Today, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become more challenging than ever.
On the one hand, websites are being hit by algorithm updates, and on the other hand, businesses are not seeing any expected conversions and revenue from SEO anymore.
Whether you’re a digital marketer or a business owner, you’re probably feeling the heat.
At Pulling Off Strategies, we’ve seen it all – from AI-driven content talking up the internet to Google’s latest algorithm crashes. The thing is, you need to treat the problems faced in SEO as opportunities in disguise.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the biggest SEO challenges that keep most of us up at night and likely we’ll offer the best SEO practices for dealing with them.
1) The Consistent Barrage of Google Algorithm Updates
Google consistently releases algorithm updates, and lately, dealing with these updates has been the most challenging part for any SEO.
In 2024 alone, Google March updates trashed websites for low-quality content, and in August, another update came in to rescue sites that were wrongly affected by its previous 2023 updates.
Sure, dealing with these updates felt like a nightmare. But guess what? If you have solid SEO foundations, Google will reward you with rankings and lets you recover, just like our clients did.
How To Tackle Google Algorithm Changes
Digital marketers and business owners, listen up! Here’s how we’re staying ahead of the game:
- Stay Informed: Stay on top of Google’s algorithm updates. Follow this official website or look for any announcements on Twitter
- Prioritize High-Quality Content: Focus on creating content that is more valuable to users and simultaneously answers their search intent. Use EE-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) to impress Google.
- Do Regular SEO Audits: Audits are always great to stay on top of everything. With audits, as soon as you rectify any SEO issues, you can fix them and optimize them for better rankings.
- Diversify into other channels: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Along with SEO, become active on other marketing channels to complement SEO and make it easier for your audience to find you
Remember, SEO in 2024 is all about adapting to algorithms and updates while staying true to your fundamentals.
2) You’re Always in a Race With Your Competitors for Rankings
The search engine is a crowded space, and it’s most likely that you have dozens of competitors in your industry who wants to rank on Google search.
At PullingOffStartegies, we feel that the second most challenging part of any SEO project is staying ahead of your competitors.
It’s either you’re catching up to them, or they’re catching up to you. One way or the other, there is always a constant grind to rank for each other keywords.
Here’s How To Stay Ahead of Your Competitors
• Ditch the ‘me-too’ content: Don’t get caught up on creating the same value in the content that everyone else is offering. Google doesn’t want to rank an article that provides the same information that exists on 100 other pages. You have to add your unique perspective, insights, and experience to the content.
• Consistency is the key: Make sure your content is fresh, and your backlink game is strong. Feeding Google with consistent signals is necessary. The more quality stuff you give it, the happier (and higher ranking) you will be.
• Steal like an artist: Analyze your competitor websites on a regular basis and try to find opportunities in how they are ranking. Understand their approach and implement it on your website
3) SEO is an Operation-Heavy Process
SEO is a very operation-heavy process. From creating content to building backlinks and handling technical audits, it is exhausting to do at scale.
From a brand’s perspective, training new SEO takes work. It can take weeks to familiarize a person with all the processes that are going on in the background.
Let’s not forget that SEO as a department has to communicate constantly with other departments too.
In addition, many businesses and agencies (small ones) have one person managing all departments, and this person is often the owner.
Unless you have proven experience with SEO, things can get really messy, and you can often be exhausted by it.
How To Make SEO Operations As Smooth As Possible
- Focus on better systemization rather than simplification: Rather than attempting to make SEO easier, focus on building robust frameworks. At Pulling Off Strategies, we have dedicated systems in place that make our team function as effectively and efficiently as possible.
- Develop better SOPs and processes: Building Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are like cookbooks for SEO success. At our agency, everything from keyword research to content writing to content optimization has a checklist, or SOP in a place that everyone must follow
- Implement proper checks and balances: Do not rely on one person or one team to do all the work for you. Dedicate a team member to check your website and each SEO task regularly.
- Use AI tools to 10x your SEO productivity: AI SEO tools can help you enhance your most SEO strategy plans. At out agency, we use AI for content writing, keyword research, and some of the technical SEO. It’s like having an intern who works 24/7 without getting exhausted.
Note: Check our B2B content writing services pages to understand how we use AI in content writing.
SEO professionals and business owners, let us remind you that the objective here is not to make SEO easy—it is to make it feasible and simple.
4) Battling With Google SGE and Zero-Click Overviews
First of all, Google has been trying for a long time to provide all the user’s answers directly in its SERP. From the featured snippets to the knowledge panels, they want to deliver information to their searchers as soon as possible.
The result? This makes it difficult for you to get as many clicks as possible to your blog posts and content.
If feature snippets and knowledge panels weren’t enough, Google introduced a Search Generative Engine (SGE) as its new tool to challenge ChatGPT and other search bots.
This provides users with even more reasons to avoid clicking on the website to read the content and get the answer they want. This is obviously great for users and helps most of them save time.
So, to deal with SGE and zero-click overviews, you have first to understand them.
Unless and until you’re providing information that requires a user’s detailed attention and probably requires more than 4-5 lines to answer their query, you can still rank higher and expect to generate good traffic.
For example, a keyword like ‘how to start a blog’ needs more consumption and more attention from the users. Most likely, users have to read your blog for this keyword even though SGE tries to help them out.
So, as a business, you can choose to create content around the middle and bottom of the funnel audience, where users do more research. In these cases, you’re most likely to capture more clicks from SERPs.
5) Tackle Content Overload and Deliver High-Quality Content
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: content overload. With AI tools writing articles at the speed of light, we are now overwhelmed with content than we can handle. The days are gone when more content means more traffic and clicks.
In 2025, to tackle content overload and deliver quality content, you have to do these things:
First up, content audits. At Pulling Off Strategies, we are big fans of content pruning. We often like to get rid of duplicate content pages on a website that doesn’t add any value and focus on optimizing pages where we get the most value. The only way to find out which content to remove, update, or optimize is by doing regular content audits.
Note: We added 10k+ monthly visitors to this client’s website by doing a content audit.
Content freshness: In this fast-paced world, information can become outdated very quickly, depending on your topic. So if you’re in a niche like SaaS, where it’s like, within every 6 months, a new set of tech is revolutionizing the game. Then, your content has to be updated regularly to keep it relevant and fresh
E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) is the name of the game. Google’s not just looking for keyword-stuffed content anymore. In this age of artificial intelligence, the most important thing is credibility. Throughout your website, you have to showcase that credibility. The best way to do that is by
- Having an author bio sharing your expertise
- Sharing your industry-wide achievements on the website
- Having an About Us talking about your journey
EEAT is for Google, but what’s for users? Your goal is should be to create relevant content that answers people’s queries and provides helpful information. The best way to do that is by sharing your answer at the top of your content and adding screenshots and recorded videos from you within your content to make it user focused.
6) Building a Brand To Win at SEO
You may be wondering, “Well, is not SEO all about keywords and backlinks?” Well, get ready for it because Google has a little twist for us!
Google’s algorithm is becoming more sophisticated. Now, it focuses on how frequently users search for your brand name and then click on the link. That means branded search volume has some importance, and brand signals are definitely the way to win at SEO.
At Pulling Off Strategies, we’ve got some tricks up our sleeve to help you create those brand signals:
- Connect with your audience on relevant social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Sharing content on social media and generating clicks from this platform can send positive brand signals to Google.
- Build authenticity from the inside out. Talk about your process, products, and team to build authenticity with your readers
- Create content that showcases your expertise and brand’s personality. Make your brand voice and values shine
- Engage with your audience consistently. Respond to comments, host Q&As, and show that there are real humans behind your brand.
Just a quick reminder: no matter, if you are an SEO expert, digital marketer, business owner, or content creator, building a solid brand, is beneficial not only for SEO but also for business in general.
7) Doing SEO for Smaller Businesses
Considering the things we have discussed so far, small business SEO will become tougher and more challenging in 2025.
Small businesses are usually in a disadvantaged position when it comes to SEO, as they compete with large companies. Small budgets, fewer funds, and competition with large brands make it seem as if you are armed with a knife while the other is armed with tanks.
At Pulling Off Strategies, we have witnessed many small business owners tearing their hair out over the SEO best practices that they can use to grow.
But here’s the thing: You don’t have to have a Fortune 500 budget to grow in the search results.
How To Do SEO For Small Businesses
- Focus on local search: Think local before ranking for global! Knowing what people in your neighbourhood want you to have in your favour. You can start optimizing your content to answer local keywords that most large brands are not focusing on.
- Invest in Local SEO: If you’re a local business, Google Business Profile (GBP) should be your go-to for your online marketing channel. For Local SEO rankings, you can optimize GBP without a big budget, which can end up getting you the required calls and enquiries to grow your business.
- Leverage other channels: Don’t rely on SEO if you can’t sustain for months. Instead, along with SEO, choose to go after channels like Google ads or social media ads to generate business
Just to remind you, SEO is not a game for giants, by using the above strategies, you will quickly punch way above your weight.
8) Prioritize User Experience (UX) and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) For SEO
First, let’s address this point: mobile optimization. As more people are spending more time on their mobile devices than ever before, your website had better be ready to showcase itself on a smartphone.
An optimized website is one part of UX, the other part is having the right content and messaging in place to help your users. Proper CRO strategies can solve this.
At Pulling Off Strategies, we’ve seen firsthand how a mobile-friendly site can skyrocket rankings and how you can double your conversions by implementing good CRO strategies.
Here is what you can do to help you with both:
- Use mobile responsiveness design and test your website on multiple devices
- Speed is the essence – make sure most of the elements on your website are loading fast
- Make navigation easier and simpler for both mobile and desktop users
- Use a headline that conveys your audience’s pain and showcases your benefits
- Skip vague descriptions and choose to write optimized descriptions with keywords talking to your customers
- Use images to improve your messaging
- Place your CTA button rightly for better conversions
This is important for SEO because, according to Google leaked documents, good user interactions will help you with better search rankings. As you know, Google is tracking this. A smooth UX and a great CRO strategy are no longer luxuries—they are your golden ticket to the top of the SERPs.
9) AI Challenges in SEO
People use tools like ChatGPT to create content for their websites using a few prompts, and guess what? Google doesn’t penalize AI content.
However, raw AI content has an underlying problem. It sounds robotic and most likely doesn’t provide any unique value for readers.
At Pulling Off Strategies, we view this as an opportunity to take our SEO to the next level. Here’s how we use AI for better SEO:
- Generate AI-optimized content: Use AI to create initial drafts of your content. Later, with human intervention and optimization, you can build readable, digestible, and optimized content.
- Do competitors analysis: Matt Diggity shows in one of his videos how to use AI, he analyses one of his competitor’s content and gets suggestions on how to outrank them
- AI Link building: There are tons of videos on YouTube sharing how you can use AI, look for backlink opportunities, and acquire backlinks at scale. AI can help you with guest posting, Niche edits, and even editorial brand mentions.
The thing is, because of AI, SEO isn’t dying; it’s evolving.
10) Diversify Your SEO
Marketing campaigns and SEO efforts should complement each other. As we discussed earlier, Google loves brands, and to build a brand, you have to make your customers recall it.
That’s only going to happen when you show up on their multiple platforms.
Here are some of the channels that go well with SEO:-
- Social Media: Most of your audience uses social media, and having an active brand presence on the platform where you can connect with your audience is not only beneficial for brand recall but also for SEO
- Paid Advertising: It is something that needs budget, but if you have enough bandwidth to sustain paid ads, then they are a great way to generate immediate results in the short run
- Cold outreach: Using cold emails and DMs can be a great way for B2B businesses to connect with their audience, and like paid ads, they can drive better ROI in the short run
In 2025, you can connect with people on more than one platform, and this should tell you that diversifying your approach to multiple platforms is a hack for growth.
11) Real vs Vanity Metrics in SEO
In the SEO world, we tend to focus on easy-to-measure things such as keyword positions and impressions in analytics. Sure, it feels great to see those numbers climb, but they do not always mean money in the bank.
At Pulling Off Strategies, we have realized that the real value is in the metrics that really align with your business objectives, goals, and growth.
Organic Traffic
Organic means the number of people visiting your site through a search engine without any paid advertisement. An increase in organic traffic usually means that your SEO strategies are working.
Organic Conversion Rate
This metric indicates the organic visitor conversion rate, which means that you can measure the percentage of visitors who successfully accomplish your goals on the website, be it purchasing a product or subscribing to a newsletter. It shows how SEO can turn searchers into leads or customers.
Branded Search Volume
Branded search is a significant indicator that helps identify branded search numbers, which refers to the number of people who are searching for a brand name and relevant keywords.
It is a sign of brand recognition and can significantly affect your overall SEO rankings.
Revenue From Organic Clicks
This metric directly correlates SEO performance to revenue, making it one of the most important SEO metrics for businesses.
To come up with this number, focus on:
- Direct conversions (sales & leads) from a website
- Think about the lifetime value of each customer
- Compare your organic revenue with your paid revenue
Organic Growth Compared to Competitors
These metrics enable you to determine how competitively you are ranking in the specific niche and whether you are organically gaining or losing market share within your niche.
Analyzing this metric is important because:
- It helps you understand SEO performance and benchmark it with your competitors.
- It helps in finding your competitor’s threats and opportunities
- This enables you to make strategic choices regarding where to invest your SEO resources
Wrap Up
As we wrap up our discussion on the 11 Common SEO challenges of 2025, it’s clear that organic search has become a battlefield for businesses, with them constantly competing with multiple factors to rank their SEO content.
By following the latest SEO practices and staying on top of your SEO process, you can actually beat most of your competitors.
If you need help with your SEO, you can book a call with us. We will help you grow and scale your business using SEO.
