5 SEO Tips for 2025

December 9, 2024 1:44 pm Published by

If you’ve been in the SEO game long enough, you’re probably used to the ever-changing landscape. If not, you might be surprised to hear that your SEO strategies and processes need to be constantly adapted. Going into 2025, there will be some significant things you should keep in mind to stay in search engines’ good graces. 

Between Google’s frequent core updates and artificial intelligence advancements, we all need to focus on user-centric, informative, marked up content. Let’s get into some details. 

Our Top 5 SEO Tips for the New Year:

1. Don’t rely on AI for content. Relying on AI to create content for your website is problematic for a few reasons. AI is somewhat new. If you’ve used it enough, you’ve probably noticed that the content can be repetitive, too technical, and sometimes completely wrong. Not to mention, there are likely others in your industry that are also using AI for their content. This means your content is the same or similar to others, which could get you penalized by search engines. While AI responses are improving, it’s really important that you don’t just copy and paste onto your site.

AI can be great for brainstorming, but it’s important to reword, fact check, and add your human touch to all content. One of the biggest strengths for SEO experts and those learning the trade is to apply context and the real world into your work. It’s fine to use AI to help generate ideas, but your reliance should end there.

2. Optimize your content for AIOs. Speaking of AI, you’ve probably started seeing those “AI” overviews (AIOs) pop up at the top of search results. While they don’t show up for every query, we will start to see more of them in 2025. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s an example:

As you can see, this shows up at the very top of search results, and includes the web pages that the content was pulled from. 

So, how do you get your content featured? Well, there’s no way to ensure or directly impact these overviews. Google’s algorithm generates them on the fly based on the keyword. 

However, you can do some things to make your content more likely to appear. 

    1. Write authoritative, high-quality content. 
    2. Answer specific questions clearly on your website, either with FAQ sections or long-form content addressing multiple related questions. 
    3. Match your content to the user’s search intent. 
    4. Improve overall rankings to improve your credibility and chance of a feature. 

By establishing yourself as a credible, authoritative source, you’ll improve your chance of appearing in some of these AI overviews. 

3. Establish and Emphasize NEEAT. NEEAT stands for Notability, Expertise, Experience, Authority, and Trustworthiness. “Notability” and“Expertise” are newer additions to this acronym, and help balance search results in the world of AI. To stay unique, you need to use original data and experiences such as reviews and your own case studies, research, etc. Don’t be afraid to talk more about the humans behind the screen and their individual craft. By emphasizing authenticity, trustworthiness, and the human experience, you can stand out and perform well organically. 

While keywords are a cornerstone in the SEO world, they aren’t everything. This is especially true after Google’s August 2024 Core Update, which is shifting search results away from content that seems like it was created just to perform well in rankings (rather than to truly be useful to website visitors). Now, you should focus on identifying the pain points of your ideal clientele and resolving those problems clearly in your content. 

Also, spend some time getting involved with forums such as Reddit and Quora. These platforms are starting to rank well in search results as people are seeking out authentic perspectives and insights. This is a shift that is likely to continue into 2025. So, set aside some time each week or month to contribute to forums with quality content. Be careful not to just link out to your website everywhere you can, as this can get your site penalized. Instead, respond to forum posts in a helpful way that establishes credibility, with occasional links back to your site only when they add value and fit naturally.

Start your New Year by taking some time to revamp your website’s content with a NEEAT focus. 

4. Technical SEO. While technical SEO has always been a huge ranking factor, it will be more important than ever in 2025. Having a strong technical SEO foundation can improve your chances in appearing in the AIOs (remember those?) and search results overall. This is because structured data helps search engines and their AI tools to crawl, understand, and store your website’s content. 

Focus on schema markup, internal linking, an efficient sitemap, and ‘clean’ code to boost your website’s ranking potential. Make sure you’re regularly checking for any Manual Actions and other recommendations from Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. 

For more details on the above, check out our Technical SEO Guide. 

5. Speed is King. In today’s world, people want information fast. You can’t afford to have a slow website. Not when your competitors’ sites are loading quickly. We’re all becoming less and less patient, and don’t want to spend precious time waiting for each page we click on to load. 

So, while you’re reviewing your technical SEO, you should also test your website’s loading speeds through tools such as Lighthouse or Pingdom. Make sure you’re also checking your scores in mobile view, as search engines now care much more about mobile performance and responsiveness. If you find that your site is slow, talk to your web development company about speeding it up. If DIY is more your style, there are plenty of plugins that can help with your website’s speed. For WordPress, we recommend WP Rocket. For Joomla, we recommend Route 66. 

If you are on WordPress, check out this WP Rocket Guide we guest posted earlier this year. And yes, it’s still relevant!

While there’s always more we could discuss for SEO in 2025, we’ll leave it at these 5 big tips for now. 

Remember, 2025 is all about being informative and authentic. AI should be used to help you brainstorm and complete simple tasks, but prioritize your human experience in your SEO efforts. And if you get stuck or start to feel overwhelmed, our SEO specialists are here to help! 

For an SEO refresher, check out our 5-Part Beginner’s Guide to SEO.

 

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