In the latter half of 2023 and throughout 2024, the SEO landscape has been thrown into upheaval. Monumental updates and changes have left many small- and mid-size websites reeling, especially in niches where they once outperformed larger competitors.
The reality is, SEO results almost never happen in a vacuum. Every action you take on your site is influenced by a web of concurrent developments — algorithm updates, SERP feature shifts, and more. This makes it difficult to isolate variables and pinpoint what’s really driving disruptions in your performance.
Understanding what’s currently happening in the world of SEO is more vital than ever for informing your strategy as you plan for what’s ahead in 2025.
A timeline of SEO turbulence: Late 2023 into 2024
The last six months of 2023 saw relentless volatility in the SERPs, with one major algorithm update after another.
- August 2023 Core Update: This marked the beginning of a turbulent period, shaking up rankings across the board.
- September Helpful Content Update (HCU): Previously separate from core updates, this iteration has left many sites struggling to recover.
- October and November Core Updates: These continued the trend of volatility, with significant impacts on rankings and traffic.
- Google’s Deal with Reddit: In February of 2024, Google licensed Reddit’s content to train its AI models. At the same time, Reddit’s presence in the SERPs exploded, sparking debate about its usefulness and safety for users. While Reddit’s AI overview appearances are dwindling, its influence on search visibility remains significant.
- March 2024 Core Update: This 45-day-long update aimed to reduce unhelpful content by 40%, with harsh penalties for offenders. Sites were deindexed within days, making this one of the most impactful updates in recent memory.
- August 2024 Core Update: With this update, Google acknowledged that many smaller sites saw major losses during the HCU, aiming to connect people with “a range of high quality sites, including small or independent sites that are creating useful, original content, when relevant to users’ searches.” Early results show some signs of recovery for those sites.
Adding to the complexity, Google replaced the First Input Delay (FID) with Interaction to Next Paint (INP) as a Core Web Vitals (CWV) metric. While not a primary ranking factor, INP and CWV could act as tie-breakers among top-ranking pages — a crucial detail given the fierce competition on the SERP today.
The rise of AI Overviews and the impact on organic search
In May of 2024, during Google I/O, Google launched its AI Overviews (AIO), formerly known as the Search Generative Experience (SGE) following a period of beta testing. Despite the initial excitement, AIO quickly came under fire for generating hallucinated answers.
Although its visibility has decreased, AIO still significantly impacts the SERP, pushing organic results down by an average of 900 pixels. This shift affects the click-through rates of even top-ranking pages.
It’s possible to have your content cited in AIO, which is theoretically prime placement. However, trying to tell where your site is appearing in these overviews is extremely hard (a “maddening adventure,” as Search Engine Roundtable puts it). Google Search Console currently lumps those clicks and impressions into overall data.
Learn more on our blog: Age of SGE: How Will AI Affect Search Traffic in the Next Decade?
The resulting outcome: More zero-click searches
As these changes unfold, we’re seeing a rise in zero-click searches — instances where users either get the information they need directly from the SERP without clicking through to any site, or create a new search because the initial results didn’t satisfy them. For the former case, this trend ties closely to Google’s apparent goal of keeping users within its ecosystem for longer, thereby increasing ad revenue. Features like AIO contribute to this, as they deliver information-rich content that satisfies user queries without the need for external clicks.
This change has profound implications for organic search. The traditional click-through rate curve may start to change shape, with even top-ranking positions losing their prime status as SERP features push them further down the page. Higher competition and the evolution of search behavior mean that being number one might not be as valuable as it once was.
Sounds scary, I know. But rest assured, there are steps you can take to confidently navigate these challenging times in SEO.
How to respond: Re-establishing your SEO strategy in 2025
Given the current landscape, it’s important to re-establish your baselines and goals. Don’t hyperfocus on year-over-year losses, especially if your site has been hit by updates like the September Helpful Content Update. In some cases, recovery might not be the right goal — stability could be the new success.
Here’s what you can do to adapt:
- Prioritize Quality Traffic: Not all traffic is created equal. Focus on creating content designed to convert, following Google’s guidelines for helpful content as well as the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines. Write for humans, not search engines!
- Solidify Your Technical Foundation: Crawlability is key — Google needs to access your content easily. Core Web Vitals may not be everything, but as mentioned, they can break a tie when all else is equal. Audit your site’s technical state and incorporate elements like schema markup to help search engines quickly understand your content.
- Emphasize Content Freshness: Google now considers multiple dates when crawling your content — byline date, syntactic date, and semantic date. Consistency across these signals is key. Avoid URL dates if possible, as they’re harder to update.
- Bolster E-E-A-T: Expertise, Experience, Authority, and Trustworthiness should be the pillars of your content strategy. Author bylines, bios and expert quotes will help build credibility, while structured data helps communicate your industry niche and relationships to other organizations.
- Optimize for Conversion: With organic traffic potentially dropping, optimizing for conversion becomes critical. Understand your user funnel and tailor CTAs to guide users further down the path. This way, any losses in traffic will have less impact on your bottom line.
- Prioritize Your Efforts: When planning your action items, use a chart to outline resource intensity and estimated impact. This will help you prioritize tasks wisely.
Staying agile in an ever-changing world of SEO
SEO is inherently dynamic, but the strategies outlined here are evergreen. As the landscape continues to evolve, staying informed and adaptable is key. Focus on creating high-quality content, maintaining a strong technical foundation, and optimizing for user experience.
Working with an expert partner in all things SEO will help you stay in front of the curve, and your competitors.
