In today’s world, SEO is an extensive topic that is difficult to fully cover in a single article. Like any other field, SEO allows for constant growth and discovery of new ideas and solutions. However, in this article, we aim to address the most critical aspects that are essential in 2025.
Some methods might seem like basic steps that should have been implemented during the website’s development. Yet, as practice shows, even in modern web studios, developers can overlook certain details that need improvement. Essentially, all the recommendations listed below work best when used together. Therefore, keep in mind: SEO is not a weekend homework assignment. It’s an ongoing process of competitor analysis and refining your product so that competitors, in turn, use your strategies as benchmarks for improvement.
Table of Contents:
- What is SEO?
- Competitor Analysis and Its Importance
- Website Structure and Why You Shouldn’t Fear Expanding It
- Semantic Core: The Role of Keywords and Where to Find Them
- On-Page SEO: Internal Optimization
- Creating Content That Delivers Results
- The Importance of Responsive Design and Google’s Mobile-First Index
- Off-Page SEO: Link Building Strategies
- Local SEO for Businesses
- Word of Mouth: Reviews and Recommendations
- The Influence of Social Media on SEO and Traffic Generation
- FAQ: SEO for Businesses
What is SEO?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a set of actions aimed at improving a website’s position in search engine results. The main goal of SEO is to attract organic traffic, meaning visitors who find your site without clicking on paid ads. In 2025, SEO remains a key tool for businesses that want to be visible online.
Today, SEO encompasses technical optimization, content creation, social media strategies, and off-page optimization. It requires website owners to deeply understand the principles of algorithms like Google PageRank and AI-based updates.
Behavioral factors continue to play a crucial role in 2025. Search engines analyze how users interact with your site: how long they stay on your pages, whether they return, and if they find answers to their queries. This is why creating valuable content and improving the user experience (UX) remain key elements of successful SEO.
Competitor Analysis and Its Importance
Competitor analysis is the starting point for any SEO strategy. It helps you understand what works for your competitors and adapt those approaches to your business. First, focus on studying their keywords, website structure, and content.
For instance, if a competitor ranks highly for specific keywords, consider incorporating those into your own semantic core. Competitor analysis is like studying a map before embarking on a journey. Without it, you might waste time and effort heading in the wrong direction.
Tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Serpstat can help identify competitors’ traffic sources, their most popular pages, and the backlinks they’ve acquired. Analyzing their backlink profile allows you to see which websites are linking to resources in your niche. These services are paid, but the insights they provide are worth the investment.
Steps for competitor analysis:
- Compile a list of competitors based on your keywords. These can be direct competitors or websites in related niches.
- Identify the keywords they are using—tools like the ones mentioned above can assist with this.
- Analyze their content. What types of content are they publishing: articles, infographics, videos? Which content performs best?
- Review their meta tags. You can do this by entering their URL into Google’s search bar and reviewing the search results.
- Check their website loading speed. This is critical since users are unlikely to wait more than 3 seconds for a site to load.
- Evaluate mobile responsiveness. Modern users are more likely to visit websites from mobile devices. Assess how well their mobile version functions.
- Assess the overall design. How intuitive is the interface? What blocks and functionalities are they using?
However, it’s crucial not to simply copy competitors’ strategies but to adapt them to your own goals and audience. For example, if a competitor successfully uses videos, consider integrating them into your strategy, but with a unique approach. Pay attention to the details; small adjustments can give you a significant advantage.
Website Structure and Why You Shouldn’t Fear Expanding It
Website structure impacts not only how users perceive your site but also how search engines index it. A well-organized structure improves navigation, makes the site intuitive, and increases the likelihood of retaining visitors. For instance, if a user can’t quickly find the information they’re looking for, they’re likely to leave, increasing your bounce rate.
Key elements to consider:
- Start by analyzing your competitors’ structures. Which pages do they have, and how deep is their structure? Generally, top-ranking sites feature expanded structures.
Example: Let’s say you sell products like freeze-dried goods and candied fruits. Instead of combining them on a single page called “Freeze-Dried Goods and Candied Fruits,” create two separate pages for each product category.
Each page should be optimized for specific queries. While it’s possible to include both keywords on a single page, this approach is inefficient from an SEO perspective. By creating two pages and optimizing each for its respective category, you increase your chances of attracting visitors for both keywords.
Good structure practices include:
- Logical categories, subcategories, and internal linking (commonly referred to as “interlinking”).
- Using nested menus and breadcrumbs to help users navigate your site. For example, an e-commerce structure could look like this:
- Men’s Clothing > Jackets > Winter Jackets
From the winter jackets page, users should be able to navigate back to “Jackets” or “Men’s Clothing” with a single click using breadcrumbs.
Avoid unnecessary intermediate breadcrumb steps that don’t add value. For example:
- Homepage > Shop > Category > Subcategory > Product
If clicking on “Shop” opens a page with all products and doesn’t serve a clear purpose, it’s better to streamline the path to:
- Homepage > Category > Subcategory > Product
Having all products on one page may seem convenient, but users are unlikely to search through thousands of items. Additionally, such pages can slow down significantly.
SEO tip: Use human-readable URLs. Instead of example.com/cat123, opt for example.com/mens-jackets. This improves search engine indexing and makes links more appealing to users.
Semantic Core: Why Keywords Matter and Where to Find Them
A semantic core is a list of keywords and phrases that define the theme of your website and are used to promote it. Building a strong semantic core involves tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, Serpstat, or SEMrush. Google’s tool is free, but if ads aren’t enabled, it only shows frequency ranges like “10–100.”
Keywords should be relevant and strike a balance between popularity and competition. For example, in a culinary blog, the keyword “cake recipes” might be too competitive, while a more specific query like “step-by-step Napoleon cake recipe” is narrower and potentially more effective, as it faces less competition.
Using a semantic core helps search engines better understand your website’s content, increasing its relevance. However, it’s important to avoid “keyword stuffing”—the excessive use of keywords—which can result in penalties from search engines.
Best Practices for Semantic Core Creation:
- Relevance: Choose keywords that accurately reflect the content and purpose of your website.
- Long-tail Keywords: Focus on specific, detailed phrases with lower competition.
- Avoid Over-Optimization: Use keywords naturally within the content to maintain quality and user experience.
Building and optimizing a semantic core is essential for helping your website rank higher in search results while maintaining credibility with search engines and users.
Mistakes to Avoid
When people unfamiliar with SEO or those who haven’t studied it thoroughly attempt optimization, they often make the following mistakes:
Focusing Only on High-Frequency Keywords
High-frequency keywords, with a monthly search volume of 1,000 or more, are extremely competitive. Ranking in the top results for these keywords is challenging. Instead, focus on mid-frequency and low-frequency keywords, which are easier to target and can still attract a relevant audience.Keyword Stuffing
There is no universal rule for how many keywords to use in a text. Every SEO specialist relies on their own observations or draws from the experience of other webmasters. As a general guideline, we recommend using one keyword phrase per 500-700 characters. This is not a strict rule, so slight deviations are acceptable.Keyword Density
Keyword stuffing in terms of percentage is another common issue. Ensure that the percentage of keywords in your content does not exceed 5%. You can use tools to track this metric and maintain balance.Awkward Keyword Placement
Avoid inserting keywords awkwardly or unnaturally into the text. Keywords can be split across a sentence or adjusted for grammatical correctness. The main goal is to ensure they fit seamlessly within the context and match the article’s theme.Using Keywords Only in the Text
Keywords shouldn’t just be placed in the body of the text. They are equally important in headings, meta tags, image descriptions, and URL addresses. This ensures that search engines recognize your content’s relevance across multiple elements.Focusing Only on Commercial Queries
While commercial queries are essential, they are not the only type of valuable search intent. For instance, informational queries are perfect for blogs, which can serve as an additional traffic source to your website.
By avoiding these mistakes and using keywords strategically across your website, you can significantly improve your SEO performance and provide a better experience for users and search engines alike.
On-Page SEO: Internal Optimization
On-Page SEO encompasses a wide range of tasks aimed at improving your website’s structure, content, and technical features. It’s like tidying up your home before welcoming important guests—it needs to be clean, attractive, and inviting. If your website’s code is full of errors, the content lacks keywords, and titles or meta descriptions are missing, Google is unlikely to rank it highly. Instead, it will see the page as uninformative and irrelevant.
Internal optimization is one of the most challenging stages of SEO, even in 2025. There are numerous factors to consider when preparing your site. Let’s break them down into key points:
Keywords
Keywords are the foundation that links your content to user queries. Search engines rely on this logic. If you don’t use keywords on your site, don’t expect results.Meta Tags
Title and description tags are the main elements that help search engines understand the content of your page. When a user searches for a specific phrase, Google is more likely to show your page if these tags include relevant keywords that reflect the page’s content.Headings (H1-H4)
The H1 heading should appear only once at the top of the page. It must include the primary high-frequency keyword and should not duplicate the title tag. Other headings (H2, H3, H4) can be used multiple times but must follow a hierarchical structure. Ensure headings contain keywords and that the content following each heading reflects its essence.Text Structuring
Articles should be easy to read. Use legible fonts, break text into small paragraphs of 5-7 lines, and divide content with headings and subheadings. Additionally, use media content such as images and videos to enhance diversity and engagement.URL Optimization
URLs should be short, clear, and contain keywords. For example, instead ofexample.com/cat123, useexample.com/mens-jackets.Unique Content
Search engines penalize duplicate content. Texts should be unique, interesting, and valuable, and media content should also be original.Responsive Design
By 2025, a flawless mobile version is critical due to Google’s Mobile-First indexing, which prioritizes the mobile version of your site for ranking.Loading Speed
Users generally wait no more than 3 seconds for a page to load. According to Google, the likelihood of a user leaving the page increases by 32% if the page takes 1 to 3 seconds to load. You can check your loading speed using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights.Internal Linking (Interlinking)
Google favors content that includes internal links to other relevant pages on your site. For example, if you develop websites and write a blog about tips for launching an online store, link these pages together with contextual backlinks.Image Compression
Site owners often overlook the size of uploaded images, which can slow down the page’s load time. Avoid this by compressing image files before uploading them.Navigation
The simplicity and clarity of your site’s navigation determine how long users will stay and explore your products. Analyze your competitors’ websites, browse their main menus, add items to the cart, and go through categories and subcategories. Avoid overly complex navigation menus, like vertical menus on the left with pop-ups on the right. While creativity is good, usability is far more critical for retaining visitors.
By addressing these aspects, you can significantly enhance your site’s performance, improve search engine rankings, and create a better user experience.
Content That Delivers Results
How do you write an article that truly delivers results? Progress doesn’t stand still. Just a few years ago, articles were written by copywriters or rewriters who essentially paraphrased existing content. Now, you can generate ready-made content in seconds using artificial intelligence. Sounds amazing? Not entirely.
In recent years, neural networks have gained popularity, promising to replace humans in various fields. This development has divided the webmaster community into two camps. One group saves time and effort by using AI-generated texts, while the other strongly advises against it. While tools like ChatGPT and similar neural networks can produce unique content that you can publish without even checking for plagiarism, there are some caveats:
AI-generated content lacks depth. It provides answers that are concise but often lack detail or specificity. As we know, high-quality content is the foundation for effective SEO.
AI content often requires refinement. You’ll still need to add keywords, rewrite sections, and adjust for tone or accuracy. In some cases, editing AI-generated content may take longer than writing it yourself.
Penalties for AI-generated content. Naturally, Google does not reward artificially created content. Using it comes with the risk of sanctions, so proceed with caution.
For users, the primary goal is to find answers to their questions when reading your content. Search engine bots analyze user behavior on your site. If visitors leave quickly, it signals that the content doesn’t meet their needs. As a result, the article won’t be ranked higher or shown to more people.
To ensure your content performs well, focus on creating valuable, detailed, and user-centric articles that answer key questions and engage readers. This not only improves SEO but also builds trust with your audience.
How to Write a High-Quality Article
The answer is simple: become an expert in your specific topic. However, if that path seems too daunting, you can hire specialists. Just make sure to choose the right professionals and provide them with a clear technical brief. Additionally, follow these general recommendations:
Diversify keyword usage: Keywords can be blended naturally within a sentence. For instance, instead of “order website development” as an exact match, use “order affordable website development.”
Use a mix of exact and modified keywords: Combine direct and adjusted keywords to improve natural flow. You can also inflect words as needed for grammar and style.
Keep paragraphs short: Limit them to 4–7 lines for better readability.
Include visual elements: Insert images or subheadings every 2–4 paragraphs to break up the text and maintain user engagement.
Expand on headings: The content following each heading should provide detailed information that matches the heading. AI-generated texts often lack specificity, so creating expert-level content with clear advice is more valuable.
Use numbers in the text: Including statistics or years in your headings can make the article more engaging and relevant.
Internal linking: Add links to services or related articles directly in the text. For example, link from your article to relevant service pages or FAQs. Internal links help users navigate your site and improve SEO.
Utilize headings effectively:
- Use a single H1 at the beginning of the article.
- Follow with H2 and H3 subheadings for structure.
- H3 and H4 can be used as nested subheadings if they elaborate on H2 topics.
Incorporate tables where relevant: They can simplify complex data and make your content more digestible.
Ensure uniqueness: Check your work for uniqueness, even if it’s AI-generated. Tools can help verify originality, but manual editing may still be required to enhance quality.
Determine article length: Base it on competitor articles. Add details or unique points that competitors may have missed.
Avoid highlighting keywords in bold: It’s unnecessary and can distract readers.
Promote articles on social media: Write concise previews for your articles and post them on social platforms. Include share buttons within the articles for easy distribution.
By following these guidelines, you can create high-quality, engaging, and SEO-friendly articles that provide value to both users and search engines.
The Importance of Responsive Design and Google’s Mobile-First Index
Responsive design is an approach to website creation that ensures content adapts seamlessly across various devices. This means websites should display correctly on any screen, from desktop monitors to smartphones and tablets. Honestly, discussing proper website rendering in 2025 might feel a bit redundant. By this year, it should be a given that any website works flawlessly across all devices, from small smartphones to widescreen monitors. However, in practice, some developers still overlook critical details. That’s why, once your website is ready, it’s essential to test it thoroughly.
Mobile-First Indexing highlights the fact that Google primarily scans the mobile version of a website. Progress doesn’t stand still, and today, nearly everyone owns a smartphone. Google recognizes this and adjusts to modern realities. As of August 2024, mobile traffic accounted for 60% of global website visits. Consequently, when ranking a site, Google prioritizes the mobile version.
How Responsive Design is Achieved
When coding websites manually, developers often use media queries. For sites with a content management system like WordPress, customizable plugins such as Elementor simplify the process. To better understand how to optimize a website for responsiveness, it’s worth reviewing Google’s official recommendations.
Media queries, in simple terms, adjust the properties of specific blocks depending on screen width. For example, in the code snippet below, the entire page’s body will have a light blue background when the screen width is 768 pixels or less:
These media queries allow developers to change nearly any parameter, from layout and fonts to colors and spacing. The developer’s task is to ensure that all pages display correctly across all screen sizes, down to as small as 320 pixels.
Why Responsive Design Matters
Improved User Experience:
Responsive design ensures users can comfortably interact with your site, regardless of their device. A poorly displayed site on mobile devices can lead to frustration and higher bounce rates.Better SEO Rankings:
With Google’s Mobile-First Index, responsive design is no longer optional. Sites with poor mobile optimization are unlikely to rank well in search results.Increased Mobile Traffic:
Since over half of all web traffic comes from mobile devices, having a mobile-friendly site means capturing a larger share of the audience.Cost-Effectiveness:
Instead of creating separate desktop and mobile sites, responsive design combines them into a single solution that works everywhere.
Responsive design, coupled with adherence to Google’s Mobile-First Index guidelines, is crucial for any modern website. By ensuring your site is mobile-friendly and well-optimized, you not only enhance user experience but also boost your site’s chances of ranking higher in search results.
Off-Page SEO: Building a Backlink Profile
What is reputation? Essentially, it’s what people say about you. The better your services are overall, the more positively your clients will talk about you, recommend you to their friends, and so on. When it comes to improving a website’s reputation with Google, there are several methods: real reviews, active social media accounts, backlinks, and more.
Of course, representatives from Google claimed back in 2023 that backlinks are not considered when ranking a site in the top three. However, it’s important to understand that they benefit from making such statements to maintain competition among websites.
Take, for example, the Ukrainian version of Apple’s website. If we check the number of sites linking to it, we see that 92 high-ranking websites link to the homepage alone. Why does a brand like Apple need backlinks if it’s already known worldwide? The answer is that a strong backlink profile with high-ranking links has a tremendous impact on how search engines perceive a website.
Local SEO for Businesses
People often approach us with an existing website and a functioning business, yet they still don’t utilize local SEO—a major oversight. Local SEO is an excellent way to attract additional clients for free.
In 2025, as in previous years, search engines analyze your site by looking at meta tags and contact information. These are signals that indicate where your business is located. If your meta tags specify a city and your contact page includes an address, your site is much more likely to rank higher in that region. Therefore, don’t overlook the following recommendations:
When gathering your semantic core, include queries with location-specific keywords for the areas you serve. Even if you provide services worldwide, it makes sense to include a city in your meta tags.
Register with Google My Business, a free service. It allows you to get a pin on Google Maps. Over time, if your profile gains traction and clients leave positive reviews, it can greatly enhance your visibility. You can also add products, photos, and other information to your account.
Reviews: Building a strong reputation isn’t easy. Even if you ask customers to leave reviews, only about 1 in 10 will follow through. However, it’s crucial to motivate people to leave feedback. Integrate Google My Business reviews into your website and include a link to your site in your GMB profile. This way, visitors to your site will see real reviews, be redirected to GMB, and be encouraged to share their impressions.
Word of Mouth: Reviews and Recommendations
How Social Media Impacts SEO and Traffic Generation Through Social Platforms
FAQ: SEO for Businesses
Yes, SEO remains a relevant tool for promotion. Search engine algorithms continue to evolve, but their primary goal is to provide users with quality content. Focus on creating valuable content, analyzing competitors, and consistently improving your website.
Yes, but it will require time and learning about various tools and techniques. Start with free resources like Google Search Console and the Yoast SEO plugin if your website is built on WordPress.
Probably not. Backlinks are a crucial ranking factor. However, quality matters more than quantity. Building a strong backlink profile is a continuous process that should start from the moment your site goes live and grow consistently.
