You can build the most beautiful website on the internet, but if no one finds it, what good does it do? This is a conversation I have with clients often. They're often coming to me frustrated. They've spent time, money, even emotional capital on building a site—sometimes with another agency, sometimes on their own—and they're asking why it isn't performing. The short answer, more often than not, is that they haven’t optimized for search engine visibility in a way that Google actually values today.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has shifted massively in the past few years. What worked in 2015 won’t get you to page one in 2025. It’s no longer about stuffing keywords or buying backlinks. These days, it's about cultivating relevance, trust, usability, and technical competence all at once. As someone who lives at the intersection of design, business strategy, and search performance, I wanted to break down some PRACTICAL, current SEO strategies to help you climb the rankings—no gimmicks, just sustainable tactics.
If you're trying to win at SEO, step one is understanding what you're even playing for. Google has evolved past simply indexing pages to become a prediction engine—it wants to serve users not just what’s relevant, but what will satisfy them. That subtle shift changes how we optimize completely.
Through updates like the Helpful Content Update and the increased use of AI like BERT and MUM, Google now tries to understand the user’s intent behind the search, not just the literal words. Do they want to buy something? Learn something? Compare options?
Websites that answer those questions clearly, concisely, and reflect domain expertise across the board, tend to rank better. For example, I worked with a local flooring company here in Tennessee. Their original product pages were just lists of items. We rewrote them to describe materials, offer maintenance tips, and compare flooring types. Rankings improved within six weeks—even before we touched backlinks.
Your content should feel like it’s written by someone who deeply understands the audience and their questions. That starts with knowing who they are. If your web design target is a small business owner looking for easier upkeep, don’t dive too deep into jargon—they're already overwhelmed.
This is still where a lot of people get tripped up. On-page optimization is about structuring your website in a way that search engines can understand—and that users actually want.
Let’s talk title tags. If your primary service is custom Webflow development in Franklin, TN, don’t name your homepage “Home | Your Business Name.” Try something like “Custom Webflow Websites in Franklin, TN | Zach Sean Web Design.” That’s clearer. It sets the context. Then your H1 (only one per page!) should reinforce that focus.
But avoid keyword stuffing. One client—a boutique fitness gym—was using “best personal training gym nashville tn” in every header and alt tag. It looked spammy to users and Google alike. We simplified the copy, cut the keyword density by 40%, and added new photos with thoughtful metadata. They got a featured snippet three weeks later for “personal trainer for women in Nashville.”
This is one of the most underrated strategies in modern SEO, and the one that tends to make or break a site’s performance over time. Google is increasingly favoring what’s known as “topical authority”—websites that cover subjects comprehensively, signaling true expertise.
Say you’re a brand strategist offering brand identity packages. A traditional approach would be to build a service page for “Branding Services” and maybe toss in a blog post or two. A better approach is to develop a content cluster: a core pillar page about Branding, surrounded by blog posts covering color psychology, logo evolution, typography, voice and tone, audience targeting, etc.
It’s like showing Google you’re not just dabbling in this space—you live there.
We helped an e-commerce startup selling eco-friendly pet products build topical clusters around sustainability, ethical manufacturing, and eco-conscious pet ownership. Instead of just pushing products, they published articles like “How to Choose a Compostable Dog Poop Bag” and “The Environmental Impact of Common Pet Products.” Six months later, they were ranking top 3 for dozens of phrases like “sustainable pet toys.”
This strategy also builds trust with users—it feels like they’ve landed in the right place.
Even if you serve a wider customer base, optimizing for location can ground your business in trust and relevance. This is especially true for service providers and consultants.
Your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) isn’t just a box on the right side of search anymore—it’s a ranking factor. Keeping it polished can dramatically increase foot traffic and calls. Add high-quality photos, update hours, list services specifically, and respond to reviews—even the bad ones.
For a client here in Franklin—a family-owned glass company—claiming and optimizing their Google profile led to a 57% increase in phone calls within three months. We discovered that they had been categorized under “Glass Shop” instead of “Glazier,” which changed the kind of searches they were showing up for.
Your business Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) should be identical everywhere it appears online. If it says “123 1st Ave S” on Yelp and “123 First Avenue South” on Facebook, Google sometimes interprets that as two different businesses.
Even if you're taking on projects across the country (I work with teams from LA to New York), having a local footprint builds legitimacy. It tells both users and search engines, “This isn't a fly-by-night operation.”
Google confirmed that Core Web Vitals are a ranking factor. Translation: If your site loads slowly, shifts around on mobile, or frustrates the user in any way, it’s going to hurt your rankings. Period.
These tools give you concrete metrics around Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
One client’s site—built beautifully in Squarespace—was gorgeous on desktop but painfully slow on mobile. We migrated it to Webflow, optimized all image assets, deferred offscreen scripts, and reduced font weights. Bounce rates on mobile dropped 24% and their local SEO shot up.
Speed doesn’t just make Google happy—it improves conversion, too. Nobody wants to wait three seconds just to see your homepage load.
This one catches folks off guard. Google has started factoring site usability and accessibility into its overall ranking model. And honestly—it’s the right move. An unusable site is bad for everyone.
As a designer, this is music to my ears.
Sites that are intuitive, easy to navigate, and accessible to people using assistive tech will perform better in the long term. For example, adding descriptive alt text isn’t just a legal or moral imperative—it can be an SEO win. It helps search engines understand images, which improves rankings in both Image results and regular search.
Think of your website like the floorplan of a home. If a guest with mobility constraints can't access the living room because there are stairs and no ramp, it’s a design fail. Same goes digitally.
Backlinks—the number and quality of links to your site—still matter. But forget the shady tactics of the past. In 2025, link building needs to be about earning attention in legit, natural ways.
A Nashville-based software consultancy we worked with improved their rankings by writing guest posts for aligned B2B sites and getting featured in industry round-ups. No paying for links. No directories from 2003. Just thoughtful contributions and real conversations.
Even just a few high-quality backlinks from trustworthy domains can do more for you than 100 random ones. Think credibility over quantity.
SEO isn’t a one-time project—it’s an ongoing process. You need to keep checking the map to make sure you’re not lost in the woods. That’s why monitoring tools and evaluation are so important.
Instead of tracking rankings for 300 barely-relevant keywords, zero in on KPIs that align with your business goals. One of my favorite setups is to measure leads that originate from organic search, and then examine the pages and terms that led to those visits.
Don’t be afraid to prune underperforming content or rethink internal linking structures. SEO isn’t about publishing non-stop—it’s about purpose.
SEO in 2025 is about substance, not shortcuts. It’s about designing with empathy, writing with clarity, building with intention, and never assuming SEO is a “check the box” task. Whether you’re a solopreneur on a Wix site or running a multi-page Webflow build with rich interactions, the core truth holds: helpful content, built on a technically sound foundation, wins every single time.
What I’ve tried to share here is less of a checklist and more of a mindset. SEO should enhance the user’s journey, not manipulate it. The businesses that get this—the ones who treat SEO like a lens, not just a lever—are the ones who stay relevant over the long run.
From local service providers to SaaS startups, the path to better rankings isn’t secrets or hacks. It’s understanding. Which, as you’ve probably learned about me by now, is where I always like to start.
Copyright © Zach Sean Web Design
