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Looking ahead: SEO industry predictions for 2025

February 4, 2025 - 9  min reading time - by Helen Pollitt
Home > SEO Thoughts > Looking ahead: SEO industry predictions for 2025

In SEO we get used to changes. We are often the first in line to proclaim how unpredictable our jobs are, and how difficult it is to accurately track our impact. We get used to adapting on the fly to algorithm updates, or changes in searcher behavior. So why then do we want to try to predict what will happen over the next year?

Predictions help us reflect on what’s gone before. Making and weighing up predictions causes us to look back over what’s happened in recent years. It helps us take stock of the volume and nature of algorithm updates, or the speed of new technology adoption.

Predictions also help us evaluate what, amongst all the noise, of updates and articles, of emergency meetings and training sessions, actually had an impact on our day-to-day success. They make us take stock of what we did and could have done better.

Ultimately, it makes us look backwards in order to look forwards.

I’ve been working in SEO for 17 years. That’s a lot of time to look back over. I’ve been in the industry when organic search practitioners were the most important member of the marketing team.

I’ve also been through the lay-offs not long after. I have seen a lot of tactics touted as the way to win the SERPs. I’ve also been around long enough to know that often it’s not that simple.

So then, gathering up my knowledge of what’s happened in the SEO world over the past couple of decades, I’ve set out to share some predictions of my own.

What do I think is a realistic punt at what might change across 5 key areas of SEO? The search platforms, our strategic approach, the day-to-day implementation, SEO career trajectories and the industry as a whole.

Search platforms

Let’s start with the search platforms themselves. This is what I predict will be the significant changes over 2025.

SERP volatility will increase

I think Google is starting to feel the pressure, for once, they are not uniquely leading the way regarding what technology is used in the SERPs, they are having to catch up to others.

I was slightly suspicious that their AI Overviews seemed to be launched before they were fully finished, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see other significant changes to the SERPs. I reckon we’ll see AI answers appearing in other areas of the SERPs, for example the “People Also Ask” section might become more personalized.

Google’s antitrust appeal will begin to have an impact

Google has been accused by the U.S. courts of having a monopoly over ad tech. They also faced trouble in the EU courts over giving its own shopping results priority over rivals’ comparison shopping services.

A U.S. court also suggested they should be forced to sell off Chrome and not be allowed to keep making deals to make Google the default search engine on phones.

It was successful in some appeals, and less successful in others, but what this is signaling is that there is a move to break up big tech monopolies. This could result in fairer advertising. It could also result in sections of Google’s business being carved off. That might make data sharing across their platforms harder to do.

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Google’s AI Overviews will continue to evolve

AIOs have already shown a big change in how they operate in relation to the rest of the SERPs. It used to be that if you were in the AIOs you wouldn’t appear in the main SERPs. That’s not the case any more.

As Google continues to feel pressure from other search platforms, and other ways users are searching for information, I believe they will continue to experiment with AI in the SERPs.

New, popular search platforms will emerge

We saw the speed at which Chat-GPT became part of the general consciousness. I predict that there will be other AI platforms that become part of the general public’s conversation before the end of 2025.

Whether that is Perplexity.ai, You.com or one that’s not even launched yet, we will see an increase in adoption of AI in search beyond AIOs and ChatGPT queries.

SEO strategy

Utilize the SERPs more

The SERPs are becoming stickier. Searchers will be leaving them less as they are presented with the information, products or answers they were looking for.

We need to make sure that we are using every pixel of the SERPs that is available to us. But it needs to be strategic. Think about the message you are sending with your SERPs.

Do you need to consider it more as brand awareness advertising for some queries?

How can you better leverage other platforms that are appearing in the SERPs more? For example, Reddit.

Social media will be more critical to SEO success

Social media will become increasingly important to SEO success. Not just because the young’uns are using TikTok as their discovery tool, but because of the brand implications.

Getting mentions in social media will lead to brand strength in your industry.

SEOs will need to be more commercial in their strategies

Rightfully so, SEO won’t be seen as “free” traffic any more, it will need to be justified.

Us SEOs cost money, so does hosting the pages we keep creating and those tools we like to use. Employing SEO tactics isn’t cost neutral. We need to get better at demonstrating how we’re delivering ROI.

Last-click attribution will not be enough

We’ll need to do that by showing how we impact the success of other channels. If we continue to only look at last-click attribution we run the risk of suggesting SEO is less effective during a time where people may only be using Google during a portion of their buying journey.

However, if we track organic traffic as part of a more involved, multi-step journey, we can more realistically surface the ways we’ve helped convert a customer from “just looking” to “buying”.

Links will be less sought-after than mentions

This might be painful for SEOs to hear, but, links will be devalued. That’s right. I’m calling it. PR campaigns will not be focused on links for much longer, but brand mentions will be more important.

This will in part be due to the reduced reliability of links as a “rating” tool for traditional search engines, but also due to LLMs who are desperately trying to make sense of the internet.

SEO implementation

Prepare yourselves. SEO activity as you know it is going to be different in 2025.

Implementation will not focus on Google

Already you are likely to be discussing LLMs in your conversations about SEO for your websites. Pretty soon we won’t default to “Google wants this” in our thinking, it will be more aligned with what does a wider spread of search platforms need? This will be felt across both technical set-up of sites and the content they contain.

User signals will be more important

Clicks, interactions, and shares will be more important, not just because of how they might impact the algorithms but because social will be so important.

You’ll want to create content that is shareable and engaging. Not just for conversion purposes but to help increase conversations about your brand.

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Biggest barrier to success will be technical SEO

The engines will need to know with absolute certainty what they are commenting on, because they aren’t just citing it, they are using it in their own instructions. Technical SEO is where that clarity lies. We will need to make sure sites are crawlable and can be parsed by non-Google bots.

We’ve grown accustomed to Google’s drive to improve how they explore the internet. We may have to go back to being more targeted and decisive in the way we structure sites for bot-navigation going forwards.

Automation will be more prevalent

You won’t be able to spend your time updating individual meta-titles, you’ll need to develop ways to enact SEO at scale, programmatically. It’ll be easier though because of AI.

In fact, you will hear it being discussed more during interviews and performance reviews. Your managers will want to know that you are cutting the cost of people-hours by utilizing the technology that is becoming widely available.

SEO careers

GEO experience will be required

As traffic from AI search platforms and LLM websites becomes more impactful, leaders will see its value more and will want to hire for those skills.

Remember when Python was on every SEO job description despite no-one on the hiring team knowing what it would be used for? That will be “LLM skills” in 2025.

That may be disguised as “AEO” (AI Engine Optimization), “LLMO” (Large Language Model Optimization) or even “GEO” (Generative Engine Optimization) in the job advert, but it will mean the same thing. Hiring managers will want to know that you are upskilled and ready to help their brands in the new wave of search platforms.

Success will mean expanding platform knowledge

Success in your role will mean broadening your platform knowledge. You won’t be able to rely on your knowledge of Google alone.

You will need to understand the other platforms your audience is using to find information, whether that be social media platforms like TikTok, or AI search engines like Perplexity.AI.

SEO jobs will have fancier names

No more “SEO Lead”, we’ll have “SEO and GEO Lead”, SEO, ASO & LLMO Lead” until eventually we just go back to plain old “Organic Acquisition Lead”.

Truthfully though, we’re not just responsible for traditional search engines any more. Career progression will mean expanding outside of pure SEO as we currently know it.

SEO Industry

What about the SEO industry itself? What’s going to happen there over the next year?

SEO will die

You’ll hear it mentioned a lot this year. SEO is dead! Again. That’s OK, the sky will turn red, pigs will fly, Grey’s Anatomy will be off the air, all before SEO finally dies.

If there are websites that use search functionalities, there will be a business out of making sure your company’s website is the one people discover. We have careers for a while yet.

There will still be fearmongering

We’ll definitely still worry about our careers as SEOs though. Rightfully so, lots of people have felt the sting of redundancies and lay-offs recently. In my ancient wisdom, I can pretty much assure you that this is cyclical, we have hiring peaks and troughs in any marketing/product focused industry.

There may be uncertainty whilst we figure out how to properly measure the impact that SEOs, sorry, “SEOASOLLMO professionals” are having on brand, traffic acquisition and revenue beyond Google.

Once we realize how to properly attribute our work to success in these new search markets, we’ll be able to prove that SEO is still an important and lucrative driver of traffic.

There will always be change

Nothing stays the same. That’s unfortunately the industry we’re in. It’s what makes it so interesting and engaging even after 17 years of it. Your job as you know it now will not be the same next year

This is good news – if you’ve been in a career for a long time you get a bit bored. This is exciting! We’ve not had this much change and uncertainty in SEO since Penguin.

Change means new skills to learn, more techniques to try, more platforms to explore. Unfortunately it will still mean confusing conversations at the dinner table as your family tries to work out what you actually do for a living. That will never change.

Helen Pollitt See all their articles
With over 17 years' experience in the industry, Helen Pollitt is a senior SEO strategist with a passion for leading high performance teams and delivering robust strategies for companies ranging from SMEs to multinational enterprise sites. Helen is often seen on stage delivering talks about digital marketing and SEO and she is a regular contributor to industry publications.
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