SEO, or search engine optimisation, is the term we use for one of the actions we take to ensure our business websites are discovered online by the right people. It is, of course, an essential aspect of any online marketing strategy, although it’s a technical subject that is always evolving, and that means it is easy to become confused as to what you should and shouldn’t be doing. Fortunately, you can get some insights on the best way to conduct your SEO in 2025 with the dos and don’ts below.
Do make sure your site is designed for SEO
The first thing you need to do in 2025 to boost your SEO is to ensure your site itself is properly optimised to be found online. Indeed, there are plenty of aspects of your site that can either work for or against you when it comes to search engine optimisation.
For example, did you know that Google and other search engines look for sites that display well on mobile when working out rankings? Additionally, a site designed to provide a positive user experience will help keep people using it for longer, and a longer average session duration can also help your SEO score.
One of the simplest things you can do when it comes to site design is to make sure that your images are compressed and then renamed, including keywords. Not only will they help you site load faster (which will impact your SEO), but also help you increase your rank for the keywords you use.
Don’t forget about local SEO
Local SEO is about making sure you are at the top of the online results for businesses like yours in your area. Local SEO is a big deal in 2025 because it feeds into Google’s GMB profiles and three-pack system. Basically, what this means is that if you can optimize your site for local SEO, you can get in the three businesses that appear at the top of any local Google search. This is crucial because it’s always the businesses in these first three positions that get the most traffic.
You can think of optimizing your business for local SEO as a microcosm of traditional SEO. What that means is the same type of techniques, applied in slightly different ways, will work. One example of this is creating and displaying useful and valuable content on your site that includes location keywords that you want to rank for.
Another is making sure you claim your Google Business Profile and fill it out completely. You should also ensure that you are directing customers there to complete reviews for you, as this will also help to boost your profile’s position in the search rankings. Last of all, many businesses have had the most success when they treat their GMB as a mini Facebook-style page. This means they upload content, images and videos regularly, which can help provide useful content for users and indicate to Google that your profile is active, and so should be boosted up the local search results.
Do you prioritise building backlinks?
Have you ever applied to a job without a good reference? Then you’ll know just how much these things can impact our success. The thing is that backlinks, where a site links back to your content, in SEO terms, are like references for your website. High-quality references, those that come from a legitimate, high DA site, act as positive indicators to search engines that the tour site is also legitimate and trustworthy.
Unfortunately, it can be tricky to gain backlinks, and this can put your site at a disadvantage. There are some strategies you can use, though. The best strategy is to always create content that is of high value. That means interesting, entertaining, informative content gleaned from first-hand experience that is written well. Such content will encourage other sites to link to yours, and not only provide you with backlinks but help you establish your business as an expert in your field as well.
Another is adding your business to online directories, as these often have reasonable domain authority DA, are plentiful and free to display. Some SEO tools, such as SEM Rush, even provide a service where they will submit your business information to directories for you, making this task much easier.
Don’t fall into the trap of struggling alone
One of the biggest mistakes that organisations make in SEO is trying to do it all themselves. This is because when it was an emerging discipline, many people took on the task of optimizing their sites for the search engines. However, SEO has quickly evolved into a complex and ever-changing subject, with even the tools needed to complete the work requiring in-depth training to be used.
With that in mind, working with an expert SEO company is always the best approach. This is because they will have the expertise, access to tools, and experience needed to ensure your business’s SEO performs in the very best way possible, and that your business gets found by the right people online.
Do adjust your strategy for AI
Many people say that SEO is dead, but that is not accurate. Indeed, almost 80% of people continue to use search engines like Google and Bing. Although it is important to remember that SEO in 2025 looks way different from how it did before. This is largely due to the advent of AI, with over 10 million using AI for searches in the US alone and many more using Google and Bing, and relying on the AI summary that comes up at the top of the page.
Despite this change, the good news is that there are ways to help get your content drawn from and linked to via these AI summaries. The way to do this is much like getting featured as a Google snippet and includes answering a question directly and succinctly, as well as using the proper schema using JSON-LD for this information. Additionally, AI will pull info from sites that rank highly, so building your overall organic ranking will help too.
