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By Holly Landis 8 Minutes read
We hear the same story every year — SEO is dead. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes, the goalposts have shifted yet again thanks to constantly updating algorithms, new user behaviors, and the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. But that doesn’t mean it’s all over: Instead, strategies must adapt to fit the new world of search engine optimization.
SEO remains the cornerstone of digital marketing in 2025, but previously-used strategies are no longer as effective. As search engines become more sophisticated and AI begins to reshape user experiences, businesses must stay ahead of the curve and look to the future possibilities of where SEO could go.
In today’s hyper-competitive market, SEO is still a critical driver of online visibility and traffic, along with revenue growth. For many businesses, organic search remains the top source for revenue and traffic to their websites. But as users shift toward more intent- and intuition-driven searches, adapting to these changes is essential.
Billions of searches are conducted every day. Businesses should be capitalizing on this traffic by being discoverable and visible without having to pay for advertising online. But zero-click search results are changing what user behavior looks like here.
This doesn’t mean that SEO isn’t important, though. Instead, optimizing content in featured snippets, knowledge panels, and even AI answers is vital for businesses looking to capture more traffic. Even with zero-click search, brand visibility is still critical for overall business growth.
Meanwhile, Google is still rewarding sites that offer a good on-page experience for users, and this still plays a significant role in SEO. Instead of focusing solely on keywords, businesses must incorporate other on-site changes to fit with user expectations. This means mobile-friendly designs, fast load times, and seamless navigation alongside helpful, authoritative content that answers their questions.
AI and machine learning is continuing to play a dominant role in the evolution of search algorithms. Aspects like natural language processing (NLP) and semantic search are fundamentally reshaping how content is processed, analyzed, and presented to users. Google’s BERT update, for instance, was focused on this approach, using NLP to better understand the context of searches and present results that were more aligned with how real humans speak. These types of updates will result in priority being given to comprehensive content, rather than keyword-centric text used only for ranking purposes.
While personalization has been a digital marketing strategy for several years, this is only becoming more important with AI. These tools can assess user behavior and deliver highly personalized search engine results pages (SERPs) based on hundreds of data factors that align with the user’s search query.
Using NLP and semantic search, these personalized queries will become more specific. For instance, algorithms will be programmed to differentiate between different types of searches such as transactional or navigational, and will automatically adjust SERPs accordingly.
Google’s search generative experience (SGE) uses deep learning models to adjust rankings in real time, based on relevance to queries and other signals from the user. Businesses must embrace these changes and prepare for them using techniques like predictive content planning, A/B testing, and AI-enhanced content creation.
Shifts in user behavior are also coming down the pipeline, both as a response to how algorithms are changing SERPs and how we use the technology available to us. Voice search, visual search, and mobile-first browsing all remain extremely important, as is the growing demand for personalized and localized search.
When it comes to voice search, NLP machine learning is becoming more important as it understands how humans really speak. Optimizing for question-based queries will be important for informational searches, focusing on trying to rank content in featured snippets with direct answers.
The growing use of visual search tools like Google Lens and Pinterest Lens also make it necessary for many businesses to refocus on visuals instead of text-only SEO. Having high quality imagery with correctly labeled alt text and structured data markup, like product and image schema, will be important for visual brands and e-commerce businesses.
Finally, as AI becomes more sophisticated in its personalization options, businesses must adapt their content to work in highly personal and local markets. Optimizing for hyper-local “near me” queries is still important, as is keeping your Google Business Profile updated and accurate.
In 2025, businesses that don’t follow the principles of E-E-A-T will struggle to appear in top search results. This is particularly the case with AI-generated content, as Google is now implementing stricter quality control checks to determine whether content fits the bill.
Well-researched and fact-checked content from real experts, industry professionals, and authoritative sources are essential for content success in 2025, especially in Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) categories like finance, legal, and healthcare.
Google continues to evaluate site content based on these principles, looking for real-world experience, verified credentials, and citations and references (and backlinks) from authoritative sources. Trustworthiness is also important on two counts — is the information provided accurate and reliable, and is the website secure, safe to browse, and credible?
Using the power of semantic search and NLP, focusing on long-tail keywords still remains a strong SEO strategy. Long-tail keywords are typically more descriptive in nature and reveal more about what a user is actively looking to achieve.
This research should give you insight into how relevant your current content is and what you may need to add to your site to answer user questions more effectively. Working with this approach is particularly important within the context of voice and AI searches, as natural language queries tend to be longer when used in these formats.
Content is still one of the most important factors when it comes to succeeding with SEO. By following E-E-A-T principles, businesses should focus on creating well-written and helpful content that’s backed by expert research and interpretation.
While AI can create plenty of content, the quality is often not there. The best way to stand out from competitors is to create content that’s unique to your business and focused on the user. Explore different content types, too, like video or other interactive media, to keep users engaged.
For businesses looking to succeed with SEO in 2025, integrating AI technology will be crucial. Adapting on-site content to be better optimized for AI-based algorithms through interactive media, direct answers to user queries, and structured data markup is the best way to start embracing this type of technology.
Businesses can also think about using AI tools to boost their websites, such as helping with content outlines and performing research. However, any content created with AI should always have some form of human oversight in the edit stage, at minimum. This is also a good opportunity to adjust the content from generic to something tailored and unique to the business, incorporating quotes from industry experts or original research.
For small to medium businesses (SMBs), local SEO is becoming more important than ever. Personalized and localized searches are on the rise, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to compete on a national or international scale with the most competitive of search terms.
Optimizing Google Business Profiles and targeting hyper-local search queries is the best strategy here, capturing local traffic and attracting the most intentional visitors. Leveraging customer reviews is also an important tactic to try, helping spread word of your business locally without having to pay for ads.
Scaling SEO while maintaining brand authority is always a challenge, and usually only possible with a significant budget. Investing in technical SEO, AI-powered analytics, and online earned media and PR efforts to support a backlink strategy is critical for large businesses looking to maintain market share.
With a large budget, there’s also more opportunity for original research or expert testimonials and quotes to be weaved into content. This is critical for E-E-A-T, and with a strong backlink profile behind it, it’s one of the best ways to maintain dominance through SEO.
Leveraging customer data is also important. As a large enterprise, you likely have a significant amount of customer data that you can pull to strategically plan future content and address real concerns or queries.
As much as SEO continues to change in 2025, it’s vital that you don’t forget the basics of good website maintenance. After all, a poorly structured and performing website will never rank well, even if you have the best content in your industry.
Check your core web vitals at least quarterly, running speed and responsiveness tests sitewide. Ensure that pages are mobile-friendly, loading correctly and fast, and that users can easily navigate your site to find what they’re looking for. Your site should have a current HTTPS security certificate in place to provide trust and credibility. Finally but not least, ensure you make a content audit every year (depending on the volume of your website) to prevent cannibalization issues, internal linking improvements, opportunities to optimize, consolidate or redirect (301) pages.
SEO is becoming more dynamic and changing faster than ever before, requiring businesses to adapt to evolving algorithms, the continued development of AI technology, and the impact this is having on user behavior. But by embracing these changes and staying ahead of the curve as much as possible, SEO can still be an incredibly successful marketing channel for businesses large and small.
The most important ranking factors typically come back to the E-E-A-T principles, with search engines prioritizing content that’s of high-quality and user-focused. Having a well-structured site and good user experience is also vital, with metrics like time on site, click-through rate, and engagement all playing an important role in determining who ranks where in SERPs.
Focusing on long-tail keywords and question-based content is the best way to optimize for voice search, as many of the NLP algorithms that these tools use are built to provide answers based on typical human speech patterns. For visual searches, using high-quality professional imagery and marking these up with descriptive filenames and alt text is important.
Google’s tools are some of the best free options for measuring SEO performance, with keyword data provided in Google Search Console, and search visibility and traffic metrics available in Google Analytics. For keyword research and rankings updates, tools like Semrush and Ahrefs are some of the best on the market. PageSpeed Insights and Core Web Vitals are essential for assessing website performance.
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