AI Continues to Rearrange the SEO Landscape
When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO) predictions for 2025, two words say it all: artificial intelligence (AI).
AI simply isn’t the elephant in the room … It's basically Godzilla rampaging across the global marketing landscape. Sure, AI like Godzilla, is allegedly on our side … but, sheesh, the collateral damage can be terrifying.
AI and Godzilla have this in common: they might not be actively trying to destroy everything, but their size and abilities make them almost unavoidable.
Just ask chip maker Nvidia, which saw its stock skyrocket nearly 861 percent from the start of 2023 to the end of 2024 on an AI sonic boom vapor trail, only to see its value crash $593 billion in one day on Jan. 27, 2025, in response to news of China’s low-cost AI model DeepSeek – the biggest single-day loss of value for any public company in history.
That’s $593 billion! Let’s put that in perspective: Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Ireland, Israel all have GDP’s less than that amount!
AI doesn’t have to be the death of SEO, but marketing professionals surely need to adjust to the changing playing field.
“The digital world is buzzing with claims that SEO is dead, buried by the rise of AI. But the truth is more nuanced. AI hasn’t killed SEO – it has redefined it,” says a recent article from Law.com. “The redefined SEO reflects how AI is not just changing how people find information but also how businesses need to think about visibility in an increasingly connected digital ecosystem.”
Keeping in mind that all our SEO visions for the future must be viewed through the prisms of AI-tinted lenses, here are 5 SEO predictions for 2025.
Prediction #1: AI Will Play an Increasingly Central Role in SEO Strategies
You really didn’t need a spoiler alert for this first prediction …AI is the main character in this SEO monster movie.
“At the start of 2024 – a year that undeniably transformed the SEO landscape – we were primarily focused on Google and eagerly watching how AI might reshape organic search,” writes Adam Tanguay in Search Engine Land. “As we begin 2025, the picture has become clearer. AI is no longer a looming possibility; it’s a central player, albeit in ways few of us fully anticipated.”
AI will play an increasingly central role in SEO strategies.
Both the Search Engine Land and Law.com articles see an SEO shift away from traditional SEO strategies such as keywords and ranking towards user-centric approaches.
SEO – some are calling it “Search Everywhere Optimization” now – in 2025 requires a focus search across a spectrum of platforms.
“Traditional keyword strategies and ranking tactics are losing ground to a more dynamic approach in which optimizing for search now means optimizing for every platform and user interaction,” says the Law.com article.
From AI large language models (LLMS) such as Perplexity (which bills itself as a free AI search engine) to user-generated content sites such as Reddit (Fast Company was already asking in 2022 if Reddit was a better search engine than Google) , Instagram, and TikTok (Gen Z’s search engine of choice), the very nature of search has changed.
“Gen X and millennials might have made “google” a verb, but Instagram and TikTok are now the preferred search engines for Gen Z when seeking local results. According to a new study of 1,002 U.S. consumers, Google is now in third place for 18 to 24-year-old,” reported Forbes last March.
AI’s impact in 2025 should focus on:
- AI-Powered Search Features: Google's AI Overviews and other AI-driven search features will dominate search results, especially for informational queries. This may lead to decreased organic traffic for some websites, particularly those relying on informational content.
“With the rise of AI-powered search engines like SearchGPT, businesses must optimize their content to align with user intent and AI algorithms, focusing on high-quality, relevant content that keeps users engaged,” advises the Outbrain blog. “SEO strategies should shift towards bottom-funnel keywords and conversion rate optimization (CRO).”
- AI Tools for Content Creation and Optimization: AI tools will become essential, according to Outbrain.com, for content scalability, helping with writing, topic identification, and refreshing older articles.
“Generative AI has revolutionized content creation and optimization for SEO. It not only saves you time but can help you boost content quality and relevance, subsequently improving SEO performance. That said, human creativity is still essential,” Forbes said.
- Robots Still Need to E-E-A-T: High-quality content is not a magical output but the result of a collaboration between humans and AI. So, “robots” can do a lot, but they still gotta E-E-A-T – the acronym created by Google which stands for factors the search giant values in content: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
“Google had advised against publishing AI-generated content without human review and editing. The company clarified that using AI isn’t inherently against guidelines, but the content must be evaluated for accuracy, usefulness, and compliance with other quality guidelines,” reported Search Engine Journal.
Prediction #2: Evolving Search Behaviors
If you tried to identify that mysterious (weed, plant, flower?) growing in your garden with a photo search on Google Lens then you have joined the growing parade of users who no longer just rely on text but are evolving their search behaviors:
- 3 V’s Join Text for Search: Move over text, here comes voice, visual and video search.
Says the BBC: “Google has released a new feature which will allow people to search the internet by taking a video. Video search will let people point their camera at something, ask a question about it, and get search results.”
Voice has been around for search for a while – we all had at least one older relative over the holidays yelling at “Siri” on their iPhones for answers to inane questions! – and visual search can help you out of a jam when camping – that animal scat next to your tent … is it bear or racoon poop? The answer might be very important to what you do next!
- Zero-Click Searches: In the past, you searched for something and then clicked to find your answer, but AI has led to zero-click searches where snippets and direct answers at the top of the screen answer your question without any clicks being needed. Businesses will need to adapt their SEO strategies to capture visibility in these “position zero” spots.
Prediction #3: Technical SEO Advancements Make Strides
Several technical aspects of SEO will gain prominence in 2025:
- Edge SEO and Server-Side Rendering: Websites will increasingly adopt server-side rendering and edge computing to improve load times and SEO performance.
“Edge computing reduces latency by delivering content closer to users, improving load times by up to 50 percent, and boosting SEO performance,” says the AllAboutAi website.
- Advanced Structured Data: Implementing detailed schema markup, especially for e-commerce and video content, will be crucial for improved visibility in search results.
- Mobile-First Indexing: It’s 2025, your website should already be mobile-friendly but with Google’s shift to mobile-first indexing completed in 2024, you have no choice now.
Prediction #4: SEO Strategies Will Broaden Focus
Diversification and brand building will become important in 2025 as SEO strategies need to broaden their focus:
- Traffic Diversification: Video, paid search and email marketing all should have their place alongside organic search.
“Relying solely on SEO is risky. To ensure stable growth, businesses should diversify traffic sources by incorporating video, paid search (PPC), and email marketing to boost SEO performance and reduce reliance on organic search alone,” explains Outbrain.
- Brand Domination: Outbrain says that investing in brand-building strategies will pay off in the long run because Google is increasingly prioritizing recognized brands in their search metrics.
- Alternative Search Engines Need Quality Content: The rise of alternative search engines – from Reddit to TikTok to ChatGPT – is changing the SEO landscape but high-quality, original, and expert-driven content is still needed to reach your audience.
Prediction #5: User Engagement and Quality Content More Crucial than Ever
Things are certainly changing but as we look towards 2025, user engagement and quality content are becoming more crucial than ever for SEO success. Look for the following:
- Content that shows author credentials and expertise in the subject matter.
- Multimedia integration – some studies show the average American watching more than 43 hours per week of video content, including short and long-form videos – is essential to engage your audience.
- A focus on creating fewer high-quality content vs. frequent, lower-quality content posts.
- To understand user engagement, a focus on motivations and challenges that drive user search needs.
- Websites with slow loading times, complex navigation, or intrusive pop-up may experience negative SEO impacts.
- Successful SEO professionals will rely on stronger content creation and management skills.
These are just 5 predictions for SEO in 2025 and remember, things move so quickly in this digital-first world, that if you check back in April, we might have 5 different predictions for you!
AI, however, we don’t see that going away or even its impact lessening. If anything, AI promises to become a stronger and even greater force in SEO and inbound marketing (and in all other walks of life).
Forget Godzilla, we could be looking at Mechagodzilla (think Godzilla on tech steroids) … and if you have seen Mechagodzilla in action in the movies, then you know that it might not be a good thing unless we can harness the power of it.
For now, we can only pass the popcorn and prepare our best for what’s coming next.
