Only 0.78% of Google users click on results from the second page, underscoring that businesses must prioritize ranking to grow and stay relevant. However, SEO is becoming more complex due to recent AI integrations into search and frequent algorithm changes. 

While this might seem overwhelming, navigating these changes is doable with the right approach. In this blog post, we’ll cover the most impactful recent changes in SEO and provide actionable strategies to tackle them and strengthen your brand’s online presence.

Beyond keywords: Mastering content quality

Google has long emphasized ranking quality content from credible sources, though it has refined how it measures these signals. Here's how it works today:

Quality content

When ranking content, Google matches pages to the user's search intent: the goal behind their query. They categorize intent into four broad groups: 

• Information: fact-finding (i.e. “who was the 40th president of the US”)
• Navigation: navigating to a specific page (i.e. “nytimes cooking”) 
• Commercial: researching before a purchasing decision (i.e. “iphone 12 pros and cons”)
• Transactional: taking an action (i.e. “rent a tux”)

Google’s intent-matching methods have matured significantly from simple heuristics (like keyword counting) to a comprehensive system that builds a semantic understanding of a user’s query. This approach utilizes AI models that understand the relationship between words, contextual signals (like a user’s location), and user behavior (like click patterns). 

Take a search like “best android phone.” The word “best” implies that the user is comparing options (in this case, an “android phone”), which signals a commercial intent query. Other signals, like click patterns, would reinforce this interpretation. Therefore, Google would rank valuable content that includes detailed comparisons of Android models with pros, cons, and firsthand insights. It would downrank “search engine-first” content that attempts to game the system (through practices like keyword stuffing) and fails to provide user value. 

Tip: To optimize your content, start by auditing your keywords. Map the queries that drive the most traffic to the respective intent. Then, examine the content to ensure it fulfills the users’ goals. 

Source credibility, aka E-E-A-T

To determine a source’s credibility, Google uses the E-E-A-T framework, which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Let’s break it down: 

• Experience: first-hand experience of the authors. This could be demonstrated through content that details the author’s unique lived experience, observations, and/or application of knowledge. For example, a travel guide to Spain that includes the author’s personal experience living in Barcelona. 
• Expertise: the authors’ expertise, including credentials, certifications, research publications, work experience, or other professional qualifications. For example, medical content written by a licensed physician. 
• Authoritativeness: the reputation of the author, website, and content. It is measured through multiple signals that overlap with expertise and experience, such as “backlinks” from credible sources. 
• Trustworthiness: the safety, accuracy, and reliability of your website. For example, a product page with many genuine user reviews and a secure online payment system is considered trustworthy. 

Source credibility is weighted even more heavily for healthcare, legal advice, education, and finance-related queries, also known as Your Money Your Life (YMYL). These queries are incredibly personal, which increases Google’s responsibility to ensure that it doesn’t promote harmful or low-quality content. If your content covers these categories, you should invest more time in content to boost your website’s credibility. 

Tip: Trustworthiness is often the most critical E-E-A-T factor. Some strategies for boosting it include implementing security best practices, displaying author credentials, and adding outbound links to other reputable sites. 

AI’s dual-impact on SEO

Gen AI is changing search by reimagining the search results user experience and accelerating the content creation process. Let’s explore both changes in detail: 

AI overviews

Google has integrated AI directly into the search experience through “AI Overviews,” a section at the top of the search results page that displays the answer to the user’s query. This is a better user experience because users don’t need to click through websites to find the answer—Google does this work for them. 

The UX for this feature has evolved from a simple answer overview with one link to multiple links and multimedia content like video. This expands the opportunity for visibility in search results. (In a future post, we'll explore multimedia SEO strategies.)

Tip: To qualify as a “source” for the AI overview, websites must optimize their content for crawlers by implementing schema markups and clearly structuring their content. 

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AI written-content

AI can be a great tool for increasing the efficiency of your content creation process, but using it without human oversight can impact your website’s SEO ranking. In March 2024, Google launched a core update to curb low-quality content, especially AI-written content optimized for SEO with little to no human component. To mitigate this issue, consider how and when you incorporate AI into your content creation process. Always have human oversight to preserve your content's human voice. 

‍Tip: Limit the use of AI for tasks like keyword suggestions and outlines. This will prevent the generation of robotic-sounding content that lacks authenticity. 

Why UX is a critical SEO factor

Over 53% of mobile visits are abandoned if a page takes longer than 3 seconds to load. High bounce rates signal to Google that this website isn’t meeting the user’s intent, which results in Google downranking the site. To prevent this scenario, brands must prioritize delivering a great user experience when users land on their site. Consider these four key UX factors: 

Performance

A high-performing website means that it loads quickly. But how do you define “quickly”? 

Google’s Core Web Vitals framework provides three speed metrics (and benchmarks) that comprehensively measure a website’s performance: 

• Page load performance: how fast the page elements load. 
• Responsiveness to user input: how quickly the user can interact with the page. 
• Visual stability: minimizing disruptive layout shifts as the page loads. 

According to Google, their ranking systems reward Core Web Vitals improvements. 

Tip: Use tools like Google Lighthouse or SEMRush to benchmark and identify performance optimization opportunities. If you need additional support, consider working with a consulting or SEO agency. 

Accessibility

Accessibility ensures that your website is usable by everyone, regardless of ability or disability, which expands the reach and impact of your brand and business. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) outline recommendations to minimize usability issues for people with visual, hearing, motor, and cognitive disabilities. 

While one-off audits help identify one-off issues, integrating accessibility into your design workflow ensures your site is continuously accessible. This improves overall user experience metrics (like engagement and bounce rate) and positively impacts search ranking. 

Tip: Use tools like Google Lighthouse or the IBM Accessibility Checker to benchmark and identify opportunities to improve your website’s accessibility. Consider working with a consulting or SEO agency if you need hands-on support implementing these guidelines. 

Responsive

Responsiveness ensures the website is usable across devices (laptops, tablets, and smartphones). This is especially important as more users primarily use their mobile devices to navigate the Internet. A responsive website also directly impacts user engagement, positively impacting search ranking and business growth. 

Tip: Making your website responsive starts with implementing responsive design, which helps you create flexible elements and content that adapt to different devices. If you already have a responsive website, you can use these tools to monitor and catch regressions. 

Security

A secure website is critical to building user trust, impacting search ranking and brand credibility. The best way to approach security is by following best practices and implementing systems to monitor and safeguard against emerging vulnerabilities. 

Tip: Tools like Google Lighthouse can identify any missed best practices, especially ones critical for SEO. Consider collaborating with a consultant or agency to craft a custom security strategy for your brand and given goals. 

Strategy and tools for future-proofing SEO

Given the dynamic SEO landscape, treating SEO as a set-it-and-forget-it task is risky. Instead, brands should invest in continuous monitoring to identify and address issues before they impact ranking. Key practices of this approach include: 

• Track key metrics: What gets measured gets managed, which is also true in SEO. Track metrics across marketing (like attribution and channel conversion) and technical performance (like site speed). 
• Analyze the competition: By examining what’s working for other companies, you can uncover successful SEO practices you’ve not yet implemented. Plus, you can use the results to set data-driven benchmarks for your key metrics. 
• Perform regular site audits: Technical audits ensure your website adheres to the latest best practices and flags any critical SEO elements that could affect ranking. It could also help you identify regressions as you change your website. There are online tools that can help you run a basic audit for free, or you can explore working with an agency or consultant for a comprehensive analysis. 
• Explore testing: As you make changes to improve your site’s SEO, consider running a test to quantify their impact. The learnings can help you make data-driven decisions about future opportunities. 

Streamline your SEO for the future with Webflow

A successful SEO strategy should be dynamic and ready to adapt when the search landscape shifts. Start with the fundamentals, track what matters for your business, and remain open to changes as search engines evolve. With the right tools, it can go from daunting to doable. 

A platform with native SEO capabilities like Webflow can streamline SEO management. With Webflow’s visual development platform, you can quickly create a responsive website with relevant content. Maximize your site’s performance through in-product SEO controls and in-built tools like scalable schema markup. 

Ready to implement these strategies? Watch our SEO session from Webflow Conf.