The author's views are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.
Last year was an incredible year for Core Updates[1], and for changes to how SEOs improve page quality for users. Moving forward, we can expect to see increased diversification of SERPs, led by developments in Google’s algorithms, and new features from tools like Google Lens[2]. These developments will change how we manage our SEO now and in the future.
Multimedia first
Why should you consider a multimedia-first SEO strategy?
MUM[3] is the latest in Google’s suite of super-powerful algorithms, which help them to understand information in new and different ways. It runs alongside BERT[4], but it's actually much more powerful than BERT.
MUM stands for “multitask unified model”, and not only does it process natural language, but it does so in over 75 languages — and counting. It's also able to process text and images with a similar quality, and is increasing its ability to process video and audio in the near future. This means we’re likely to see the impact of this in the SERPs, specifically what they look like, which is also likely to shape some of the targeted algorithm updates in the future.
This shift in focus is a natural evolution of a mobile-first[5] digital experience that allows users to engage with content dynamically using a mix of inputs, outputs, and tools, often simultaneously. Google’s push towards better understanding — and towards ranking media like image and video — will require SEOs to look at multimedia content with fresh eyes.
Which short-term multimedia optimizations should you prioritize in 2022?
Visual recognition for Google Lens
Google has invested significantly