What Drives SEO Performance in 2025 and How to Rank Higher

11/6/2025

Every week, SEO marketers debate whether Core Web Vitals still matter when trying to rank higher in Google search, whether schema markup really helps, and how much authority and content freshness affect rankings. The truth, drawn from years of coverage and real world case studies is simple: performance is now multi-dimensional and contextual. It’s no longer just about how a single page performs, but how efficiently your site as a whole communicates relevance, stability, and trust— and there are a few clear ways Google determines that.

The Technical Foundation Still Rules Everything

Let’s start with the obvious: if your site doesn’t load fast and behave predictably, you’re fighting an uphill battle. Google’s Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS, and now INP) still carry weight. But even beyond rankings, poor performance kills conversions for the domain as a whole. A few essentials to lock down:

LCP under 2.5 seconds. Slow hero images or videos are still a silent killer.
CLS under 0.1. Layout shifts make users bounce faster than any pop-up ever could.
INP under 200ms. Responsiveness matters more than ever with INP replacing FID.
Serve images in next-gen formats (WebP/AVIF). This can be done with a CDN (we like bunny.net), but you can also lazy-load everything you can and also cut back on render-blocking scripts. Generally these technical adjustments are small, but they really add up, especially for mobile (which is what most users utilize) and Google notices.

Crawlability and Indexation Are the Gatekeepers

No matter how good your content is, it’s useless if Google's Bot crawlers can’t actually find your pages in its index or read the page properly. This translates to:

A clean, logical site structure. Your H1, H2, H2, etc should be sequentially ordered and not only align with the content under it, but also align with what a normal person would search for. Keeping the intent of each page clear and avoiding over-consolidation of page topics is crucial for visibility, especially as AI-driven search evolves. This is one of the most important factors in ensuring your content is visible to AI as well.
Using clean, relevant, descriptive URLs. Urls that are too long will not help you. Keep it clean. Keep it concise and intentional!
Maintain an updated XML sitemap and robots.txt file. Submit your sitemap to Google's Search Console when you make changes. For more on Robots.txt (what is it and why you need it), check out our help guide here.
Check for duplicate or canonical conflicts— In short, you shouldn’t have multiple URLs showing the same content (e.g., /page, /page/, www.page.com, and page.com all indexing separately). That kind of duplication splits ranking signals and confuses Google about which version to prioritize (and can also lead to duplicate content penalties!). A properly set canonical tag tells Google which version is the “official” one to index, helping consolidate authority and avoid keyword cannibalization for your domain.
Don't depend on linking a PDF to a page for performance boosts. Whenever possible, convert this kind of content into some actual on-page content and skip the PDFs altogether.

Think of it this way: Google has to “read” your site before it can recommend you to users. Your job is to make that reading process effortless.

Your Content Has to Prove It Deserves to Rank

We tell clients this constantly: Google doesn’t care about you or me, it cares about its users. That means it will always prioritize the most relevant, credible, and recently updated content, even if you spend a fortune on Google products or marketing.

If 2024 was the year of “content quality,” then 2025 is the year of content credibility. Google’s Helpful Content and "E-E-A-T signals" have evolved into layered “trust metrics.” One of the clearest indicators of that trust? Engagement.

Your content can’t just answer a question. It has to do so credibly and consistently show performance improvements. Some quick wins:

Write with actual clear expertise and use real-world examples to illustrate your case.
Be clear about who actually authored content to help signal legitimacy (where applicable).
Keep your pages fresh, comprehensive, and clear, especially for competitive topics or markets.

Engagement Is Now the Most Important Performance Signal

When marketers talk about “engagement,” what they’re really describing is proof that users found what they were looking for from your sites content. Google measures this indirectly through a web of behavioral signals, which can be easily tracked in Google Analytics 4(GA4) or Google Search Console. Here's what to look for:

Engagement Rate: This is the percentage of sessions lasting 10 seconds or longer, which includes scrolls or conversions. A good benchmark is above 60% for most sites.
Average Engagement Time per User: Replaces old “time on page” metrics. Look for steady growth month over month, especially on landing pages!
Scroll Depth Events: Track via GTM (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%). If most users bounce before 50%, your intro likely needs work.
Average Pages per Session: Look for steady growth month over month, especially on landing pages!
Bounce Rate: Aim for under 50% if possible; 75% is acceptable in some industries. If it’s higher, check where and why people are exiting and make changes to your approach.
Monitor 404 Activity: Users hitting dead pages is a red flag. Set up redirects or remove those URLs from Google’s index. (Here’s our guide on setting up a 404 monitoring report in GA4.)
Click Interactions: Menu clicks, CTAs, and form completions are micro-conversions. Pay attention to where people drop off or what people do and don't engage with and make sure your content evolves over time.
Return Visits and Session Recency: In GA4 retention reports, recurring visits signal trust and value.
Search Console Metrics: In Search Console, check out the Performance and Insights tab for detailed information about your site. Look for Impressions vs. click through rate (CTR) to determine if your titles and snippets actually resonate with Google users.

Whats the TLDR? Monitor, Measure, Refresh, Repeat

Core updates hit hard when sites stop watching their own data, and Performance in 2025 is a three part story: speed, structure, and signals. Speed gets you indexed. Structure keeps you indexed. Engagement tells Google you deserve to stay there.