Now that we’re a few weeks into the New Year, are you wondering what 2025 holds in store for content marketing and search?
Maybe you’re feeling a little nervous about it?
You’re not alone. I was a wreck for much of 2024 (despite my professional face), trying to figure out what the heck was happening to Search.
After Google made several major changes to its algorithm and generative AI coming to search, it’s hard to not feel exhausted from just trying to keep up with the latest.
I wish I could tell you that 2025 will be less intense. But I don’t think so.
In fact, in a recent interview Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, said Google “need[s] to move faster as a company. The stakes are high. These are disruptive moments. In 2025, we need to be relentlessly focused on unlocking the benefits of [AI]…”
So yes, this year is probably going to be wild.
But to be honest, I’m feeling pretty sanguine about it. (That’s my vocab word of the week, what do you think?)
From where I sit, it’s not all gloom, doom, and overwhelm. There’s plenty of opportunity to earn SEO and for businesses to flourish, even as search platforms and content strategies evolve (or devolve) at high-speed.
I’m going to cover some of the strategies I’m suggesting to my clients in this article.
But if you want to see how I’m putting these strategies into play, and start planning your own SEO and content strategy for 2025, then you should register for my upcoming webinar:
How search changed in 2024 (and what it means for 2025)
I’ll be honest—I have no idea what’s going to happen in 2025. No one does, and if they say they do, they’re lying.
However, we can look back at 2024, see what happened over the course of the year, and speculate about what’s coming down the pipeline in 2025.
Google’s big shakeup in 2024
In 2024, for the first time ever, we saw Google’s dominance over the search market slip.
But only a little. With over 90% of the search market it still dominates. For now…
Going into this new year, Google is facing even more uncertainty from competitors (and the US government) than it did last year.
In August 2024, a federal court judge ruled that Google illegally maintained a monopoly in online search and search text ads. By fall, the US Department of Justice pushed for Google to sell off parts of its business.
Meanwhile, several AI companies launched their own search platforms and captured the public’s imagination.
The net result is that, as we move into 2025, Google’s position in search has been shaken and uncertainty remains in the face of continuing change.
AI Overviews, Reddit threads, and other SERP page changes
Google responded to the new competition last year by integrating generative AI into its own search results. We saw AI Overviews (AIO) transform Google’s SERP results into a “new” first page.
AI-generated summaries of information replaced ranked link lists at the top of the page in many (but not all) seraches. So people got direct answers to their queries from the get-go. And (maybe) they didn’t need to click through to the sources anymore?
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This sent the Search industry into a tizzy. I’ll admit, I panicked as well.
It seemed like AI Overviews would stop search traffic at Google. People would be satisfied with a quick answer to their question and wouldn’t bother clicking through to the source.
Several months later we’ve seen click-through-rates (CTR) drop for many businesses. There’s no getting around that harsh reality.
But this change hasn’t brought about the death of Search or, for that matter, SEO that some had predicted. People still use Search, they just use it differently.
Before we get into that, though, it’s important to note that the SERPs changed beyond AI Overviews last year, in some pretty radical ways.
Google integrated a lot more infromation from Reddit threads and other user-generated forums. (And they did this suspiciously soon after striking a $60 million deal with Reddit to access their user-generated content to train large-language models. Yikes.)
Google placed Reddit links right after the AIO on the SERP page ifor many queries, pushing the ranked organic search links down below the fold.
Some people were excited to have community-driven insights surface in search. They argued that it adds diverse perspectives.
Others weren’t so sure how trustworthy and unbiased it made the results.
It doesn’t really matter, because it’s not up to us. Google made the choice, and they have final say, no matter how disruptive it is.
To its credit, Google has seemed to listen to at least some of these complaints and concerns about AI Overviews.
They added more citations to the AI Overviews, which I suspect will increase click-through rates for folks who can manage to get into the results.
The rise of AI-powered search platforms: Bing, SearchGPT, etc.
We all know AI search is the “next big thing.” But what does that actually mean?
It’s hard to say, becaues the idea of AI search is still very young, and we don’t know how they will shake out.
ChatGPT launched its own search function, joining platforms like Perplexity and my personal favorite, Claude, in offering a different kind of search experience.
I tried ChatGPT Search recently while shopping for a new laptop. As expected, the experience was excellent. I got really specific about what I’m looking for. I told it the processor I’m looking for, how much I want to spend, and even which brands to avoid.
Within seconds ChatGPT came back with two specific models that matched all of my specs. I’m writing this blog on the new machine, and it was a great recommendation.
As people become more aware of the richly curated results these AI platforms produce, I expect they’ll want it for themselves—even if they have to pay for the advanced features.
People are using these platforms differently than they use Google, often for more complex queries that benefit from AI’s ability to understand context and synthesize information.
So how are we supposed to optimise for all that??
SEO tactics for 2025 and beyond
Now that we know what changes happened last year, and some idea of what might be coming down the pipeline, what should you do?
My recommendations are below, but don’t miss my upcoming webinar to get them in place for yourself:
Optimizing for AI Overviews
At first I was dubious about AI-generated Overviews.
I thought that getting your site into AI Overviews may not be that important, because I wondered whether people would just skip over them to get to the traditional results beneath.
I was wrong.
Research from BrightEdge suggests getting into the AIO can increase traffic by about 200% if you’re in the top five or ten citations listed.
So how do you get your content into those cited AIO results?
AIOs typically pulls from the top 12 organic search results.
Which basically means that the same tactics that get you into the top results will also get you into AIOs.
Stuff that I cover in my SEO Bridge Builders course, my YouTube Channel, my resources section, and my LinkedIn.
It’s also important to note that not all keywords generate AIOs. So you should be aware of which of your target keywords do generate AIOs, and optimize for those specifically.
We know informational pages (like blogs) are far more likely to trigger AIOs. Long tail keywords (3+ word phrases) are more likely to bring up an AIOs in search results, as well.
SEO tools like Semrush and Ahrefs allow you to see which keywords pull up an AI Overview and what pages are or are not ranking.
I’ll be showcasing how to find that information in the upcoming free webinar.
Optimize for non-Google search platforms
With Google facing challenges from both competitors and regulators, now is the time to look beyond just optimizing for Google.
And now for a sentence I never thought I’d type:
I highly recommend you start optimizing for Bing.
Here’s the thing that’s important for SEO folks to remember in 2025: OpenAI and Microsoft are very close partners.
Their partnership is very complex, with money and technology flowing between the two.
The companies are at this point reliant on each other, which means that optimizing for Bing will help you optimize for AI search.
For Bing to be able to crawl, index and analyze your site’s content, you have to introduce your site and its content to Bing (just like you had to for Google by setting up Google Analytics and Google Search Console).
Optimizing for Bing is pretty easy to start. You need to sign up for Bing Webmaster Tools (Bing’s version of Google’s Search Analytics/Search Console), and then submit your best content through their API.
I’ll be going over this on the upcoming webinar, but for now, here are some quick links to help you get started:
Once you’re set up, it wouldn’t hurt to have a look at your traffic. Many of Bing’s ranking factors are the same as Google’s, so hopefully your best content is already performing well.
I’ll be integrating Bing reports into my client reports, until we are able to get more direct stats from ChatGPT and other AI tools (if that day ever comes).
Social algorithms (and your own algorithm)
I don’t have enough space in this article to go into detail about all of the many Social Media algorithms.
All the big players have their own algorithms, and as I write this, it’s hard to say who the big players are (TikTok has been banned and reinstated since I started writing).
However, my suggestion is to pick two or three social media channels you want to focus on, and research their algorithms as best you can. Learn the ropes, experiment, and see what sticks.
You’ll be thankful you have other traffic sources as Google’s dominance continues to slip.
Beyond that, I always recommend harnessing the power of email marketing and blogging. There is no better way to have control over your message and who sees it than using your own native platforms.
Looking ahead to the opportunities
These are decidedly chaotic times for SEO and content marketing. Nonetheless I see a lot of opportunity in all that uncertainty.
More search platforms mean more opportunities for people to find your business and connect. Getting recognized by these platforms requires some additional work, like setting up Webmaster and API tools on Bing. Monitoring how you’re showing up on these new platforms means using your SEO tools in new ways and conquering the learning curve.
Even so, the primary cornerstones of strong SEO remain in place and continue to pay off.
Write in-depth, long-form content.
Use SEO tools to analyze which of your keywords are currently showing up in AIO, and look at what sites are being listed in AIO.
Then adjust your content and SEO accordingly.
And remember, I’m always here to help you keep your SEO and content marketing strategies moving in the right place.
Join my mailing list, say hello on LinkedIn, or send me an email to Liam@InkwellContent.com.
I’ll help turn your stress into success. 😉
For now, happy New Year, and I’ll see you at the upcoming webinar!
