3 SEO priorities to win organic traffic in 2025  Search Engine Land
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Search engine optimisation (SEO) is more than a buzzword—it’s a critical tool for brand success. For businesses aiming to understand and influence consumer behaviour, SEO bridges the gap between insightful content and the audiences who need it most. By optimising their online presence, brands can increase visibility, drive organic traffic, and engage users with content tailored to their needs.
SEO not only ensures the brand’s message reaches the right audience at the right time, but it also provides valuable data about what consumers are searching for, enabling deeper insights into their preferences and pain points. For brands focused on tapping into consumer insights, a strong SEO strategy is indispensable for crafting content that resonates, builds trust, and drives conversions.
Having a strong SEO strategy is what the food company Danone had in mind, as it worked closely with Eyden Indonesia, an agency part of the Volare Advertising Network. With their collaboration, the agency has clinched four wins for MARKETECH APAC’s inaugural Marketing Technology Awards 2024.
During the award ceremony, Eyden nabbed the Grand Prix for the Agency of the Year Award, with their client Danone being recognised for the Brand of the Year (Grand Prix). 
For other categories, Eyden won a Gold Award for the ‘Best Use of Search Engine Optimisation Software’ category. This is all thanks to their work with Danone’s Bebeclub and the campaign ‘Become the Expert in Digestive Health to Attract Quality Users’.
Understanding more of the SEO marketing work
For other categories, Eyden won a Gold Award for the ‘Best Use of Search Engine Optimisation Software’ category. This is all thanks to their work with Danone’s Bebeclub and the campaign ‘Become the Expert in Digestive Health to Attract Quality Users’.
In this category, Eyden aided Danone in identifying what it takes to strengthen the brand’s positioning as an expert in kids’ digestion, as well as acquiring more new quality users through improving organic visibility. As a result, Bebeclub successfully acquired new quality users with 3.7 million organic sessions, as well as generating growth for kids’ digestive SEO performance.
The agency also had a Silver Award under the same category for Danone’s SGM – Generasi Maju for the campaign ‘Cultivating Organic User: Turning Visitor into Member’. For this one, Danone considered how to improve their informational content beneficial for everyone, as well as improving the standings of the Generasi Maju membership club. 
By building topic authority and optimising articles, SGM Generasi Maju saw in a total of 6 million organic sessions 418K of those organic sessions come from relevant content.
Moreover, Eyden’s work for Danone’s Bebeclub ‘Transforming Bebelac Consumer Insights into Strategic Growth’ also got them a Bronze Award under the ‘Best Use of Data Analytics and Insights Platform’ category. 
For this campaign, Eyden determined that they needed to maximise the brand’s focus on SEO to reach potential Moms who have the same problem on their children’s digestive health, as well as tapping into their changing digital habits. By building content authority on the relevant health topics, Bebeclub saw an increase in the use of its ‘Poop Tracker’ tools with +376% organic session growth, +407% new users, and +20% average session duration.
Understanding the SEO goal for brand reach
For Planius Simanullang, Digital Transformation Director at Danone, it is their ultimate goal to understand their consumers–going beyond demographics–and truly know their questions, concerns, and aspirations.
If anything, their digital strategy becomes less about marketing and more about creating value and building deeper connections with the people they serve.
“Every search keyword represents a story, a curiosity, or a need. By tapping into SEO and data analytics, we’re able to listen and understand more closely, decode consumer needs, and provide meaningful content that answers real health-related pain points. It’s about being present where it matters, offering trusted guidance, and empowering our audience with the right information to make better choices,” he said.
Planius also spoke about their partnership with Eyden, stating, “Eyden brought their top-notch game, blending data wizardry with a human touch. They dug deep into analytics to find the sweet spots for engagement and applied their SEO expertise to make our health content shine online. Their insights turned our organic reach into organic growth, helping us connect with audiences in a way that feels authentic and impactful.”
Meanwhile, David Reinhart, Director at Eyden, noted that a blend of data precision and creative strategy is a key attribute to the organic success of their work with Danone. In simpler terms, they don’t just look at what people are searching for, but instead, also dig into the “why” behind it.
“We create valuable content that is easy to digest, and that’s becoming an essential part of moms’ everyday lives and a great ally in the journey of their kids growing up. By making this valuable content authentic and Google’s best friend, we ensured Danone’s message didn’t just stand out, it stood tall,” he said.
When asked about what’s next for the collaboration with Danone, he stated, “We’re already planning up ways to maximise AI and maybe even sprinkling in some immersive tech to maximise moms’ journey, even in this shifting moms’ online behaviour. Whatever’s next, one thing’s for sure, with Danone as our partner-in-crime, we’re ready to shake up the Indonesian and even the APAC marketing scene.”
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For brands like Danone, leveraging SEO to craft targeted, engaging content has proven transformative, and able to reach audiences organically. Through Eyden’s expertise, Danone harnessed the power of SEO to amplify its reach, better understand consumer needs, and deliver content that truly resonates.

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Google AI agents can now modify campaigns automatically, but advertisers at Marketing Live raised control concerns.
Google’s latest AI tools promise to manage campaigns automatically. But advertisers are asking whether these new features give up too much human control.
At Google Marketing Live, the company showcased three new AI agents. These tools can handle everything from creating campaigns to managing tasks across multiple platforms.
However, the announcement raised questions from attendees about accountability and transparency.
The reaction highlights growing tension in the industry. Platforms want more automation, while marketers worry about losing control of their accounts.
This system makes changes to your campaigns without first asking for permission. It can:
This tool finds insights and trends automatically. It also makes data exploration easier through simple visuals.
The goal is to help marketers spot performance patterns without deep Analytics knowledge.
This browser extension launches later this year. It manages tasks across multiple platforms, including:
Marketing Advisor works across Google properties like Google Ads and Analytics. It also works on external websites and content management systems.
Here’s a promotional video demonstrating these tools’ capabilities:

During a press session led by Melissa Hsieh Nikolic, Director of Product Management for YouTube Ads, and Pallavi Naresh, Director of Product Management for Google Ads, executives addressed concerns from industry professionals.
Advertisers asked how AI-made changes would appear in Google Ads’ change history, but executives couldn’t give clear answers.
Naresh responded:
“That’s a great question. I don’t know if it’ll show up with your username or like you and the agent’s username.”
This uncertainty worries agencies and brands. They need detailed records of campaign changes for client reports and internal approvals.
One attendee directly questioned the automation direction, stating:
“We’ve seen the ‘googlification’ of the Google help desk. Getting to a human is hard. This seems like it’s going down the path of replacing that.”
Google reps promised human support would stay available, responding:
“That’s not the intention. You will still be able to access support in the ways you can today.”
The new AI creative tools raised questions about content authenticity.
Google introduced image-to-video creation and “outpainting” technology. Outpainting expands video content for different screen sizes. However, Google’s approach to AI content labeling differs from other platforms.
Hsieh Nikolic explained:
“All of our images are watermarked with metadata and SynthID so generated content can be identified. At this time, we’re not labeling ads with any sort of identification.”
This approach is different from other platforms that use visible AI content labels.
Google shared performance data for its AI-enhanced tools. Products with AI-generated images saw a “remarkable 20% increase on return on ad spend” compared to standard listings.
The company also said “advertiser adoption of Google AI for generating creative increased by 2500%” in the past year. But this growth comes with the control concerns mentioned above.
Google revealed it’s “actively working on a generative creative API.” This could impact third-party tools and agency workflows.
The timing makes sense given industry pressures. Google says marketers spend “10 hours or more every week creating visual content.” These tools directly address that pain point.
The three-agent system is Google’s biggest push into hands-off advertising management yet. It moves beyond creative help to full campaign control.
Digital marketing has always been about precise budget and targeting control. This shift toward AI decision-making changes how advertisers and platforms work together.
The pushback from advertisers suggests more resistance than Google expected. This is especially true around accountability and transparency, which agencies and brands need for client relationships.
The Marketing Advisor Chrome extension is particularly ambitious. It extends Google’s reach beyond its platforms into general marketing workflow management, which could reshape how digital marketing teams work across the industry.
As these features roll out, advertisers should:
The change history question is still unresolved. It’s critical for agencies and brands that need detailed campaign records. Marketers should:
Google is developing a generative creative API. Marketing teams should think about how this might impact:
Google’s three-agent system shows the company’s confidence in AI-driven advertising management. It builds on the success of over 500,000 advertisers using conversational AI features.
However, industry practitioners’ concerns highlight real challenges around control, transparency, and technical readiness. As these tools become standard practice, these issues need solutions.
Matt G. Southern, Senior News Writer, has been with Search Engine Journal since 2013. With a bachelor’s degree in communications, …
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by Joe Warnimont
Just last week, I again watched as my neighbor spent two hours washing, detailing, and meticulously waxing his vintage Chevy Corvette. That routine got me thinking: I don’t believe I’ve ever seen him pop the hood and work on its engine.
Then it struck me. Isn’t that how so many businesses and B2B marketers approach SEO?
You’ll spend countless dollars and hours to make a website absolutely perfect for traditional search engines. Heck, much of my own time over the past 10 years has revolved around things like keyword density, alt tags, internal linking, meta tags, and schema.
Unfortunately, all of those focus on cosmetic changes, not substance. Not authority, not trustworthiness—the very things AI-powered search tools, like ChatGPT, now look at.
Luckily, you can make the shift from traditional SEO tactics to something more useful: artificial intelligence search optimization.
I’ll walk you through what you need to know.
When I think of traditional SEO, here’s what it mainly focuses on optimizing:
These are all still important, but AI has shifted the dynamic. No longer can you only focus on those cosmetic details to gain an advantage.
To help you understand the differences, I’ve put their core focuses side by side:

B2B marketers must adapt optimization strategies and embrace a culture of building true domain authority with trust. I don’t think you should totally abandon the more “cosmetic” focus of traditional SEO, but you should simply spend less time optimizing for only visibility.
The best way to view AI search optimization is to think of it as a digital credit score. In the financial sector, banking institutions evaluate the “creditworthiness” of a person interested in a loan based on various elements, such as account age, payment history, credit utilization, and so on.
I’ve found that AI search engines focus on similar areas; but, instead of seeing whether a person can afford a car, they’re figuring out whether a website’s content should be shown in its AI responses.
I’ve discovered that—much like with credit—authority and trust are the factors that mean the most for AI search engines. Below, I’ve outlined how to build that authority and trust to boost your “digital credit score.”
The first step of establishing a solid relationship with AI search engines is to let them search your websites. Similar to making your website indexable, you want to give AI crawlers access to your content.
Follow these steps to do so:
Here’s what you can add to your robots.txt file to allow specific AI crawlers:
User-agent: Bingbot
Allow: /
Or…
User-agent: GPTBot
Allow: /
It’s like letting credit bureaus view your past financial habits. It’s possible to block access, but then you’re never building authority.
Here’s the word to focus on: history. You’re writing a history for every website you optimize for AI search. I like to build that history with expertise, essentially showing AI search engines that I’ve put in the work to maintain a content schedule of quality over quantity.
Here’s how I recommend building that history of expertise:
AI search engines are becoming increasingly skilled at detecting genuine expertise. So, it’s risky to pump out eight shallow articles that don’t add much value to the Internet. You’re better off spending time on three or four expertly crafted pieces with credible citations.
What’s the point of a credit score? In my eyes, it’s usually a way for financial institutions to vouch for you as a loan applicant. It puts some authority on your side. Similarly, reputable sources linking to your content build authority with AI engines. As does the act of citing reputable sources within your content.
Take these steps to build a network of authority:
It’s about participation. It’s a lot less transactional than just trading backlinks. You’re finding genuine partnerships and building on each other’s expertise so you both become trusted voices.
Inaccurate financial records can lead to lower credit scores; accuracy and verification also matter greatly to AI search engines.
Here’s how to strengthen accuracy and verification efforts for AI search engines:
I highly recommend making claims to get noticed by AI search engines. You must, however, back up those claims with multiple, credible sources. That’s because AI systems corroborate evidence before delivering responses to users.
The introduction of AI search engines demands more. It’s a long-term process of building your digital reputation. I suggest starting with an audit of your current SEO strategies and the ways you can connect with AI crawlers for visibility.
After that:
Remember, this is your website’s digital credit score. It may take time for ChatGPT and other AI search modules to take notice, but the rewards of being a trustworthy voice in your industry will pay out big time.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joe Warnimont is a senior analyst at HostingAdvice.com, where he covers topics such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, Web hosting, and data governance.
LinkedIn: Joe Warnimont
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Google updates its URL structure best practices document with added examples  Search Engine Land
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