The Future of SEO: Trends to Anticipate in 2025

Driven by the rapid integration of artificial intelligence, as well as evolving search technologies, Gartner predicts that “by 2026, traditional search engine volume will drop 25%, with search marketing losing market share to AI chatbots and other virtual agents.”

AI-powered tools like Google’s Gemini and Bing’s integration of ChatGPT are leading the shift from search engines to “answer engines,” with user behavior increasingly shifting towards conversational and visual queries.

So, what does this mean for your business? Staying ahead of SEO trends and shifting your SEO strategy accordingly is essential for maintaining visibility in the competitive ecosystem of search engines. In this article, we’ll explore key SEO trends of 2025, offer actionable insights into how SEO is changing, and share SEO predictions for the future.

Evolution of Search Engines in 2025

AI Overview

The Google AI Overview is a search tool designed to deliver instant answers and recommend sources directly at the top of the search engine results page (SERP), transforming how users interact with search engines.

According to Search Engine Land, the AI Overview appears for around 15% of searches, with long-tail keywords (questions of 4+ words) triggering the AI Overviews for 60% of searches. With users now receiving answers for searches directly within the AI overview, fewer users are clicking on website links, establishing this as one of the most important future SEO trends.

The result? Decreased organic web traffic across the board for almost all websites, with a few websites seeing increased traffic due to being featured within the AI Overview.

From Search Engines to Answer Engines

Search engines no longer simply deliver a list of links based on the keywords within user queries; they now prioritize providing direct and relevant answers. AI tools like Google’s Gemini enable real-time multi-channel responses, allowing search engines to analyze text, images, and video to deliver precise results based on user’s searches.

Additionally, Bing’s integration of ChatGPT has also expanded its market share to 7.3% (within the US, making it a formidable competitor within AI-powered search. Google sits at 87.4% market share in the US and is still responsible for most search activity, but Bing appears as if it will become a valuable addition to SEO strategies moving forward.

How to Optimize for AI-Driven Search

AI is reshaping search engines, shifting them from traditional keyword-based tools to more advanced “answer engines” that prioritize semantic relevance and natural language processing (NLP). This means search engines are getting better at understanding the intent behind a search—not just the words used.

As a result, they can deliver more accurate, hyper-personalized results by recognizing:

• Context and meaning behind queries
• Entities like names, dates, and locations
• Relationships between concepts to provide deeper insights

To ensure your content remains visible and relevant in this new era, focus on:

• Using long-tail, conversational keywords that align with conversational searches.
• Building topic clusters that explore subjects from multiple angles.
• Creating in-depth, high-value content that goes beyond surface-level information.

For more on how AI is shaping search, check out Google’s documentation on AI and Semantic Search.

The Impact of AI on SEO

Increased CPC and Role of Paid Ads

Paid metrics like cost-per-click (CPC) have seen a steady increase in cost across the board for paid search advertising due to the AI Overview eliminating the need for organic click-throughs to websites and reducing the overall efficiency of paid search ads.

To simplify it further, the supply of clicks has gone down, but the demand remains the same. To combat this decline in efficacy, focus on improving ad copy, targeting high-intent keywords, and leveraging AI tools to optimize any paid campaigns.

For further reading on what you can do to combat rising CPCs, review Search Engine Land’s article on the topic.

Optimizing Your Website for AI-Powered Search

Site Structure and Schema Markup for AI Optimization

A clear site structure, combined with metadata and schema markup, helps ensure that search engines can easily crawl and index your website’s content. Schema markup is a type of structured data that acts as a cheat sheet for search engines, helping them better understand your content and display enhanced search results.

Site structure is crucial for SEO, specifically for AI-powered search. Effective content optimization strategies involve creating a clear site structure with schema markup to ensure AI-powered search engines can easily crawl and rank content within search results.

To read more, Neil Patel, co-founder of NP Digital and New York Times Best Selling Author,  has a strong guide covering How to Boost SEO through Schema Markup.

Core Web Vitals and User Experience (UX)

Focusing on Core Web Vitals, which measures user experience factors like page speed and responsiveness, also helps ensure your website is optimized for SEO. While this was an important SEO trend in 2024, search engines are increasingly prioritizing websites that deliver a seamless user experience.

Some best practices for ensuring your Core Web Vitals include:

• Optimizing site speed by compressing images and using content delivery networks (CDN)
• Ensuring mobile friendliness through  
• Minimizing layout shifts by reserving space for dynamic content

For more information on improving your website’s technical SEO and UX, review our guide on 5 Tips to Improve Your Website’s Technical SEO.

Changing User Behavior

The rise of AI in search is shifting user activity towards longer, question-based queries and conversational searches, resulting from a few different factors:

• Conversational searches: The rise of conversational AI tools, like ChatGPT, changing how users search for information and shifting behavior away from keyword-based queries
• Voice searches: The shift in users now leveraging voice search, as opposed to text-based search, resulting in more conversational queries and the need for voice search optimization
• Search relevancy: AI overview’s improved ability to provide relevant answers based on conversational queries, reinforcing this shift in user behavior

Additionally, visual search tools, such as Google Lens, are growing in popularity. Google Lens is a vision-based computing software that can understand what you’re looking at and perform tasks like translating text, identifying plants, or exploring menus. To optimize for visual search, ensure that you use high-quality images with descriptive alt text, add schema markup for structured visual data, and ensure fast loading times for content.

For further reading on how AI is transforming user behavior, review Boomcycle Marketing’s article on the topic.

The Role of Backlinks

A “backlink” is a hyperlink that leads from one website to another and is a crucial element in SEO, potentially boosting your website’s ranking on search engine results pages.

High-quality backlinks continue to rise in importance for a website’s ability to rank on search engines, with AI-powered search placing greater emphasis on backlinks from authoritative sites like Quora, Reddit, YouTube, and other industry leaders.

AI-powered search’s preference toward high-quality backlinks also leads the AI Overview to more consistently feature links from websites with high domain authority. To increase your backlinks, start by:

• Publishing guest posts on reputable blogs
• Collaborating with niche influencers to share your content
• Creating data-driven, original content to attract natural links
• Employing backlink strategies and regular backlink audits

Navigating AI-Powered Content Creation

Creating High-Quality AI-Powered Content with E-E-A-T

For years, businesses have focused on blog content as their primary strategy for ranking in search engines. However, with the rise of generative AI tools, search engines have been flooded with low-value, AI-generated content—often referred to as “fluff content.”

To combat this, search engines now prioritize content that demonstrates Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness (EEAT). AI-generated content is increasingly categorized as low-value and removed from SERP rankings. This shift makes it more important than ever to focus on quality over quantity when creating content.

Source: fatjoe

To ensure your content stands out:

• Use AI tools for efficiency but ensure content has human oversight
• Include author bios that highlight expertise and credibility
• Support claims with data from authoritative sources
• Use AI Humanizer tools to ensure your content is not being flagged as AI before publishing

For help writing stronger content, review our guide on 7 Tips for Writing Stronger SEO Content for Your Website.

Leveraging Video Content for Enhanced Engagement

Video content is highly engaging and plays a significant role in SEO strategies for 2025, with Search Engine Land claiming that video content will outperform blogs.

Users spend more time on pages with videos, boosting dwell time and improving website rankings. Additionally, videos are more likely to be shared or embedded on other websites, in turn increasing backlinks, improving keyword targeting, and increasing overall website traffic.

YouTube as a Search Engine

As the second largest search engine, YouTube offers immense SEO potential for websites seeking to capture organic search traffic. Posting videos across YouTube not only creates more touchpoints for potential customers to discover your website but also provides increased value and establishes authority.

To optimize your videos on YouTube:

• Use keywords in titles and descriptions
• Include timestamps for longer videos
• Add transcripts for accessibility
• Link back to your website to direct video content traffic to your website

Future-Proofing Your SEO Strategy

The SEO landscape in 2025 is evolving rapidly with AI-driven search, changing user behavior, and new ranking factors reshaping digital strategies. With more zero-click searches and AI-generated results influencing visibility, adaptability is key.

To stay ahead, businesses must focus on high-quality content and technical SEO improvements. Leveraging video content, structured data, and AI-driven search insights will be crucial for maintaining visibility and engagement.

By prioritizing user-first content, E-E-A-T principles, and multi-channel optimization, businesses can navigate the evolving search landscape and remain competitive.

Want to drive deeper into AI and SEO strategies for 2025? Watch our Webinar Why is My Website Traffic Down? AI & SEO Strategies for a Stronger Digital Presence.