Latest organic search news – June 25

We’ve compiled the essential updates from Google and the broader world of search from the last month – keeping you up to date with everything you need to know.

Covering

• AI Mode: Google’s boldest Search shift yet
• Reddit ‘Trends’ for reactive PR
• Don’t sleep on image SEO
• The latest learnings about AI Overviews
• Youtube strategy in 2025
• How long does it take to rank on Google?
• Stay ahead in SEO with Distinctly

AI Mode: Google’s boldest Search shift yet

Google’s AI Mode – unveiled at I/O 2025 – is the company’s biggest change to how people search in over a decade. Unlike AI Overviews, which inject generated summaries into the traditional results page, AI Mode replaces the search experience altogether (a bit like the Copilot tab in Bing search – which to my knowledge has very little usage).  It opens in full-screen, offers multi-step, conversational responses, and turns Google into something that looks and feels a lot more like ChatGPT.

But it’s more than a design change. Search is moving from a universal experience to a hyper-personalised one, drawing on signals from across a user’s digital footprint (such as what they’ve searched for, what they’ve bought and what’s in their Gmail) to deliver intent-aware, real-time responses. Rather than pulling from a static index, Google is synthesising information dynamically based on what it thinks the user wants. And what it sees (or doesn’t see) about your brand across the web now directly influences whether you’re part of that response.

It’s available now to all U.S. users, with a global rollout (including the UK and EU) expected later this year. While it’s opt-in for now, this is the clearest signal yet of Google’s vision for search: answer-focused, generative, and largely self-contained. It’s likely Google will eventually make this the default experience, while still offering a way to use traditional search, at least for now. It will be interesting to see what uptake looks like over the mid term, especially among non-technical audiences who may be slower to adapt.

Note: AI Mode is a significant and complex shift in how Google works and one that deserves far more words than we can give it here. It was only announced on 20th May, so the long-term impact is still unknown. That said, early theories and strategies are already emerging, and we’ve summarised the most relevant ones below (along with personal thoughts) with links to deeper reads for those who want to dig in.

The reaction from the U.S. SEO community has been mixed at best. One major frustration? There are still zero tracking capabilities. Google has not provided any way to measure:

• Whether your site is being cited in AI Mode responses
• How much referral traffic (if any) is being driven from those citations

Third party tools will have a stab at the first bullet point but we need Google to help with the second.

On launch, traffic from AI Mode was originally attributed as “Direct” in GA4 but this has since been corrected and is now bucketed (rightly) under Organic. The problem is, it’s treated just like any other Organic source, with no visibility, no segmentation options, and no way to isolate or analyse traffic from AI Mode specifically. It’s the same issue we’ve had with AI Overviews: we know traffic is being cannibalised or rerouted, but we can’t measure how, when, or how much.

Many believe that lack of transparency is deliberate. If Google were to show the true numbers, it would likely expose just how little traffic most sites are getting and trigger widespread backlash.

This ties into a growing belief that Google has broken its social contract with publishers. First, by algorithmically reducing visibility for all but the biggest domains and communities – causing many respected, sector-specific sites to give up on SEO altogether. And second, by effectively stealing their content and surfacing scraped, LLM-generated answers at the top of SERPs that remove any need to click through.

This erosion has been happening for at least two years, and pressure is building. There are now multiple active calls for the FTC and Department of Justice to investigate Google’s behaviour toward publishers. The company is already most of the way through its antitrust trial (United States v. Google), with a ruling expected this August.

1. This isn’t the first seismic shift, but it’s a big one

AI Mode might feel like a radical departure, but it’s not the first time Google has significantly changed how search works. Major shifts like Penguin, Panda and Hummingbird, all forced websites to adapt to new strategies, new rules, and new definitions of quality.

This is a bit different, though… Not just because of how little Google is telling us, but because of the power shift it creates. When Google answers questions using your content, without needing to send traffic to your site, it raises serious questions about ownership and return.

That said, this doesn’t mean Organic is a channel to scale back on – far from it. If you’ve invested strategically in SEO over the past few years, Organic is likely one of your top two revenue drivers. That value doesn’t disappear overnight. But it does mean the playbook needs to adapt.

The challenge now is ensuring your content stays visible within the new interface. That means shifting tactics, not abandoning the channel. And just like we’ve seen with ChatGPT, there will likely be a strong correlation between the sites that already perform well in Google and those that get prioritised in AI-powered results. Brands (and digital teams) who adapt best will be well placed to benefit.

Evolutions like this are often what separate good marketers from the rest. And change always brings opportunity.

Remember: AI Mode is still opt-in, U.S.-only, and far from mainstream. Adoption will be gradual. Older audiences may never change how they search. And in the EU, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see regulatory intervention before anything fully rolls out. For now, and as always with SEO, we monitor, test and communicate our findings.

2. Organic clicks have been declining for years

AI Mode is going to impact organic traffic numbers, this much is clear. However, it’s just the next step in a much longer trend. Ads, Featured Snippets, People Also Ask boxes, and most recently AI Overviews have all gradually chipped away at traditional clickthrough rates, especially for informational terms.

With AI Mode taking over even more of the user journey, it’s clearer than ever: we are going to need some new metrics to measure and benchmark success against – more on this later.

ChatGPT already accounts for around 4% of search share globally, and Google’s own features are increasingly designed to answer rather than direct. Visibility is no longer just about where you rank, it’s about where Google (and all LLMs) decide to surface your content within their ecosystems. 

And while visibility is fragmenting, the goal hasn’t changed: organic revenue is still the most important metric of all. But how we drive it is evolving. Traditional blue-link rankings (or even the various new SERP features which get added each month) won’t do all the heavy lifting anymore. Success now comes from being discoverable in the right moments, across the right touchpoints – whether that’s in AI results, community conversations, or trusted third-party content. All of which we can influence.

These kinds of charts are going to be critical regarding justifications of marketing spends and giving us the birdseye view we need more now than ever:

Our job is to ensure you show up where your audience is and be there when they’re ready to convert.

3: What brands should be doing right now

As mentioned, no one really knows exactly where search is going. But what’s clear is this: it’s evolving fast, and you need to ensure you are aligned with the ways people source the information, products, and solutions they are looking for online. Given everything we’ve just covered, what should brands actually be doing?

The short answer: doubling down on strategic visibility. Not just in Google rankings, but across the wider web where AI systems learn, summarise, and recommend. And importantly, where your customers hang out. That’s where we’re helping clients focus – through our 360 Search approach (or if we want to keep it ‘SEO’, Search Everywhere Optimisation is an even better term, which I think may end up sticking!). Credit to Ashley Liddell for that one.

Brand signals over backlinks?

Whether you call it digital PR, link building, or consensus building – coined last week by SEO Joe Youngblood  – the job is the same: helping your brand show up where AI systems (and your customers) are looking.

Increasingly, that means earning mentions, not just links, across the wider web. LLMs like Gemini and ChatGPT are trained on Reddit threads, review sites, forums, YouTube videos, product roundups, and aggregator platforms like Clutch and G2. They’re forming their responses based on the consensus they see across these sources, not just what ranks highest in Google.

Put simply: what’s said about your brand online matters more than ever, regardless of whether there’s a backlink involved.

So, where should brands focus? If you’re a B2C or D2C brand:

Inclusion in roundups, gift guides, or “best of” content
E.g. “Best skincare brands for sensitive skin” or “Top 10 sustainable dog food companies” – especially when featured on relevant publications, lifestyle blogs, or trusted media outlets.

Up-to-date Wikipedia page

Wikipedia is a crucial dataset for many LLMs. Having an accurate brand presence with an up-to-date page that contains key information about your company story inclusive of product launches, media references and awards shows credibility. 

Mentions in community and social conversations
Reddit, TikTok, Instagram, specialist Facebook groups — anywhere real customers share recommendations and reviews.

Strong presence on review and shopping platforms
Amazon, Trustpilot, your Google Business Profile, and marketplaces like Etsy or Not On The High Street – these all feed LLM and consumer trust signals. It already is really hard to rank a poor product or service highly on Google. This will make it tougher, so focus on improving your offering first, if needed.

Organic mentions in creator-led or influencer content
YouTube product reviews, TikTok unboxings, Instagram reels, especially where creators are independent and speaking from personal experience.

Namechecks in relevant podcasts
Appearing in niche podcast discussions,  whether through interviews, brand mentions, or product reviews  can help surface you as a trusted name in your category.

The goal is to create a distributed brand presence that reinforces what you do, who you help, and why you’re trusted, wherever that conversation is happening. And keep amplifying the nice things people are saying about you – make it really easy for people to see what makes you great.

One important note: this works best when your brand entity is clearly defined and consistently tied to your domain. If LLMs can’t confidently connect your name, offering, and reputation, those mentions won’t carry the same weight. That’s why brand bios, About pages, consistent semantic signals, and structured data are still fundamental.

We’ve always said digital PR isn’t optional – at Distinctly we merged SEO and DPR under our ‘Organic’ offering two years ago, due to the importance of links and coverage –  and in the LLM era, it’s arguably more critical than ever. Not just to earn authority, but to be recognised as the kind of brand worth including in the answer.

Now more than ever, Organic and Brand performance are so interlinked that visibility, reputation, and trust are no longer separate goals. They’re part of the same search ecosystem.

Mike King’s patent insights: what’s ahead

In his very detailed breakdown of Google’s AI Mode and various associated patents, Mike King explains how Google is shifting from a single-query response to a multi-step retrieval system.

Rather than just looking for a “best” result to serve, Google:

• Breaks a query into multiple sub-questions
• Retrieves different results for each sub-task
• Re-ranks and filters those results using multiple scoring functions
• Generates a final response by assembling and editing together those ranked results

This shift means Google is prioritising sources that are consistently useful across many steps in the user journey, not just optimised for one query. This was a really simplified breakdown – please read the full write up for much more information.

Practical actions for right now

Interestingly, when Google has shared advice for AI Mode optimisation, the recommendations sound very familiar: clear structure, concise answers, strong internal linking, and high-authority content. In other words, the same foundational SEO principles we’ve been following for years. The difference now is where and how those best practices get rewarded.

Based on what we’ve seen from Google, iPullRank, and the wider SEO community, here are practical ways to future-proof your visibility:

• Optimise your About and Home pages – they’re LLM favourites, so ensure they clearly showcase who you are, what you do, and why you’re trusted (showing off all the best bits about you).
• Get mentioned positively in external content – especially Reddit, whilst Google’s $60m per year relationship with them continues. Reviews, community discussions, and inclusion in ‘best X for Y’ guides all influence how your brand is perceived and surfaced. Digital PR is key to making this happen.
• Understand your current LLM visibility – tools like amionai.com provide a good starting point. See who is being surfaced for your target terms. Learn from this. Ask to be featured in any non-commercial sources which are being referenced. Ensure you are covered when the next piece gets produced,
• Consolidate your brand messaging – what do you do, and who for? Say it clearly and say it consistently across your site, listings, bios, social, and press.
• Publish expert-driven content – interviews, case studies, feature breakdowns, customer FAQs. Anything that demonstrates credibility, uniqueness, and authority in your space.
• Use schema, structured data, and strong internal linking – help machines connect the dots between your people, services, content, and expertise. 
• Write clearly, concisely, and answer-first – avoid fluff, write like the subject matter expert you are. Same concept as writing for Featured Snippets.
• Ask AI to audit your content vs the patent information learned from Mike King’s analysis – an easy way to spot gaps and opportunities.
• Move away from traditional keyword research to audience research – structure your content strategies around pain points and needs, not what people type into Google. We have offered this as a service for two years now. Reach out if you would like to discuss these differences further.
• Social platform visibility and activity is more important than ever – using social to amplify all the great things about your brand is critical to the ‘360 visibility’ we need. And always remember – you need to be where your audience hangs out. More than ever video is key here and we can help you with this.
• Test what AI surfaces for your brand today – and reverse-engineer inclusion. Ask AI who the best brands are for a service or product you offer. Ask how and why it came to that decision. Work back from there.

We’ll help you make the right calls

We’re not just here to “do SEO”. We’re here to help you make the right decisions in a fast-changing landscape.

That means:

• Understanding how and where your brand is appearing in AI-powered results
• Pinpointing the platforms, content types, and touchpoints that drive real impact
• Creating joined-up strategies that grow visibility, trust, and revenue
  

We’ve helped brands stay ahead through every major shift in search over the past decade. And we’ll do the same through this one. Search is changing but the brands who adapt best stand to gain more than ever.

• Be there when your customer needs you.
• Be clear about what you do.
• Be found everywhere that matters.

In non AI-Mode news:

Reddit ‘Trends’ for reactive PR

Reddit launched its ‘Pro Trends’ tool in January this year, and while it’s extremely useful for long-term monitoring of keywords aligning with your brand, it’s not hugely talked-about.

Designed to track keyword and brand mentions over time, the tool highlights rising topics and, importantly, the communities discussing them, making it a great tool for data-led or reactive campaign ideation. It’s a space where unfiltered opinions, pain points, and unsolicited brand mentions live and breathe, which makes it a goldmine for digital PRs. 

Don’t sleep on image SEO

At Distinctly, we scrape and analyse SERP features to go beyond just traditional rankings, helping us understand what else Google is surfacing alongside the 10 blue links.

For a recent informational content strategy, Distinctly’s Lewis Koch revealed that images appear in over 25% of informational SERPs across thousands of potential target keywords a client would like to rank for – that’s more than video, featured snippets, and knowledge panels. We know if you are ranking organically in the top 10 there is no reason you wont get images surfaced, if you know how.

What’s working right now:

• Turning complex topics into visual tables and diagrams (especially for legal and financial clients)
• Creating branded hero images featuring author photos, logos, and post titles
• Using unique, non-stock visuals that add genuine value

For one legal client, we’ve turned chunky guides into SEO-friendly image tables which now get hundreds of thousands of views per month. Our branded “billboard-style” hero images are being picked up in Featured Snippets and even AI Overviews, offering not just content visibility but the photo of the author, their role, the article title, and brand logo right at the top of the SERP.

You can’t even pay for ads like that. And we’re doing it organically.

If you’d like to explore image optimisation or branded graphics for your next campaign, reach out to your Account Manager or contact us. This is a key opportunity that’s easy to overlook but the results speak for themselves.

The latest learnings about AI Overviews

Two standout studies in May – from Ahrefs and Kevin Indig – offer some of the clearest signals yet on how to approach AI Overviews in Google Search. In short: visibility is no longer just about rankings. It’s about presence, authority, and brand consensus across the web.

Ahrefs’ findings:
After analysing 75,000 brands, Ahrefs found that AIO inclusion correlates most strongly with off-site signals:

• Branded web mentions
  
• Branded anchor text
  
• Branded search volume
  

In other words, if people aren’t talking about your brand across the wider web, AI Overviews are unlikely to feature you,  even if you rank well.

Brand awareness is now a ranking factor. And it’s not one you can fake.

Kevin Indig’s UX + DPR analysis adds to this:

• Most users don’t scroll past the AI Overview. If your brand isn’t surfaced high, it’s effectively invisible.
  
• The game has shifted from clicks to presence – your brand needs to show up, whether or not it gets the click.
  
• Users still validate. Very interestingly, around 18% open a Reddit thread, video, or second link just to double-check the response the AIO gives. That means owning the follow-up click on validation channels (Reddit, YouTube, forums) is essential.
  
• Trust signals like PR, expert citations, or links from high-authority domains  are outperforming traditional relevance factors.
  

As Kevin puts it: search has flipped from a click economy to a visibility economy and monitoring how often your website is seen is now as important as the clicks it attains.

For more detail, check out the full Ahrefs study and Kevin’s UX breakdown.

Youtube strategy in 2025

Phil Nottingham’s YouTube Strategy presentation at SEO Week is a must-read.
“How many of you are putting time and energy into optimising for ChatGPT but ignoring YouTube?” is a very good question.

Especially when YouTube sees over 4 billion searches a day, compared to ChatGPT’s 330 million. It’s not just the second-largest search engine, it’s also deeply embedded in Google results, regularly pulled into Featured Snippets, and increasingly featured in AI Overviews.

Despite this, many brands still treat YouTube as a dumping ground for self-promotional content (if they use it at all), rather than what it actually is: a search-led discovery engine.

But YouTube is unique because unlike Google Search, where performance data is often hidden or imprecise, YouTube gives us full visibility. You can see:

• Which competitors are gaining traction – and in what categories
  
• View velocity to track momentum over time
  
• Topic coverage gaps across a niche
  
• Title and thumbnail tactics that actually drive clicks
  

It’s rare to get this kind of transparency in any organic channel — and brands who build video strategy around it are likely to win.

Being discoverable on YouTube also means gaining visibility in the Google SERPs as well as AI Overviews. And if you’re not showing up, you are losing out on eyes on your brand.

At Distinctly, we’ve developed our own Organic Social offering, with YouTube optimisation and visibility at the forefront. From SEO-led topic research to on-platform performance tactics, we help brands get discovered -and clicked – in all the places that matter.

Interested? Give us a shout and we’ll walk you through how we’re already doing this for clients.

How long does it take to rank on Google?

Ahrefs’ latest study gives us updated benchmarks.

Ahrefs just analysed 2 million non-branded keywords to understand how long it takes for a page to rank on Google and how old the top-ranking URLs typically are.

Key takeaways:

• Top-ranking pages are not new.
  The average age of pages ranking in positions 1-3 is over 2 years old. For position 1 specifically, the average is 2 years and 4 months.
  
• New pages can rank quickly, but it’s rare.
  Only 7.4% of newly published pages ranked in the top 10 within a year. For most, it took longer or didn’t happen at all.
  
• Authority + links still matter.
  Pages from sites with high DR and strong backlink profiles had much better odds of ranking faster.
  

In short: SEO is a long term game, which you can certainly accelerate with smart content, links, and technical foundations but for competitive terms, Google still rewards age and authority.

Check out the full Ahrefs study here for further information..

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