When I sit down with a new client—whether it's a small law firm in Nashville or a boutique candle brand launching out of their kitchen—it almost always starts the same way. They want more traffic. But when we dig a little deeper, what they're really asking for is connection. They want to be seen by the right people, at the right time, with credibility and clarity. That’s what SEO is really about. It’s not just about pleasing Google, it's about aligning all the moving parts of your website, your messaging, and your business strategy so that you show up when it matters most.
Whether you're building your website in Webflow, Wordpress, Wix, or Squarespace, strategic SEO is still one of the most reliable ways to grow your visibility and increase conversions. But the rules have evolved. It's not 2012. Stuffing your homepage with keywords or buying a bulk link package won't help anymore.
Instead, SEO today is psychological, technical, and deeply relational. It requires real empathy for your users and an understanding of how search engines—and humans—evaluate trust, relevance, and authority. So here are 8 proven SEO strategies that I've seen work for real clients in 2025, broken down with examples, explanations, and tips you can actually use.
Technical SEO might feel like the plumbing of your site—boring until something leaks. But in 2025, Google’s Core Web Vitals and page experience updates make it clear that how well your site performs is inseparable from how well it ranks.
Google explicitly uses these three metrics as ranking signals:
For Webflow sites, these are easier to manage because Webflow hosts on AWS and comes optimized out of the gate. But you still need to ensure:
Case in point: A wedding photographer in Savannah I worked with was sitting on a beautifully designed but sluggish WordPress site using 14 plugins. After cleaning out unused plugins, implementing lazy-loading, and switching to a better host, we cut page load time from 8 seconds to 1.9—and saw event inquiries rise 38% over three months.
If your site still looks best on desktop, you're missing the mark. Over 63% of global searches happen on mobile, according to Statista.
Your mobile site needs to:
Test it yourself using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. The shift I often recommend is to design mobile-first inside Webflow or Squarespace rather than starting from desktop.
SEO used to be about targeting precise keywords. Now, it’s about understanding what the user means when they search—and giving them exactly what they’re looking for, faster than your competitors can.
Every page on your site needs to address a specific type of intent. Most homepages are a mashup of all three, which confuses both Google and your users. Instead, segment your content so each page clearly aligns with one intention.
A local yoga studio in Franklin, TN wasn’t ranking for anything beyond their brand name. When we broke out their site into clear pages—one for beginner classes (informational), one on teacher bios (navigational), and one optimized for "yoga class sign-up Franklin TN" (transactional)—they began showing up for queries that matched user mindset. Traffic doubled inside four months.
Use tools like Answer the Public or Ubersuggest to map out what users might be searching for at each stage, and match those to dedicated pages or sections on your site.
If you’ve ever been spammed by a shady "link building expert," you already know: not all backlinks are created equal. But the reality is that inbound links remain one of Google's top ranking signals.
The best way to earn links in 2025? Create genuinely helpful or interesting content that others want to reference.
I helped a Nashville-based startup that builds rainwater collection systems publish a step-by-step resource for municipalities. That article ended up being cited in industry publications and brought in powerful .edu links from university-sponsored sustainability projects.
Important: Links don’t have to be tons. Just a few from high-authority, relevant sources can drastically improve your page trust and visibility.
If your business serves a physical area—even if it also does remote work—local SEO matters deeply. Google looks at proximity, relevance, and authority when deciding which local results to show.
When I worked with a custom cabinetry builder in Brentwood, they had no website but were still getting calls—thanks to their well-managed Google Business Profile. Once we built them a Webflow one-pager and linked it, their click-through rate increased 54% and they started competing outside their immediate zip code.
Using local schema markup on your website helps Google understand your business’s presence. Equally important, localized pages for each service area (think “Franklin Web Design Services” vs. “Nashville Web Design Services”) perform well when they have real, location-specific content.
But don’t fake it. If you’ve never worked in Memphis, don’t create a page for it just to chase traffic. Google is increasingly sniffing out empty doorway pages.
This used to be a theory. Now, Google has confirmed that UX factors directly influence rankings. That means if your navigation is confusing, your design is dated, or your content is hard to absorb, your rankings will suffer—no matter how strong your keywords are.
I once audited a high-end interior design firm whose site had elegance but zero structure. Their portfolio took five clicks to find, and their services weren’t listed on an index page. By redesigning the flow and adding internal links between services and project examples, their bounce rate plummeted from 72% to 29%, and inquiries increased steadily.
Too many websites throw a “Contact Us” form on every page and call it a day. Instead, tailor your CTA to the visitor’s stage in the journey. Downloadable guides, scheduling tools, or short quizzes to guide them forward perform better and signal to Google that your content satisfies user needs.
If you’ve invested in well-written SEO content, don’t let it go stale. Google prefers fresh, accurate information—especially on topics where new understanding evolves rapidly (marketing, tech, health, finance).
One of my own articles on Webflow vs. WordPress was slipping in traffic. Not because it wasn’t accurate, but because it hadn’t been touched in 18 months. After adding new screenshots, competitor comparisons, and updated pricing, it reclaimed top rankings for several competitive terms within weeks.
And no, you don’t need to rewrite everything. Often just tweaking intros, improving headers, and adding FAQs at the end can significantly improve performance.
Search results are getting visual. Rich snippets, FAQ accordions, event schedules, and review stars all come from something very specific: structured data.
As a Webflow developer, I add schema markup manually or use external tools to inject JSON-LD. Squarespace and Wix have some built-in functionality, but customizing it gives you more control.
Ideas for structured data:
This type of data helps Google understand context and can drastically improve your click-through rate even without big rankings jumps.
AI content tools are everywhere. I see coaches, restaurants, and tech startups using them to generate blog content fast. That’s fine—as long as someone with a brain and heart edits it.
Google’s stance on AI content is clear: you won’t be penalized for AI-generated content if it’s useful, accurate, and high quality.
One of my clients, a financial advisor, used Jasper.ai to draft content on retirement planning strategies. But once we added real customer questions, simplified the language, and had his voice narrating the intro as a short video, it went from “meh” to “magnetic.”
Content still needs a soul—and that’s where you come in.
SEO is not a checklist, it’s a long game. A smart, intentional SEO strategy fuses design, content, psychology, and tech. That’s why as a web designer with a bird’s eye view of business strategy, you’re in a great position to lead your business forward.
To recap, here are the eight strategies that can genuinely improve your search rankings this year:
At the end of the day, good SEO isn't about tricks—it's about service. Serve your audience with the best, clearest, most relevant answer to their question. If you can do that better than your competitors—and back it up with a technically sound, experience-driven site—Google will notice.
And more importantly, so will your next customer.
Copyright © Zach Sean Web Design
