SEO in 2025: What Actually Moves the Needle

Every time you search for SEO advice, you get hit with intimidating lists: "200 ranking factors," "ultimate SEO checklist," "everything you need to know." Most of it is noise designed to sell you expensive tools or consulting services.

Here's the truth: for the average website, SEO comes down to about five things that actually matter. Get those right, and you're ahead of 80% of sites out there.

The Stuff That Actually Matters

1. Does your page answer the search query?

This is the whole game. When someone types "how to make sourdough bread," they want instructions for making sourdough bread—not a history of wheat cultivation in ancient Mesopotamia. Google is very good at figuring out what people want and whether your page delivers it.

No amount of technical optimization will help if your content doesn't match what people are looking for.

2. Can Google understand what your page is about?

This is where technical SEO comes in, but it's simpler than most guides make it sound:

• Your page title should describe what's on the page
• Your meta description should summarize the content
• Your heading structure should make sense (one H1, logical H2s and H3s)
• Your images should have descriptive alt text

That's it. You're not trying to game an algorithm. You're just making sure Google can parse your page correctly.

3. Is your site slow or broken?

A site that loads in 10 seconds or throws errors will get passed over. You don't need a perfect Lighthouse score, but obvious issues will hurt you. Check that:

• The site loads in a reasonable time (under 3 seconds ideally)
• Pages don't 404 when they shouldn't
• The site works on mobile

4. Do other sites link to you?

Backlinks still matter. Not because of PageRank voodoo, but because links from other sites are a signal that your content is useful. The catch: you can't really fake this. Creating genuinely useful content is the only sustainable way to earn links.

5. Have you told Google how to crawl your site?

This is surprisingly often overlooked. A robots.txt file tells search engines which parts of your site to index. A sitemap makes it easier for them to find all your pages. Neither is hard to set up, but many sites skip them entirely.

The Stuff That Doesn't Matter (Much)

Keyword density. Nobody counts keywords anymore. Write naturally.

Exact-match domains. Having "cheap-hotels.com" won't save you if the content is bad.

Meta keywords. Google has ignored this tag for over a decade.

Frequent posting. Publishing more often doesn't help if the new content isn't useful.

Start With the Basics

If you're looking to improve your site's SEO without falling down a rabbit hole, start with the simple stuff:

1. Make sure every page has a clear, descriptive title and meta description
2. Set up a robots.txt file that doesn't accidentally block your content
3. Add structured data (Schema markup) for richer search results

These are low-effort, high-impact fixes that any site can implement in an afternoon.