Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) remains a fundamental part of digital success in 2025. Whether you’re a local business trying to reach customers nearby or an e-commerce brand aiming to dominate search results globally, your ranking on Google can make or break your visibility.
As a digital agency offering SEO, one of the most common questions we hear is: “What can we do to improve our rankings?” The answer isn’t always simple, but it is structured.
In this guide, SEO Content Executive, Nathan Hunter, breaks down the key positive and negative factors that can impact your rankings, both in the short and long term, and what you can do to keep your SEO performance on track.
Positive Factors That Improve Search Rankings
Quality, Relevant Content
Content is still king in 2025. Google’s algorithms are more advanced than ever, rewarding content that is helpful, original, and tailored to the user’s intent.
In fact, Google’s algorithm update in March penalised under-optimised or outdated content. Websites affected by the update were advised to audit their content, focusing on improving quality, relevance and UX to align with Google’s emphasis on E-E-A-T (Expert, Experienced, Authoritative, Trustworthy) content.
On-Page SEO Optimisations
Optimising your content at page level is still crucial. This includes using relevant keywords naturally, writing compelling meta titles/descriptions and optimising images with alt text. Good old best practice stuff.
Alt text is a brief written description that explains the content of an image. It was initially created to assist individuals who are blind or visually impaired by allowing screen readers to convey what the image shows. Beyond its essential accessibility function, alt text also plays a crucial role in helping search engines understand and properly index your website’s images, thereby improving the visibility of your content in search results.
Technical SEO & Site Health Checks
A fast, crawlable, and mobile-friendly website is non-negotiable. Google now heavily weighs site performance and accessibility.
Technical SEO and site health are foundational elements of a robust digital presence, with lasting effects on a website’s performance. Ensuring a site is technically sound through proper indexing, fast loading times, mobile responsiveness, secure connections (such as HTTPS), clean URL structures, and well-configured sitemaps enables search engines to crawl and understand your content efficiently.
Without this solid foundation, even the most compelling content may struggle to rank. Over time, a well-maintained site reduces the risk of technical issues that can erode traffic, negatively affect UX and lead to search engine drops. Investing in technical SEO is not just about short-term gains; it’s a critical strategy for your site’s long-term visibility, stability and scalability.
Backlinks from Reputable Sources
Google sees backlinks as a vote of confidence. High-authority, relevant backlinks are one of the strongest ranking signals.
Perhaps overlooked, backlinks from reputable sources are a cornerstone of effective SEO, carrying a significant mid-to-long-term impact. When a high-authority, trustworthy website links to your content, it signals to search engines (especially Google!) that your site is credible and valuable. Think of the backlinks as votes of confidence, validating the quality and relevance of your content in the eyes of search algorithms.
Essentially, the more authoritative and contextually relevant the backlink, the stronger the impact on your rankings. Over time, a solid backlink profile improves your visibility in search results, drives referral traffic, and strengthens your domain’s overall authority. Earning backlinks naturally through valuable content and strategic outreach is an effective way to enhance your SEO growth.
User Experience & Engagement Metrics
If users bounce from your site quickly or do not engage, Google notices, and high engagement signals can boost rankings.
User Experience (UX) and engagement metrics are crucial in ongoing SEO success. Search engines like Google closely monitor how users interact with your site, examining metrics such as bounce rate, time on page, pages per session, and overall engagement.
If visitors quickly leave your site or show little interaction, it can signal to Google that the content isn’t relevant or valuable, potentially lowering your rankings. On the other hand, a positive user experience, characterised by fast loading times, intuitive navigation, mobile-friendliness, and engaging content, encourages users to stay longer and interact more.
These strong engagement signals indicate to search engines that your site is meeting user needs, which can lead to improved visibility and higher rankings over time. Prioritising user experience isn’t just good for SEO, it’s essential for building trust and retaining your audience.
Google Business Profile Optimisation
Your Google Business Profile is a direct ranking signal for local businesses. A fully optimised, active profile helps improve your visibility in local searches. We utilise this tool with our clients and have found it to be successful in boosting local traffic.
For businesses targeting a local audience, a fully optimised and actively maintained profile signals to Google that your business is trustworthy, relevant and engaged with its community. Key elements, such as accurate contact information, updated hours, relevant categories, high-quality photos, and regular posts, contribute to stronger local visibility. Additionally, responding to reviews and engaging with customers through your profile can further boost credibility.
However, Google is not the only company offering local SEO opportunities. In April, Elliot Dawson and I were sent to BrightonSEO. As part of my key takeaways, I noted how Apple Maps is a seriously underutilised tool for local SEO and holds great potential for businesses wanting to reach iPhone users.
Negative Factors That Impact Search Rankings
Now that we’ve discussed the positives, it’s time to examine some of the negative factors that can impact your rankings.
Below, you will see some of our recommendations of things to avoid if you don’t want your rankings to be affected.
Keyword Stuffing & Irrelevant Targeting
Overloading your content with keywords or targeting terms that aren’t genuinely relevant to your audience can seriously backfire on your company. In 2025, search engines are adept at identifying unnatural keyword usage and may even penalise sites that appear to be manipulating their rankings. In fact, irrelevant or forced keywords can degrade user experience by making content feel awkward or confusing.
This not only reduces engagement but also undermines your site’s authority and trustworthiness, a key thing to avoid for any website or business.
Thin or Outdated Content
Google’s algorithms, notorious for updating and causing issues with outdated content, increasingly favour original, informative, and regularly updated content.
Pages with little substance, duplicate content, or inaccurate information send negative signals to search engines. These low-quality pages can drag down your overall domain authority and limit visibility for even your strongest content.
You’ll want to conduct regular content audits and refine outdated posts with current information. Consider merging overlapping content and removing pages that no longer serve a clear purpose. Otherwise, you could end up being penalised, as many sites were in March’s update.
Slow Site Speed & Poor Mobile Experience
User expectations for speed and mobile usability are higher than ever, and Google takes these seriously when ranking pages. A slow-loading website or one that doesn’t function properly on mobile devices leads to higher bounce rates and decreased user satisfaction.
This not only harms your SEO but can also hurt conversions. How many times have you gone on a website and left after just a few seconds because the page didn’t load instantly? We famously live in a short-attention-span economy, and this is also the case for website loading times.
Poor Backlinks
Whilst quality backlinks help boost authority, links from spammy or irrelevant sources can damage your site’s credibility in Google’s eyes. These so-called “toxic” backlinks may be perceived as manipulative or part of a link scheme, potentially resulting in penalties or a drop in rankings.
If you have all your ducks in a row and have managed to implement many of the positive factors above, you will hate to be penalised for poor backlinks.
Duplicate Content & Keyword Cannibalisation
Publishing multiple pages that cover the same or very similar topics can confuse search engines about which page to rank. This can lead to lower overall performance and missed ranking opportunities, a problem known as keyword cannibalisation.
Duplicate content – whether across your own site or copied from others – also weakens SEO authority, so this is something we would always recommend avoiding. Who doesn’t want to be original, anyway?
Inconsistent Local Listings
For businesses that rely on local SEO, consistent Name, Address and Phone Number (NAP) information across directories is crucial. Mismatches between listings on platforms like Google, Yelp, Apple Maps and others can confuse search engines and potential customers alike, weakening trust and reducing visibility in local search results.
Use tools like BrightLocal, Moz Local or others to audit and manage your business listings across the web. Keeping your information accurate and consistent boosts both search trust and user confidence.
SEO is a Long-Term Strategy
SEO isn’t a sprint; it’s a channel that requires consistency and adherence to best practices, because anything less ultimately causes harm in the long run.
Here’s a summary of what you should focus on for sustainable, long-term results:
- Building topic clusters around core service areas
- Establishing a consistent backlink acquisition strategy
- Producing in-depth, expert, authoritative and trustworthy content
- Continually optimising for Core Web Vitals
- Building digital authority through social proof, PR and thought leadership
Final Thoughts
SEO in 2025 is about more than keywords and backlinks. It’s about trust, relevance and performance. Companies that consistently deliver value, optimise for users (not just algorithms), and stay on top of search trends will see the most success.
If you’re unsure where your business stands or how to take the next step, contact us and learn how we can help your business.
When you choose Green Ginger Digital, you’re investing in a specialist agency with a team of SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and strategic professionals, led by a senior approach that has been our bread and butter since the agency’s inception over five years ago. From local SEO to technical audits and content strategies, we help businesses like PACK’D, Pret A Manger, MKM Building Supplies and more, establish genuine visibility that yields tangible, long-term results.
