If you have a website, there’s a good chance you want to make sure it is optimized well in order to deliver a great user experience to your visitors and improve search engine rankings to bring more targeted traffic.
The following are 7 tips that will help you in multiple ways to quickly improve your website in these areas in 2025 (and beyond.)
1. Find and Fix Broken Links
Broken links will hurt your SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and also your website’s UX (User Experience.) Making sure that your website does not have any broken links will help search engines understand your content better based on the link you are pointing to – whether it is an internal or external link.
Fixing broken links will also help your visitor’s user experience because if people do decide to visit that page, it will likely result in positive engagement signals, whereas if the link results in an error like a 404 page – they might instead get frustrated and leave your website.Broken links will hurt your SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and also your website’s UX (User Experience.) Making sure that your website does not have any broken links will help search engines understand your content better based on the link you are pointing to – whether it is an internal or external link. Fixing broken links will also help your visitor’s user experience because if people do decide to visit that page, it will likely result in positive engagement signals, whereas if the link results in an error like a 404 page – they might instead get frustrated and leave your website.
During Google updates, your website’s crawl rate and indexing rate typically increase significantly. Google scans your entire site more thoroughly during these periods, so having broken links becomes an even bigger problem. These errors send negative user experience signals to Google at the exact time when the algorithm is paying extra attention to your site.
When Google’s crawlers hit these dead ends, they waste crawl budget that could be spent discovering your valuable content. Plus, these errors get recorded in your site’s quality metrics. Many SEO experts have noticed that sites with clean link structures and minimal 404 errors tend to weather updates better than sites with navigation problems. Taking time to fix these issues before or immediately after an update can help protect your rankings from unnecessary damage.
Consider using a broken link checker occasionally to ensure your website does not have these issues, thus improving your SEO and User Experience.
2. Add a Strong Call-to-Action
Most, if not all your pages should have a strong call to action. From your home page to help guide the visitor in their journey to finding what they ultimately want, to product or service pages in order to achieve a certain goal which may involve acquiring a new lead or even making a purchase.
Your call to action needs to stand out and be easy to differentiate from all the content on your landing page since this is what will ultimately determine whether a visitor takes the action you need them to take.
Most, if not all your pages should have a strong call to action. From your home page to help guide the visitor in their journey to finding what they ultimately want, to product or service pages in order to achieve a certain goal which may involve acquiring a new lead or even making a purchase. Your call to action needs to stand out and be easy to differentiate from all the content on your landing page since this is what will ultimately determine whether a visitor takes the action you need them to take.
During Google updates, having strategic CTAs becomes even more critical. When users engage with your CTAs, they’re essentially rotating through your website, which significantly increases screen time and average session duration while reducing bounce rate. These metrics are directly linked to Google’s user engagement signals.
Google’s algorithm interprets these positive engagement patterns as indicators that genuine interactions or transactions are happening on your site. This helps counter any potential “thin content” or “low value” flags that might trigger during a broad core update. Essentially, effective CTAs prove to Google that your site provides value rather than just existing to capture search traffic without delivering substance.
Sites with poor navigation and no clear user journey often see the biggest drops during updates, while those with logical paths guiding visitors through their content tend to maintain or even improve rankings. So make your CTAs both visually distinct and strategically placed to maximize this benefit during algorithmic assessments.
3. Include Customer Testimonials
Customer testimonials can have a significant impact on whether your website is successful and its ability to convert in order to generate more leads or sales. Most potential customers want to see some kind of social proof that will help them make a final decision on whether or not they will do business with you.
Customer testimonials can have a significant impact on whether your website is successful and its ability to convert in order to generate more leads or sales. Most potential customers want to see some kind of social proof that will help them make a final decision on whether or not they will do business with you. Aim to have reviews that include photos of past customers or clients, along with their name and possibly even company information. If you can include video reviews on certain pages of your site like the home page and even a dedicated testimonials page, it has the potential to significantly help increase your conversions even more so than if you just use images.
From Google’s perspective, testimonials are powerful EEAT signals (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) which have become increasingly important with each core update. Testimonials demonstrate first-hand experience content directly on your pages, showing Google that real people have interacted with your business and had positive outcomes.
To maximize this benefit during updates, don’t just add testimonials—implement proper schema markup to get those valuable star rating snippets in search results. This structured data helps Google understand and properly categorize your content, potentially improving your visibility during and after updates.
These review implementations work exceptionally well even if you’re in Google Merchant Center, as they can boost your product listings significantly. Many sites that weathered the March 2025 update successfully had robust, properly marked-up testimonial sections that reinforced their credibility signals. Google’s algorithm places increasing weight on content that demonstrates real-world validation, making testimonials a critical component of post-update recovery strategies.
Aim to have reviews that include photos of past customers or clients, along with their name and possibly even company information. If you can include video reviews on certain pages of your site like the home page and even a dedicated testimonials page, it has the potential to significantly help increase your conversions even more so than if you just use images.
4. Write Keyword-Rich Headlines
Headlines matter a lot for SEO and user engagement. Studies have found that headings/titles that use keywords in the title or primary H1 are likely to rank better, but that doesn’t mean you should start spamming. Maintain the balance and remember that keyword-rich simply means covering the main concept to help users and attract their attention – avoid being scammy.
Having engaging and unique content on your website is great and it is the preferred approach of following a proper content marketing strategy. But you also want to make sure that when you write your headlines, your main keyword is included in your H1 tag, and potential supplementary keywords or synonyms are also used in subsequent H2 tags and throughout your copy.
Google’s March 2025 update has placed even more emphasis on intent matching rather than just keyword presence. Smart headline writing means including your target terms naturally while focusing on clarity and value. During core updates, Google tends to more heavily scrutinize pages with keyword-stuffed headlines that don’t deliver on their promise.
A good approach is writing headlines that include your primary keyword but are framed around solving a problem or providing specific information. For example, instead of “Best Dog Food Guide Tips Advice Review 2025,” use something like “7 Best Dog Foods for Senior Dogs: Vet-Approved Options.” This signals relevance to both users and Google without appearing manipulative.
Many sites that maintained or improved rankings after the update had reformed their headline strategy to prioritize clarity and specificity over keyword density. Google’s getting better at understanding topics rather than just matching terms, so headlines that accurately represent your content tend to perform better during algorithmic reassessments than those trying to capture multiple keyword variations.
5. Simplify the Navigation
Navigation issues are often overlooked during update recoveries. Most people get stuck writing descriptions or improving site speed but forget basic navigation structure. Site navigation is crucial for both users and search engines.
Making sure that your website is easy to navigate is a must and should be one of your top priorities in terms of User Experience optimization. You need to be sure that you focus on the main links your visitors may be interested in on your top navigation in order to help them find and get what they need quickly.
Must-have navigation elements:
- Clear, descriptive main menu items (no vague terms like “Solutions”)
- Logical hierarchy that makes sense to first-time visitors
- Footer links to important pages like About, Contact, and Privacy Policy
- Breadcrumb trails on deeper pages to help users understand where they are
- Search functionality for larger sites with lots of content
- Consistent navigation across all pages
There’s a major disconnect between how we view our sites as owners versus how users actually experience them. Most site traffic now comes from mobile devices, but we typically manage and review our sites on desktop computers. This creates a blind spot in our navigation design.
If you need multiple links, make sure you use a drop-down menu to link to relevant areas on your site. Such as a main category page with multiple categories available in the drop-down.
Take time to actually browse your website on a phone – not just check if it “works” on mobile. Notice how menu dropdowns function, whether buttons are easily tappable, and if important information requires excessive scrolling. Many sites that suffered in the March update had navigation that technically “worked” on mobile but was frustrating to use in practice.
6. Make the Website Mobile-Friendly
Ensuring that your website looks and works great across multiple devices like desktop browsers and mobile devices like iOS and Android is an essential part of a great User Experience for your visitors.
The first thing you need to do is start exploring your site in mobile yourself! Don’t just rely on responsive design checkers or mobile-friendly tests. Actually use your site on different phones and tablets. Take notes of any issues you encounter – menus that are hard to tap, forms that are difficult to complete, or content that’s hard to read. Then get these fixed immediately.
Many sites that performed well after the March update had invested time in actual mobile usability testing rather than just passing technical mobile tests. Google’s increasingly sophisticated at detecting when mobile users have trouble engaging with your content, even if your site passes basic responsive tests.
Make sure that whenever you add a new feature to your website, you test it across multiple devices to ensure these will look great to your visitors. You may consider a tool like Mouseflow to see exactly how your visitors interact with your website across multiple devices.
7. Optimize Page Speed
Finally, ensure that your website loads fast. A slow website will result in your visitors leaving before your page even loads!
The 2-second rule is absolutely critical – especially after this update. If your site takes longer than that to load, you’re losing visitors and sending negative signals to Google. Many sites are still taking 10+ seconds to load despite users having 5G connections because they’re packed with unnecessary scripts, huge images, and fancy animations.
During the March update, Google seems to have placed even greater emphasis on Core Web Vitals performance. Sites with poor LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) scores were hit hardest. Cut out the unnecessary elements – those fancy sliders, auto-playing videos, and third-party scripts that aren’t delivering value. Each element should earn its place on your page by providing genuine user benefit that outweighs its performance cost.
Remember that mobile speed is separate from desktop speed. Many sites load reasonably well on desktop but are painfully slow on mobile networks. The most successful post-update recoveries have focused on aggressive mobile optimization, sometimes even creating simplified versions of key pages specifically for mobile users.
People want to see results nearly instantly which has resulted in many bloggers using AMP pages in order to load up their pages quickly. Another tool you can use to measure and optimize your landing page’s speed is Google PageSpeed Insights.
If you implement these tips well, you’ll no doubt be a step ahead in 2025 and onwards with a winning website that is both easy to find on search engines and also easy to navigate.
