Search Engine Land » SEO » SEO 2022 in review: E-E-A-T, ChatGPT, Search Essentials and more
As 2022 once again proved, SEO is never boring.
Was 2022 the year of AI, or perhaps the official dawn of the AI era? Over the past month, it’s been hard not to read or avoid the temptation to spend hours playing with ChatGPT.
We also had our usual share of algorithm updates, new tools and features, acquisitions, and many more changes.
One constant through it all? For 16 years, Search Engine Land has covered all the biggest stories, just like we did again in 2022.
This is our roundup of the top SEO news of 2022, from Google and other search engines, tool providers, and the community.
Google news
Google Search Essentials and more documentation changes
Google made a major update to its 20-year-old Webmaster Guidelines and also renamed it Google Search Essentials. The updated guidelines have been streamlined, simplified, and updated “to ensure that people have clear guidance on how to build sites that serve people well.”
While Search Essentials was the biggest Google documentation update of 2022, there were many more.
Google updated several feature guide help documents:
Also, not long after a study by SEO tools company Ahrefs showed that half of GSC clicks went to hidden terms, Google removed the language in its Performance Report (Search) help document, calling hidden Search Console query data “very weird”.
In other documentation changes, Google:
E-E-A-T and the QRG
Google’s Quality Rating Guidelines (QRG) for search have been updated twice this year: once in July and once in December.
Lily Ray provided her usual great breakdowns of what changed in both QRG updates.
For the July update (Google Search Quality Rater Guidelines Update: What’s Changed), Google reworked its definition of YMYL, revamped its definition of low-quality pages, and more.
And as Ray covered in the December update (E-E-A-T and important updates to Google’s quality rating guidelines):
“The addition of ‘experience’ indicates that content quality can also be assessed through the perspective of understanding the extent to which the content creator has first-hand experience with the topic.
With this rephrasing of E-E-A-T, Google also claims that “trust” is at the core of this concept and is the “most important member of the E-E-A-T family.”
Before E-A-T became E-E-A-T, we learned from Google that E-A-T stands for “good content quality.”
“E-A-T is a template for how we rate an individual site. We do it with every query and every result. It’s in everything we do,” according to Hyung-Jin Kim, Google’s vice president of search, who spoke at SMX Next in November. Dig Deeper: In 7 takeaways from the SMX Next keynote with Hyung-Jin Kim, VP of Search at Google.
While this is definitely not new, it’s always good for SEO professionals to understand why Google does the things it does.
Continuous scroll, multisearch, featured snippets and more search feature changes
Google is constantly testing its SERPs, all in the name of making sure users have a great experience and find the information or answer they’re looking for.
One of the biggest changes was that Google brought continuous scrolling (don’t call it infinite!) to the desktop earlier this month. Yes, it’s officially time to retire the term “Google Page 2” and focus on position when talking about rankings.
Another significant change was multiple search: search by image and then add text to that specific image search.
Google played with featured snippets this year, testing ‘From the web’ and ‘Other sites say’ in featured snippets, as well as showing two or more featured snippets.
For feature snippets, Google now uses MUM to determine if there is a general consensus for the information. Google also reported that MUM helped reduce false premises results by 40%.
Also keep in mind: A SERP analysis found that People Also Ask appears 10 times more than featured snippets. PAA was also in the news because People also ask appeared half the time on Google Search, but then it went back to normal.
Rich results from FAQs also gained significant visibility from Google SERPs.
Oh, and if you ever have trouble keeping track of all the parts that make up the Google UI, Google has released a visual gallery that documents 22 elements.
Here’s a look back at even more features that were added or tested in Google search results in 2022:
Algorithm updates
In 2022, there were 10 confirmed Google algorithm updates:
At SMX Next, we learned from Google’s Kim that Google’s Panda algorithm was turned into a new algorithm called Coati. Although this was new information about something quite old in the world of Google algorithms, it was still an interesting discovery.
Additionally, Google’s John Mueller confirmed that Google no longer used the 2010 and 2018 page speed signals. They were replaced by Core Web Vitals.
We also learned from a document Google sent to the US Copyright Office that the Pirated Google Update can cause an 89% drop in search traffic from infringing sites.
In November, Google published a paper on its notable ranking systems, which included algorithms that are no longer used for ranking or have been incorporated into new systems.
Google also introduced a new “algorithmic improvement” to how it selects titles for search result snippets for multilingual or transliterated titles or where the title element is written in a different language or script than your content.
Read Barry Schwartz’s roundup for a deeper dive into the year on algorithm updates. And be sure to check out our Google algorithm update history page for our latest news and guidance on the latest algorithm updates.
AI & machine learning
ChatGPT was all the talk in the SEO world in the final weeks of 2022. And you can bet we’ll be hearing more about the (and other) exciting AI technologies in 2023, especially with GTP-4 not far behind.
No doubt many sites will attempt to mass-produce content using AI tools. Just be careful: Earlier this year, Google warned that Google doesn’t want your AI-generated SEO spam content.
Which was a bit ironic, considering you could theoretically use Google Docs to write your meta descriptions. And surprisingly, they weren’t that bad.
Google also detailed how it uses artificial intelligence in Google Search. Another way Google was considering using AI was to update business hours in local listings. Google also formally unveiled SpamBrain, its AI-based spam prevention system, which launched in 2018.
And despite the many positive and exciting ways to use AI, there is always a dark side, as we reported in Beware of Fake DMCA Link Requests by AI-Generated Lawyers.
Local search
Lots of local search news in 2022: new attributes, review issues, Google business profile changes, and scams are among the top headlines:
Google Business profile, maps and reviews:
More Google news
Microsoft Bing
IndexNow
Microsoft Bing continued to push its IndexNow initiative, adding URL sharing with Yandex, announcing in August that more than 16 million websites were using it (publishing more than 1.2 billion URLs per day to the IndexNow API), plus add multiple new integrations:
More Microsoft Bing news
In case you’ve missed all the thousands of reminders to adopt Google Analytics 4 so far, now is the time to adopt GA4. Because Universal Analytics ceases to exist on July 1, 2023. I hope you’re ready.
In a strange rebranding, Google Data Studio was renamed Looker Studio. Google said it was “unifying” Google’s business intelligence products, including the popular Google Data Studio product, “under the Looker umbrella.”
Google Search Console
Google Search Console had many new features: tools, features, and reporting improvements. Here are links to our coverage:
In December, we reported on an experimental feature called Content Ideas. Days later, we learn that the Question Hub is shutting down. Coincidence? Maybe we’ll find out in 2023.
GSC also had its fair share of bug reports and other issues in 2022:
We also said a final goodbye to the URL Parameters tool, which Google said had “low value,” the old message board, and the international targeting report.
And did you get one of those intrusive interstitial ads from GSC?
Acquisitions in the SEO space
At the beginning of 2022, it looked like a busy year of acquisitions was ahead of us. Things slowed down in the middle of the year, but take a look at the main changes we saw this year with some of the biggest SEO tech companies:
Moz deindexed
A DMCA request removed the Moz SEO tool from Google search for just under 12 hours. Getting removed from Google search for your brand term is an SEO nightmare, no matter how long it lasts.
Zero-Clicks: an alternative view
Semrush published an interesting study on clickless search. It found that 25.6% of desktop searches and 17.3% of mobile searches were done with zero clicks, far fewer than before, let’s call it “suspicious” zero-click research.
Other search engines
Ahrefs made big news when he revealed details about his own general-purpose search engine, Yep. While not a Google killer, more alternative search engines are a good thing.
Meanwhile, DuckDuckGo, the best-known privacy search engine, seemed to continue its steady growth, finally surpassing 100 billion searches in January. Until April. That’s when DuckDuckGo fell below 100 million daily average searches per day. And in the months since, DuckDuckGo hasn’t been able to get back to that level.
In memoriam
In 2022, on May 17, we lost influential pioneer and SEO expert Bill Slawski. He was best known for helping the community make sense of search patents, primarily at SEO By The Sea. Fortunately, that treasure trove of information lives on, after he briefly went offline. In the wake of his passing, we also discovered some disturbing Google search results for [bill slawski obituary].
Another incredibly sad loss was that of Tatiana Perebeinis, the chief accountant at SE Ranking, who was one of four people killed in a Russian attack in Irpin, Ukraine.
SMX Advanced & Next
We run two digital events this year: SMX Advanced in June and SMX Next in November. Both shows were packed with practical SEO tips and ideas.
Below are links to our coverage of the Advanced SEO track.
And you can expect to read a lot of coverage of the SMX Next SEO track over the next few weeks on Search Engine Land.
SEO in 2023
Looking ahead, here’s what we know:
Unless you plan to abandon Google Analytics, you should fully accept and adopt GA4, because the current GA goes away in July. And if you haven’t migrated yet? You’re going to have a harder time comparing the data from year to year. Also: make sure you save all the historical GA data you need, because Google will remove it all. And once it’s gone, it’s gone.
Should you be excited or terrified by ChatGPT? Yes. I mean, it depends. Just remember, ChatGPT is only useful for stuff up to 2021. But GPT-4 is coming soon.
With the rise of AI tools, it will be interesting to see how Google responds to what could be an onslaught of AI-generated duplicate content. If that happens, spoiler: it won’t go down well for those sites. Because there are a lot of tools that are good at detecting AI content, and Google is well aware of what’s going on.
We also know that there will be updates to the Google algorithm. Google has confirmed 10 major updates in 2021 and 2022. We know there will be major updates and probably more with the Helpful Content Update. And when it does happen, Search Engine Land will be the first to report it.
Danny Goodwin is Managing Editor of Search Engine Land & SMX. In addition to writing daily about SEO, PPC and more for Search Engine Land, Goodwin also manages Search Engine Land’s list of subject matter experts. He also helps schedule our conference series, SMX – Search Marketing Expo.