2025 SEO Predictions

1.AI Overview

At the beginning of 2024, many predictions emerged about how AI would integrate into search, including the emergence of ‘SGE’. During this year, we have seen the output that Google will deliver: AI overviews. These AI overviews are not merely a temporary measure; they appear to be a lasting development that is expanding rapidly. Furthermore, sites like NerdWallet have already forecasted potential earnings losses due to AI-driven search changes.

AI overviews are growing in both the number of countries where they’re available and their frequency of appearance in search results. What remains in constant flux is how Google decides what content to populate in these overviews. This is where the role of SEO professionals becomes crucial. Additionally, there is a need for improved reporting tools from Google, including enhancements to Google Search Console, to help adapt to these changes. While content quality and relevance remain essential, the integration of AI-driven overviews represents one of the most significant interface changes Google has seen in years, helping it stay the market leader despite enhancements from platforms like Bing and ChatGPT.

The next steps for the SEO industry involve working with AI Overviews to maximize visibility and engagement. While AI Overviews currently have limited impact on many commercial terms, Google has already started to introduce ads within these overviews. This could potentially harm Google’s reputation with what is already a subject people are fearful to trust. However, AI Overviews are likely here to stay in 2025 and beyond.

2.Navboost

In 2024, a significant insight emerged from a Google algorithm leak, which revealed more about how their algorithm operates, including over 14,000 different attributes.  One specific factor highlighted is called “Navboost.” Navboost affects page rankings based on the volume of clicks a page receives on the search results. Although it’s more complex than just click-through rate (CTR), at its core, Navboost emphasises the importance of CTR for SEO.

For SEO professionals, the value of CTR has long been understood, but this leak underscores its impact even more. If your brand is already ranking well on page one, it suggests that your content, intent, authority, and technical SEO are strong. The next priority should be increasing CTR to climb to the top of the rankings.

3.Your Content is Not Helpful Enough

Google’s focus on helpful content is not new—the first Helpful Content Update was introduced in 2022. However, updates throughout 2024 indicate that Google still struggles to fully trust and assess content for helpfulness. For SEO, this emphasises the need to make helpful content the a core component of optimisation strategies, moving away from unneccessarily long articles stuffed with synonyms purely for SEO reasons.

The priority should be to get to the point, offer genuinely helpful insights, and add value for users.

CRO (Conversion Rate Optimisation)

In 2024, a new metric was added to the Core Web Vitals assessment related to page speed, called Interaction to Next Paint (INP). This metric demonstrates Google’s increasing emphasis on overall user experience on-page. Google also considers metrics like time spent on a page and bounce rates, based on a user’s behaviour during the same session. Although Google does not use Google Analytics data for this, it can track if a user clicks through to a site, spends a brief time there, and then returns to the search results (as it has seen the same user return to the same search query again).

Although Google has downplayed some Core Web Vitals, it remains firmly on SEOs plans.  I believe this is due it being one of the few parts of the algorithm Google provide a clear ‘yes/no’ assessment of performance. As well as these benchmarks, optimising for conversion rate, user experience, and overall on-page experience is even more essential—not only for attracting users from various channels but now also for organic search performance. Improving conversion rate will help drive more traffic and then even more conversions!

5.Intent is #1

“How do you get to #1?” has been a longstanding question in the SEO industry. While no single factor can guarantee the top spot, one undoubtably important element is user intent. Many SEO tools now integrate intent analysis into keyword data, categorising terms by informational, commercial, or navigational intent.

Understanding intent helps tailor pages to match the specific goals users have when searching certain terms. It may even reveal that certain keywords aren’t worth targeting if they don’t align with your goals. Intent can overlap in cases like “VAT registration,” where users may search to learn about the process or purchase a related service. Therefore, creating pages that cover multiple intents or aligning different pages with different intents can increase your chances of ranking well.