Hello there! I'm Nikola Baldikov, an SEO specialist with over 10 years of experience in the industry. I'm the founder of SERPsGrowth, a digital PR and link building agency helping brands grow their online visibility. I'm a contributing author at Entrepreneur.com, and my insights on content, SEO, and branding strategies have been featured in HubSpot, The Drum, the Content Marketing Institute, and more. I believe I can share some of my insights with you. Most effective SEO strategies for small businesses this year: Generative engine optimization (GEO) is becoming one of the most important strategies for small businesses this year. With Google rolling out new features like AI Overviews, businesses really need to pay attention to how search behavior is changing. More searches than ever now end without a click to a website, which means there is less organic traffic to go around and much more competition for the spots that still matter. At the same time, more people are turning to tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity for quick answers, creating a whole new way for businesses to be discovered. That's why I think focusing on appearing in AI search results is becoming just as important as traditional SEO. There are already strategies that work. From what we know about how AI systems surface information, two of the most effective ways to get your brand noticed are getting mentioned in context-rich content and publishing in-depth content about your brand. I actually tried this out in an experiment. My goal was to get into roundups on different websites, where it made sense contextually, and it worked better than I expected. After appearing in roundups like "best SEO experts in 2026", my name started showing up in Google's AI Overviews for those terms. I didn't do anything 'AI-specific'; the common thread was just getting repeated mentions in curated lists on the websites in my niche. Interestingly, for LLMs, a simple brand mention often seems to be enough. Backlinks are still valuable for traditional SEO, but when it comes to AI Overviews, being named in authoritative listicles also sends a strong signal. I hope that helps! Please let me know if you have any further questions. Cheers, Nikola Baldikov Website: https://serpsgrowth.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikola-baldikov-7215a417/ Headshot: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DiSZ3Eh4eXTZVHrEWAWHm4RReQRbqJCa/view Email: nikola@inboundblogging.net
One of the biggest web design trends that will help businesses make sales in 2025 is the move toward frictionless, single-path user flows. These are pages with fewer choices, a clearer visual hierarchy, and sections that guide visitors toward one action at a time. This works for small businesses because simpler layouts make it easier for people to think and make decisions, which is especially important on mobile devices where most purchases start. I'm also seeing data-backed lifts from modular, fast-loading designs made with lightweight frameworks. This is because Google's Core Web Vitals updates keep giving higher visibility to sites that load quickly. Another thing that new businesses often forget is that they don't have to be as big as established brands to compete with them; they just need to be as clear. In just a few short cycles, a brand can outrank bigger competitors if it communicates its value in the first five seconds, uses trust markers early, and sticks to basic SEO rules.
Quote for "What Businesses Misunderstand Most About SEO & Digital Marketing": The single biggest misunderstanding is that digital marketing is a cost center instead of an asset-building function. They are focused on speed over compounding value. Most business leaders treat SEO like a paid ad campaign: put money in, get leads out now. They misunderstand that SEO is about building equity. My actionable advice is to reframe SEO spend as Digital Real Estate Acquisition. Every high-ranking, valuable piece of content is like buying an apartment building. It produces rent (traffic and leads) for years, often without maintenance, while the property value (Domain Authority) keeps appreciating. A PPC campaign, by contrast, is like paying rent: great for the moment, but the value is gone the second you stop paying. Businesses need to allocate at least 40% of the organic marketing budget toward "evergreen" content pillars like articles that solve a core, long-term problem for their customer and commit to updating them quarterly. The second mistake is confusing volume with value, or obsessing over vanity metrics like high traffic volume even if that traffic has no commercial value. Stop asking "How much traffic did we get?" and start asking, "What percentage of our traffic came from keywords with high commercial intent?" It is vastly more valuable to get 1,000 visitors searching for "best monthly budgeting software for freelancers" (high intent) than 10,000 visitors searching for "how to save money in 2025" (low intent, high volume). Your team should focus only on Commercial Intent Keywords those that signal the user is ready to buy or sign up. These might have lower search volume, but the ROI on content that targets them is disproportionately higher and makes a direct impact on revenue, not just a dashboard number.
The single biggest misconception I see among our startup and small business clients is their belief that ticking every box in a SEO audit report will naturally yield higher rankings. In reality though authority and relevance are what Google rewards first and foremost. For that, SMEs should put their efforts into crafting pages that answer real customer questions, then earn backlinks from respected industry sites. Instead, I see many of them stressing over tweaking meta-descriptions and "perfect" Core Web Vitals but we advise our clients to treat those more as SEO hygiene and not as growth levers. We also tell them to judge their SEO success by the qualified leads they gain and not by raw traffic since one sales enquiry beats 1,000 skim-readers. Patience is important too because any meaningful rise in organic traffic is never something you see straightaway. It usually takes about three to six months of consistent optimisation - and SMEs will of course need to budget for that.
q )Most effective SEO strategies for small businesses this year A) This year, small businesses could look at their SEO as a part of a multi channel search strategy. The way that people have searched has changed and now searches happen over a number of platforms like social media search, AI Chatbots, website & PR. Small businesses looking to get ahead in their SEO will want to look at both on and offsite SEO to back up their SEO strategy. For small businesses on their website, I'd map out every core offering, give each one a clear home on the site, and build out the content so it answers different layers of search intent. Basically, make it really easy for both people and search engines to understand what you do. Small businesses should also introduce SEO to their social media challenges as people may search for product or service information/reviews on social media and they should look to build links to their website, they could look at their google search console queries to see what queries their audience have and make sure that they have social media content that reflects this. How startups can compete with established brands online Maybe I am biased, given the fact I have spent the past half a decade as an SEO but I truly believe SEO and having organic content that resonates with your target audience will help startups to compete with established brands. Established brands have huge brand power as well as extensive ad revenue budgets, which can make competing seem daunting for startups. I feel really inspired by some of the grassroots small Irish businesses who have taken the world by storm with little budget in markets with brand giants and each of them seem to create both a web & social experience that allows their target audience to feel a part of their culture. When we buy from a brand, we purchase from them so as to tell a part of our own story. Startups need to review the culture and the world that their target audience lives in, see how they can become an extension of this and bring positive change by supporting. People are 22 times more likely to remember a fact when it's wrapped in a story and startups usually have great stories from behind the scenes. the reason why they started and the market they are up against. Sharing their experience and inviting their target audience into their world can absolutely make any start up stand out against established brands online. Great content get shared for free!
Hey, am Uttoran Sen, the CEO and co-founder of GuestCrew. Thank you for this opportunity for letting me answer your questions. Question: How startups can compete with established brands online? The only big difference between a startup and a brand is funding. Startups don't have the resource to compete with brands who have more funding, more visibility and awareness about their products, their supply chain which is already established and have simply more money on their hands to buy advertisements. Startups have none of these which leaves them with only one thing and that is growth hacking. This amazing marketing term has an answer to all of the problems and that too on a budget. If you don't have money to spend on ads, look for media opportunities, look for influencers who are helpful, try to get into organic timelines if you can't spend on ads. Build your own network of people who love your products, create a culture if you can't create a market. Look for niche instead of going horizontal. Instead of spending money on ads, try to tell your story and make it good.
The idea that big brands must always be at the top of search, is a myth. Smaller websites have a strong advantage too: agility. They can publish niche-specific content faster than their bigger, more established competitors. Over time, consistently superior content lets small websites build authority and visibility, gradually evolving into major sites themselves. This is at the heart of the "Katamari philosophy": start small, and through cosistency, focus and attention, expand outwards. Real-world example: Amazon didn't begin as a massive, global platform. It started as a small site, selling books online, focusing deeply on that specific audience. By delivering exactly what that niche wanted, it built a strong foundation and expanded step by step—eventually becoming the 'Everything Store' we know it to be today. The same principle applies to SEO: win your niche first, then roll outward.
* Biggest web design trends influencing conversions in 2025 * Most effective SEO strategies for small businesses this year I'm grouping these two topics together, as my answer for each is very similar. I'd say the biggest/newest trend is structuring websites for AI engines. While the overall premise is very similar to foundational SEO practices, there are slight nuances that can increase LLM visibility and citation. For example, providing FAQ-like content for each service you provide or product you sell. This helps SEO to some degree - more keyword-specific content on your page is never bad - but also sends up a signal to an AI engine - "I have the answer to the question your user just asked." * How AI is transforming web design and content creation In addition to my answer above, AI is very helpful for web design and content creation. For instance: 1. Use AI to take meeting notes during the introductory website planning session, then generate a summary and to-do list. 2. Send a homepage mockup to your AI engine of choice and ask for an evaluation. 3. Ask AI to generate some filler text for a page until your client provides you with some. No more "Lorem Ipsum" needed. (Though you need to be careful not to go live with un-approved copy - AI-generated or otherwise!) At my company, we wouldn't ever ask AI to "do the work for us," but we'll use it as a tool, just as we'd use a drag-and-drop editor to create beautiful web designs. * How startups can compete with established brands online A key thing to remember: search and AI engines don't care how long you've been in business - not really. They care about your trustworthiness (which can be influenced by how long you've been in business), your accuracy, and whether you meet the needs of their users. Getting good backlinks and having a professional, secure, and accessible website are two top things to focus on. * Key mistakes to avoid when launching a new website In today's world, launching a new website without ensuring ADA compliance is not very forward-thinking. While federal regulations do not require ADA compliance for businesses, failing to provide accessible content essentially tells 10% of your potential customer base that you aren't interested in doing business with them. * Top tools you recommend for startup founders Website CMS: WordPress Website Content Editor: Elementor ADA Compliance Testing: WAVE scanner - https://wave.webaim.org/
It's hard to make a general statement about custom websites vs templates. I've built custom websites, custom templates, and I've also had to work on projects using off-the-shelf themes. Any of them can be done well or badly, and the ROI depends a lot on the execution. From my experience, a properly built custom site can be great if you actually have the budget and the long-term resources. Once you go custom, you don't get vulnerability patches and PHP-compatibility updates with a single click, like you do in WordPress; you are paying a developer to maintain that codebase. I've worked on custom builds where the client needed a developer just to change a headline, or the site was built on a framework that only a few people in their area were familiar with. That kind of "custom" kills your ROI pretty fast. Templates have their own downsides. I've seen multipurpose themes packed with features you will never need or use. Major updates break layouts. You need to watch tutorials just to figure out how to change a button color. Some still use page builders that rely on shortcodes, which makes switching themes complicated (and expensive). And that's without getting into the performance issues. On the other hand, I've also come across lightweight, well-built templates that load fast, look original, and are easy to use. They just tend to be rarer than the overloaded ones. For me, a good middle ground is a custom-built template - you get the custom look without the price tag of a fully custom build or the risk of being tied to that developer for any future edits and updates. One thing that might shift this balance in the future is the rising cost of CMS ecosystems. WordPress is free, but serious functionality - like LMS, memberships, bookings, ecommerce, automation - often means hundreds of dollars per year in plugins, plus hosting, security tools, ongoing maintenance. So the long-term ROI of a free CMS isn't as cheap as it used to be, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see more alternatives showing up.
CTO, Entrepreneur, Business & Financial Leader, Author, Co-Founder at Increased
Answered 3 months ago
Digital Growth Strategies Startups Can't Afford to Ignore in 2025 "You don't need a bigger budget to compete online—you need faster insights and fewer bottlenecks." Speed storytelling & specificity, if you know how to use them, are the biggest advantages in 2025. Startups can't compete with bigger brands online is the biggest misconception I see nowadays. Talking about SEO. You don't really need to be running behind the rank#1 for "project management software". You need to rank for "project management tool for remote engineering teams. Chasing generic keywords is all that small businesses waste time on, while the focus should be on intent-driven long-tail searches. SurferSEO, Ahrefs & ClearScope are the right tools to dig into search intent, not just volume. Pairing with real-time analytics tools like Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity, custom UX flows built for conversion far outperform one-size-fits-all templates from a design perspective. Founders can iterate without guesswork by having visual feedback on where users drop off. At Increased.com, we use AI to generate content drafts, run A/B tests faster & wireframe pages. AI is changing the game, and we understand that AI is the engine, not the driver. It only works when paired with a human strategy. Focusing less on looking 'big' and more on being fast, clear & useful is how founders can win.
SEO broadly is in trouble, but one sector that can still make great use of it is small, local businesses. It's simply harder to generate AI summaries for those kinds of queries, and Google's built-in location data and Google My Business pages do a lot to help drive customer traffic. Finding ways to localize your own business, even if it's online, can be especially valuable in the current environment. Outside of that, we're turning to social media much more heavily to drive traffic.
Edtech SaaS & AI Wrangler | eLearning & Training Management at Intellek
Answered 3 months ago
Top-performing content will be judged by its ability to deliver a high Information Gain Rate while also minimizing cognitive load. That means opening with concise, value-led summaries that deliver insight immediately. A recent report revealed that introductions are cited 43% more often in AI Overviews[1]. When you deliver clarity and context upfront, you'll earn attention and, hopefully citations/mentions in AI. To apply this strategy you can use Information Gain Rate to frame your content. Open with insights, skip vague warm-ups, and get straight to the "so what." Structure content with tight sections, clear headings, and paragraphs that focus on one idea. Make every sentence earn its place. [1] Surfer report: https://surferseo.com/blog/ai-citation-report/
I run a few online stores and have redesigned, rebuilt, and grown sites in both Norway and the UK. Here are the most important things to know about digital growth in 2025: 1. The most important web design trend that affects conversions Minimalism wins. Layouts with a lot of animation and agency-style elements don't convert as well as layouts with fewer distractions, one clear call to action, and clean product pages. Customers who pay a lot want things to be clear, not messy. 2. The best SEO plan for small businesses Depth is better than volume. Five or more shallow articles will never do better than a few authoritative, expert-reviewed pillar pages with strong internal linking and fast mobile performance. 3. The most common mistake people make about SEO and digital marketing People who started the company still think that SEO is the same as blogging. SEO in 2025 means user experience (UX), trust signals, and the quality of your site. Google won't send traffic to your site if it feels slow or disorganized, no matter how much content you post. 4. The most important thing to avoid when starting a new website Too many apps, CTAs, design elements, and pages at launch. The sites I've built that make the most money start out simple: they're quick, focused, and have one clear value proposition. 5. How AI is changing the way websites are made AI speeds up the process of making wireframes, drafts, and content structure, but it doesn't replace judgment. The winners use AI to speed things up and people to build their brand, set up their hierarchy, and understand how to get people to buy.
Hey, As a web designer, the biggest change I've noticed has been towards low friction layouts that decrease cognitive load shorter forms, single purpose landing pages and high contrast CTAs that direct users instead of distracting them. On a recent redesign, we eliminated carousel banners and instead added one that included a clear benefit statement along with a CTA button conversion from lead to trial increased by noticeable margin in just weeks. Mistake to avoid Too many startups blast their website with special effects, but a slow loading page and scattered messaging does more to damage one's credibility than anything that can come from a minimalist layout. One recommendation Run UX heatmaps pre launch, always. Moving CTAs around on the fly based on scroll depth data has been steady revenue for clients in my experience. Best regards, Ben Mizes CoFounder of Clever Offers URL: https://cleveroffers.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benmizes/
Going for a clean and conversion driven design beats everything else. Sites with clarity that have fast load times and understandable pathways to action will outperform anything flashy. Answer that user intent with tight on page SEO with a fast and intentional website.
I would suggest small business owners to give a try to short videos. For small businesses getting more reach is always helpful. Short-form videos like those you see on social media, are now frequently getting featured in Google's Search Engine Results Pages and their Discover feed as well. Making a few good videos about your products or services and optimizing them with location and topic keywords is a great step that can drive traffic fast. You can try to cover usual queries asked by your customers through short videos and build a solid presence over a period of time.
- Most effective SEO strategies for small businesses this year Honestly, for small businesses get the basic technical items knocked out. Make sure you've got an SSL, an XML map, that your pages are crawlable and indexing, make sure pages are structured correctly (H1, H2, H3, etc) and include scheme markup that summarizes the page accurately. Once you've got the basics, focus on optimizing images for performance and content around some target keywords. For small businesses, you'd be amazed at just how powerful getting these basic items ironed out can be. - How AI is transforming web design and content creation AI is lowering the barrier to entry for web design and content creation. It's able to kickout shear quantities that the human marketer can not compete with. However, much of the current AI content creation and web design is very much a reflection of the user at the controls. If the marketer at the controls already knows the audience and has an idea of where the content needs to go, the content will still generate results. If the user at the controls lacks real experience or direction, you'll get slop majority of the time. AI is allowing those with a solid understanding of web design and content creation to do more with less and giving those without that understanding the ability to create at a scale we haven't seen before. They may generate a lot of slop, but with shear quantity they may also hit some home-runs that no one thought of. Both paths can be successful, it all depends on the user. - Top tools you recommend for startup founders Top tools vary so much based on go to market strategies / lead gen strategies and of course budgets. For the digital marketing aspect on a tight budget the tools I would recommend are: - Google (Drive, Docs, Sheets, Analytics, Tag Manager, Search Console, Forms, Trends, Gemini) - Buffer (free social post scheduling) - Wordpress tools (WP Rocket / Perfmatters, Updraftplus-free website backups) - Yoast SEO (great for new to SEO users) - Youtube / Knowledge (starting out, learning why things work and troubleshooting your own mistakes is invaluable)
Questions I hear often from small businesses looking for digital marketing help are: - "How do I fix my SEO?" - "Why is my website not showing up for ___ searches?" - "Does SEO still work now that 'AI Overview' is everywhere?" One of the biggest misunderstandings about SEO is the idea that it's a stagnant system you "update" monthly. In reality, SEO reflects how real people search online and the intent behind those searches. For example, if you've opened a new brick-and-mortar coffee shop and want nearby neighborhoods to know you're open, family-friendly, and have a drive-thru, your website should actually say things like: - "Now open and serving West Fargo and nearby neighborhoods." - "Family-friendly seating area with stroller-height tables." - "Quick drive-thru on your way to work." Simple phrases like these help your site show up for searches such as "family-friendly coffee spot west fargo." Many small businesses overlook how much small content changes can impact long-term visibility. It's easy to get caught up in marketing jargon and forget the core question behind SEO: Is your website optimized for search engines? If the answer is yes but you're still missing high-intent traffic, you might be ready to invest in digital marketing. That's where marketers like me dig into data, identify your audience, and build strategies that increase brand visibility and drive meaningful traffic. Another misconception is that spending on digital marketing creates instant results. It doesn't, sometimes not even in the first 30 days, especially in longer-cycle industries like B2B. The online journey for decision-makers is far more spread out than it was five years ago. Today's users are in a nonstop loop of searching, scrolling, streaming, and shopping, according to Google's Think Leads on Air 2025, a live webinar that was hosted by Google Ads in September 2025. This wider funnel means you have to earn attention and trust repeatedly, not just once. My top tool recommendation for startup founders and small business owners is simple: get to know Google Analytics (GA4). Think of it as the "brain" connecting your website traffic, paid ads, and social insights. The platform is powerful but overwhelming at first, so use your preferred AI tool to ask long, detailed questions and narrow your focus. Sometimes a 30-minute conversation with Gemini or ChatGPT is more efficient than an hour spent trying to figure out what to Google.
Think of SEO as leaving breadcrumbs for Google. And to compete with national brands, make those crumbs hyperlocal from the start. As a community-focused B2B business, we win against national brands by targeting SEO keywords tied to the suberb level where buyers actually are. For example, 'steel supplier Nowra,' 'roofing steel Queanbeyan same day,' or 'rural fencing Moss Vale prices. ' We build location pages that mirror those queries, put the exact terms in H1s, slugs, and alt text, and reinforce them with real signals. Consistant local reviews, geotagged images, and NAP consistency are great for boosting these efforts. Then track calls and quote requests by location so you know which keywords move revenue, not just rankings. Hyperlocal breadcrumbs make you the obvious choice when a nearby buyer is ready to spend.
Biggest web design trends influencing conversions in 2025 Nowadays, simple paths reinforced with context-based messages lead to better performance. Decision clarity has become the core of the designs. What businesses misunderstand most about SEO and digital marketing Businesses wrongly believe that SEO and digital marketing are the same and that the only purpose of these activities is to generate traffic. However, by 2025 they should entirely shift their focus from intent to what they have to focus. Search engines primarily value obvious expertise and quick problem-solving while ignoring content quantity. Many new companies initially start targeting keywords and in parallel, they are not paying attention to the importance of developing the structure, crawl clarity, and topical depth which is just as important as backlinks. Most effective SEO strategies for small businesses this year Firstly, small businesses should decide what the effective SEO strategies are. The value in the decision lies in what to keep, what to remove, and most importantly, what to strengthen. The teams need to confirm the influence of the content and layout choices on the decision-making process. Heatmaps, scroll tracking, and live user behaviour indicate which sections facilitate or hinder movement. How startups can compete with established brands online The movement of users without efforts leads to growth. The best way for a startup to compete with a big brand is to create a fast and perfectly aligned with the user's intent journey. One can argue that the clarity of paths is the only factor that can beat the size of a competitor's website. It can definitely win the click, satisfy the intent, and eliminate friction. How AI is transforming web design and content creation The focus of the design that drives conversions is changing to the simplicity of decisions. Websites that have a lot of animations, long menus, or competing CTAs are less successful than those which have seamless paths and AI-tailored content blocks. In our recent redesign, we changed hero-section messaging dynamically according to referral source and device type. That one personalization layer raised demo bookings by 22%, not because the design was more attractive, but because it was more understandable.