SEO Trends in 2025

As we approach the end of 2024, we’re looking forward to what we believe will be the hottest trends in search engine optimisation (SEO) next year. It’s no secret that the SEO world is always changing, with new ranking factors, algorithm changes, technology, and trends shaking up the game each year. If you want to see success in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and reach the dizzy heights of those hallowed top spots, you need to be up to speed with what’s hot in SEO so you can reevaluate your digital marketing strategy to continue growing your sales, brand authority, organic trafficOrganic search traffic (sometimes called natural or unpaid search) is the traffic that's driven to a website because of unpaid placement on a search engine results page., and rankings.

Our experts have narrowed down the SEO trends that are set to make waves in 2025 – they are:

• AI & Machine Learning in SEO
• Mobile-First SEO
• Zero-Click Searches & Featured Snippets
• Visual & Video Search Optimisation
• Optimising For E-E-A-T Signals
• Technical SEO
• The Resurgence of Traditional SEO Techniques

Let’s get stuck in into these trends and tips for handling them going into 2025!

AI & Machine LearningMachine Learning is the branch of artificial intelligence (AI) that gives computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed. in SEO

You can’t move in digital marketing without stumbling across AI and machine learning, so it’s no shock that they will continue to influence SEO in 2025. ChatGPT first launched in 2022 and now has more than 200 million active users in 2024, which is phenomenal to think about.

AI technology is changing almost every industry imaginable, and digital marketing and SEO are no exception. For example, it can be used as a tool to inform keyword research, content creation, and content research. Yes, this can be incredibly helpful, but there is a risk of relying too heavily on these tools, which could mean that strategies lack the originality that search engines like Google crave. This is why we think Google will be pushing its E-E-A-T signals even more next year (more on that later).

As well as changing how digital marketing strategies are done, the results themselves are also changing. Google has Gemini, and Bing has Copilot, and this adoption of AI technology suggests that AI-driven search is the way forward. The incorporation of these tools also means that the way users interact with search results has changed. Now, users are shown a ‘summary’ of various resources at the top of search results, which means they can get answers to their queries more quickly. Google is all about making its users’ lives easier, and the convenience that generative AI in SEO brings means that these AI Overviews are going nowhere, so you must ensure that your content is optimised for this new style of results.

It’s not just AI Overviews that are shaking up search. Tools like SearchGPT (from the same creators of ChatGPT) have been launched as an alternative to search engines. They’re designed to provide more of a conversational experience for the user to find the information they need. For each response SearchGPT gives, it includes a clear link to the source so users can engage with results.

To increase your chances of being included in AI results, you should:

• Ensure content fulfils search intent
• Improve site crawlability
• Make sure content is fresh and relevant
• Optimise with E-E-A-T in mind
• Include summaries in your content for AI to cite

Mobile-First SEO

It’s a well-known fact that Google takes a mobile-first approach to indexing and ranking websites, which means that if you don’t have a fully mobile-friendly or at least a fully responsive site design, you won’t stand a chance of capturing organic search traffic, even if the desktop version of your website is up to scratch.

When you consider that 92.3% of internet users use a mobile phone to access the web, it doesn’t look like the importance of mobile-first SEO will die down in 2025.

There are some points to consider when it comes to forming your mobile-first indexingGoogle's Mobile-First Indexing is a change to the search engine's indexing system, where sites are ranked higher in search results if they're easier to navigate on mobile devices. strategies to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and reap the full benefits of your SEO efforts:

• Is your website designed with mobile users in mind?
• Can Google crawl the mobile version of your site without issues?
• Is the mobile version of your site different from the desktop version?
• Do images and other multimedia content load quickly without quality being impacted?

Zero-Click Searches & Featured Snippets

Up until recently, SEO has been all about getting users to click on your pages in the SERPs. After all, it’s about capturing that all-important organic traffic, right? Well, yes, this is still important, but 2024 has seen a shift in how Google displays its search results. Enter zero-click searches and Featured Snippets, and they’ll be even more prominent in 2025.

With zero-click searches, users don’t need to click on any results to get the information they need. It’s another way of making search more convenient for them. Instead, the required information is shown as a Featured Snippet or an AI Overview through Gemini. It might not be immediately obvious (because you’re used to SEO concentrating on organic traffic to your site), but adopting advanced SEO strategies for Featured Snippets and zero-click can do wonders for your online visibility and brand authority.

To increase your chances of appearing in this type of search result next year, your content needs to:

• Answer search intent
• Include relevant keywords
• Address People Also AskThe People Also Ask (PAA) SERP feature is a Google Search feature that displays similar questions to the one you typed into the search box. and FAQs queries
• Be organised and easy to read

Learn more: How To Do Keyword ResearchKeyword research helps websites unearth the best keywords to drive traffic and visibility. This research is supported by a number of powerful web-based tools, the best of which we’ve listed here. in Semrush

Visual & Video SEO

In 2025, visual search trends are going to be huge. This is because multimodal search (using different methods, like photos, to get relevant results) is rising. Google Lens allows users to search using the pictures they take instead of trying to describe a query. According to Google, nearly 20 billion visual searches are made monthly, and 20% of these are shopping-related, which is vitally important for eCommerce businesses.

It’s good practice to optimise the following to increase your chances of appearing in results for visual searches:

• File names
• Titles
• Descriptions
• Tags

Doing this will allow Google to understand your visual elements better.

It’s not just image optimisation that will be popular for SEO next year. Video optimisation will also be big. Google is displaying more and more YouTube results, and pages with video tend to do better than those without, so now is the time to focus on video content as well as more traditional content.

To get the best results, your videos will need to:

• Contain relevant keywords
• Have optimised titles, tags, thumbnails, and descriptions to boost YouTube visibility.

E-E-A-T Signals

Google’s E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) has always been important, but with the rise of zero-click searches and AI summaries, E-E-A-T signals will be an even bigger trend in 2025. This is because Google’s search results and AI models are trained to show original content that brings value to the reader and is trustworthy, so if you want your content to be displayed, you need to fulfil the E-E-A-T principles.

To do this, you must:

• Let your experience shine through in your content
• Answer search intent and address any related queries in your content
• Incorporate things that signal users and search engines can trust you (think author bios, case studies, testimonials, awards, certificates).
• Enrich your content with multimedia
• Uphold quality by having fact-checked SEO content that users know they can rely on

Read more: Optimise Your Web Content Like an SEO Expert in These 5 Steps

Technical SEO

Next year, Google is going to put even more emphasis on user-friendly websites. This means that technical SEO will be more important than ever. Of course, technical SEO is nothing new, but it will be coming to the fore in 2025.

Having your technical SEO up to scratch means that Google can easily crawl and index your pages for ranking, and it also helps ensure a good user experience. Google’s Core Web Vitals and user experience results are a great measurement of how well your website scores when it comes to page loading speeds, interactivity, and stability.

To ensure your website ticks all the right boxes when it comes to technical SEO for user experience:

• Carry out regular technical SEO audits to detect potential issues
• Ensure your title tags, meta descriptions, and image alt text are fully optimised
• Keep an eye on your page speed
• Use structured data and schema markup

Learn more: What Are Core Web Vitals?

Traditional SEO Techniques Are Still Important

Despite expecting the above trends to shake up SEO next year, traditional strategies will be more important than ever. We recommend doubling down on these as we transition into next year. Below are the traditional tried and tested SEO tactics that will be just as relevant in 2025 as they are today if you want to continue to build your brand, authority, and credibility in the SERPs.

1. On-page Technical SEO

We’ve already touched on the importance of technical SEO for 2025. However, next year, it’s really important to double down on this aspect. Regular technical audits can detect any issues that might be holding your website back from reaching its full potential in the SERPs.

They look at:

• Site structure
• Internal linking and URL structure
• Site speed
• Mobile-friendliness
• Crawling and indexing
• How you are using tags like canonical tags in the HTML code
• Backlink profile
• Rankings

An audit can then help you when it comes to prioritising on-page changes like the optimisation of the following important elements that make it easier for search engines and users to understand your pages:

• Title tags
• Meta descriptions
• Header tags
• URLS

2. Content Strategy

Content creation will always be an important part of SEO. Quality content has the power to boost your online visibility and credibility and to position your business as a leader in your industry.

Google has placed an emphasis on high-quality, helpful content that brings value to the user for a long time now because it wants to deliver the best experience to its users. For the best chances of ranking, your content needs to address user queries and be engaging. On top of this, content freshness, relevance, and adherence to E-E-A-T is vital.

Read more: Content Strategy Cheat Sheet

3. High-Quality Link BuildingLink building is a process of acquiring links pointing to your website. These links are obtained by creating content, participating in social media or commenting on other blogs.

Building high-quality backlinks to your website will always be important. After all, every quality link you have that points back to your site acts like a vote of confidence for your content and website, meaning you’ll appear higher up the SERPs, which is great for organic rankings.

For a successful and effective link building strategy, focus on the following:

• Prioritise quality over quantity: A few linksHyperlinks, also known as links, are the connection points on a webpage that take you to other webpages. coming from highly respected websites can do more to boost your backlink profile than hundreds of links from spammy, low-quality sites, which can cause more harm than good.
• Domain authority: Check the domain authority (DA) of the sites you want your backlinks to come from. The higher the DA score, the more trust the site carries, which is good for your backlink profile.
• Contextual Relevance: Your backlinks need to come from sites that are relevant to your industry.
• Anchor textAnchor text is the text highlighted by a hyperlink. The words highlighted are crucial for SEO, informing Google’s crawling bots about the content of the site linked to.: Make sure the anchor text is relevant to the link it is going to and includes a target keywordKeywords are the words and phrases that potential customers might search for to find your business. if possible. This will help Google and its users understand it.

Learn more: Best Link Building Services To Use in 2025

We Can Help You Stay On Top of The Latest SEO Trends

It looks like 2025 is going to be another big year for SEO. The above trends are set to reshape the industry and change how SEO efforts are carried out. Of course, traditional white-hat SEO methods like technical SEO, link building, and content creation will be at the heart of staying ahead of these shifts.

If you’re unsure about how to stay ahead next year, our friendly team of experts is here to help. What’s even better is that we’re giving you the opportunity to discuss your SEO performance, our relevant SEO services, and your goals for next year for free!

Book your free SEO strategy session worth £1,000. We’ll discuss your 2025 goals and objectives, perform a live review of your current SEO performance and answer your burning questions on the latest SEO trends in 2025. Get a call booked in today!