How To Regain Lost Traffic In 2022: Google RankFactors That May Affect Your Ranking

Google algorithms keep on evolving, meeting the needs of the consumers. It happens so that accurate, relevant, and secure pages are offered to the users. Not to mention, the Google ranking factors come with more and more updates every year. 

However, the more you navigate the changes, the more complications you will find. Undoubtedly, these latest SEO ranking factors 2022 have somehow affected the webmasters as it has led to traffic loss enormously, in many cases-especially for people who blindly follow the guidelines or don’t follow them at all.  

Thus, if you are among them, you must think of ways to regain the lost traffic and the lost ranking. But first, let’s find out about the Google algorithm updates that affected ranking in the first place and things that went wrong despite following guidelines. 

What are the Google algorithm updates which affected ranking? 

Google is always seen rolling out the algorithm updates and bringing something totally new as the new Google ranking factors. Wondering what were those which affected ranking? Here is a list of Google ranking factors in 2022 that you must check out. 

• Passage ranking – One of the most important SEO ranking factors of 2022 

One of the first updates that were seen in 2021 was called Passage ranking. This update made Google use artificial intelligence to index the web pages along with the individual passages from those pages. 

This update shows specific passages as a featured snippet on the search engine. The main goal was to smoothen the process of answering the users. 

So the question arises here is- “Did you pay enough attention while adding each paragraph to the content?” Just check once again (and edit the contents if possible) as this might have affected you; who knows! 

• The Product review update 

Here comes another update where product reviews did not just summarize a list of products; instead, they offered in-depth research, insightful analysis, and original content.

If you are dealing with a review site and have not followed these Google ranking factors correctly, just check it once. 

• Link spam update 

This update was implemented on web pages and image results which excluded the local result. 

It came with two phases but did not have many details on this update. However, it was recommended to keep your website safe from spam. 

• 100% mobile-first indexing – One among the major Google ranking factors in 2022

As the mobile traffic ranking increased, Google initiated the update of 100% mobile-first indexing. 

This gave more importance to mobile-friendliness, which means it ranks content at a higher position according to the mobile version of the content. Are all your pages mobile-friendly as per the SEO ranking factors of 2022? 

Did you also create AMP pages for all the URLs? It’s tough to be so perfect, but did you do that? Well, it could also be the reason for the lost traffic. 

What are the ways to regain the lost traffic in the coming year? 

Now that you know the algorithm updates that have severely affected rankings (if not for all, but at least for the mass), then you must understand that it can lead to the loss of traffic if the Google ranking factors are not followed properly. 

So if you are finding your website traffic declining, then let’s walk through the ways you can regain it. Yes, you can still regain it! 

That’s the power of SEO – you just need to stay and move in the right direction following the latest Google ranking factors in 2022, and you can still get things sorted out. 

• Improving page experience, site speed, and core web vitals

The first thing you can do to get the lost traffic is to improve the page experience and the metrics of core web vitals. In this case, you can use page speed insights and lighthouse tools that can help you identify the reason behind the site’s slow speed. 

On the other hand, you can also seek help from a professional to reduce the complexity and get positive results.

• Being real and serving the audience 

The quality of the contents matters more than you can imagine. It will impact how your website will perform throughout the core update and whether they are coping up with the Google ranking factors or not. So it is recommended to maintain the quality to serve the audience as per their needs. 

Make sure to put yourself in the user’s shoes and focus on the intent.

• Link spams 

The quality links you use or allow directly impact how your website would rank. Usually, the unnatural link pattern poses long-term risks if you know the Google ranking factors in 2022. Google’s recent Link spam update reminds the webmasters that when the link-building approach becomes popular, Google will eventually take action. 

So it is important to keep in mind that natural link acquisitions are the most effective part of the SEO strategy.