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SEO Tactics for 2025:What Works to Rank Higher Today

SEO Tactics for 2025:
What Works to Rank Higher Today

by | Dec 26, 2022 | Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimization

The Most Important SEO Tactics of 2025: Dominate Search Today

SEO—search engine optimization—is your ticket to standing out in 2025’s crowded digital landscape. It’s about fine-tuning your website to climb search engine results pages (SERPs) and pull in the right audience.

As we sit in early arch 2025, the tactics driving results blend tried-and-true strategies with fresh twists shaped by AI, user behavior, and Google’s ever-evolving algorithm.

At Blake Strategies Group, we’ve distilled the must-knows into this guide—here’s what works now and how to make it work for you.

Mobile-First Indexing: The Foundation That Won’t Budge

Mobile-first indexing isn’t a trend—it’s the standard in 2025. With over 60% of global searches happening on mobile devices (Statista, 2024), Google judges your site based on its mobile version first. A clunky mobile experience tanks your rank, no exceptions.

What does this mean for you? Your site needs responsive design that adapts to any screen size, from iPhones to foldables. Load times matter—aim for under 2 seconds (Google’s PageSpeed Insights can clock you).

Text must be legible without zooming, buttons tappable, and pop-ups minimal.

If you can’t navigate your website easily on mobile, neither can your prospective customers or clients.

Voice Search & AI: Talk Your Way to the Top

Voice search is exploding in 2025, fueled by AI assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Google’s Gemini. Over 40% of U.S. adults use voice search daily (eMarketer, 2024), and it’s not just “weather today”—it’s “Where’s the best vegan pizza near me?” or “How do I fix a slow website?”

To win here, target long-tail, conversational keywords. Swap “best laptops” for “What are the best laptops for graphic design in 2025?” Add FAQ sections to snag voice-driven snippets. Structured data (schema markup) is your friend—it tells Google what’s what, making your content voice-ready.

High-Quality Content: Depth Beats Fluff Every Time

Content is still king in 2025—Google’s AI loves depth, relevance, and freshness. Thin, outdated pages? They’re toast. Top-ranking posts average 1,900–2,500 words (Backlinko, 2024), but it’s not about word count—it’s about value.

How do you nail it? Research your audience’s pain points (Reddit threads and Quora are goldmines), then deliver answers with meaty insights.

A 2025 tactic: “content clusters”—a pillar post (like this one) linking to subtopics (e.g., “Voice Search 101”). Update old posts. This alone can skyrocket traffic.

Keywords? Weave them in naturally—overstuffing triggers Google’s spam filter. Think user-first: solve problems, don’t chase bots.

Backlinks: Authority’s Currency in 2025

Backlinks are SEO gold, signaling trust to Google. In 2025, quality reigns—10 links from high-authority sites (DA 50+) beat 100 from spammy directories. A single mention from Forbes or TechRadar can catapult your rank.

How to score them? Create link-worthy content—think original data (e.g., “2025 SEO Stats You Need”), infographics, or ultimate guides. Outreach works too—email bloggers with a pitch like, “Your post on Facebook inspired this; care to link?”

User Experience (UX): Google’s Obsession

User experience isn’t optional in 2025—it’s a ranking juggernaut. Google’s Core Web Vitals (load speed, interactivity, visual stability) are baked into the algorithm. A site taking 5 seconds to load? Users bounce, and your rank craters.

Optimize images (compress with WebP), minify CSS/JavaScript, and leverage CDNs—our tech team cut a client’s load time from 6 to 1.5 seconds!

Navigation matters too—clear menus and internal links keep users clicking. Design-wise, ditch clutter; clean layouts win. Test your vitals with Google’s PageSpeed Insights—if your Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) exceeds 2.5 seconds, fix it yesterday. UX isn’t fluff; it’s your edge.

AI-Driven Search: The 2025 Game-Changer

AI is rewriting SEO in 2025. Google’s AI Overviews (rolled out fully in 2024) prioritize concise, scannable answers for zero-click searches. Want that coveted snippet? Front-load key info and use bullet points. Video SEO’s surging too—YouTube’s the second-biggest search engine, and short, keyword-rich clips (under 5 minutes) snag SERP real estate.

Video SEO: Visuals That Rank

Video’s a 2025 powerhouse. Over 80% of online content is video (Cisco, 2024), and Google’s pushing it hard in SERPs. Optimize with descriptive titles (“2025 SEO Tips You Can’t Ignore”), transcripts, and tags. Embed on-site with schema markup. Short-form (TikTok-style) or long-form (tutorials)? Match your audience. It’s not optional anymore.

Local SEO: Own Your Backyard

Local search is critical in 2025—70% of mobile users visit a business within 24 hours of a “near me” query (Think with Google, 2024). Claim your Google My Business profile, nail NAP consistency (name, address, phone), and rack up reviews.

Your 2025 SEO Action Plan

Ready to act? Here’s how to start:

  • Audit Your Site: Use Search Console for crawl errors, PageSpeed for UX gaps.
  • Keyword Hunt: SEMrush or Ahrefs uncover low-competition gems.
  • Content Refresh: Update top pages with 2025 data—add 300–500 words.
  • Link Build: Pitch 5 guest posts this month; aim for DA 40+ sites.
  • Test Mobile: Fix any Mobile-Friendly Test fails ASAP.

Measuring Success in 2025

Track these:

– Rankings: Monitor target keywords weekly (Google Search Console).
– Traffic: Google Analytics shows organic growth—aim for 20% bumps.
– Conversions: Are visitors buying or signing up? Tweak if not.
– Engagement: Dwell time over 3 minutes signals a win.

Staying Ahead of the Curve

SEO’s a moving target. Subscribe to Search Engine Journal, join Reddit’s r/SEO, or bookmark our blog for regular insights. Tools like Moz Pro or Screaming Frog keep you sharp. In 2025, agility beats complacency.

Compliance: Play by the Rules

Google’s ruthless—keyword stuffing, paid links, or cloaking? Penalties hit fast. Stick to white-hat: real content, legit backlinks, clear disclosures on sponsored posts. Transparency wins trust and rank.

Wrap-Up: Your 2025 SEO Blueprint

SEO in 2025 rewards the prepared. Mobile-first, voice-ready, content-rich, link-strong, UX-obsessed, AI-savvy, video-driven, and local-focused—that’s the playbook. We’ve seen clients double traffic and triple leads with these moves. Ready to dominate? Contact Blake Strategies Group for an audit that turns tactics into results.

The Best of Content Marketing

The Best of Content Marketing

by | Dec 26, 2022 | Content Marketing

A few years ago the common mantra of most SEO experts was “create good quality content” and your traffic will increase.

Most SEO companies convinced clients that weekly blog posts would be what was needed to rank a website on the front page of Google and they needed to continue doing it if they wanted to retain that position. This was the industry standard and the results were often “ok”, if not mediocre

While this holds true today to a certain extent, using the “post and pray” method is certainly not the best use of your digital/content marketing efforts.

I will be the first to admit that it “might” work in certain situations if your content somehow gets in front of the right audience, but a better solution is for YOU to get your content in front of an audience by reaching out and finding them.

 

What is Content Promotion?

Content promotion basically means that you create content for your blog or another web property and then go about the process of driving traffic to that content. Hoping and praying that someone will find your content is far too passive if you want to have more than mediocre results.

Finding the right audience involves networking, emailing, being social on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and many other social platforms to build relationships with other people in a similar niche that may share your content.

Time to become a social butterfly.

We all know people like that in the “real world.” They float in and out of social situations with ease. They can talk to anyone in any situation, about anything and they thrive on it. If you’re NOT one of those people, you know how hard it can be to “put yourself out there.”

The same holds true in the digital space, except that you can quite easily “hide” behind the screen so you aren’t as exposed as if you were mingling at a party full of strangers.

Content promotion isn’t a new concept, but it has been getting more visibility recently because of a few blog posts written by industry heavy-weights that expose just how content promotion works.

While you could wade through dozens of blog posts on the topic, written by a number experts in the digital marketing industry, I’ve summarized the best pieces of advice that I have read recently on the topic. These posts are written by experts in the industry that have gained the trust of the Digital Marketing community because they bring real value to our businesses and the businesses of our clients.

Below are 3 of the BEST Content Marketing, Strategy & Promotion blog posts that I’ve read recently.

Backlinko.com on Content Strategy – Brian Dean is one of the best experts in content promotion/strategy in the past year. His posts have been viewed by hundreds of thousands of people who love his no-nonsense, get to the point approach. He’s like a breath of fresh air in an industry with tips that are often vague and usually leave the reader with a lot of holes to fill in yourself.

Quicksprout.com – Advanced Content Marketing Guide – Neil Patel is one of the most recognized names in the SEO/Digital Marketing industry. He consistently writes helpful guides and blog posts that have helped millions of agencies and business owners to grow their businesses online.

Convinceandconvert.com – How to Promote your content across owned, earned and paid media” – Written by Matthew Gratt who leads Buzzstream’s marketing and growth initiatives, this helpful post is packed full of useful information that you can implement right away.