SEO in 2025: staying ahead of the curve

Search is changing at breakneck speed. As we dive into 2025, marketers need fresh strategies to capture organic traffic and stand out from the crowd. 

What should we do differently this year and beyond to set the foundations for future success?

We’ll be covering:

• Generative AI and its impact on search
• Diversification and multi-platform search strategies
• Demonstrating the value of organic activity 

Navigating these areas presents a massive challenge to anyone working in SEO but also a huge opportunity.

Generative AI and its impact on search

The growing prevalence of AI assistants such as Gemini (Google), ChatGPT (OpenAI), Claude (Anthropic), and Copilot (Bing) and AI search engines such as Perplexity, SearchGPT (OpenAI), and AI Overviews (Google) – not to mention controversial newcomer Deepseek – has led to much speculation on the current and future impact of AI on SEO. 

Is Google’s role as a traffic driver at risk? Are brands in crisis as AI-generated answers steal clicks and threaten to hijack organic traffic and revenue?

The introduction of LLMs into search indicates a general shift towards “answer” engines rather than our traditional concept of a “search” engine. The concern is: If users get all their answers within ChatGPT or an AI Overview, why would they need to click through to a website? As I will explain below, this panic is largely unfounded for now.

First, take ChatGPT. Yes, a certain number of searches will be answered within their ecosystem that doesn’t lead to any website traffic for the brands being mentioned. However, based on the available data, it’s clear that users aren’t moving away from Google at a drastic rate. 

Let’s ask Google and ChatGPT: “Has the number of searches on Google declined since ChatGPT launched?”

Interestingly, but not necessarily surprisingly, they’re two very different responses. Google states, “The number of Google searches has not significantly declined since ChatGPT launched” and cites “complementary usage” between ChatGPT and Google. ChatGPT, on the other hand, gives two responses. Response 2 uses a few sources to suggest that general users are shifting away from traditional search engines like Google to AI chat and platforms like TikTok.

There is no hard data to back up an exodus from Google to ChatGPT. While ChatGPT usage is increasing, Google’s search market share is still just under 90%. 

As Aleyda Solis said in a recent interview:

“ChatGPT’s ability to handle conversational experiences doesn’t necessarily mean it will reduce Google’s user base or market share. In fact, ChatGPT might grow in areas where Google wasn’t meeting users’ needs in the first place. This isn’t a zero-sum game – both platforms can grow simultaneously.”

But what about the impact of AI on Google search itself? According to a recent study, AI Overviews appear in 47% of search results, providing users with a concise summary of information in answer to their questions. Here is an example of an AI Overview for the question, “How will SEO change in 2025?”:

A study by Ahrefs from October 2024 highlighted some key differences between SERPs with an AI Overview and those without. They found that AI Overviews populate for long-tail keywords with primarily informational intent, and almost 100% of SERPs displaying an AI Overview returned at least one other SERP feature, with People Also Ask and Featured Snippets being the most prominent.

A recent analysis by Tracey McDonald from Seer Interactive looking at 10,000 informational intent keywords ranking in the top 20 positions showed that for queries where AI Overviews appear, organic CTR dropped from 1.41% to 0.64%. However, when websites appear in the AI Overview, CTR rises from 0.74% to 1.02%. So, essentially, AIOs are having a significant impact on CTRs, and it’s important to appear in them to maintain CTR levels.

So, should we be worried?

Brands won’t suddenly lose most of their website’s organic traffic due to the introduction of AI Overviews and other AI-powered search. Zero-click search has been around for a while, and with Google constantly adding more features to the SERPs, drawing attention and clicks away from the original “ten blue links,” it’s not just AIOs that have been and will continue to impact traffic. According to Sparktoro research, only 40% of searches result in a click.

In addition, it appears likely from recent studies that the traffic websites will lose is predominantly informational in intent – so less likely to convert or even lead a user to consider a product or service. 

However, this doesn’t mean that traffic generated via ChatGPT and others isn’t valuable. One of our clients in the business telecoms sector recently acquired two high-quality leads through ChatGPT referrals, even though the traffic being driven is still very low in comparison to Google as a channel. A recent post from Kevin Indig based on a Similarweb study of 7,000,000 transactional referral sessions from ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini and Perplexity across September, October and November in the US found that while “AI Chatbot referral traffic is still tiny compared to Google” this traffic is more engaged:

The primary purpose of SEO is to capture high-intent traffic by creating content that will attract customers searching for your products, services, and solutions. That isn’t going to change. While the ways that customers discover and interact with your brand will no doubt evolve, the ultimate goal can still be achieved with the right strategy and tactics. 

Stay positive and consider AI a new source of visibility, traffic (and even sales) for your business. We need to understand which parts of “traditional” SEO cross over and any new tactics that would help build visibility in AI-generated answers.

Top tips for your organic strategy

Don’t start ripping up the SEO rule book! The websites that get featured in AI overviews and assistants tend to have strong organic visibility in the standard SERPs anyway, and this goes for SearchGPT too, which relies on Bing’s index. OpenAI and Microsoft’s partnership makes them Google’s biggest competitor – and an in-depth study of 80 million clickstream records in ChatGPT by SEMrush found that 46% of queries triggered SearchGPT, and there appears to be a high level of similarity between SearchGPT citations and Bing’s top results. Therefore you need to:

• Continue focusing on the central principles of good SEO: a technically sound website, high quality, useful and user-centric content, and a solid website user experience. 
• E-E-A-T is only going to become more critical, particularly authority. So, double down on digital PR done right, emphasising topical salience, brand coverage in high-authority and relevant publications, and links from industry niche websites to key areas of your website that you want to grow.
• There is a reason “Experience” was added to E-A-T – and ultimately, this is something that AI cannot replicate. Third-party reviews from respected platforms like Trustpilot, and unique content highlighting expertise such as testimonials and case studies is more important than ever before. 

AI search strategy recommendations

• Ask ChatGPT and other AI assistants questions about your brand or what it considers the leading brands in your industry. Does your brand appear? Look at the common questions related to your brand and track your visibility in ChatGPT regularly – this can be done using a script or through your search marketing agency.
• Digital PR should focus on your brand associations. Ultimately, LLMs like ChatGPT scrape and use data and content from across the web to decide with the highest level of probability possible that one word will come after another. You need to ensure your brand is closely associated with the topics on which you are an expert (and want to appear in AI chat). PR is one of the best ways to get your brand out there alongside those topics and keywords. Take a look at Rand Fishkin’s explanation here. 
• If you’re ranking well but looking to break into the AI Overview – analyse the content being generated. How closely does your content on that topic align? Are you covering the key themes with a succinct intro at the beginning and answering the top customer queries?
• Note: we’re not advocating that all content becomes homogenous – it still needs to be littered with useful insights based on experience and expertise that set it apart from the 10 other blogs on the same topic!
• Ensure key stakeholders understand the importance of brand growth for building organic visibility. As we’ve seen repeatedly, Google and AI answers tend to favour strong brands. Multiple streams of digital activity must collaborate and contribute to success here. Experienced SEOs will be able to advise on the best tactics to achieve this.

Diversification via a multi-platform search strategy

Brands must be visible wherever their customers are, so developing a multi-platform search strategy should be a top priority for 2025. 

It also makes logical sense that if the rise of AI answers will impact organic traffic generated via Google and Bing, we should diversify our traffic sources. 

There has been considerable (somewhat unwarranted) hype over the last couple of years, with sweeping statements like “40% of young people turn to apps like TikTok and Instagram for search purposes instead of traditional search engines” regularly appearing. While there has been a fundamental shift in search habits, particularly for Gen Z, it’s essential to qualify this and put it in context. 

Exploring social search

The buzz around “TikTok SEO” makes sense. In particular verticals (food, travel, entertainment, beauty, fashion, etc.), TikTok and Instagram dominate, with many searchers discovering content through influencers and brands rather than more traditional routes like Google. For certain types of searches and for certain groups of users, visually appealing, short-form video content clearly wins, adding a level of authenticity and convenience that Google struggles to compete with (although we ave seen them adapt by showing more video content from YouTube, TikTok and elsewhere in the SERPs, as well as favouring user-generated content from platforms like Reddit. 

We need to consider platforms like Pinterest, Reddit and more when planning our content strategies. Several industry experts have spoken about this at length, and this shift means that SEO strategies must evolve to amplify content on those platforms where their customers spend their time. 

There are so many potential avenues for organically connecting with customers, each requiring its own strategy and tailored content. We couldn’t possibly cover them all here (follow-up posts for social search strategies are incoming). But what can be done to get started?

Social search strategies to action 

• Employ classic research techniques to understand your brand’s “search universe” and adapt strategies accordingly. You need to know what platforms your customers use and interact with when searching for and consuming content.
• Undertaking proper user research is key here. This shouldn’t only play into a content strategy for a website but also help us understand what other platforms users typically interact with when they’re searching for products, services or inspiration online. For example, a retailer might find that a significant portion of their target customers typically turn to Pinterest to search.
• Understand who you’re trying to connect with before anything else. What are their interests? What problems do they have? Research relevant keywords and trending topics within your niche using social listening tools. 
• Research within the platforms. For example, TikTok has a keyword research tool. Is there a high search volume for topics and terms related to your industry? What kind of content and brands are currently appearing for them? You can plug some of your main keywords into Instagram and view the top trending content – can you add value here with your own content? Is there an opportunity to engage with relevant influencers?

• Reddit has grown massively in terms of visibility in Google over the last couple of years – indicating users cry out for authentic content based on real experiences from people just like them. You can scrape Reddit for analysis of sentiment related to your brand and understand industry topics that people are discussing to feed both into your content strategy.
• Competitor research – explore what’s going on in your particular market. Are most of your competitors pushing content on a particular platform, and you’re not? What kind of engagement are they getting?
• Think about how this links to other channel activity, such as paid social ads. 

All this will foster user-centricity, content quality and E-E-A-T – and enable you to launch a multi-modal approach to content that aligns with the “search universe” you’ve researched for your brand.

Demonstrating the value of organic activity 

This year, more than ever before, we need to understand how SEO impacts a business’s bottom line. Focusing solely on metrics like rankings and traffic has been a no-no for a while. Instead, we need to understand how our organic strategies impact revenue.

Alongside this, we have the complications of tracking the impact of AI search and chat, which is proving quite difficult with the tools available right now. Although there are some options, which we’ll cover below.

• Understand how visible your brand is in AI Overviews. There are some tools such as SEOmonitor where, alongside tracking a website’s rankings, they are also able to track visibility in AIOs.
• Don’t rely on last-click attribution – we need to show that SEO impacts the success of other channels. In the messy middle of consideration cycles, a customer may find a brand via organic search then convert through another channel (and vice versa of course!)
• Ask your leads how they found you! This can help to give extra context to data we see in GA and CRMs like Hubspot. If we identify the touchpoints at which converted customers have discovered our brands, we can start to paint a better picture of what channels and types of content are performing.
• Measure the impact of traffic gained from visibility outside of Google search – you can set up a GA4 Looker Studio dashboard to pull through this data quite easily. You can see our Distinctly example below:

Final takeaways

Organic growth in 2025 is less about a set of pre-defined SEO tactics, and more about how visibility is generated online for a brand in all the relevant places their customers want to retrieve information, get inspiration and discover new products/services; it is much more nuanced.

We need to provide useful, interesting content for users. Create an outstanding user experience. And build an enticing, powerful brand that resonates.

Ultimately, the key to SEO in 2025 and beyond is staying nimble, adaptable, and learning about new developments and their impact as soon as possible.

That’s something about SEO that will never change, at least!

Please do get in touch to discuss further, or reach out to me on LinkedIn.