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Search just changed. This time, you’re not writing to rank. You’re writing to be quoted.
Back in the early 2000s, Search Engine Optimization was an internet geek’s wet dream.
We dug into algorithm theories and debated on forums like comic book fans arguing DC versus Marvel.
As Google proved too big to fail, other search engines quietly dropped away. SEO pros had to focus all their energy on the one that mattered.
Google was the challenge that search gurus claimed to master. Just as we cracked its mysterious process, Big G would change the rules. We’d scramble to adjust.
This time the disruption came from an unexpected source: large language models.
LLMs didn’t just compete, they rewrote the playbook.
Google had to pivot fast..
The shift didn’t arrive with a loud announcement. It slid in under AI rollouts, summary boxes, and conversational interfaces. Now Google, Bing, and Perplexity aren’t just listing results — they’re writing the answers.
If your content isn’t cited inside that response, you’re not in the room.
Let’s talk about how to fix that.
You used to chase keywords. Then you chased links. Then structure.
That still matters. But not the way it did.
AI search engines read like editors, not crawlers. They don’t surface your content. They synthesize it. Which means your content doesn’t need to rank first. It needs to earn trust — enough trust to be paraphrased, pulled, or quoted in the answer itself.
It’s not about placement. It’s about influence.
GEO is short for Generative Engine Optimization. Not another acronym to chase. It’s a discipline.
You’re writing for retrieval, interpretation, and synthesis. You’re not trying to “get seen.” You’re trying to get used.
Three things matter now:
If that sounds simple, it’s because the principles are. The execution isn’t.
Let’s pull back the curtain on how generative search works:
That’s where your article either gets stitched in — or skipped.
The quality bar isn’t “well-written.” It’s “undeniably useful.”
No one’s searching “CRM optimization 2025.”
They’re asking: “Why is my customer churn still high even with automation?”
Answer that.
Use tools like AnswerThePublic or “People Also Ask” to reverse-engineer what real users are typing in.
Break sections every 300 words. Use clear subheads. Highlight key points.
Paragraphs should be short. Not for style, but for scanning.
AI models don’t “read” like humans. They chunk. Help them.
Google’s framework is E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust.
You need to show all four.
Link to credentials. Publish your results. Don’t talk “thought leadership.” Demonstrate outcomes.
Treat your bio like a pitch deck — because that’s what it is.
AI tools love structure: lists, summaries, definitions, contrasts.
Give them:
Don’t fluff it up. Don’t explain what everyone already knows.
Say something worth quoting — and say it clean.
Neil Patel’s research is clear:
The win is being the answer before someone even hits your site.
That’s awareness, trust, and positioning — without an ad spend.
If your site’s loaded with JavaScript or built like a brochure, AI won’t crawl it right. And if it can’t crawl it, it won’t cite it.
The bar is rising.
You’re no longer competing for attention. You’re competing for interpretation. AI models are deciding which voices get heard. Yours only makes the cut if it teaches better than the rest.
Every article trains the engine.
Train it to see you as the one who knows the answer.
Write with clarity. Write with structure. Write with receipts.
Because the next time someone searches for what you do, you won’t just want to show up. You’ll want the AI to say your name out loud.
If this sparked new thinking or raised new questions, drop them below. Pick up your free GEO prep cheat sheet here. It comes with a serious prompt chain that gets you in the habit of optimizing for search every time you create content. FREE GEO Cheat Sheet Here>
What part of this transition feels most confusing or frustrating?
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empowerment through data, knowledge, and expertise. Join DDI community at https://join.datadriveninvestor.com
Retired content marketing consultant. Author, artist, husband, father and owner of DiD Publishing. Still helping small business owners daily.
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Industry Trends
By Colin Graves   12 Minutes read   Jul 15 2025
The digital marketing landscape is always evolving, but in 2025, the pace of change appears to be accelerating faster than ever, thanks to rapid technological advances and shifting consumer behaviors.
From the rise of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools to the dominance of short-form video and the increasing reliance on first-party data, advertisers must continually adapt if they want to stay ahead. In this article, I’ll examine the key digital marketing trends shaping the industry today and provide insights on how to focus your efforts to maximize results.
Social media platforms remain critical to digital advertisers, but it’s important to note that the way users engage with social media is shifting. According to Hubspot, marketers say that short-form video delivers the highest return on investment (ROI), which means that advertisers need to adapt their strategies. Major trends include a shift toward short-form video on platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts — even Threads is emerging as a promising platform for short-form content.
As advertisers continue to shift towards social media advertising, increasing CPMs and diminishing returns on popular platforms like TikTok, Meta, and YouTube are requiring them to increase their social ad spend. To lower costs, consider diversifying via efforts on the open web, where a mix of native and display ads, alongside content recommendations, can drive strong performance. Channel diversification also prevents advertisers from becoming dependent on closed platforms that can change dramatically with little notice, e.g., Twitter/X and Meta making changes to their content moderation policies.
In 2025, brands are using AI more than ever to create, test, deliver, and optimize their ad campaigns. Take content creation, for example: AI tools now allow you to generate multiple headlines and ad copy variations tailored for different campaign goals, audience segments, and platforms. This speeds up the creative process for advertisers, allowing them to experiment more quickly than in the past — and free up their time for more strategic work. Major ad networks, such as Google, Meta, and Realize, are also now utilizing AI-powered bidding strategies that analyze user behavior, enabling them to adjust bids in real time, helping to optimize spend.

Discover What Your Audience is Interested In
Some brands are also experimenting with features like AI-generated voices, synthetic media (sometimes referred to as “deepfake” tech when used for more nefarious purposes) for virtual influencers, and lifelike AI avatars, making digital content far more interactive. Ultimately, all of this will continue to change the way marketers work.
In the past, marketers relied on finding high-volume, low-competition keywords that matched what people were typing into search engines. In Google Ads or other pay-per-click (PPC) platforms, this meant bidding on specific keywords. Theoretically, the better the keyword targeting, the more likely a campaign would convert.
However, this method is less effective in 2025, as Google’s AI Overviews and Microsoft Copilot often provide direct answers instead of webpage links. This means that marketers need to consider AEO (answer engine optimization) as well as traditional SEO, and ensure their content clearly answers questions and covers topics in depth. They also need to optimize for new formats, such as voice and visual search.
Perhaps the most significant trend in content for 2025 is that AI-powered content has become the new norm. AI tools such as ChatGPT, Jasper, Synthesia, and Descript are transforming how written and video content is created and edited, and how quickly. Additionally, the combination of first-party data and AI is allowing advertisers to create highly personalized content based on real-time behavior, instead of relying simply on audience demographics.

Realize leverages Taboola's extensive first-party data from powering publisher editorial and ad units, providing unmatched insights and targeting capabilities.
Video remains a critical medium for advertisers in 2025, but other, highly interactive mediums, such as quizzes and polls, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), and audio (podcasts and voice content) are also performing very well. Regarding audio, consider this: There are more than 584 million podcast listeners worldwide, and the number is growing.

(Source: Hubspot Blog)
But, that doesn’t mean marketers should shift all their focus away from video, since, as mentioned, short-form video in particular continues to perform very well.
AI-powered tools, such as Google Lens, Apple’s Siri, and Amazon’s Alexa, are changing how people interact with brands, as consumers rely on these voice assistants and visual discovery tools more than ever to search and shop. Google reports that commercial intent is detected in one out of every five Google Lens searches, and 80% of Gen Z rely on Google for all aspects of their shopping.
Augmented reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies are starting to change the shopping experience for consumers. AR works by adding digital elements, such as images or text, to your real-world view through your mobile device or tablet. VR takes it a step further by creating a fully immersive digital environment that you can experience through a headset, such as the Quest 3, from Meta.
In a recent blog post, Artlabs, an AI-powered 3D company, highlighted the following real-world examples of how AR is being used in retail shopping:
This AR-powered virtual try-on technology offers many benefits for advertisers, including personalizing the shopping experience, reducing return rates, and increasing conversions.
Influencer marketing has been around for a while, but it’s maturing and even fragmenting somewhat, with marketers increasingly leaning toward micro- or nano-influencers (those with fewer than 100,000 followers): 68% of marketers reported working with a niche influencer during the past year, while only 32% worked with larger influencers. Advertisers can benefit from working with smaller influencers because, alongside their increased relevance, they’ve established a high degree of loyalty with their audience, and as such, can generate higher engagement and conversions.
Gone are the days when advertisers could only target large groups of users by demographics or location. Using AI-powered ad networks, you can now adjust your ad creative in real time based on user behavior for a highly personalized experience. In a recent article on its website, Upspring.ai noted this example: “Starbucks uses predictive analytics in its app to tailor offers based on behavior. A morning commuter might get a coffee coupon, while someone else sees a cold drink promo during a heatwave.”
What’s even more impressive is that this personalization is happening at scale. Ad platforms can make millions of tweaks to ad creative, including text, images, calls to action (CTAs), colors, times, and more. Multiple viewers streaming the same video, e.g., might all see different ads from the same brand, based on their individual preferences.
One of the most significant trends in targeting is the shift away from third-party cookies and toward first-party data. Increasing consumer privacy expectations and stricter regulations, like the GDPR and CCPA, are raising the bar for how personal data can be collected and used. At the same time, major browsers including Google Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, are phasing out third-party cookies or exploring alternatives to protect user privacy.
This makes it more challenging for advertisers to use traditional cross-site tracking and targeting methods. The good news is that first-party data, which can be collected by platforms with log-in and purchase data, email sign-ups, and surveys on your own website, tends to be of higher quality anyway.
Ad creative is no longer just about good design — you need to build your ads based on previous campaign performance and predictive AI models. You also need to constantly A/B test, measure performance, and make real-time adjustments to boost engagement and conversions.
In 2025, marketers are creating more content tailored to each platform, in an effort to make each format feel native and attention-grabbing. While short-form video remains popular, motion in general is playing a bigger role — think subtle animations and dynamic elements in display ads or social posts. These help capture viewers’ attention and improve click-through rates.
In the past, multi-touch attribution (MTA) assigned value to each touchpoint in the customer journey. But, with third-party cookie loss and the increased prominence of walled gardens like Meta, Google, and Amazon, complete funnel visibility has become more difficult.
In 2025, MTA continues to be replaced by media mix modeling (MMM), which relies on historical data to predict how different marketing channels, such as paid search or email marketing, contribute to outcomes (e.g., conversion, sales). With MMM, you don’t need to track individuals across devices or platforms, so it’s unaffected by the loss of third-party cookies.
Data-driven marketing has been around for a long time, but the expectations on marketers to use the data to make smarter decisions, optimize in real-time, and increase personalization are higher in 2025. You can achieve this by focusing on first-party data, using the correct attribution in your customer touchpoints, and improving how you leverage data tools, such as customer relationship management (CRM) platforms and Google Analytics. You should also take advantage of advertising platforms that offer real-time AI-powered A/B testing.
In 2025, consumers want a seamless experience when interacting with brands, whether they’re clicking on a display ad, browsing a website, or walking into a store. To deliver, advertisers need to focus on omnichannel marketing, which includes creative messaging, consistent branding, and connected journeys.
What does that look like in practice, though? Let’s say someone sees a display ad for a new pair of headphones while reading an article online. They’re interested, but they don’t buy right away. Later, they see a sponsored content recommendation for a blog post reviewing the same headphones. They still don’t buy. The next day, they get a personalized email with a special offer. They click on the link and finally purchase the product. This is an example of a connected customer journey and the omnichannel experience at work.
I’ve mentioned first-party data several times throughout this article, and for good reason. With fewer cookies and more privacy rules, first-party data has become incredibly valuable to advertisers. The beauty of first-party data is that it is owned, permission-based, and highly accurate. Here are some ways advertisers can collect first-party data in 2025:
Gone are the days of static form lead generation. Today’s best lead magnets are interactive and helpful, blending seamlessly into the user’s journey. For example, tools like quizzes and assessments provide users with immediate value through insights or recommendations, and give marketers much more specific data than just a name and email.
Online calculators help users make decisions, and chatbots gather valuable information while providing users with friendly conversations. These all work because they’re highly interactive, personalized, and, if implemented correctly, seamless for the user.

Learn more about the best creative strategies for performance marketing in our playbook
In 2025, the majority of consumers use mobile devices to consume content and shop online. As a result, ads need to look great on smaller screens. There are several things advertisers need to ensure for this to happen:
Brands that can nail these attributes on mobile in 2025 will boost user attention, loyalty, and conversions.
As you can see, the most effective digital advertising strategies for 2025 are highly customized, data-driven, and built to withstand increased privacy regulations. Marketers are seeing the highest ROI from short-form video, personalized ad creative, and omnichannel experiences that blend seamlessly with the customer journey. As third-party cookies continue to be phased out, expect to see a continued reliance on first-party data and highly interactive lead generation tools.
AI can now drive a significant portion of content creation, as well as optimize ad campaigns. This enables advertisers to create content at scale, gather valuable data, and use that data to make real-time adjustments and boost ad performance.
Laws like GDPR and the CCPA are making it more difficult for marketers to obtain and use personal information. Coupled with this, more users are opting out of cookie consent banners, and ad blockers and private browsing are on the rise. These trends mean that marketers are being forced to shift from third-party targeting to using first-party data.
When you use first-party data as an advertiser, always get clear, informed consent from users. Tell them what data you’re collecting, why you’re collecting it, and how you will use it. Remember to use first-party data to refine your targeting when running ads on platforms like Meta, Google Ads, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Realize.
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By Nadim Batista-Kuttab And Others   9 Minutes read   Jul 31 2025
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Set your content playbook on fire: Why the old SEO game is over  Search Engine Land
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Ranking on Google isn’t magic—it’s methodical. Google, Bing, and other search engines use sophisticated algorithms to surface the most helpful, reputable websites, which is why some sites dominate search results while others remain buried.
Understanding search engine algorithms (and how to work with them) is called search engine optimization (SEO) and it’s essential if you want shoppers to find your store. This guide breaks down the basics so you can boost your visibility without feeling overwhelmed.
Here’s how you can help search engines understand your website’s content and value so they’re more likely to surface your site in search results.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of editing and adjusting a website to improve its search engine rankings. Your goal is to appear on the first page of Google results for queries your customers actually type, using organic tactics like keyword research, quality content creation, link building, and enhancing site performance. Google is, by a wide margin, the most dominant search engine on the internet, with more than 79% of searches conducted via its platform, compared to roughly 12% for runner-up Bing. Because of this, most people’s SEO efforts are specifically geared toward improving Google search results.
When people talk about SEO, they may refer to several different ways of optimizing your website for search. Here are some SEO categories to be aware of:
On-page SEO.On-page SEO involves optimizing a website’s content and source code for performance. This might include improving your page loading speed, website copy, URL structure, meta data, and code cleanliness.
SEO content marketing.SEO content marketing is about publishing more content on your website in an effort to target additional keywords, including long-tail keywords (or specific phrases people search for), and appear in broader Google search results. To do this, you must create high-quality content that provides value to your target audience. 
Off-page SEO. This involves actions beyond your own site to improve rankings, primarily through earning high-quality backlinks (links from other websites). It also includes brand mentions and social media marketing efforts.
Local SEO.Local SEO is about optimizing your online presence to attract local customers. Boosting your local Google rankings starts with creating a Google Business Profile and building local citations with accurate NAP (name, address, phone number) information.
Technical SEO.Technical SEO is about improving your website’s infrastructure for search engine crawling and indexing. If you picture your website as a physical building, this is like making sure the roads leading to that building are well-maintained and the signs pointing to it are easy to understand.
Mobile SEO. This is about ensuring that a web page loads quickly and responsively on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
SEO has a reputation for being a mysterious art, thanks in part to all of the jargon SEO professionals use. Here’s a primer on some common SEO terms to help you start your SEO journey:
Search engines. Platforms like Google and Bing provide people with links to information on the internet in response to a search query. 
Search engine optimization (SEO). The practice of improving your website to increase organic traffic from search engines.
SERP. Stands for “search engine results page,” the page displayed by a search engine in response to a user’s search query.
Organic search results. The web pages displayed on a SERP organically, or without the publisher paying to show up.
Paid search results. These are the web pages displayed high on a SERP due to paid advertising (e.g., Google ads).
Organic search traffic. The flow of website visitors who navigate to your website via organic search results. Often abbreviated to just “organic traffic.”
Keyword research. The process of identifying which words and phrases (called keywords) users are searching for, often by using a keyword research tool.
Keyword rankings. Where your website appears in the organic search results for a specific keyword; a higher ranking typically means more organic search traffic for that high-ranking page.
Target keyword. A specific keyword you try to rank for.
Seed keywords. Also known as “head terms,” these are basic, broad keywords with high search volume. 
Long-tail keywords. More specific keyword phrases that have at least three words.
Search volume. The number of times a specific keyword is searched within a given timeframe, usually one month.
Google Search Console. A free tool linked to a Google Ads account that helps you see which keywords your website ranks for and any errors affecting your performance in Google search. 
Google Analytics. A free tool for tracking SEO basics including website performance, user behavior, and the ebb and flow of inbound traffic.
Google Keyword Planner. Another free tool that’s used to discover valuable keywords and leverage them for SEO.
Link building. The process of getting backlinks from other websites and other sites, an important search engine ranking factor.
Sitemap URL. A file that lists all the important URLs of your site to help search engines crawl and index your content efficiently.
Title tags. Also known as a meta title, this is an HTML element that defines the clickable headline shown in search engine results. Title tags help both users and search engines understand what a page is about.
Meta tags. Snippets of HTML code that provide information about a webpage to search engines and browsers.
Meta description. A specific type of meta tag that describes the content of a particular web page.
You don’t need advanced SEO knowledge to set your website up for success. Here are the eight essential steps to help your website rank higher in search results: 
Your first order of business is making sure that search engines know your site exists, and Google is by far the most important of these search engines. Submit your XML sitemap through Google Search Console so the crawler can discover and index every important page. This helps ensure your content can appear in organic search results.
Before creating or optimizing your website’s content, you need to understand what your target audience searches for and what type of language they use when they search. Use a keyword research tool to uncover the terms your site, your competitors, and key publishers already rank for, then look for gaps you can fill. 
An SEO competitor analysis is a systematic review of the websites you’ll compete with for search engine ranking, with the goal of learning how you can improve your site’s position. By studying top-ranking pages, you can spot common structures, content angles, and technical elements worth emulating.
Make a list of your top competitors, which might include both competitors to your business and competitors for relevant keywords. For example, if you’re a footwear brand specializing in women’s sandals, you might look at other women’s footwear retail sites and women’s fashion magazines that publish articles about sandal trends. Then start a systematic study of their website content. What makes it good, and where does it fall short? Summarize your learnings and take them forward in your overall SEO process. 
Use your research to start creating new or updated high-quality content for your site. The content you create should be genuinely useful to a reader, and it should reflect your brand’s expertise and authority. You’ll want to incorporate SEO terms into your copy, but don’t overuse them, as keyword stuffing can negatively impact your site’s performance. Watch out for duplicate content on multiple pages as well. 
Optimize your website’s technical aspects, focusing on:
Site architecture. Organize your site logically, where all pages are just a few clicks away from the homepage. This makes it easier for crawlers (and customers) to navigate your site to find what they want quickly.
Site speed. Ensure your site loads as fast as possible on mobile and desktop. Compress images, use a content delivery network (CDN), and remove unnecessary code to shave off precious seconds. 
Mobile friendliness. Make sure your website is fast, responsive, and navigable, and display content and design elements such as text, buttons, and links on various screen sizes, devices, and orientations. 
Security. Make sure your site is using HTTPS rather than HTTP. Installing an SSL certificate authenticates your store and protects shopper data.
You may have already used keyword tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and Ubersuggest to research competitor keyword metrics. You can go back to these tools time and again for new keyword data. Paid platforms like Semrush, Ahrefs, and the upper tier of Ubersuggest can suggest new related keywords to target with new content and ways to optimize your existing pages. 
Backlinks—links back to your site from other high-quality domains—are one measure of authority in the eyes of search engines. Start your backlink efforts by creating content worth linking to—think original data, how-to guides, or interactive tools. Then promote them through guest posts, partnerships, and digital PR.
SEO is an ongoing process for any website owner. Track your keyword rankings and monitor your organic traffic. Use Google Analytics and your website’s own analytics tools to keep tabs on which pages bring in traffic and which do not. It’s also smart to regularly publish new pages with content that reflects your keyword research.
To embark on SEO, first make sure your site is indexed by Google. Then make sure your website is well structured with no dead links or duplicate content. Next, create high-quality material filled with keywords related to your industry.
To ensure Google indexes your site, submit your XML sitemap URL through Google Search Console and check for any technical issues that might be blocking crawlers.
The most important rule of SEO is to create valuable content that your target audience will want to consume. You can use public information published by search engines to optimize your site for search; this is called white hat SEO.
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Google Search is going back to school with these powerful interactive upgrades  Android Police
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