3 Steps to Rank Higher in Google in 2025

Video overview:

Want to know how to rank higher on Google in 2025? In this video, I’ll show you exactly what it takes to climb to the top of Google search results this year. In this video, I break down a proven SEO strategy into 3 key steps to show you how to rank higher in Google search results.

Video transcript:

In this video, I'm going to share a proven formula for ranking your business at the top of Google. Did you know that less than 1% of people click past Google's first page? So, if you're not in the top 10, you are basically invisible.

Now, ranking in the top 10 is no easy feat, and if anybody tells you that it is, then run because they are lying. But it is doable with the right strategy, and I'm going to show you how in three key steps, breaking them all down so you can achieve these results for your business.

First, I'm going to show you how to choose the right keywords. Then, we're going to go over how to create the best content. And last but not least, we're going to talk about how to get reputable backlinks. So, if you want to rank your business at the top of Google in 2025, stick around till the end because the last one is the hardest, but it's crucial to understand.

Hey, I am Robin, your BWB marketing bestie. I am a B2B marketing and SEO consultant, and I have achieved many top 10 results for my clients, even for competitive keywords. And that brings us to…

Step 1: How to choose the right keywords.

Now, sometimes a client will come to me and say, "I want to rank at the top of Google," and the first thing that pops into my mind, but I don't actually say out loud, is, "Okay, but for what keywords?" Because a company doesn't simply rank at the top of Google; they rank for certain keywords that people are searching. And the first step to choosing the right keywords is to do thorough keyword research. Now, there are three things to consider when choosing your keywords: relevancy, keyword competition, and search intent.

So, let's talk about relevance. Your keywords need to align with what your business actually offers and what your target audience is actually searching for. And then the second part is keyword competition. A lot of keywords are highly competitive, meaning there's a lot of people that are trying to rank for them. And trying to rank for keywords that a lot of people are trying to rank for, especially if they're large, more established websites, is going to be a lot harder than ranking for keywords that are less competitive. So, the trick is finding that sweet spot between finding relevant keywords that your audience is searching for and that you actually have a shot at ranking for.

And the last part of finding the right keywords is search intent. So, why is somebody searching for this keyword? Are they looking for a product to buy, or are they just looking for definitions? So, you want to pick keywords that matches the user's search intent to make sure you attract visitors who are more likely to engage with your content and convert.

So, let's take an example, and this is one that I see a lot. Let's say that you're an IT services firm, and you help organizations modernize their outdated Legacy software, and you think, "I want to rank for the keyword digital transformation." Okay, well, let's unpack that. So, is the keyword digital transformation relevant to the business? Well, technically, yes, but it's a very broad term that can apply to a lot of things, and modernizing outdated software is just one small category under digital transformation.

It's kind of like opening up a food truck that only sells vegan tacos but putting out a sign in the front that just says food. Lots of people might be looking for food, but a much smaller percentage of them are going to actually be looking for vegan tacos, and I'm one of them because they're delicious. So, instead, if your sign was more specific and said delicious vegan tacos, then you would attract the right crowd, people who actually want what you have to offer: tacos.

And then the other part of this is, what is the search intent for somebody searching for digital transformation? This keyword really doesn't give us any indication that the person searching is looking for a company who modernizes outdated software. So, it could just be a student doing a research paper on digital transformation, or it could be a reporter doing research, or it could just be someone who heard the term and wants to know what it is. So, a better keyword might be Legacy software modernization because it's more specific and closer to what you actually do. So, let's do some research on this keyword.

All right, so I'm in Semrush, which is an SEO tool that I use, and they have a keyword magic tool right here that tells you the search volume and the competition for the keyword. So, what you do is you just type in the keyword that you want to look up, and then it actually gives you a lot of different options here for related keywords as well as your keyword.

And so, looking here at Legacy software modernization, we can see that the volume or the number of searches per month is 170, which is actually pretty good for a niche B2B keyword. And then under here, we've got a keyword difficulty of 23, and that's 23 out of 100, so that means that it's low difficulty, meaning that it's going to be easier to rank for because there's less competition for that keyword. And then over here under intent, it's got a C. The C means that it's commercial intent, which means that the user searching for this keyword is looking to buy a product or service.

So, this keyword fits all three criteria: it is relevant to what the business actually offers, it's got low competition meaning it's going to be easier to rank for, and the search intent is telling us that it is to buy.

Step 2: How to create the best content

Okay, on to step two, which is creating the best content. And the biggest tip that I have for anyone who wants to rank high on Google is this: be Wikipedia. Okay, I know you're not Wikipedia, but stay with me here. The thing is, Wikipedia ranks at the top of so many searches all the time. I'm sure that you've seen it when you've searched for something. So, we can learn a lot from Wikipedia. So, let's actually have a look at a Wikipedia page. So, I'm going to type in the search term digital transformation here. Let's just stay with that for demonstration purposes, and then we'll see that sure enough, Wikipedia is here in the top organic search position as a featured snippet. So, let's go ahead and click on it.

Okay, looking at this content, it is very robust. It covers many different aspects of the topic, so benefits, barriers, enablers, history, the top framework, role of resources, and capabilities. So, super comprehensive, and the content is very well organized with clear subheadings, and it's all separated out in a way that's very easy to browse and understand. And in terms of keywords, they use the keyword a lot and in the right places, so it is in the URL, it is in the headline, it is in the first sentence of copy, in the first paragraph, and it's throughout the copy in other areas as well. Keyword placement is very important, and they got this right. Now, I'm going to show you where to put your keywords later on in the video. The other thing they've done is put tons of links on the page, and these link to other pages within Wikipedia, and this helps Google crawl other pages in the site, which helps them all rank higher.

But before you start creating your content, be sure to search for your keywords and see who is actually appearing in those top positions. So, let's search for the keyword that we identified earlier, which is Legacy software modernization. Scroll past the sponsored post and come into the first organic listing. And what's interesting here is that this does not use the keyword, the actual keyword, in the page title that we're looking for, which is Legacy software uh modernization, and same thing with the second result and the third result. But it is using Legacy application modernization, which is a very similar keyword, and Google understands context in a lot of situations, so application in this case is basically the same as software, and so Google understands that.

And then importantly, this is a page on the IBM site, which is a very high Authority website, and that is something that Google takes into consideration, and I will talk more about page Authority when we talk about backlinks in just a minute.

So, let's go ahead and click on this result. Let's see, on this page, do they have the keyword in the URL? No, they don't have our keyword, which is Legacy software modernization, but it has Legacy application modernization, which is that very similar keyword, and it has the same one here, Legacy application modernization, in the title. So, that's the keyword there going after Legacy application modernization.

And then scrolling down, it appears also here in the copy, and then here we do see software modernization, and so Google probably sees that and kind of combines them. But again, this is the IBM site, so it's going to give it a little bit more preference. And then we see that the content is very well organized into sections, and it covers the topic very, very comprehensively. So, I actually see a potential opportunity here, even though we're going up against IBM, but they're not using the exact keyword that we're targeting.

And if I wanted to rank for this keyword, I would create a page that is better and even more thorough than that one. So, for example, I would definitely try to either match or exceed the word count on the page, and then maybe I'd include a few interactive elements to keep readers on the page, like maybe a video or an infographic, because the other page was just text. And I would be sure to include my keyword in these key places.

Now, you'll want to write this down or screenshot it, so include it in the URL, the page title, the first headline on the page, the first sentence on the page, subheads, and throughout the body copy where it sounds natural. And this last one is important because you want it to be quality content, not keyword stuffed, hard to read content. So, the trick is to provide the best content, better than what is currently ranking at the top of Google, so you can displace these competitors.

Step 3: How to get reputable backlinks

But we have another hurdle, so that takes us to step three: backlinks. And this is the hardest step, especially if you're small because we have less control over backlinks. So, what are backlinks? Well, backlinks are just links from other websites that go to yours, and they help Google determine how authoritative your site is. So, backlinks affect what's called page Authority. Websites with lots of quality backlinks rank higher because Google sees them as more credible.

And you can check a website's page Authority in Semrush or another SEO tool. So, for example, IBM has a high page Authority because it's very well known, and a lot of sites link to it. And Wikipedia is another great example; tons of sites link to Wikipedia, so that's why you always see it at the top of those search results. So, the more quality backlinks you earn, the more Google trusts your site.

And there's more: when I say quality backlinks, not all backlinks are considered equal. Links from reputable High Authority sites like news outlets or popular industry blogs carry more weight than random links from, say, your cousin's blog on conspiracy theories about internet cats (although I know they're evil—I'm just kidding!).

Now, keep in mind that if your website has a lower page Authority, it's going to be a lot harder to displace a competitor with a high page Authority that also has great content and is targeting the exact same keywords. So, if your website has a page authority of say 23, and all of the sites that are ranking in the top spots have a page authority of 70 or above, it's going to be really hard to displace them. So, I would consider exploring alternative keywords with lower competition that you actually have a better shot at ranking for. Now, it's not impossible to beat them, and I know because I've done it before, but you really have to bring the content magic to do it.

All right, so how do you get backlinks and increase your page Authority? So, you want to create link worthy content, so publish articles, blogs, and data that other people are going to want to link to. You can also guest posts, so you can write articles for industry blogs and include a link back to your site.

You can do digital PR – you can pitch your content or your experts to journalists and bloggers. And you can get listed in high quality business directories like G2 or Clutch. Just make sure that the directories are reputable because links from low quality directory sites can potentially harm your rankings.

Now, one thing you're probably wondering about for SEO in 2025 is AI, and it is definitely a thing. I actually did a whole video on the topic of AI and SEO that you can click on right here, and it also gives you tips on how you can get ranked in the AI search results, so you definitely want to check that out, and I will see you over there.