As you may or may not know, SEO was turned on its head after Google chose to give all the love to website owners who pay for visibility. That said, you can still get your site ranking high on the first page of search engine results. Get up to speed on SEO in 2025, I love to sleuth around and then shout out all the secrets!
I just achieved organic rank for a client this past March, with some changes I made to his website, Google business listing, and by adding a series of search optimized posts. So I want to share with you some tips that work to get your site at the top for your chosen search terms.
Good to Know About SEO in 2025:
Local still beats global, but keep trying!
Local businesses will have an easier time getting found than niche-only blogs. That’s because searchers are more likely to type the service they need plus the town/state where they live or would love to receive service.
That’s why “Ducky’s Hot Wings Philadelphia PA” will get your company ranking much faster and shown to more surfers than “Ducky’s Hot Wings” who aims to attract a global readership, and does not run a local business.
What I’m saying is: if you run a brick-and-mortar, or local service-based business, your website will get found. You just want to do all the right things to make sure your name, niche, target phrase and local search area is named in all your keyword-targeted posts and pages.
Your global niche site will also get found, but you really must be meticulous with SEO and post constantly.
Using Facebook Public Groups for Backlinking Value
I don’t even know why I’m sharing this one. But I may as well stay consistent with my spill-all, no-poker-face personality, so here go the beans. I’m excited to reveal this NEW discovery that I made posting on my local blog! Here it is:
Facebook public groups make a perfect backlinking strategy. You don’t need it to be a huge group with lots of comments, for this to work. You only need to have a live group, or a friend who runs one, and lets you post there.
Just create a public group. Invite some people. Create a post with a good keyword lead-in. Paste a link into that post, which goes directly to a post or page on your blog. Add hashtags and hit publish. This will appear on google for your chosen search term in as soon as ONE DAY if you do it right.
I know it’s hard for Facebook die-hards to imagine a group that tells you to do everything you were told NOT to do when posting in a group. But this is the deal: Facebook wants their users to stick around and keep feeding the content machine. So that’s why they tell peeps to NOT post self-serving content.
All well and good, for them. But now that they’re gargantuan, they have the power to lift up your little old blog posts and pages like the captain of the football team elevates the band geek girl he’s dating.
So YES, you can run a purely self-promotional linking group on FB. I promise, this works in 2025. And if something changes, I’ll update you on that so you won’t be wasting your time.
Use an SEO Tool, Like Yoast, to Manage Your Blog’s SEO
For your WP Blog, use an SEO tool like Yoast, and optimize each post according to their recommendations. Just install Yoast as a plug-in, then activate it and the app will walk you through what you need to know.
I know that local businesses tend not to understand what I mean by blog. It doesn’t mean you’re going to be some kind of online diary diva.
It means that there’s a special content management area of WordPress site that allows you to publish POSTS, just like you do on social media. The posts appear in a FEED, in chronological order, on your site.
What can you post to give your site some SEO love?
- Company updates and news
- Events, workshops, classes
- Q&A – or Reader Questions (make them up or actually field some questions)
- Helpful tips on topics that your ideal customer would typically want to know about
- “Talkie” videos from you
- A helpful PDF guide that people can download to opt into your email list (yes, you should be doing lead capture)
How to optimize the content:
Off the top of my head, suppose you’re a real estate agent. You want to target first-time home buyers. That can be a topic category of your blog that you post tips about, and publish as search optimized blog posts.
This is how you attract web searchers. The search engines will match their search up to your website, assuming you’re both using the same words. See?
Do your keyword research
Choose keywords carefully before you type your post titles. Use a keyword tracker tool (free or paid), and check Google to see what keywords others are using, before selecting those as the title of your blog posts/pages and your H1, H2, H3 headings, etc.
While you’re at it, slip that keyword phrase into the first paragraph of your article that you’re publishing in the post.
Images that are properly keyword alt-tagged will get you mad search engine love. Add an image to each SECTION of your blog post, and alt-tag the images using keywords that will help you get found.
To summarize, where to add those keywords:
- The post or page title
- The article’s headings
- The first paragraph
- The image alt tags
What about an SEO Review and Overhaul for Your Site?
Oh, I’m glad you asked about that. It can be hard to get over the hump of inviting someone else to fiddle with or fix your website. Am I right? The thing is, though… as long as you have the login info (why do so many business owners lose this??), you can grab someone like me in a hurry to come in and give you an SEO make-over.
As mentioned above, I did this for a client this past spring and their local biz is now blowing up on Google to the point that they might have to add an employee. No kidding!
SEO works, and even if you did a DIY site, or you had some rando make your website, I can still jump in due to the beauteous portability of WordPress.
Contact Us for a Quote
This is a budget-friendly option for helping your site get found. Here’s what I’ll need from you:
- Who you’re targeting
- What’s your main service or product (if it’s obvious when I see the site, great! Less questions to answer – just hand me the link)
- The link to log into your blog (or you can just give me your URL and I’ll figure it out.)
- Your login including email/username/password
- Keywords you want to target (if you’re not sure, I’ll include keyword research as part of the service quote)
- Your contact info, including phone/email.
- The ability to use Google docs (even if it’s only to read my review – you don’t have to actually work in the doc, that’s my job).
Contact us via this page for an SEO overhaul today.