This article is the second in a series about the Philippine Digital Marketing Economy 2022. Read the first part here.

In the first half of the year alone, at least 12 million people in the Philippines became new digital consumers. Filipinos spent most of their time on Google and Facebook with 750 million total visits on google and 258 million Facebook visitors.

With these figures, what have the Pinoys been searching for while in the new normal? Let’s dive in with some of the highlights from the recently published Google Year In Search Report 2021.

Google Year in Search Report 2021

Last year, the Google Year in Search for the Philippines revealed a lot of insights on how
brands and agencies can tap the opportunities in search, and be able to stay in touch with audiences.

Marked as the year of healing, Google shared that this year’s result showed that people are looking to rebuild physically, socially, and emotionally. Apart from that, Filipinos continue to rely on Google Search to look for helpful information about the spread of COVID-19 which is a good indication that Filipinos prioritize their health and safety.

SEO BEST PRACTICES FOR 2022

Create new fresh content

Create new content with SEO in mind. New content, whether it’s one page or an entire topic cluster gives you a fresh chance to get everything right. When you are creating a new page, don’t forget to put page titles, page content headers, subheads, and image file names.

Update old content

This is often most overlooked yet one of the easiest to implement. We can’t just create content for our websites and then never touch it again. It’s still important to go back on your website and assess the content if it needs additional details, new images and longer copy.

Understand Core Web Vitals & Page Experience

Core Web Vitals evaluate speed, responsiveness, and visual stability of pages and prioritize the site in rankings based on the outcomes of these cores. Improving your vitals help your site rank higher in comparison to your competitors.

Video and image search

Social media is always pulling up new images and images based on the content’s target extension. Marketers use videos and images to their advantage, as they increase their chances of virality. Video searches will continue to progress and images will continue to help rank the videos higher. According to research, video will have 82% of all global IP traffic by the end of 2022.

Make use of voice search optimization

Voice searches are starting to replace traditional text-based searches. Google has Google Assistant, Apple has Siri, Amazon has Alexa and Microsoft has Cortana. According to Google, 27% of the entire world population is voice searching on mobile devices, though it still have yet to be fully embraced here in the Philippines.

Update your sitemaps

A sitemap is a file that provides information about the pages, videos, images, and other files on your website. It also tells search engines which pages on your site are most important. The sitemap should be updated as often as your content is. This is important because our visitors will find it easy to trace important new content on the website with the help of HTML sitemap while the search engines will use the XML sitemaps to find and index new pages.

Own and manage your backlinks

After all these years, Google still uses backlinks in their algorithm. A study published on Backlinko found that the number of domains linking to a page was the factor that had the highest correlation to rankings in Google. As a website earns additional backlinks, search engines infer that the website possesses valuable content worth ranking well on the SERPs.

Conduct regular SEO audits

SEO audits have the unfortunate reputation of being time-consuming and tedious. But for those people who have owned a website for a very long time, know its importance. It’s a good idea to perform an SEO audit at least once a year and make sure to keep records of your findings and updates.

Get on Google Discover

Google Discover is important to SEO as it enables users to remain updated on topics that matter to them. Apart from that, users can also see a variety of content types such as blogs and videos. This is also designed for the mobile environment so it is important that your content is mobile friendly if you want to generate visits. Optimizing content for Google Discover such as audience segmentation, automated bidding strategies application as well as the use of good quality images create a closer relationship with the user. Therefore, this can generate user loyalty.

Localization of SEO

When a brand enters a new market that is not yet well known, it is important to do everything possible to increase your visibility. Localizing your website also provides a more convenient native user experience for your local customers. According to Search Engine Roundtable, 46% of all searches on Google are for local business or local service. The SEO localization process can also increase awareness in new markets by ensuring that your content includes the top search terms by searchers in your specific target area.

Last May 25, Google rolled out another core update, its first broad core algorithm update in 2022 and the first in more than 6 months. As with all other past core updates, the search engine has made broad changes to how its ranking systems assess content.

Google’s general advice is to expect widely noticeable effects, such as spikes or drops in search rankings and to focus on providing the best possible content is the top recommended way to deal with the impact of a core algorithm update.

As we prepare for a post-pandemic world, the dependence on the Internet and the online way of doing things will continue to be strong in the Philippines. Consumers will still expect to fulfill transactions whenever they need and wherever they are so it’s important to create bridges to take them one step closer to your business. Leverage the emotional power of digital to provide timely, accurate, and relevant information across your organic and paid channels.

During times of reevaluation and change , brands and businesses should also update on how they value what they offer not only to their customers but also to their employees. You can consider using direct-to-consumer strategies to show your brand values and consumer offerings. Don’t forget to look into your internal stakeholders as they become ever more critical to ensuring sustainable business growth.

Trust is also now a brand’s most important asset. It is also time to consider how you can prioritize your users’ privacy concerns to earn their trust. Educate and empower your customers to protect themselves against misinformation and scams. Keeping trust requires consistent, authentic and proactive communication.

Digital Marketing in general, and SEO Marketing in particular, is changing faster than ever before and it’s not showing any signs of slowing down. Everyday, millions of Filipinos turn to the search bar because of their curiosity and to deepen their knowledge. It is now a fascinating time that challenges every marketer to stay ahead of how consumers are growing. Stay on top of the latest Digital Marketing and SEO trends if you want your business to thrive online.