SEO in 2025 bears little resemblance to SEO in 2020. Many old tactics now actively hurt rankings. Here's what works today:
E-E-A-T: Experience Matters Most
Google's Quality Rater Guidelines now prioritise first-hand Experience alongside Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Content written by practitioners outperforms AI-generated filler every time.
Topical Authority over Keyword Stuffing
Build comprehensive topic clusters that establish your site as the definitive resource in your niche. Interlink deeply. Cover subtopics exhaustively.
Core Web Vitals Are Non-Negotiable
LCP under 2.5s, FID under 100ms, CLS under 0.1. These are pass/fail criteria. Fail them and you cede rankings to competitors who pass.
Search Generative Experience (SGE)
With Google's AI Overviews expanding, optimise for inclusion in AI-cited sources by writing clear, authoritative, well-structured content with proper schema markup.