SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is constantly changing and evolving, with new challenges occurring all the time.
In order for businesses to maintain good online visibility, they need to keep up to date with the changes that are happening within SEO and be able to adapt their strategies efficiently.
The fourth annual State Of SEO report for 2025 released by Search Engine Journal, provides insights into the world of SEO and highlights the major impact of AI and Google Updates.
What to Expect of SEO in 2025:
- AI Overviews featuring in the PAA (People Also Ask) section
- A rise in zero-click searches
- Mass, AI generated content will see a drop in rankings
- More people optimising for voice search
- Google favouring content which demonstrates E-E-A-T
- Increased use of multi-content strategy
- Video marketing boosting visibility
- Fast site speed resulting in higher conversion rates
- Human-centered content will always be favoured
- Keeping content up-to-date is more important than creating new content
Year after year, SEO changes and as SEO experts, it’s our job to make sure that we are staying as informed as possible, to ensure our clients’ success.
In April, the team visited Brighton SEO, where we attended talks by some fantastic digital marketing experts and discovered new insights that we are now including within our strategies.
In one of the Brighton SEO talks, Ray Saddiq discussed how multi-channel content strategies capture user intent and E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness) signals, which help to drive growth.
One of his most prevalent points was that “SEO isn’t dead, the 3 pillars of SEO are”. He went on to discuss that in order to increase brand demand and improve discovery, businesses should use a multi-content strategy, which would include social media, optimising for user experience, incorporating paid ads and prioritising on-page optimisation.
This talk was incredibly useful, as we are always looking to adapt to different SEO trends and updates.
Creating bespoke SEO strategies will continue to be a core part of digital marketing in 2025, and staying on top of AI advances and Google updates is key to staying visible online.
AI Continues to Gain Traction
As we come to the end of the first 3 months of 2025, it’s clear that AI is gaining more and more traction within digital marketing.
AI Overview is a SERP (Search Engine Results Page) feature that rolled out across the UK in August 2024, and has grabbed the attention of users due to its clarity and usefulness.
However, whilst it can be useful for people searching for quick answers, it can make it more difficult for businesses trying to improve their SEO, as users may be less likely to click through to the sites displayed.
This AI Overview is also now being displayed within the PAA (People Also Ask) section of Google. The PAA section now frequently includes an AI Overview to answer certain questions, whereas before, PAA only included featured snippets of content from different businesses sites.
This is another example of where AI Overview is taking over certain featured snippets that previously could have been an opportunity for businesses to showcase their expertise.
Google’s commitment to AI, has already been shown across its services and products, particularly within its algorithm.
Google’s AI-powered algorithms have taken its data processing to the next level, enabling its crawlers to better understand patterns, context, natural language, and user intent with better accuracy than ever.AI has also changed how Google handles search queries. With newer machine learning models, it’s getting better at picking up on what people really mean, even when searches are vague or conversational.
The constant development in Google’s AI search features means that SEO professionals must continuously learn how they can optimise their content to be able to compete with, or be incorporated within AI SERP features.
A Rise in Zero Click Search
Zero-click search happens where a user’s search query is answered directly from the SERP. These are on the rise in 2025, indicating that there is a shift in user behaviour towards finding quick and direct answers directly from the SERP.
AI Overview and PAA (People Also Ask), play a crucial role in zero-click searches as they offer instant and mostly accurate answers, frequently removing the need for the user to click through to websites.
A study from SparkTaro found that nearly 60% of Google searches ended without a click in 2024. This shows that users want to be able to find content as quickly and easily as possible, often without having to click through to different sites.
With AI features playing a bigger role in search results, zero-click searches are changing the way users find information. This highlights the need to create content that stands out within these new search features and that businesses should be adapting their strategies to optimise for search features like AI Overview and PAA.
Fast-Loading Page Speed Remains a Ranking Factor in 2025
When looking at expected SEO trends for 2025, the importance of fast-loading page speed is emphasised through Core Web Vitals. These metrics, introduced by Google, highlight page load speed as a critical factor for website rankings, especially concerning mobile users.
The latest Core Web Vitals include:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), measuring the main content’s load time.
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP), measuring a webpage’s responsiveness to user interaction.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), identifying unexpected shifts in page elements.
These metrics are designed to measure key aspects of user experience in practical situations.
There are some other important metrics:
- Time to First Byte (TTFB) and First Contentful Paint (FCP) are essential for understanding the loading experience and identifying issues with Largest Contentful Paint (LCP).
- Total Blocking Time (TBT) is crucial for pinpointing potential interactivity issues that could affect First Input Delay (FID).
Electroiq’s statistics show that 40% of consumers will leave a site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. This emphasises how important it is for a website to have fast loading pages, which can be found and monitored in PageSpeed Insights.
A Surge in Optimisation for Voice Search
With the increasing use of voice-activated devices and virtual assistants, optimising for voice search is an important part of creating a successful SEO strategy in 2025.
The growing importance of catering to voice search users is highlighted by the prediction that 8.4 billion people will be using voice assistants by the end of 2025.
To include this SEO trend into your 2025 strategy, businesses should include conversational keywords and natural language in their content, which will help them to optimise for voice search.
Content is Still King
In 2025, creating high-quality, compelling content remains a key aspect of an effective SEO strategy.
The integration of SEO and content becomes a central focus, emphasising E-E-A-T, which is a set of guidelines established by Google to evaluate the quality and credibility of online content and websites.
This criteria helps Google’s algorithm determine what is reliable and relevant content, ultimately improving search results for users.
According to Google’s March 2025 Core Update, Google favours comprehensive, unique and human written content over thin or AI generated articles, highlighting the need for AI to be used in moderation and with care, in SEO strategies.
As businesses align with predicted SEO trends of 2025, where quality content, backlinks, and search intent are crucial ranking factors, prioritising the creation of authoritative content becomes essential.
This strategic approach not only contributes to improvements in SEO, but also helps to acquire high-quality backlinks, increasing organic traffic, fostering engagement, and cultivating trust with potential customers.
There’s a Shift in Approach to AI Generated Content
ChatGPT and Generative AI have taken the world by storm since its release in 2022, building momentum year after year, due to its ease, speed and accuracy.
Whilst ChatGPT can be useful to use for some SEO tasks, it could also be a major setback if used excessively, or without care, to write content.
However, as we learnt at Brighton SEO in April, ChatGPT can actually be effective for content writing, if used with the right prompts. If ChatGPT is prompted with carefully researched statistics, along with unique industry knowledge and descriptions on the desired writing style, it can produce great content.
ChatGPT can also be really useful for helping with SEO tasks like keyword research, meta description creation, proofreading and link building.
Generative AI isn’t going anywhere, so it’s important that we don’t completely reject it in our SEO efforts. Instead, we should look for ways to use it strategically and to our advantage, whilst still prioritising human-centered strategies.
Video Optimisation to Boost Discoverability
Optimising videos for SEO has become a key strategy, with 89% of companies now using video as a marketing tool. As internet users’ preferences shift towards more engaging and visually appealing content, search engines are placing greater emphasis on videos.
To stay up to date with the latest 2025 SEO trends, businesses and content creators must focus on producing high-quality, relevant videos that align with their target audience’s interests.
This isn’t only about creating visually compelling videos, but also about providing opportunities to incorporate strategic keywords and metadata, ultimately enhancing discoverability.
As search algorithms become more a, incorporating video transcripts, captions, and detailed descriptions can improve accessibility and provide search engines with additional context, boosting the overall SEO performance of video content.
Refreshing Content to Stay Relevant in SERPs
Refreshing existing content has become a strategic method for businesses aiming to maintain online relevance and enhance their SEO performance.
Instead of constantly generating new content, refreshing and updating previously published material with the latest information is a good approach, which is less time consuming and more effective.
This not only allows for the incorporation of up-to-date data but it also ensures that your website remains current and relatable to your audience.
Google rewards freshness and relevance, making content updates a crucial factor in maintaining a competitive edge in the SERPs.
Final Thoughts
Adapting to the latest algorithm changes, updates and implementing effective SEO strategies is essential for businesses to not only maintain visibility but also enhance their online presence and attract a wider audience.
In navigating the complexities of SEO, it is crucial to acknowledge that SEO is a long-term digital marketing strategy. Patience is key, as the impact of SEO strategies may take time to work, often requiring up to three months before you start to see results.
For more help in implementing your SEO digital marketing strategy for 2025, contact us today to find out how our team of digital marketing experts can help grow your business.
