SEO Strategies for 2025: What You Need to Know

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in April of 2024 and was updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

SEO in 2025 demands a shift from algorithm-focused practices to user-centricity. 

Previously, optimizing for the traditional click-based searches takes you to the “golden” #1 spot where you can funnel nearly 40% of all traffic. 

Now, the rise of Google’s AI Overviews (including Gemini and ChatGPT), voice search, and other technologies has reshaped how users find solutions to their queries online. 

For example, run a quick search on Google for “meditation tools to relieve stress and anxiety.” The results show an AI overview of the query alongside links to the websites used to generate the snippet: 

Therefore, it’s imperative that you recalibrate your SEO strategy to: 

• Stay ahead of the competition. 
• Adapt to user-changing search behavior. 
• Appear for LLM searches. 
• Increase your digital footprint across channels. 
• Funnel a lead share of the traffic. 

In this article, I’ll share the top six (6) SEO strategies to improve your search performance in 2025. 

6 Trending Strategies to Boost Your SEO in 2025

Here are six (6) effective SEO strategies to improve your search performance in 2025: 

1. Prioritize Mobile User Experience to Improve Search Performance 

Mobile devices now account for 63% of all organic search visits in the U.S., compared with just 27% back in 2013. And in response to this trend, Google completed its switch to a mobile-first index in October 2023. 

This means that Google only considers the mobile version of your website when determining rankings on the search results. 

For this reason, focus on optimizing your websites for mobile searches. Here are some key practices to start with:

• Responsive design: Ensure your website automatically adjusts its layout, images, and text to fit any device. This will provide an optimal viewing experience on a desktop, tablet, or smartphone. 

You can use this tool to see if your design is responsive across devices. Here’s an example for our website: 

• Page speed: In 2018, Google confirmed that fast loading times are a ranking factor for mobile searches. According to Portent, a site that loads in one second converts three times more than one that loads in five seconds. 

It’s clear: improving your website speed can increase your rankings and conversions. Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to identify ways to improve your site speed. 

Read more on how to improve page speed here. 

• Simplified navigation: Mobile screens offer limited real estate, so your website must be designed with simplicity in mind. 

Menus should be concise and logical, and search functionality should be easily accessible to help users find what they need quickly, like this: 

• Touch-friendly interface: Given the nature of mobile devices, ensure all interactive elements (like buttons, links, and form fields) are easy to see and click. This means making them large enough to be clicked without needing to zoom in and spaced well apart to avoid accidental clicks.

2. Focus on E-E-A-T

SEO in 2025 is more intent-focused. 

To serve users with the best results possible, Google ranks helpful and reliable websites on the subject matter. 

One way Google assesses the quality of your website content is through E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). The more your content lives up to these four criteria, the more likely it is to be considered high-quality.

Here are some tips for maximizing E-E-A-T in your content:

• Demonstrate experience: Share personal experiences, case studies, or practical applications related to your topic. Content that showcases real-world knowledge or firsthand insights can improve your site’s perceived value. 
• Showcase expertise: Highlight your authors’ qualifications, certifications, and professional background. Having recognized experts author your content can make a big difference for topics that demand a high level of technical knowledge or specialization.

For example, we’re ranking #1 for the keyword “Magento SEO.”  

This is because I authored the content: 

… and already have a record online as one of the co-founders of a nationally recognized SEO firm (proven expertise in the SEO niche): 

• Build authoritativeness: To build your topical authority, create a comprehensive catalog of content covering various aspects of a given subject area. 

Then, interlink the content to make it easier for search engines to recognize the depth and breadth of your coverage. 

To increase your site’s authority, you can also secure backlinks from other reputable sites, organically or through link-building exercises like guest blogging.

• Ensure trustworthiness: Transparency, professionalism, and accuracy are key ingredients for earning the trust of users and search engines. 

Be sure to fact-check your content, cite sources, and regularly review to detect and correct errors. Remember, the little details matter. Add clear contact information, implement a user-friendly web design, and use HTTPS for data security. 

3. Conduct Regular Technical SEO Audits

A technical SEO audit reveals the backend issues affecting your website’s performance. These issues may include: 

• Slow website speed, 
• Thin content, 
• Missing alt texts, 
• Broken links, etc. 

Sometimes, these technical issues go unnoticed but can affect user experience and search performance. 

Here are some tips to help improve your website’s health: 

a. Refresh old content: 

Keeping your content up-to-date and relevant helps you maintain strong rankings and engage your audience. 

This is because information becomes outdated over time, user interests shift, and new data emerges. Therefore, it’s important to revisit old pieces and periodically update them as needed. 

Here are some things to keep in mind when refreshing old content:

• Upgrade your content with the latest statistics and recent research, and revise any recommendations you make based on new best practices.
• Update your title tag, headers, and meta description with the most relevant keywords, and double-check that your content aligns with the search intent for that topic.
• Look for opportunities to deliver a seamless search experience to your readers. This could mean adding new images, videos, or GIFs, improving readability, or incorporating interactive elements like quizzes or surveys. 
• Once you’ve refreshed your content, don’t just leave it sitting there! Share it on social media, include it in your newsletter, and consider running targeted ads to draw attention to the new and improved resource. 

b. Optimize for search experience:

A great search experience goes beyond topping the search results —it is centered on your target audience. Ideally, users should be able to find and engage with your website without any issues. 

Also, a frictionless and enjoyable search (or page) experience often translates into higher rankings, according to Google: 

To improve your page experience: 

• Use a content delivery network (CDN) to optimize your website speed, especially if you’re targeting a global audience 
• Minify HTML, JavaScript, and CSS codes to improve your page speed 
• Avoid keyword stuffing. Instead, use semantic keywords to add contextual relevance to your page and improve readability. 
• Add descriptive alt texts to your website images to improve accessibility and rank in the Google “Image” section. Also, compress your images (or optimize when with TinyJPG), as large image files can affect your web page speed.
• Less is (always) more. Go for a simple, uncluttered website design with conspicuous headlines and CTAs. Technically, your page should answer “What’s in it for me?” from the get-go. You can run A/B tests to know which content/design resonates better with your target audience. 

c. Check internal and external links: 

Internal links are like veins. They: 

• Direct users to specific, relevant sections of your website, 
• Distribute link equity across pages, and
• Help search engines better understand the relationship between your web pages: 

Similarly, backlinks (or external links) are a “vote of confidence” for your website. They add credibility and are a great way to prove your website’s authoritativeness (to users and search engines). This is why you need to keep a close eye on them to ensure they’re: 

• Functional, i.e., no broken links. 
• Relevant to the page they’re linking to. 
• High-quality (coming from web pages with high authority). 

Here’s how:

• Use Screaming Frog to scan your website for broken (internal and external) links

• If there are broken links, redirect them to the appropriate pages 
• Check for orphan pages (web pages without internal links) and add internal links to improve your website architecture. 
• Create high-quality, valuable content that naturally attracts backlinks from reputable sources. 
• Keep your URLs concise and optimized with relevant keywords. For example, highervisibility.com/seo/services/. 
• Use descriptive anchor texts for your internal and external links. 

4. Optimize for Zero clicks and Featured Snippets to Increase Search Engine Real Estate 

A 2022 Semrush study shows that almost 26% of Google searches result in “zero clicks.” In other words, over a quarter of users find the information they need without clicking on any website. 

This happens through featured snippets and now AI Overviews. Here are some of the ways you can win on AI Overview and Featured Snippets: 

AI Overview

Google’s generative AI overview feature was released in 2024 to provide quick, direct answers to user queries. It appears directly above the featured snippet and organic search results: 

You don’t need to read any specific blog post to find what you want. While there is no definite way to optimize for AI Overviews, here’s what we know: 

a. Cater to user search intent. 

Google prioritizes pages that best match the user’s query — even if the answer is delivered directly in the SERP. Your content should provide accurate and valuable answers to search queries to increase your chances of appearing on the AI Overview. 

Here’s how: 

• Use keyword research tools (Google Keyword Planner, SEMRush, or Ahrefs) to find keywords that trigger the AI Overview. 

According to SEMRush, the keywords are largely informational and start with “how,” “what,” “is,” and “how.” 

• Provide concise and accurate answers to questions from the “People Also Ask” section on Google: 

• Analyze your target keywords’ top-ranking pages (on the organic results and AI overview) to see how your competitors address user intent. 
• Look at their content structure, featured snippet formats, and FAQ sections to get an idea of what your content format should be. 
• AI overviews usually display different sub-sections related to the search topic. So, create content that covers your topic(s) in detail.

• Implement structured data markup (such as FAQ schema or HowTo markup) to help Google better understand your content and extract the answer in the AI overview section.  

b. Build PR Traffic around your brand to appear on LLM searches: 

Generative AI and large language models (LLMs) such as Perplexity AI and ChatGPT often pull data from search engines to generate their answers: 

Although, the top three results are slightly different from Google: 

As you can see, traditional and AI-focused search engines interpret search intent differently, so optimizing for both is important to spread your digital footprint. 

Rand Fishkin, the CoFounder of SparkToro, has the simplest answer on how to achieve this: 

“Language can warp the results. Basically, you want to be careful about how you position your brand and how you use words on the public web around it.”

He said a lot more about ranking on AI tools on his LinkedIn page. 

Other tips are: 

• Answer questions about your brand on community-focused channels such as Reddit and Quora. 
• Provide answers to the “Related” search feature on Perplexity AI in your content: 

• Encourage your customers to share reviews about your brand online. This can be on your website, social media, or third-party platforms like Trustpilot.
• Create high-quality, evergreen content assets that naturally attract backlinks and brand mentions across the Internet. 
• Share your expertise online through partnerships with industry leaders or reputable websites.  

Featured Snippets

One of the most valuable SERP features you can claim is a featured snippet. This “special box” appears in Google’s results as a quick response to the user’s query. 

According to Ahrefs, over 12% of searches trigger a featured snippet.

Here’s the featured snippet that appears for the keyword “how to wash a car”:

A major advantage of featured snippets is that your page doesn’t need to rank in the top spot to be featured. Think of it as a shortcut to the top of the results page.

While there’s no way to guarantee that Google will select your result for a featured snippet, you can increase the likelihood of this outcome by formatting your content in a snippet-friendly way.

To do this: 

• Check the featured snippet that currently appears for your target keyword. It can be a paragraph, list, table, or video. The example above is a list. 
• Next, structure your content to match the format of the existing snippet and consider ways to improve the information currently featured. 

For example, add succinct explanations, use higher-quality images, or include more relevant examples. 

Remember, the goal is to make your content the most attractive choice for a featured snippet.

5. Cater to Voice Search 

In this Samsung S25 Ultra review, YouTuber Mrwhosetheboss uses voice search for a complex query: 

“What’s a great restaurant in London for a group in which one person has a peanut allergy, one person’s a vegan, and one person has celiac disease?” 

The AI assistant recommended Vantra. 

The AI will improve, and you need to be discoverable for complex searches like this. So, what did this Vantra restaurant do that made them discoverable even for voice searches? 

A quick search shows that Vantra has an optimized Google Business Profile in the vegan restaurant category. It has almost 2,000 reviews and a 4.5-star rating. 

If you click on the website itself, you’ll see “SINCE 1999 Vantra …caters to all main diet principles”. 

We already know that AI understands search intent, which is why AI Overviews and Perplexity AI can provide precise content based on user queries. All you need to do is to intentionally position your brand as an option for the different target audiences and use cases your business provides services for. 

This means using the exact keywords users will use—when they search for your services online—as often as possible. It also means you should: 

• Focus on natural language and conversational keywords. Use long-tail keywords that mimic how real people talk and optimize your content for question phrases starting “with, who, what, when, where, why, and how.”

• Have FAQ pages that answer common user questions directly. Questions can be about your business, your services, or any other information that can help them learn more about your business. For inspiration on which questions to include, refer to the “People Also Ask” section in Google’s search results.
• Optimize for local searches. As much as 22% of voice searches are location-based, which is another reason to focus on local SEO. 

Enhance your site’s visibility for local searches by claiming your Google Business Profile listing, adding local keywords, and ensuring that your business name, address, and contact information are consistent across the web.

6. Integrate Local SEO Into Your Marketing Strategy To Capture “Near Me” Leads: 

Optimizing for local SEO is more important today than ever, and here’s why: 

• Local SEO accounts for 46% of all Google searches 
• 97% of people learn more about a local company online 
• 26% of all local searches result in a purchase within a day 
• 49% of businesses affirm that local organic search brings the best marketing return on investment (ROI). 

(Source) 

More importantly, local SEO optimization increases your chances of appearing on the “local map pack” — a feature on the above organic search results that lists the top three Google business profiles and their locations: 

Here’s how to achieve this: 

a. Create and optimize your Google Business profile 

Your GBP is a cornerstone of local search visibility. An optimized profile improves your chances of appearing in local search results and provides potential customers with essential information about your business.

• If you haven’t already done so, claim your business on Google Business Profile. This verifies your ownership. 
• Your business Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP) should be accurate and consistent across all online platforms. 

Inconsistencies can confuse search engines and potential customers, potentially harming your local rankings.

• Write a clear and engaging description that highlights your services, unique selling points, and the areas you serve. Incorporate relevant keywords naturally to improve search visibility.
• Add high-resolution images of your storefront, interior, products, and services. Visual content helps potential customers understand your business and can increase engagement.

b. Add relevant categories and attributes to increase your rankings for relevant queries. 

Choosing the right categories and attributes also increases your chances of ranking for relevant searches by providing users (and search engines) with specific information about your offerings. 

In fact, it is one of the 2023 core ranking factors for local map packs, according to WhiteSpark: 

Categories are divided into two: 

• Primary Category: This category represents your main business activity. For example, instead of a broad category like “Restaurant,” choose “French Restaurant.”  
• Secondary category – Covers the other services you offer, e.g., “wine bar,” “catering service,” etc. 

The rule of thumb is to add as many categories that describe your business as possible. Tools like “Category Finder” and “GMB Everywhere” help you find the top categories your competitors are already ranking for with their search volume: 

Attributes, on the other hand, provide additional details about your business, such as “Wheelchair accessible,” “Free Wi-Fi,” or “Outdoor seating.” These may not directly influence your search rankings but can compel a customer to choose you over the competition.  

c. Target hyperlocal keywords:  

Hyperlocal keywords are highly specific phrases with precise locations, such as neighborhoods, districts, or street names. Adding these keywords to your GMB and content increases your chances of ranking in location-specific queries. 

For example, instead of targeting broad terms like “HVAC in Tennessee,” a better alternative is “HVAC in Nashville.” This will attract high-intent customers searching for your services or products nearby. 

Read more about how to optimize for local map packs. 

Final Thoughts

As we move through 2025 and beyond, your business must stay up to speed with the latest developments for long-term visibility in search engines. Incorporating the above strategies ensures: 

• Your website remains relevant as search behavior changes. 
• You meet current and future user needs. 
• Gain a competitive advantage on the search results. 

Remember, SEO is not a one-time task. If you want to succeed, you must monitor and adapt to new SEO trends. If you’d prefer a personalized SEO strategy to increase your search performance on traditional and AI-driven search engines, learn more about our service and contact one of our experts for a free consultation.