Where is your website traffic really coming from?
If you’re depending on people to discover you through Google, then search engine optimization (SEO) must be one of your top priorities.
You can’t generate consistent leads or sales if no one can find your website in the first place.
Did you know that most online experiences begin with a search engine? And what happens after that initial search is critical to your visibility.
The top result on Google gets the majority of the clicks. If your site isn’t ranking in the top spot—or at least on the first page—you’re missing out on major traffic. Why? Because competitors are investing in their SEO strategy, and that effort is paying off.
The good news? You can catch up.
By taking a few targeted steps, you can boost your rankings and start attracting more search traffic starting today.
We’ve identified proven strategies to help you climb the rankings.
These techniques are beginner-friendly and effective even in 2025.
Lets dive in:
Improve Your Page Loading Speed
Your website’s loading speed directly affects both user experience and your Google ranking.
Google factors in page speed when determining rankings. And if your site takes too long to load, users won’t stick around either.
That means slow load times hurt you in two ways: search engines penalize your site, and real people bounce before they even see your content.
Check out this abandonment chart showing how quickly visitors leave slow-loading pages:
How fast is fast enough?
According to Google’s benchmarks, a load time of under 3 seconds is ideal. In fact, 40% of visitors will bounce if your page takes longer than that.
Worse still, 80% of those who bounce are unlikely to return.
That’s a double hit to your SEO—reduced traffic and lower engagement.
The good news? Faster-loading sites see better return visits and higher user satisfaction. That boosts engagement and helps your search rankings.
To improve load speed, you should also reduce server response time and eliminate unnecessary bloat on your site.
Use free tools like Pingdom to test performance from multiple global locations.
If the results show sluggish performance, check your theme and plugin setup. Bloated WordPress themes and poorly coded plugins are often the culprit.
Still having issues? Your web host might be the problem. We’ve reviewed the best web hosting providers—consider switching to one with faster load speeds.
Produce High Quality Content
How frequently do you update your website content?
If the answer is “not since launch,” your SEO performance is likely suffering. Google rewards sites that are active and continuously improving.
Driving more traffic to your website requires fresh, high-quality, and relevant content that gives people a reason to visit—and come back.
Consistently publishing helpful content increases time on page, improves dwell time, and builds trust with your audience—all of which help SEO.
Dwell time refers to how long a visitor stays on your website after clicking through from search results. The longer they stick around, the better signal you’re sending to Google about your site’s value.
Here’s something else to factor in:
Google Chrome accounts for more than 60% of global browser usage, making it by far the most popular browser. If users bookmark your site in Chrome, that could boost your SEO as it shows positive engagement.
Publishing relevant and updated content increases the odds of your site being bookmarked, shared, and returned to—exactly what you want.
Optimize Your Images
Images improve your site’s appearance and user experience—but they must be optimized to help, not hurt, your rankings.
Large images can slow page speed, so compress them with tools like TinyPNG or ShortPixel. Choose the right format (e.g., WebP or optimized JPEG) and always add descriptive alt text.
You can also include keywords in your image filenames and alt text. For example, instead of naming a file “IMG1234.jpg,” name it something like “best-shampoo-for-dry-hair.jpg.”
Use the image title and caption fields strategically to reinforce relevance—but avoid keyword stuffing.
Break Up Your Content With Header Tags
Header tags (H2, H3, etc.) improve readability and structure—two key factors for both human readers and search engine crawlers.
Breaking your content into sections using descriptive subheadings makes it easier for users to scan and engage.
It also increases your chances of being featured in Google’s “People Also Ask” and featured snippet sections.
If your site looks like a wall of text, you’re guaranteed to lose readers fast. Structured content is essential.
If you use WordPress, updating header tags is easy through the editor.
We use header tags on every page and blog post for this exact reason. If you’re not already doing this—start now.
Start Blogging
Blogging is one of the easiest and most effective ways to increase organic traffic and rank for more keywords.
It’s a powerful tool for lead generation and user engagement—and it works especially well when done consistently.
Fresh content improves your site’s authority, signals relevancy to Google, and gives users a reason to return.
Use your blog to incorporate images, headers, keywords, internal links, and external citations—all of which support your SEO strategy.
The more valuable your posts, the more traffic you’ll earn—and the longer people will stay on your site.
Add More Than Text
Your website shouldn’t rely on text alone to communicate value.
While written content is essential for SEO, adding other media formats like images, videos, audio clips, and slideshows enhances user experience—and boosts your rankings.
Why does this work?
Because modern users expect dynamic content. In fact, recent studies show users are far more likely to engage with pages that include rich media, especially video content.
That’s why brands are leaning into video marketing more than ever before.
Videos don’t just inform—they keep users on your page longer. This improves your dwell time and tells Google your content is valuable.
Even a one-minute explainer video can be the difference between a bounce and a conversion.
If you want to climb higher in search results, multimedia is a must.
Use Infographics
Infographics combine the power of visuals and data—and they still perform extremely well for SEO and link building in 2025.
We used infographics at Kissmetrics to generate over 2 million visitors and 41,000+ backlinks. That strategy still works when done right:
To create high-performing infographics, focus on two things: clean design and meaningful content. Skimping on either will tank your results.
Pro tip: accompany every infographic with at least 2,000 words of original, relevant written content. Since Google can’t read images directly, the surrounding content gives your page more indexing power.
Want to make your infographic stand out? Make it interactive or animated.
This cheetah graphic became one of the most linked-to pieces of content on the web simply because of its creative animation. Over 1,000 websites linked to it.
If your industry has dry or complex data, infographics can be your secret weapon.
Turn a Standard Post Into a Long-Form Post
You already know that long-form content generally outranks shorter posts. Google consistently favors in-depth guides that fully answer a query.
If you already have posts under 1,000 words that perform okay but haven’t reached their potential, don’t scrap them—expand them.
Spend 30 to 45 minutes enhancing the article. Add expert quotes, original images, recent data, internal links, case studies—anything that adds real value.
Google rewards completeness. A “good enough” post won’t cut it anymore in 2025.
Make Sure Your Site is Readable
When you write for your website, always keep your audience in mind.
If you want people to stay, read, and act—speak their language. That means clear, simple writing. No jargon. No unnecessary complexity.
Even if you’re a doctor, lawyer, or academic, your web visitors likely aren’t. Make your content accessible to everyone.
Not sure how readable your content is?
Use a tool like Readable.com to test it. These tools score your content and highlight where improvements are needed.
They’ll flag long words, difficult sentences, and passive phrasing—helping you write clearer, more SEO-friendly content.
Optimize Your Links
Want to make your content more trustworthy—and boost your rankings at the same time?
Link to reliable sources. When you support your claims with citations from respected websites, it builds authority and signals to Google that your content is credible.
That’s why throughout this guide, we’ve included external links to stats, tools, and case studies. It’s not just about helping the reader—it also strengthens the page’s SEO profile.
Here’s an example from one of our Twitter lead generation blog posts:
We used outbound links to back up our points with real data from trusted sources.
Tip: Don’t just link to any site. Stick to high-authority domains, recent publications, and original research. Outdated or irrelevant links can actually hurt your rankings.
Also, make sure to add internal links—to other posts and pages on your own site. These help Google understand your content structure and keep users browsing longer.
In fact, we’ve already done this in this section. Scroll up and you’ll see a link to our post on building high-quality websites. That’s an internal link boosting both pages’ SEO.
Fix Any Broken Links
Even if you link to high-authority websites, links can break over time. And broken links hurt your SEO and frustrate visitors.
Google sees broken links as a sign that your site isn’t being maintained, which can negatively impact rankings.
You can use a tool like Dead Link Checker to find broken links across your site:
You can scan your entire site or individual pages. If you create a free account, you can even set it to run scheduled checks automatically.
Whenever a link breaks, you’ll be notified—so you can replace or remove it before it starts hurting your rankings.
Bonus tip: monitor broken links on sites in your niche too. If you find one, reach out to the site owner and suggest your content as a replacement. This “broken link building” tactic is a smart way to earn backlinks and boost authority.
It’s a win-win. You help someone fix their site—and you get a quality link in return.
Backlinks from other sites continue to be one of the strongest SEO ranking factors in 2025.
Find Link Opportunities on BuzzSumo
Another great way to uncover backlink opportunities is using BuzzSumo.
Just enter a keyword or topic, and BuzzSumo shows you the most shared and linked-to content for that term.
For example, here’s what comes up for “content marketing”:
Click on “View Sharers” next to a post, and you’ll see a list of people and websites that shared it on social media:
These people already care about that topic—and could be open to sharing or linking to your similar (and better) content.
This is how you find people who already amplify content in your niche—so you can reach out and build relationships, backlinks, and authority.
Diversify Your Links
To maximize your rankings, don’t rely on just one kind of link. Build a diverse backlink profile that includes:
- Links from blog posts
- Links from homepages
- Educational or .edu links
- Directory listings
- Footer and sidebar links (used sparingly)
- Mentions from news sites or PR coverage
Google’s algorithm favors natural backlink patterns. If all your links are from the same type of source (like just directories), it looks unnatural—and could hurt your rankings.
Quick Sprout ranks well in part because our links come from a mix of sources: major blogs, educational institutions, SaaS partners, and press coverage.
Diversification also protects you from algorithm changes—if one type of link drops in value, you won’t lose all your ranking power.
If Links Are Hard to Find, Think Laterally
In some industries—like marketing, lifestyle, or entertainment—there are thousands of blogs and forums you can reach out to for backlinks.
But what if you’re in a niche like plumbing or manufacturing, where link sources are limited?
That’s where lateral thinking comes in. Instead of just looking within your niche, think of related industries where your content might still be relevant.
For example, a plumber might target:
- Home improvement blogs
- DIY forums
- Homeowner financial advice sites
You can bring your expertise into related conversations—like how plumbing upgrades can increase property value or how to prevent costly home repairs.
Same goes for decorators. A blog post about “How home décor boosts resale value” fits both the design and real estate niches.
This kind of content opens doors to guest posting, link exchanges, and traffic from new audiences—all while staying relevant to your main keyword targets.
Don’t limit yourself to just your industry. Expand into nearby topics where your insights add value.
Optimize Your Site For Mobile Devices
Mobile traffic has officially overtaken desktop. As of 2025, the majority of Google searches now come from smartphones and tablets.
That means your site must be fully mobile-optimized—no exceptions. If it’s not, users will bounce quickly, and Google will take notice.
Sites that provide a poor mobile experience rank lower in search results. In fact, mobile-first indexing is now the default for all websites.
Translation: Google primarily uses the mobile version of your site to determine rankings. If your desktop version is great but your mobile site is clunky, your SEO will suffer.
The good news? Nearly all modern website builders—including HubSpot’s free blog builder—are mobile responsive by default. Just make sure you test your pages on real devices, not just emulators.
Create a Mobile App
This tip isn’t for everyone—but it’s a powerful play if you have the budget. Creating a mobile app can indirectly improve your SEO.
Why? Because Google indexes in-app content using Firebase App Indexing. If someone searches a keyword and your app includes relevant content, your app can appear in search results.
Example: If someone searches “reserve a table,” restaurant apps often appear in the top search results—with deep links into the app’s content.
While app development costs vary, the ROI from app indexing can be significant for local businesses, SaaS products, e-commerce stores, and content brands.
If a mobile app fits your business model, it can offer both branding and search visibility benefits in 2025.
Properly Format Your Page
Page formatting isn’t just about aesthetics—it directly affects usability, bounce rates, and SEO.
When your website is clean, organized, and easy to scan, visitors stick around longer. That increases dwell time and decreases bounce—two metrics Google watches closely.
To improve formatting, consider the following:
- Use large, legible font sizes
- Stick with clean, professional typography
- Use headings (H2, H3) to break up sections
- Add white space to avoid visual clutter
- Use bullet points and numbered lists
- Highlight key phrases with bold or italics—but don’t overdo it
Take this page from Square as an example:
It’s visually clean, uses hierarchy and white space effectively, and gets its message across quickly.
Contrast that with cluttered pages full of ads, pop-ups, or huge text blocks—it’s no surprise users abandon those sites fast.
Also think about your site architecture. If people can’t easily navigate your content, Google will assume it’s hard to use—and penalize rankings accordingly.
Want to see great examples? Check out this roundup of the cleanest website designs.
Provide Appropriate Contact Information
Nothing undermines trust faster than a business website with no clear way to contact the company.
Google factors trust signals—like contact details—into your ranking. If users report your business as unreachable, or your contact info is inconsistent, it can hurt your SEO profile.
Make sure your phone number, email address, and physical location (if applicable) are easy to find—ideally in the footer and on a dedicated “Contact” page.
Bonus: embed your contact info in your site’s schema markup. This gives search engines structured data they can use in rich results and local SEO panels.
Encourage Sharing on Social Media
Social signals aren’t a direct ranking factor, but they influence SEO in powerful ways.
When your content is shared widely, more people see it, link to it, and reference it in their own content. That ripple effect drives backlinks, traffic, and visibility—all of which improve rankings.
That’s why it’s essential to make sharing easy for your visitors.
Include Share Buttons on All Content
Want more people to share your content? Don’t make them copy and paste URLs manually.
Instead, embed social share buttons in obvious places—top of the article, sidebars, or floating on scroll.
This example shows a great implementation—prominent, frictionless, and aligned with the content layout.
Use tools like ShareThis, AddThis, or built-in options from platforms like WordPress and Wix to install them quickly.
Pro tip: track which content gets the most shares using analytics tools. Then double down on similar formats, headlines, and topics.
Make It Easy to Comment
Google loves content that drives engagement. One of the simplest ways to boost interaction? Comments.
When users leave comments, it sends a signal that your content is relevant and worth discussing. Plus, those discussions increase dwell time and expand your keyword footprint.
To encourage more comments, ask open-ended questions at the end of your posts. Respond to users regularly to keep the conversation going. And don’t overcomplicate the process—allow simple logins and avoid excessive CAPTCHA friction.
Comments also give you valuable insight into what your readers care about—perfect for creating follow-up posts and keyword clusters.
Add Click-to-Tweet Snippets
Click-to-Tweet boxes make it dead simple for readers to share key points from your content with one tap.
These work especially well when you include quotes, stats, or bold opinions that resonate with your audience.
Use a plugin like Better Click to Tweet if you’re on WordPress. It automatically generates tweetable boxes from any snippet you highlight.
Not only do these increase your reach on social media—they also drive targeted traffic back to your site, which reinforces your authority in Google’s eyes.
Use Original Images
Stock photos are everywhere—and Google knows it. If you want to stand out in search results and offer real value to readers, original visuals are a must.
Original charts, product screenshots, how-to diagrams, and infographics all help:
- Improve user experience
- Increase shareability
- Help Google understand your content better (via image SEO)
- Set your content apart from competitors
In 2025, visual content is even more important for Featured Snippets, Google Discover, and AI overviews—so prioritize unique, helpful visuals.
Want to go further? Add descriptive alt text and image file names. Instead of IMG_2382.jpg, use something like email-marketing-automation-dashboard.jpg.
Also, use lightweight image formats like WebP or compressed JPGs to maintain speed—especially for mobile users.
Monitor Your Performance
You’ve done the hard work of optimizing your site—now it’s time to measure results and make adjustments.
SEO isn’t a one-time task. It’s a long-term strategy that requires ongoing testing, data review, and content refinement.
Start by tracking traffic, rankings, and engagement. Here’s how to do it.
Track Rankings With Ahrefs or Semrush
Both Ahrefs and Semrush offer detailed keyword tracking tools. You can monitor how your pages rank for specific terms over time and see where you’re gaining—or losing—visibility.
You’ll also get insights into:
- Which keywords bring in the most traffic
- Which competitors are outranking you
- Where to focus new content efforts
Don’t just look at rankings in isolation. Focus on whether improvements in rankings are translating into more qualified traffic and conversions.
And if a page is slipping in the rankings, look at the top competitors. What are they doing better? How can you refresh your content to outperform them?
Use Google Analytics to Monitor Engagement
Rankings are one part of the picture—engagement is the other. You want people to find your site, stay there, and take action.
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) gives you powerful insights into what users are doing once they arrive on your site.
Pay attention to metrics like:
- Engaged sessions
- Average engagement time
- Scroll depth
- Event completions
- Conversion rates
If engagement is low, your content may need to be restructured, rewritten, or better matched to search intent. GA4 helps you uncover where users drop off so you can fix those points.
Check for Indexing Issues With Google Search Console
Sometimes content doesn’t rank simply because Google isn’t indexing it properly. That’s where Google Search Console comes in.
With GSC, you can check:
- Which pages are indexed—and which aren’t
- Why a page isn’t appearing in search
- Whether structured data is valid
- Mobile usability errors
If a high-value page isn’t indexed, request indexing through the URL Inspection Tool and review any crawl errors. Sometimes the fix is as simple as updating your robots.txt or removing a noindex tag.
GSC also helps you see which keywords are driving impressions and clicks—so you can double down on what’s working.
Final Thoughts
There’s no magic bullet when it comes to SEO. It’s a long-term game—but it pays off.
By following the strategies above—publishing helpful content, optimizing for mobile and user intent, building strong backlinks, and continuously monitoring performance—you’ll be ahead of most competitors in 2025.
Just remember: Google’s Helpful Content Update favors content that’s created for humans, not algorithms. So write for your readers, solve their problems, and use data to guide your improvements.
Do that consistently, and the rankings will follow.