SEO Fundamentals (2025)
Core Framework: E-E-A-T
Experience → First-hand experience, real stories
Expertise → Credentials, certifications, knowledge
Authoritativeness → Backlinks, media mentions, recognition
Trustworthiness → HTTPS, contact info, transparency, reviews
2025 Algorithm Updates
| Update |
Impact |
Focus |
| March 2025 Core |
63% SERP fluctuation |
Content quality |
| June 2025 Core |
E-E-A-T emphasis |
Authority signals |
| Helpful Content |
AI content penalties |
People-first content |
Core Web Vitals Targets
| Metric |
Target |
Measurement |
| LCP |
< 2.5s |
Largest Contentful Paint |
| INP |
< 200ms |
Interaction to Next Paint |
| CLS |
< 0.1 |
Cumulative Layout Shift |
Technical SEO Checklist
Site Structure:
☐ XML sitemap submitted
☐ robots.txt configured
☐ Canonical tags correct
☐ Hreflang tags (multilingual)
☐ 301 redirects proper
☐ No 404 errors
Performance:
☐ Images optimized (WebP)
☐ Lazy loading
☐ Minification (CSS/JS/HTML)
☐ GZIP/Brotli compression
☐ Browser caching
☐ CDN active
Mobile:
☐ Responsive design
☐ Mobile-friendly test passed
☐ Touch targets 48x48px min
☐ Font size 16px min
☐ Viewport meta correct
Structured Data:
☐ Article schema
☐ Organization schema
☐ Person/Author schema
☐ FAQPage schema
☐ Breadcrumb schema
☐ Review/Rating schema
AI Content Guidelines
❌ Don't:
- Publish purely AI-generated content
- Skip fact-checking
- Create duplicate content
- Keyword stuffing
✅ Do:
- AI draft + human edit
- Add original insights
- Expert review
- E-E-A-T principles
- Plagiarism check
Content Format for SEO Success
Title: Question-based or keyword-rich
├── Meta description (150-160 chars)
├── H1: Main keyword
├── H2: Related topics
│ ├── H3: Subtopics
│ └── Bullet points/lists
├── FAQ section (with FAQPage schema)
├── Internal links to related content
└── External links to authoritative sources
Elements:
☐ Author bio with credentials
☐ "Last updated" date
☐ Original statistics/data
☐ Citations and references
☐ Summary/TL;DR box
☐ Visual content (images, charts)
☐ Social share buttons
Quick Reference
// Essential meta tags
<meta name="description" content="...">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/page">
// Open Graph for social
<meta property="og:title" content="...">
<meta property="og:description" content="...">
<meta property="og:image" content="...">
// Schema markup example
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "...",
"author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "..." },
"datePublished": "2025-12-30",
"dateModified": "2025-12-30"
}
</script>
SEO Tools (2025)
| Tool |
Purpose |
| Google Search Console |
Performance, indexing |
| PageSpeed Insights |
Core Web Vitals |
| Lighthouse |
Technical audit |
| Semrush/Ahrefs |
Keywords, backlinks |
| Surfer SEO |
Content optimization |
Last Updated: 2025-12-30