Friday, October 10, 2025

Does SEO Still Work in 2025? (My Expert Insights)

Many website owners I talk to are feeling a bit nervous about SEO right now. With AI search results getting all the attention, it’s easy to wonder if all that hard work is still paying off.

You may be wondering if SEO is still worth it in 2025. It’s a valid question, especially when your time and marketing budget are at stake.

At WPBeginner, we’ve been navigating these exact changes firsthand across our own blog and partner sites. And I can tell you with confidence that SEO is far from dead; it has just evolved.

In this guide, I’ll share what’s working for us right now and provide the clear, actionable playbook you need. Let’s start with the quick answer you’re looking for.

SEO in 2025 - What works and what doesn't

To help you navigate this guide, here’s a quick look at all the topics we’ll cover:

The Direct Answer: Yes, SEO Still Works in 2025 (But the Rules Have Changed)

Let’s get this out of the way immediately: Yes, search engine optimization (SEO) is still one of the most effective ways to get traffic to your website in 2025. It is absolutely worth your time and investment.

However, the way we need to approach SEO has changed significantly.

The rise of AI in search means that the old tactics of simply matching keywords are no longer enough. Instead, the focus has shifted from just ranking to being the most helpful and authoritative answer for a user’s problem.

What’s Actually Changed About SEO

The core of SEO remains the same: create great content that people want to link to.

What’s different is how search engines like Google find, understand, and present that content to users.

1. The Rise of AI-Powered Search Results

You’ve likely seen “AI Overviews” (previously called Search Generative Experience or SGE) at the top of Google search results.

Example of a powerful AI citation in Google AI overview

These are AI-generated summaries that try to answer a user’s question directly on the results page.

There are also new players in the business, mainly the generative AI chat platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini by Google, Claude, and many more.

All these tools answer user questions directly without sending the user to your website.

The new SEO strategy is to make your content appear in the AI answers, AI overviews, and zero-click search results.

Related: How to Get Your Content Cited by AI Tools

2. User Intent Has Become Even More Important

AI is now much better at understanding the why behind every search query.

It doesn’t just match keywords. Instead, it tries to understand what the person really wants to achieve and what stage of their decision-making they’re in.

Search intent pyramid explained

For example, if someone searches for “best contact form builder”, AI knows that they’re not just looking for a list of tools. They likely want to compare features, pricing, and ease of setup so that they can quickly choose the right one for their business.

Your content now needs to satisfy that intent deeply. A simple product list or surface-level advice isn’t enough. Instead, you need a detailed, helpful resource that answers the real question and guides users toward a confident decision.

Here are a few more examples of how intent works across different small business types:

  • Local business owner: A search for “how to get more local customers” shows a need for practical marketing ideas like Google Business Profile tips, customer reviews, and local SEO checklists.
  • Restaurant owner: Someone searching “how to design a restaurant menu” is likely looking for visual examples, layout inspiration, and pricing psychology, not just text-based advice.
  • Online store owner: A search like “how to reduce abandoned carts” implies they want proven strategies, such as email reminders or free shipping offers, rather than a generic definition.
  • Consultant or service provider: If a user searches “how to price consulting services,” they’re expecting detailed frameworks, pricing examples, and client communication tips, not vague suggestions.

When creating your content, ask yourself:

  • What is the user trying to accomplish with this search?
  • What details or examples would help them take the next step?
  • What format best satisfies that intent — a comparison, tutorial, checklist, or visual guide?
Perplexity AI citing sources

By matching your content to the user’s intent, whether it’s informational, commercial, or action-focused, you make it easier for both AI and users to view your page as the most complete and trustworthy answer.

3. The Technical Foundation Matters More Than Ever

For AI to easily read and understand your content, your site’s technical health is more important than ever. A well-optimized website helps search engines and AI tools interpret your pages correctly and present them to the right audience.

Key technical factors that impact your visibility include:

  • WordPress hosting: A reliable hosting provider is essential for building a stable, fast, always available website. Poor hosting performance has a long-term impact on your site’s SEO, credibility, and user experience.
  • Site speed: A slow website leads to higher bounce rates and a poor user experience. Use caching plugins, a quality host, and image compression to keep things fast.
  • Mobile-friendliness: Most searches happen on mobile devices. Make sure your site layout, fonts, and buttons work perfectly on smaller screens.
  • Structured data (schema markup): This helps AI and search engines understand the content of your page. Adding schema can make your content appear in rich results and AI overviews.
  • Crawlability: Check that your site’s important pages are indexed and not blocked by robots.txt or noindex tags.

I understand that this might sound a little intimidating, especially for small businesses and DIY users who manage their own websites. But the good news is that you don’t need to be a developer to get this right.

There are simple tools that make technical SEO much easier to handle:

  • All in One SEO for WordPress: Helps you add schema markup, generate an llms.txt file, and fix common SEO issues automatically. See our complete All in One SEO review to learn more.
  • WP Rocket: Improves site speed with caching, minification, and lazy loading. See our full WP Rocket review for more details.
  • Cloudflare: Keeps your website secure and protected from attacks. Even the free plan is enough for the most common threats faced by small business websites.

By maintaining a strong technical foundation, you give your content the best chance to be understood, indexed, and cited by AI tools.

For a step-by-step approach, see our Complete Guide to WordPress SEO.

My Real-World SEO Results: What’s Working Right Now

At WPBeginner, we don’t just write about SEO theory. We are in the trenches every day, testing and adapting our strategies for our own website and our partner companies.

Like most websites, we saw a decline in our search traffic recently. During this time, we have been adapting and testing new things to figure out what works and what doesn’t.

Case Study: How We Adapted Our Content Strategy

We saw the rise of AI in search and made a big shift in our content approach.

Here are some of the major changes we made to adapt to the changing landscape.

  • Instead of just writing one-off articles, we focused on improving our “topic clusters“, which are groups of interlinked articles covering a subject from every angle.
  • We also revisited our top 100 articles and updated them with FAQ sections, helpful videos, and structured data.
  • We proactively applied our Generative Engine Optimization strategy to the articles. This is the strategy we use to optimize content for AI platforms.

Here are the results we have noticed:

  • These efforts led to a significant increase in our content being featured in AI Overviews and traditional featured snippets.
  • We have also seen a steady increase in traffic coming from ChatGPT and other AI platforms.

Now, let’s get into how we applied these changes so you can try them out.

The 2025 SEO Strategy That Actually Works

Now that I have shared the tools we use, let’s talk about how we use them in our day-to-day SEO strategy.

Here is the four-step process we use that you can follow for your own WordPress site.

Step 1: Audit Your Current SEO Foundation

You can’t fix what you don’t know is broken. Start with a simple audit of your site’s technical health.

  • Site Speed: Use Google PageSpeed Insights to run a speed test and check your loading times. This is important because slow sites rank poorly.
  • Mobile-Friendliness: Check your site on Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool. Most users are on mobile.
  • Crawl Errors: Use Google Search Console to find any pages that Google is having trouble accessing.

Many SEO plugins, including All in One SEO, include a site audit checklist that makes this process much easier.

Step 2: Optimize for AI Search Features

To get your content featured in AI Overviews, you need to make it as easy as possible for AI to understand and trust your page.

That means writing in clear, natural language and structuring your content in a way that’s easy for both humans and AI to read.

Here’s how you can make your content AI-friendly:

  • Use simple, direct language: Write short sentences and answer questions clearly so that AI tools can quote or summarize your content accurately.
  • Organize with headings and lists: Break your content into clear sections using H2–H4 headings, bullet points, and step-by-step instructions.
  • Add schema markup: Use structured data to label your content explicitly. For example:
    • ✅ FAQ schema for question-and-answer sections
    • ✅ HowTo schema for tutorials
    • ✅ Recipe schema for food content
  • Add an llms.txt file: AIOSEO makes it easy to create and manage your llms.txt file so that AI crawlers know how to access and cite your content properly.
One of the best schema markup plugins for WordPress

These small steps help AI models interpret your content accurately, increasing the chances of it appearing in AI-generated answers and summaries.

Step 3: Focus on Topical Authority (E-E-A-T) Over Keyword Density
E-E-A-T ven diagram

The days of stuffing a keyword into your page 10 times and ranking for that search term are long gone. Search engines now reward topical authority, which means being a comprehensive expert on a subject.

To do that, you need to apply the E-E-A-T principles to your content strategy:

  • Show Real Experience: Add first-hand insights, case studies, and examples from your own use or testing.
  • Highlight Expertise: Include detailed, accurate content written or reviewed by knowledgeable authors with visible bios.
  • Build Authority: Earn backlinks from trusted sites, feature media mentions, and display trust signals like awards or testimonials.
  • Boost Trust: Keep your site secure (HTTPS), update outdated content, and maintain clear About, Contact, and Privacy pages.
Step 4: Double Down on User Experience Signals

User experience, or UX, describes users’ feelings and opinions while using your WordPress website. It is a direct ranking factor used by search engines like Google.

A pleasant user experience means users find your website easy to use and helpful. By contrast, a poor user experience means users find your website difficult to use and can’t do what they want to do.

I have seen countless site owners testing their homepages or landing pages for user experience while completely ignoring their blog posts, contact page, product pages, and so on.

You need to double down on improving the user experience by locating and identifying those gaps and fixing them.

✅ Here are a few quick tips:

  • Find Pages with the highest bounce rates: Locate pages with the highest bounce rates in Google Analytics by using MonsterInsights.
  • Locate pages with mobile usability issues: Use Google Search Console’s “Mobile Usability” tab to find pages that are not optimized for mobile devices.
  • Ask for user feedback: Use tools like UserFeedback to ask visitors what they are looking for or what’s missing from your content. This gives you direct insight into how you can make your site more helpful.

For more details, see our checklist on how to perform a comprehensive UX audit of your site like a pro.

SEO Tactics That Are Dead in 2025 (Stop Doing These)

Part of winning at SEO is knowing what not to do. Here are some outdated tactics that can now hurt your site more than help it.

Don’t Do This Anymore 🚫 Do This Instead ✅
Keyword Stuffing
Forcing keywords into your text unnaturally.		 Write for Humans
Cover your topic naturally and comprehensively.
Buying Low-Quality Links
Purchasing links from spammy directories or link farms.		 Earn High-Quality Links
Create amazing content that people want to link to.
Publishing Thin Content
Creating short, unhelpful articles just to target a keyword.		 Create In-Depth Guides
Aim to be the best, most detailed resource on the topic.
Ignoring Mobile Users
Having a site that is difficult to use on a phone.		 Adopt a Mobile-First Design
Ensure your site works perfectly on all screen sizes.
Exact-Match Anchor Text
Using the exact same keyword for every internal link.		 Use Varied Anchor Text
Link naturally with descriptive, relevant phrases.

The Tools I Use to Stay Ahead of SEO Changes

Having the right tools can make all the difference. Here are the ones we use and recommend at WPBeginner to stay competitive.

Essential SEO Toolkit for WordPress in 2025

An SEO plugin is non-negotiable for any WordPress site. It handles the technical details so you can focus on creating great content.

For a detailed comparison, see our guide on the best WordPress SEO plugins compared.

Plugin Best For Key Feature
All in One SEO for WordPress Comprehensive WordPress SEO Automatic, advanced schema markup for AI search.
SEOBoost Content optimization AI-powered content optimization to grow organic traffic
LowFruits.io Keyword research Finding low-competition keywords using real SERP data.

These tools ensure that your site and your content are optimized for the latest SEO strategies, and you never run out of ideas to grow your organic traffic.

Free Tools Every Website Owner Needs

Premium Tools Worth the Investment

  • Semrush: The leading premium tool for keyword research, competitor analysis, and link building.

What Will SEO Look Like in the Next 2 Years?

Looking ahead, I predict that search will become even more of a dialogue. Instead of a single query, users will have conversations with AI to find what they need.

This means your content needs to be structured to answer multiple related questions within a single page. Authority, expertise, and building a trusted brand will become the most important ranking factors of all.

Here are my tips:

  • Build topical depth: Cover your niche thoroughly with interconnected articles that establish your authority.
  • Focus on conversational intent: Write in a way that anticipates follow-up questions and connects related answers naturally.
  • LLM Ready Content: Write logically structured content that is easy to cite.

Your Next Steps: 30-60-90 Day SEO Action Plan

Ready to get started? Here is a simple plan you can follow to improve your SEO over the next three months.

First 30 Days:
Next 60 Days:
  • Revamp your top 10 blog posts with an AI-friendly structure (clear answers, subheadings, lists).
  • Add at least 2-4 internal links to each of those posts, connecting them to other relevant content on your site.
Next 90 Days:

Here is a 30-60-90 day SEO action plan in a downloadable visual format:

30, 60, and 90 day SEO action plan

For more ideas, check out our complete WordPress SEO checklist for beginners.

Frequently Asked Questions About SEO in 2025

The following are the answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about SEO in 2025.

Should I stop doing keyword research?

No, but you should evolve how you do it. Instead of focusing on single, exact-match keywords, focus on the topics and questions your audience is asking. Use keyword research to understand your users’ problems, then create content that solves them completely.

Is link building still important?

Yes, but the quality of links is more important than ever. A single, relevant backlink from a highly trusted website in your industry is worth more than hundreds of links from low-quality directories. Focus on creating link-worthy content and building genuine relationships.

Can I just use AI to write all my SEO content?

While AI can be a helpful assistant for outlines and ideas, relying on it to write entire articles is a risky strategy. Search engines are getting better at detecting purely AI-generated content that lacks real expertise or unique insights. Use AI as a tool, but ensure your content is edited and enriched with your own first-hand experience.

Does SEO still matter if most people use AI search?

Absolutely. AI search tools still rely on trusted web pages to find and cite answers. The stronger your site’s authority and structure, the more likely your content will be featured or cited in AI responses and overviews.

What should I focus on more — technical SEO or content?

You need both. Technical SEO ensures your site is crawlable, fast, and well-structured. Great content builds trust and authority. Think of technical SEO as the foundation, and content as the building — one doesn’t work without the other.

How do I measure SEO success in 2025?

Go beyond rankings. Track metrics like organic traffic growth, conversions, dwell time, and visibility in AI overviews. Tools like MonsterInsights can help you monitor the KPIs that truly reflect your SEO progress.

Additional Resources for SEO and AI Optimization

As you work on improving your site’s SEO in the AI search era, here are some helpful guides that may help you along the way:

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post Does SEO Still Work in 2025? (My Expert Insights) first appeared on WPBeginner.



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How I Block Email Address Entries in My WordPress Forms

I’ve built all kinds of WordPress forms over the years, from surveys and contact forms to email newsletter signups. But even with CAPTCHA and other anti-spam tools in place, my inbox kept filling up with junk submissions.

When I finally took a closer look at the problem, I noticed a clear pattern: most of the spam submissions were coming from fake or suspicious email addresses.🔍

That’s when it hit me: instead of cleaning up spam after it happens, why not stop it before it even reaches the form? Blocking these bad email addresses directly turned out to be the simplest fix.

After testing several methods, I found one that works best. It’s saved me hours of cleanup and keeps my forms organized.

This approach filters out disposable email services, competitor domains, and obvious spam patterns so you can take full control of your form submissions.

Let me show you exactly how to set it up on your own site.

How I block email entries in WordPress forms

TL;DR: I use the Allowlist/Denylist feature in WPForms to block email entries from disposable email providers (like mailinator.com), specific countries, and personal email addresses. This allows me to reduce my contact form spam.

Why Block Spam Email Addresses in WordPress Forms?

Blocking spam email addresses in your WordPress forms is a powerful way to prevent junk submissions from filling up your inbox.

By stopping fake and disposable emails before they get through, you can protect your inbox, improve email deliverability, and ensure the leads you collect are high-quality.

Here’s a closer look at why this matters:

Benefit Explanation
Prevent Inbox Flooding Fake form submissions make it harder to manage real entries. Blocking unwanted emails at the source keeps your inbox clean, so you can focus on genuine leads and respond faster.
Protect Email Deliverability Sending emails to invalid addresses increases bounce rates, which can damage your sender reputation.
Focus on Real Users You can allow business emails (like @company.com) while blocking disposable addresses (@tempmail.com). This ensures that only valid submissions from serious users get through.

Now, I’ll show you how to block unwanted email entries in your WordPress forms, step by step:

How to Block Email Addresses in WordPress Forms (Step by Step)

The easiest way I found to block unwanted email addresses in my WordPress forms is by using the Allowlist/Denylist feature in WPForms.

WPForms is the best contact form plugin for WordPress, offering powerful features to block contact form spam submissions. Apart from the Allowlist/Denylist feature, it also includes CAPTCHA, modern anti-spam protection, and customizable spam filters.

WPForms

What makes the Allowlist/Denylist feature so useful is that it allows you to control who can submit your forms:

  • Allowlist: Only specific email addresses or domains are accepted. This is perfect if you want tighter control, like only allowing your team’s @company.com emails or limiting access to a small group of real users.
  • Denylist: Block spammers, disposable domains (like @tempmail.com), or any email addresses you don’t want filling up your inbox.

We use WPForms on WPBeginner and all our business websites, and it allows us to easily manage contact form submissions and our annual reader surveys. For more details, you can see our complete WPForms review.

Step 1: Install and Activate the WPForms Plugin

First, you need to install and activate the free WPForms plugin on your website.

From your WordPress admin area, go to Plugins » Add New and type ‘WPForms’ into the search bar. After that, click ‘Install Now’, and once it’s installed, click the ‘Activate’ button.

Activating the WPForms WordPress plugin

👉If you’d like step-by-step instructions, we’ve also written a detailed guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

🚨Note: The Allowlist/Denylist feature is available in the free version of WPForms, so you can start using it right away.

However, for features like smart conditional logic, payment form integrations, or 2000+ form templates, you’ll want to upgrade to WPForms Pro.

If you decide to go with WPForms Pro, you’ll also need to verify your license key.

You can do this by going to WPForms » Settings » General in your WordPress dashboard and pasting the license key from your WPForms account. Just click ‘Verify Key’ to complete the process.

WPForms license key field
Step 2: Edit Your Form and Find the Email Field

After activating the tool, head over to the WPForms » All Forms page in your WordPress dashboard and click ‘Edit’ under the form’s name.

This opens the form inside the drag-and-drop builder.

Click the Edit link to open the form in the WPForms visual builder

If you don’t already have a form set up, then head to WPForms » Add New Form instead.

Here, you’ll find dozens of premade templates for contact forms, surveys, order forms, and more. I personally find these templates really helpful because they save a lot of setup time.

I’ve also tried the AI form builder, and I liked how it instantly generated a working form just from a short description.

Choose a form template in WPForms

Once your template is open, you can add new fields, delete ones you don’t need, and rearrange everything with just a few clicks.

📖 If you’re new to WPForms, here are some helpful tutorials to guide you through creating different types of forms:

Creating a contact form

Finally, make sure to locate and add the ‘Email’ field in the visual editor, since that’s where you’ll set up the allowlist or denylist in the next step.

Step 3: Use Allowlist and Denylist Rules

After setting up the Email field in your form, click on it to open its settings in the left column.

Once you are there, switch to the ‘Advanced’ tab and scroll down to the ‘Allowlist/Denylist’ option.

By default, it’s set to ‘None’, which means anyone can submit the form. But since you want more control over your form entries, you can switch to ‘Denylist’ or ‘Allowlist.’

Scroll down to the Allowlist/Denylist option in WPForms

If you choose the ‘Denylist’ option, then the email addresses or domains you enter will be blocked from submitting your form. This is useful when you want to prevent spam or block specific types of addresses.

For instance, I once blocked disposable email providers that were cluttering my form entries.

Here are some common ways you can use the Denylist:

  • Block disposable email providers – Prevents people from using temporary or one-time email addresses, like *@mailinator.com. These emails are created to bypass signups or submit spam.
  • Block personal email services for business forms – Helps ensure only company emails can be used. For example, you could deny *@gmail.com.
  • Block emails from specific countries – You can block emails ending in a specific country’s domain, like *.cn for China or *.ru for Russia.

⚠️Friendly Warning: Be careful when blocking major email providers like Gmail or Yahoo. While it can be helpful for specific forms, you could prevent real customers from contacting you.

I only recommend doing this if you are sure you only want business emails.

Create a denylist in WPForms

If you choose the ‘Allowlist’ option, then only the email addresses or domains you enter in the text box will be able to submit the form.

This is even stricter because it rejects everything else by default. Here are a few ways you might use the Allowlist:

  • Limit submissions to partner organizations – For example, *@partner.org ensures only your trusted partners can access the form.
  • Restrict forms to employees only – Allow only *@company.com to make sure only your team members can submit the form.
  • Only accept local customers – Using *.uk lets you accept email addresses from U.K.-based users only.
Create an Allowlist in WPForms

💡 Pro Tip: How to Use the Asterisk (*) Correctly

When adding entries to your Allowlist or Denylist, you can use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard.

This tells WPForms to block or allow any email address from a specific domain (e.g., *@spammydomain.com matches all emails from spammydomain.com).

Without an asterisk, the rule will only block a single, specific email address (like spammer@example.com).

For example, you can get a head start on blocking common disposable email services by adding these to your denylist (one per line):

  • *@mailinator.com
  • *@temp-mail.com
  • *@10minutemail.com

I recommend using the Denylist in most cases because it provides flexibility to block unwanted addresses while still allowing legitimate users.

With the Allowlist, you risk blocking people you may actually want to hear from, unless you keep it updated constantly.

When you’re done setting your rules, click the ‘Save’ button at the top to apply the changes.

Step 4: Add Your Form to Your Website and Test It

Once you’ve clicked ‘Save’ in the WPForms builder, your updates are ready to go. If you’ve already added the form to a page, the changes will update automatically.

But if you haven’t added the form yet, don’t worry—WPForms comes with a built-in block that makes it super easy to embed your form into any page or post you like.

Add the WPForms block

For a detailed walkthrough, you can see our tutorial on how to embed WordPress forms.

Next, click the ‘Preview’ button at the top to see the form in action.

This step is important before publishing because it lets you test whether your Allowlist and Denylist rules are working as expected.

Start by submitting the form with an email address from a domain you’ve denylisted, such as test@spammydomain.com.

You will now see an error message that says, “This email address is not allowed.”

Then, try submitting the form with your own personal email address, and it should go through successfully without any errors.

Preview of blocked email address in WPForms

Running these tests lets you make sure everything is working correctly and gives you confidence that both your Allowlist and Denylist rules are doing their job.

💡 Expert Tip: If you don’t see the error message when testing, double-check your denylist entries for typos or extra spaces. Even small formatting mistakes can stop the filter from working.

Once you’ve confirmed everything is working, go ahead and publish or update the page. Your form is now live and ready to filter submissions exactly as you intended.

FAQs About Blocking Email Addresses in WordPress Forms

Blocking email addresses in WordPress forms can raise a few common questions, so I wanted to answer them here based on my experience using WPForms.

Can I block Gmail or Yahoo email addresses in my form?

Yes, you can use the denylist to block specific domains like @gmail.com or @yahoo.com if needed. Just remember to include the asterisk (*@gmail.com) so the rule applies to all emails from that domain.

Can I only allow company emails in my form?

Absolutely. Using the allowlist, you can restrict submissions to specific domains, such as *@company.com. This ensures only your team or approved business users can submit the form.

It’s especially useful for internal surveys, employee feedback forms, or any situation where you only want submissions from verified company email addresses.

Will blocking emails in WordPress forms hurt my real users?

Not if you set it up carefully. I recommend using the denylist as your main filter since it blocks only the emails you specify. Allowlist is stricter and can sometimes reject users you might want to allow, so it’s best used only in specific cases.

I hope this article helped you learn how to easily block email address entries in WordPress forms. You may also want to see our guide on how to auto export form entries in WordPress and our expert tips on ways to use conditional logic in WordPress forms.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How I Block Email Address Entries in My WordPress Forms first appeared on WPBeginner.



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