SEO Practices to Avoid in 2025: The New Rulebook for Sustainable Growth

Introduction

SEO in 2025 rewards utility, originality, and trust and punishes shortcuts. Google’s 2024–2025 updates tightened spam policies (scaled content abuse, site reputation abuse, expired domain abuse) and expanded AI Overviews, reshaping how people discover and evaluate information. For SMBs, fintechs, SaaS startups, and growing brands, the cost of “fast SEO” is now real: manual actions, traffic loss, and wasted budget.

This guide explains the practices to stop in 2025 and what to do instead. It’s written for beginner-to-intermediate marketers who need clear guardrails and actionable checklists. Palo Santo AI blends GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) so your content stays visible in both search and AI summaries.

What to Stop Doing in 2025 (and What to Do Instead)

1) Publishing at-scale, low-value content just to rank
Risk: Google’s spam policies target scaled content abuse even if humans lightly edit AI drafts. If the primary purpose is to manipulate rankings rather than help users, you’re at risk.

Red flags: Publishing dozens/hundreds of pages weekly with minimal expert input; templated articles with generic advice; thin listicles and statistics pages with no commentary or methodology.

Do instead:

• Adopt a people-first brief: state the user problem, the decision to be made, and what unique experience or data your brand brings.
• Pair AI with expert development: SME interviews, first-party data, original visuals, and clear “who/how/why” author disclosures.
• Set quality gates: every article must answer the primary query in the first 100–150 words, provide depth (evidence, steps, examples), and link to sources.

2) “Parasite SEO” and unvetted third-party publishing on reputable domains
Risk: Site reputation abuse is penalized. Hosting third-party pages (e.g., coupons, affiliate reviews) outside your editorial scope or without close oversight can trigger manual actions and lasting trust damage.

Red flags: Off-topic affiliate hubs living on your domain/subdomain; thin reviews; mismatched commercial content on non-commercial sites.

Do instead:

• Enforce editorial governance: topical alignment, fact-checking, compliance/legal review, and signed-off accountability by named editors.
• If hosting third-party content, document oversight, add disclosures, and ensure it serves your core audience.
• Prefer partnerships where content is co-created with your experts and mapped to user jobs-to-be-done.

3) Buying expired domains to inherit authority
Risk: Expired domain abuse is a spam violation when used to pass off new, low-value content as authoritative.

Red flags: Overnight traffic jumps from redirects; unrelated topical history; no continuity of audience or purpose.

Do instead:

• If you acquire a domain, preserve topical continuity; maintain legacy resources, authors, and audience intent.
• Use transparent redirects and explain editorial continuity on an about/transition page.

4) Over-optimizing anchors and link schemes
Risk: Link manipulation remains a policy violation and can tank trust signals.

Red flags: Excessive exact-match anchors, paid links without rel="sponsored", link exchanges, and PBN footprints.

Do instead:

• Build entity-driven content that earns citations: unique datasets, calculators, original research, and expert commentary.
• Balance internal anchors: prioritize clarity and navigation over keywords (e.g., “Compare pricing models” vs. “best fintech pricing”).

5) Ignoring AI Overviews and answer engines
Risk: AI Overviews now appear across a notable share of queries, especially informational. If your content can’t be summarized or cited by AI, expect fewer clicks even if you rank.

Red flags: Walls of text without a direct answer; missing schema; vague sources; no images or structured steps.

Do instead (AEO/GEO):

• Lead with the answer: a 1–3 sentence definition, formula, or step plan that could be quoted. Follow with deep guidance.
• Use structured data where appropriate (FAQ, HowTo, Product, Organization, Person). Keep it accurate and consistent with on-page content.
• Add citations to authoritative sources and show methodology. Include stepwise lists, tables, and visuals AI can parse.

6) Letting technical debt pile up: redirect chains, soft-404s, and schema drift
Risk: Redirect chains waste crawl budget and break context; soft-404s erode index quality; outdated schema reduces eligibility for enhanced results.

Red flags: Multiple hops in redirects; non-canonical parameter URLs indexed; placeholder pages; mismatched schema types.

Do instead:

• Cap redirects at one hop where possible; align canonical, hreflang, and sitemap URLs.
• Replace thin placeholders with consolidated, comprehensive pages; remove dead-end URLs and serve proper 404/410.
• Validate schema routinely; annotate Organization, Person (authors), Article, Product/Review where applicable.

7) Chasing keyword volume over intent fit
Risk: Misaligned content underperforms and is less likely to be cited in AI summaries.

Red flags: Ranking for terms your product can’t satisfy; blog posts that never convert or get linked.

Do instead:

• Map queries to jobs-to-be-done (evaluate, compare, implement, troubleshoot) and craft formats accordingly (comparisons, checklists, templates).
• Create hub-and-spoke structures with canonical pillars and focused subpages; interlink for discovery and depth.

8) Hiding the “who/how/why” of content creation
Risk: Lack of transparency undermines trust and eligibility for sensitive (YMYL) queries.

Red flags: No author names/bios; generic stock images; no sources or revision history.

Do instead:

• Display author names, credentials, and editorial notes. Disclose expert reviewers for finance/health/legal topics.
• Add a methodology box: data sources, tools, last updated date, and role of AI assistance if used.

9) Content bloat: duplicated topics and zombie URLs
Risk: Cannibalization and crawl inefficiency dilute signals.

Red flags: Five similar posts targeting the same term; old stats posts with no updates.

Do instead:

• Quarterly content inventory: merge overlapping pages, 301 to the strongest canonical version, refresh with current data.
• Track topic ownership at the pillar level; avoid near-duplicate spins.

10) Vanity metrics over outcomes
Risk: High impressions with falling engagement indicate misalignment, especially as SERP features expand.

Red flags: Traffic with zero product engagement; rising bounce on AI-exposed topics.

Do instead:

• Measure helpfulness: scroll depth, time to first answer, assisted conversions, and support deflection.
• Annotate updates and correlate with engagement shifts; tune content structure, not just keywords.

Quick Compliance Checklists

Scaled Content Safety (publish before go-live)

• State user problem and decision supported
• Add SME input and at least one unique dataset, example, or calculation
• Clear 2–3 sentence answer up top; details below
• Named author + bio; methodology and sources
• Internal links to related tasks; external citations to authorities

Third-Party/Affiliate Governance

• Topical alignment to your audience and mission
• Editorial oversight documented (fact-check + compliance)
• Disclosures visible; no doorway/templated pages
• Performance tied to user value, not just affiliate clicks

Technical Hygiene

• Redirects ≤1 hop; canonical, hreflang, and sitemap aligned
• Remove/redirect soft-404s; eliminate orphan pages
• Validate schema after CMS releases; monitor for warnings

AEO/GEO Formatting

• Lead with the answer, then provide depth
• Use FAQs, steps, and tables where helpful
• Cite sources; use descriptive alt text and captions
• Mark up content with appropriate schema

FAQs

• Is AI-generated content banned? No, automation is allowed when the content is original, helpful, accurate, and user-first. Abuse occurs when content is produced primarily to manipulate rankings.
• What is site reputation abuse? Publishing third-party content on a high-authority site primarily to leverage that authority, without tight oversight or topical fit. This can trigger manual actions.
• Do AI Overviews kill organic traffic? They can reduce clicks on informational queries. Adapt with answer-first formatting, citations, and deeper assets that AI and users value.
• Are expired domains safe to use? Only when maintaining topical continuity and user value. Repurposing for unrelated, low-value content is risky.
• How often should I audit? Quarterly: content consolidation, technical crawl, schema validation, authorship/E-E-A-T checks.

How Palo Santo AI Helps

• Policy-aligned content ops: We implement people-first briefs, SME-driven workflows, and AEO/GEO formats that earn AI citations and clicks.
• Compliance audits: We identify scaled content risks, third-party publishing gaps, and expired-domain liabilities; deliver remediation roadmaps and reconsideration support.
• Technical SEO sprints: Redirect/soft-404 cleanup, schema hardening, and crawl efficiency improvements with measurable KPIs.
• AI-aware content design: Answer-first structures, entity coverage, and schema to compete in AI Overviews while sustaining organic growth.

Conclusion

In 2025, sustainable SEO means abandoning scale-for-scale’s sake, manipulative host strategies, and technical neglect. Replace them with expert-led, answer-first content, strong governance, and clean architecture. Brands that optimize for both search engines and answer engines will win visibility and trust.

If you’re ready to future-proof your search strategy, Palo Santo AI can audit, prioritize, and execute a 90-day plan that aligns with today’s policies and tomorrow’s SERP.