Google Ranking 2025

When your Small Business Google ranking in 2025 drops it may be your large Ego and Pride that ruins your Google Ranking and this is hard to see as a Marketing Strategist. I try to keep things real and see things for what they are. Small Businesses need to look outside the box when it comes to marketing and marketing strategy. Google is tightening the noose on Small Business Owners with their updates in 2025 and what worked for SEO and Marketing in 2024 is just not going to work in 2025 and beyond. When you have people who do not understand the G4 platform, the New Updates and the new website ranking criteria you will be back-paged, quickly! In this blog I am going to share with you a true experience from my frustrated soul because I truly do care about small businesses, I want them to thrive and overcome, but with that said, I can manage a lot of things in life but I can’t manage a business owners ego or pride.

We all have friends and we all have foes. And if you know me personally, you know that one of my greatest challenges is holding back my opinions when I can see exactly what’s wrong and how to fix it. As a rule, I try not to mix business and friendship. I try not to work with friends, and TRY not to give unsolicited advice. But every once in a while, life throws you into a situation where the truth can’t be ignored.

This is one of those stories.

I’ve known this friend for about ten years. I’ve watched him build his business with sweat, hard work, and persistence. He’s the kind of man who doesn’t let money or ego change his character. He’s logical, fair, and kind—qualities that are rare these days. His wife, however, is another story. For my own personal reasons, let’s just say she and I don’t see eye to eye. I don’t care for her, not one bit. But he’s still my friend, and I still care enough to want his business to succeed.

And that’s why this story hurts. Because I know exactly why he’s invisible on Google, and I know exactly what needs to change. But the person making the decisions—the one with the ego—is the reason nothing is getting fixed.

Google Ranking and The Eavesdrop Moment

Recently, he was at my house with my husband. I happened to be on a client call, walking them through the latest Google updates and explaining what businesses need to do to survive in 2025 and beyond. We were talking about EEAT (Expertise, Experience, Authority, and Trustworthiness), zero-click searches, technical SEO, and how Google is burying lazy sites.

He overheard everything. And by the time I hung up, he didn’t even need to ask. He knew most of what I was saying applied to him. But he asked anyway: “Why am I not on the first page of Google?”

I gave him the only answer I could: “Because your website sucks. Your marketing sucks. And the people handling it don’t know what they’re doing.”

The Strategist’s Eye: Why His Google Ranking Fell

Here’s what I found when I pulled his site apart about his Google Ranking:

• Titles and Descriptions: His homepage title was literally, “Why We Are Different.” His meta description? “We are different because we are family owned.” That’s it. That’s what potential customers see on Google. No keywords. No hooks. Nothing that would compel a single click.
• Site Speed: His site ran at 68%. That’s a death sentence in 2025. Google rewards fast, mobile-friendly sites. If your site is slow, you’re penalized before anyone even gets there.
• Content: His content looked like it was written by ChatGPT 2.0 back when AI was still learning how to spell. Boring. Generic. Long-winded paragraphs that read like a manual instead of engaging copy. Nothing emotional. Nothing relatable. Nothing that would keep a customer’s attention.
• Backlinks: He had some backlinks, but they were obviously purchased years ago. Google can smell fake backlinks from a mile away, and it penalizes sites for it. Real backlinks come from authority, not shortcuts.
• Social Media Integration: His social media wasn’t even linked to his website. That’s digital marketing 101, and it was completely missing.
• Reviews vs Rankings: He had over 140 reviews averaging 4.5 stars, which is great. But here’s the truth: reviews alone don’t carry you anymore. Google isn’t going to give you page one just because you’re liked. Authority and technical optimization matter more.

And the kicker? He pays out the nose for Google Ads. That’s the only way he’s even visible. But ads aren’t a substitute for SEO. They’re a band-aid. And when you stop paying, your visibility disappears overnight. Especially when you do not have a good click through rate on your ad spend.

The Advice That Went Nowhere

He asked me to write down what needed to be fixed. And I did. I took the time, as a friend and as a strategist, to give him a roadmap.

But it didn’t matter. Nothing changed. His wife still insists she’s “handling it.” She still hops on calls with the web agency. She still believes she knows what she’s doing. But the evidence is clear: she doesn’t.

When I first checked, he was on page 8 of Google. As I write this, he’s slipped to page 10. That’s not progress. That’s failure.

Why Reviews Don’t Outrank Bad SEO

This is where small business owners get it twisted. They think because they have good reviews, they deserve page one. But Google doesn’t rank based on feelings. It ranks based on rules.

Reviews help, yes. But reviews don’t outrank:

• Bad titles and meta descriptions
• Slow site speed
• Generic, copy-paste content
• Outdated backlink strategies
• Lack of authority signals like blogs, FAQs, and original resources

It’s like showing up to a black-tie gala in ripped jeans and expecting to win best dressed because your friends said you look good. Sorry, it doesn’t work that way.

The Strategist’s Breakdown

Here’s the opinion of a marketing strategist: my friend isn’t invisible on Google because of bad luck. He’s invisible because of ego.

The person handling his marketing refuses to listen. The agency isn’t delivering. And instead of getting professional help, his wife keeps spinning her wheels, convinced she can fix it.

Meanwhile, the business is paying for ads that are only getting more expensive. The organic rankings are falling further. And the window to catch up is closing fast.

The Lesson for Small Business Owners and Google Ranking

If you’re a small business owner reading this, let me spell it out for you about your Google Ranking in 2025 and why you need to leave your ego and pride at the door.

1. Your ego will sink you. If you think you can “figure out” SEO without training, you’re wrong. If you think you can ignore Google’s updates, you’re wrong. Pride and ego are killing more businesses than bad products ever will.
2. SEO in 2025 is unforgiving. Google doesn’t care about your intentions. It cares about your site speed, your content quality, your structure, and your authority. If you don’t meet the standards, you’re buried.
3. Reviews don’t equal rankings. Yes, customers love you. But if Google can’t trust your site technically, those reviews won’t save you.
4. Ads aren’t a strategy. Ads are a faucet. When you stop paying, the water shuts off. If you don’t have strong organic SEO, you’ll always be stuck renting visibility instead of owning it.
5. Professional advice only works if you listen. You can have the best strategist in the world lay out your roadmap, but if you ignore it, nothing changes.

The Moral of the Story

When your business is buried on page 10 of Google, your bounce rate is sky-high, and you think you deserve page one just because you have 141 five-star reviews, let me be clear: it’s not Google’s fault. It’s yours. Or more specifically, it’s the pride and ego of whoever you’ve put in charge of your marketing.

And if that person is your wife, your husband, your cousin, or your friend who swears they “know what they’re doing,” and the results are still this bad—it’s time to stop playing pretend.

My friend asked why he wasn’t on page one. I told him the truth. His site sucks. His marketing sucks. And unless he makes changes, he’s going to keep sliding deeper into digital obscurity.

As a strategist, I don’t take joy in saying that. But as his friend, I can’t pretend otherwise. Sometimes the hardest thing to hear is the thing that saves you.

So here’s my expert truth: if you want to be on page one, stop letting ego run the show. Get a professional. Follow the strategy. Play by Google’s rules. Because reviews won’t outrank bad SEO, and pride won’t get you seen.