The volatile and rapid evolution of SEO can feel impossible to predict. And to some extent, it is. But by listening to the foremost experts in the field — those who spend their days closely tracking and analyzing shifts in the search landscape — you can stay one step ahead of those who take a more passive and reactive approach.
What are some of these very smart SEO leaders saying is on the horizon, and what should people pay attention to in the new year?
A resounding key takeaway is to make sure your content resonates with the audience. Seems pretty simple. Provide value to your readers.
Also, measurement is in flux. What will your benchmarks be and how you will measure performance is changing. Are you ready for this long race?
We spoke to some of the top experts and pioneers in SEO to get their thoughts on what lies ahead for SEO in 2025 and beyond. Here are some of their key insights.
Keys to brand visibility in 2025
How can your brand keep getting discovered as trends evolve? This is the million-dollar question, right? With AI jumping into the search game in a serious way, marketers are in a different world where the original rules don’t seem to apply.
Let’s turn to one of the preeminent leaders in the search world for insight. Rand Fishkin, Cofounder and CEO at SparkToro and Founder of Moz, has some ideas on what marketers should be paying attention to in 2025.
“Interestingly, I think (smart) digital marketers are finally moving away from traffic being the dominant KPI toward visibility and engagement from the right audiences. There are two big things I’d pay attention to here:
1) Are you creating something that not only resonates with your potential customers, but creates an incentive for amplification among those with a platform (creators, journalists, editors, YouTubers, podcasters, bloggers, social creators, etc.)?
2) Are you present in the places where your audience pays attention? (The right sources of influence make all the difference.)
This is vastly different from the classic SEO process of simply being at the top of Google. But digital marketers (even old school SEOs) have exactly the right skills to make this work.”
Whew! You can do this with your current skills.
Resetting KPIs and communicating value
TopRank Marketing’s SEO strategist Molly Owens, agrees it’s time to rethink our benchmarks. She notes, “2025 is going to be all about resetting our baselines. After a year or more of impactful algorithm updates plus the launch of AI-powered search (whether it’s AI overviews or search engines like Perplexity), traffic patterns are going to look different going forward. SEO teams will need to focus on communicating the value of what they do to upper management who may not be familiar with the nuances of how search is changing.”
Read more from Molly about the state of SEO in 2025 and adapting to Google’s new reality.
What is the future of SEO and how is it changing?
Is the future bright for search marketing? It definitely felt like 2024 was a year of change, and the answer seems to be that 2025 is going to continue the fast pace of change.
Steve Slater, Sr. Manager, SEO and SEM at HealthPartners, addresses the topic: “This question gets asked every year, and this year it is, without a doubt, harder to answer than ever before. The future of SEO in 2025 looks a lot like how it’s always looked. Content that is centered around the audience that provides a unique perspective or experience and tries to separate from the noise will continue to win. But how SEOs measure success will change.
AI has completely shifted the landscape and we’re currently living through a time where it’s impossible to predict what search market share will look like. Even if Google keeps their top spot, the way they deliver answers to queries will never be the same. The days of being one of ten blue links on a page are over.
Marketers need to pay attention to their brand. The future of SEO is meeting your audience where they are. (There isn’t a cool short hand for that yet. Maybe Digital Experience Optimization?) I’m a firm believer that we are headed into a renaissance of more old school marketing where brand strength will matter more. Your content is going to work for you in new and different ways in 2025. Those ways will be harder for you to measure. When it comes time for the purchase to be made, your brand will be doing some heavy lifting.”
TopRank Marketing’s Associate Search Marketing Director Ryan Leighty agrees.
“Looking ahead to 2025, SEO isn’t just about keywords anymore (hasn’t been for a while now) — it’s about building genuine authority in your space,” Ryan says. “With AI changing how people search, brands need to think beyond just writing for Google. Create content that actually helps your audience and answers their questions naturally. The winners will be those who focus on real expertise and value, not those trying to game the system. It’s about showing up where your customers are actually looking, whether that’s in traditional search results or through new AI-powered search features.”
Jane Bartel, TopRank’s Director of Search & Content Marketing, adds, “Be sure you are answering questions about the topic that could be asked by people with varying degrees of expertise in the area.”
“SEO efforts that focused too much on capturing search volume resulted in content libraries that skewed too heavily towards 101-level content,” Jane explains, “while others catered toward executives but failed to cover the basics. To establish authority on a topic, you need to be able to speak to how it relates to novices and experts alike. If it helps, remember: novices could become your future execs, and execs may very well be novices in this particular topic.”
There it is again. Write content that provides value to your audience. And, pay attention to the authority of your brand.
The new normal: AI in search
Strategist and consultant Adam Riemer shares thoughts on how AI is influencing content to give us a new normal for helpful search content:
“There are going to be a lot of audit and recovery projects in 2025 from a mix of content creators using LLMs (large language model) for content, algorithms getting better at telling fact from fiction as well as what is ‘helpful’ to a user, and a lack of credible sourcing and knowledge.
For example the sites that jumped on the LLM bandwagon have begun losing a large portion of their traffic. Domains that had a strong presence and took shortcuts with LLM content writing are now falling. Even if the content was accurate, it wasn’t as helpful as a human, so they’re paying the price in the algorithms for quality.
As far as sourcing and citing facts, the last couple of years have seen an increase in lazy sourcing and citations. AI Overviews have further fueled this. If you’re writing a medical article about arthritis and the claim is that a specific nutrient helps alleviate the symptoms, for example, one of two things became normal:
- The author or contributor linked to a definition of arthritis instead of a peer reviewed study that talks about that specific nutrient and arthritis.
- An assumption is being made that because the source is from AI Overviews or ChatGPT it is factual. When you click through to the source there is a reasonable chance it has nothing to do with the actual topic which is the ingredient and arthritis. It will instead be arthritis in general. This includes when the LLM says it is combined and with full confidence.”
How are you addressing the LLM bandwagon? Learn more about the best ways to show up in AI search engines in our post: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): A Marketing Primer.
What are SEO practitioners to do?
No keyword glossary. No word count. No link outreach. Where should practitioners focus? Hal Werner, Senior Manager, Digital Optimization, BMC Software has advice for the new year:
“Much of SEO has been focused on sophisticated analysis of highly trackable data with an emphasis on owned site metrics and backlinks. Upcoming SEO success will hinge much more on the ‘softer’ disciplines of branding, PR and buzz-building because of the rise of LLM-based searches (trained on broad web content) and Google algorithm shifts toward reputation and authority. Collaboration and influence in these areas will supercharge some SEO practitioners and sink others.”
Next steps for 2025
As your brand prepares for 2025 success, it’s important to understand the changes in SEO and how you can best address them. Keep in mind these key marketing tactics to address:
- Set new KPIs and benchmarks
- Create authentic content that resonates with your target audience
- Audit your sources and be a good source of information
- Focus on branding
- Concentrate on marketing communications with
- Good actionable and useful content
- Promotion where you audience lives
- Utilize influence (people, partners, brands, employees and publications)
Looking for help with your search marketing strategy? Check out 10 tips to accelerate your results this year, or partner with the experts by contacting us today.
