listings. The search engine has also launched an SEO guide to eCommerce to help improve the search visibility of retail sites. These updates reflected the changing landscape of retail due to COVID-19.
In an effort to make more offers available to users, Google has added an “Offers” feed to the Shopping tab and the Merchant Center. He also started showing merchants when their items were eligible for badges. And to show relative visibility and other values, Google has provided Merchant Center users with a relative visibility report
Local
Google Company Profile (formerly my Google Company). Earlier this year, Google launched a tool to help companies better manage their reviews, allowing business owners to monitor the status of the reviews they have reported.
On November 4, Google announced that it would rename Google My Business to Google Business Profile. With this update, the company has launched new features that would give marketers and business owners more control over their accounts, which include:
Claim and verify Google business profiles directly in Google Search and Google Maps
Launch call history in the US and Canada;
Messages directly from Google Search and
Message read confirmations are checked in Search and Maps
We look forward to 2022?
With so many algorithms and platform updates taking place last year, many SEOs will be eager to analyze their data. Remember, many of these updates are extensive, and the most important thing you need to do is keep your customers up to date with Google changes.
Many brands respond to users’ requests for greater accessibility and increased privacy, so make sure your websites and other properties are compliant and support all types of users.
Finally, we are still far from the end of the pandemic, so focus on answering the most pressing questions from the public and making things as convenient as possible for them. Showing your customers the values of your brand is more important than ever.
Contact our team For More information SEO Strategy @ +91-9555-71-4422