How Chicago SEO Best Practices Can Help Your Business Bounce Back
If your site traffic has dropped since Google’s latest algorithm update, Chicago SEO is essential. A Chicago SEO consultant can identify underlying issues, and a site with low click-through rates urgently needs a comprehensive site audit.
If you haven’t kept up with the latest SEO developments this year, many changes have occurred. Google is now prioritizing users and user experience above all else. This can be a significant challenge for many businesses that haven’t previously worked with professional Chicago SEO consulting services.
While bloggers and businesses often theorize about Google’s algorithm upgrades, adapting SEO strategies rather than fearing change is more crucial. When you discuss search engine optimization (SEO) with a business owner or marketing specialist, you might hear vastly different perspectives. Some businesses have built their entire marketing strategy around SEO and thrived, while millions of others have seen their SEO campaigns fail. No one wants to fail with SEO, especially after investing in this marketing channel. This year, it’s a good idea to start working with a Chicago SEO expert to scale your business.
We’re here to help you learn from recent changes and prepare for the coming months. Two significant Google SEO changes in July 2025 particularly caught my attention. Let’s examine this new information and what can be learned for Q4.
User Experience is Key for Google SEO
Google has emphasized user experience for years, and recent improvements have underscored its importance. Satisfying the reader is now a clear priority.
“User experience” is a broad concept. Some companies enhance user experience by improving menu structures and page designs. Modern marketing also includes NAP (name, address, phone number) audits and brand consistency. Ultimately, for frequent customers, user experience often comes down to one critical factor: site speed.
Optimizing your website’s page loading speed, including animations and pop-ups, is paramount. If you’re looking for a top Q4 priority, focus on enhancing speed.
Here are several modifications that can help speed up your site, especially when working with a new SEO consultant in Chicago:
- Image Optimization: Reduce image sizes to only what’s necessary, ensure the best file format, and compress them for the web.
- Add a Caching Plug-In: Many companies use page builders. Installing a cache plugin converts dynamic parts of a design into static website information, similar to an HTML site.
- Utilize YouTube Videos Instead of Video Banners: While engaging videos can boost conversions, they can also significantly slow down a website. Instead of video banners, embed YouTube videos on your homepage and landing pages.
- Boost Server Performance: While server speed and response time improvements have limitations, they are still beneficial. Identify and resolve server bottlenecks and boost server memory to improve performance.
- Simplify Your Site: Modern website design is cleaner and less cluttered, which aids load times. Reduce the number of embedded videos, graphics, and photos on your page. You can also declutter the backend using fewer plugins and removing outdated or rarely used ones.
Google’s Mobile-First Preference
Google has highlighted the importance of mobile-first sites for at least five years, a logical step given that 80% of Google’s traffic originates from mobile devices. Since the introduction of mobile-first indexing, focusing on a site’s mobile readiness is not just smart; it’s crucial for indexing.
So, how mobile-friendly is your site? Conduct a quick test on any Apple or Android device to assess its responsiveness and ease of use. Can you navigate the site easily? Does the navigation make sense? Do animations work well? Do pages load quickly? Examine your site from a consumer’s perspective to identify areas for improvement.
Ensure Your Content is Visible and Crawlable
Ensure your content isn’t blocked and there are no disavowed URLs. Additionally, all meta tags should be optimized for mobile and desktop devices.
Maintaining Desktop and Mobile Consistency
Aim for near-identical features and navigation between your mobile and desktop sites. If content is hidden on your mobile site, make it available on the desktop version (and vice-versa). Ensure that tagged headers are consistent across both versions of your site.
Focus on Best Practices for Content Quality
Your content should be excellent on both mobile and desktop. Using low-quality thumbnails on mobile, for instance, might be considered detrimental. Furthermore, proper attribution and identical URLs for photographs and videos can aid mobile-first indexing.
