| 28.11.2024 | 09 min |
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is constantly evolving. For 2025, several significant trends are emerging that companies and marketers should consider in order to strengthen their online presence. Some trends from last year, such as voice search, high-quality content or AI, will continue to be relevant next year. The following is a detailed presentation of the key SEO trends for 2025 to provide you with a comprehensive orientation.
The rapid development of artificial intelligence in recent years has also significantly changed the way search engines work. Google and other search engines are already using complex AI algorithms to better understand users’ search intent and provide them with customised results. One prominent example of this is Google SGE (Search Generative Experience), which uses artificial intelligence to provide generated answers and contextual information directly in the search results. Rather than directing users to different websites, Google SGE delivers precise, intent-matching answers, significantly improving the search experience. This trend is expected to intensify in 2025.
It is no longer just about classic optimisation for keywords. Rather, it will be crucial to understand the underlying context and intention behind search queries. Content that is geared exclusively to keywords will increasingly lose its importance. Instead, personalised and dynamic content that optimally addresses user needs will become more relevant.
The integration of AI into SEO, as driven by Google SGE, also means that machine learning will play an increasingly central role. Algorithms that continuously evolve and adapt to changing user habits require SEO strategies to be continually adapted.
The Sonata Insights study looked at the question of what is changing as a result of AI search. We have summarised the findings in our eo:news. 🙌🏼🤖
SearchGPT has the potential to fundamentally change traditional search and search engine optimisation (SEO). Traditional search engines are primarily based on keyword and link matching to deliver search results. However, SearchGPT goes one step further by understanding the intent behind users‘ searches and contextually tailoring content much more precisely. By using artificial intelligence and advanced machine learning, SearchGPT can not only display relevant results but also dynamically customise them to users’ individual needs and preferences.
For SEO, this could mean that focusing on purely keyword-based strategies will be less effective. Instead, companies need to create content that offers a deeper context and directly addresses the searcher’s intention. Content tailored to the user experience and needs will become increasingly important in the future. At the same time, the integration of AI and machine learning requires continuous adaptation of SEO strategies, as algorithms like SearchGPT are constantly learning and adapting to new user behaviour.
The increasing popularity of voice assistants such as Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant has significantly changed the way users search for information. Voice search requires content to be adapted to use natural language and conversational phrases. Long-tail keywords are becoming more important because voice searches often consist of more detailed, conversational phrases. To succeed in voice search, businesses should design content to provide direct and precise answers to typical questions.
Google continues to place a high value on user experience, with Core Web Vitals playing a central role. These metrics include a website’s loading speed, interactivity and visual stability. Technically optimised websites that ensure smooth navigation and fast loading times not only have a better chance of ranking highly, but also increase the time spent and engagement of users. A positive user experience is thus not only a ranking factor, but a decisive competitive factor in the digital world.
Technical SEO also remains a central basis for successful online marketing. Optimisations such as structured data, schema markups and a mobile user experience not only contribute to better rankings, but also ensure barrier-free and pleasant use. A clear page structure, intuitive navigation and fast loading times are just as essential as taking security standards such as HTTPS into account.
Zero-click searches, where users get the information they are looking for directly on the search results page, are becoming more and more common. To benefit from this trend, content must be structured in such a way that it can appear as a featured snippet. Clear and concise answers to frequently asked questions, the use of tables, lists and other structured formats help to optimise content for this prominent position in search results. This ensures that your website remains visible even in an increasingly competitive environment.
Visual content such as videos and images continues to grow in importance. Platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram have shown that video content can significantly increase time on site and click-through rates. Companies should make more use of video content and optimise it for search engines by integrating relevant keywords into titles and descriptions. Visual search, in which users use images as a starting point for a search, is also continuing to grow in importance. Optimised image files with meaningful filenames and alt tags are therefore essential to succeed in visual search.
The importance of high-quality content that radiates experience, expertise, authority and trustworthiness continues to grow. Content should aim to meet specific questions and needs of the target group. A well-founded target group analysis helps to create content that offers real added value and builds long-term trust.
Google continues to place a high value on content created by experts and supported by references and links that substantiate its authority. Transparency is crucial here: information about the authors and their qualifications can significantly increase users’ trust in the content provided.
Search engines are increasingly personalising search results based on user preferences and location. For businesses, this means that optimisation for local searches will remain essential next year. Maintaining a Google My Business profile, consistent name-address-phone number (NAP) data and the use of local keywords are crucial to remaining visible in local searches. Local search offers enormous potential, especially for small and medium-sized businesses.
With stricter data protection laws such as the GDPR, companies must ensure that their SEO strategies are compliant with data protection regulations. Transparent data protection guidelines and obtaining user consent are just as important as using privacy-friendly tools. Striking a balance between effective data analysis and protecting user privacy will be one of the key challenges for marketers.
Backlinks remain an important ranking factor, but the quality of these links is more crucial than ever. Google values links from trustworthy and topic-relevant sources higher, which is why companies should focus on building relationships with industry experts and creating high-quality content. Guest posts and partnerships with renowned platforms can help to sustainably increase the authority and visibility of a website.
The SEO trends for 2025 show that user needs and technical developments are increasingly going hand in hand. Companies that remain flexible and incorporate these trends into their strategies at an early stage will be able to sustainably strengthen their visibility and relevance in the digital space. Search engine optimisation is not a static field, but a continuous challenge that requires innovation and adaptability.
The trends in search engine optimisation (SEO) for 2024 show a strong focus on the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and adjustments to the way Google crawls and indexes websites.
AI technologies are increasingly integrated into SEO and marketing workflows. In 2024, this integration is expected to become even more sophisticated. In particular, tools for creating AI-generated text and images, as well as AI-supported meta tag generators, will play an important role. These tools make it possible to expand SEO capabilities and use them more efficiently.
With the increase in the use of voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, voice search will continue to grow in importance in 2024. Content should be optimised for voice search queries.
As more and more people search from mobile devices, optimising websites for mobile devices is essential and will remain an important topic in 2024.
A good user experience, measured using Google’s Core Web Vitals, is crucial for a good ranking. Websites should load quickly, be user-friendly and offer high-quality content.
It is increasingly important to be considered a reliable source of information for specific topics or niches. Search engines, especially Google, prioritise content that demonstrates authority, defined as a combination of experience, expertise, authority and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T).
There is a huge opportunity in creating video content that ranks in both Google search results and on YouTube. It is expected that the number of digital video viewers worldwide will reach almost 3.5 billion by the end of 2023. A solid video SEO strategy is therefore crucial.
Search engine ranking factors continue to evolve to prioritise trustworthy and knowledgeable content that immediately delivers the best answer to users’ queries. Google assesses the user-friendliness of web pages via metrics such as page load time and interactivity. Good UX is increasingly important for ranking. Leading SEO factors for search rankings include machine learning/AI, Core Web Vitals, and E-A-T & Trusted Sources.
Local searches have increased, underlining the importance of local SEO. Companies should strengthen their presence in local directories and on platforms such as Google Maps.
These provide an excellent opportunity to be showcased directly in Google search results. Content should be designed to appear as answers to user questions in featured snippets.
Search engines are expected to favour websites that are environmentally friendly and adhere to strict security standards in the future.
In view of the growing e-commerce market, online retailers should strengthen their presence on search engine platforms. This could increase the importance of optimising for e-commerce platforms.
To keep up with ever-changing algorithms, it is important to regularly update and refresh content.
With platforms like TikTok, the SEO landscape is changing. It is becoming more important to optimise content for social search engines.
These trends show that SEO in 2024 will be highly dynamic and heavily influenced by technological advances, particularly AI. The ability to adapt to these developments and to use new tools effectively will be crucial to success in SEO.
In a nutshell, Google Page Experience metrics will go live with Core Web Vitals in May 2021, among other things. For us, this means user experience and satisfaction will be given an even higher priority and introduced as major ranking factors. But there’s more in store for us in the coming year – here come the SEO Trends 2021!
Core Web Vitals are an important part of the new Page Experience metrics. These are primarily there to identify user-unfriendly websites. Certainly, Google is currently already strongly behind the idea of better evaluating these pages. But with the Core Web Vitals, this all should be made measurable for webmasters, so that they can more easily find optimization approaches. Additionally, Google has published special FAQs about it.
In the new year, Google is also fully committed to mobile websites. For years, the search engine has been working towards this point and next year it will be time: Google wants to rank mobile optimized websites better in the future. The search engine implements this by having only a smartphone crawler index the pages. Thus, desktop-only websites are clearly at a disadvantage, since the crawler ignores them completely. For this reason, you should definitely prepare your pages for the mobile-first conversion.
Security is very important to Google! For this reason, the search engine wants to remove potentially harmful websites from the search results. This includes, for example, websites that contain malicious or misleading content (e.g. in the form of spyware or malware). These harmful sites are then banned from the top search results.
In addition, secure websites with an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate are clearly preferred by Google. There, user data is better protected against hacker attacks. Therefore, you should switch to HTTPS next year at the latest in order to continue to achieve positive ranking results.
Interstitials are advertising banners that interrupt a user’s visit to the website in order to generate more attention. If you use these and thus ensure that users can no longer access the desired content, this will also be penalized more in the future. Pop-ups are often the main culprit in these cases, as they pop up regularly and users often find it difficult to close them again.
“Technically better websites enjoy clear advantages.”
— John Mueller, Google
Javascript, load times, WebP and Co. will again be an important topic in the coming year. So, if you’re not yet that knowledgeable in these areas, you should urgently catch up. If you have the insight, this will help you to improve your rankings. Here are some points that could be important for you in this train:
Clickability of links, contrast, text size, etc. – these are all important points to make a page accessible. This in turn is necessary if you want to create a user-friendly website. Usability will also be a hugely important factor for Google in the coming year, so you should be prepared for it.
It’s hard to imagine social networks without shares and likes. Even though Google regularly emphasizes that social signals are not and will not be ranking factors, they can have an indirect influence on your findability in search engines. The reason behind it: If your social content is liked and shared a lot, you will be perceived as an expert. And this expert status does not escape Google. So, it is worthwhile to publish content that interests your target group in social networks as well.
Alexa, Siri and others are making voice search more and more prominent. For some generations, it has become quite normal to simply ask a voice assistant a question instead of having to enter it into Google Search. Even though preparing for voice search is very time-consuming, you should check your optimization potential here. This method can offer your users a great deal of added value and consequently help you to achieve more conversions. Therefore, it is important to prepare information for voice search as well, if this makes sense for your industry and your products.
Google has been working on integrating augmented reality into search for a while now. If you search via the app on your smartphone, you can even bring animals to your home via AR.
This technology is particularly suitable for product presentation, which is why you should consider whether it might be worthwhile for you to rely on AR or VR.
Semantics is an important issue that will be with us all even more in 2021. Google is working more and more towards understanding texts in the right context. In order to achieve this, you can also locate relevance-increasing keywords during a keyword research via WDF*IDF tools. It is also important to compare your texts with the competition. This can be done, for example, using the tool Termlabs.io, but this alone does not guarantee top rankings! A good copywriter is the key to conjuring up great content from keyword research. Content by people for people – machine-generated content has long had its day! The overall presentation of the content is also becoming increasingly important, as this sends good user signals to the search engine. Proper editing therefore helps you here.
In addition, it is important that you pay attention to the search intentions of your users. Only if you answer them, your content is relevant for search queries and appears in the SERPs. You should also proceed according to the E-A-T principle. E-A-T stands for Expertise (credibility), Authority (authority) and Trustworthyness (trust). These criteria will help you stand out from your competitors.
Last but not least, regular content hygiene is very important. Update your texts and media regularly so that they are always up to date. This sends good signals to the search engine. You should also delete bad or outdated content! This way you get a slimmed down and targeted website.
YouTube is being promoted more and more by Google. In fact, it is the most visible page within the search engine – even ahead of Facebook and Wikipedia! Therefore, the platform can be an effective way to gain reach and deliver value to your users. Videos are often referred to as “snackable content” because they are something that users can pick up quickly. This allows you to present more complex topics in a way that’s easy to understand. Also cool: You can even achieve positive rankings via videos.
Another opportunity are long-tail keywords to cover zero-click searches. The problem with zero-click searches is that answers are already given in the SERPs and therefore no further pages are clicked on by the users. In this case, you can serve more complex search queries via long-tail keywords. Thanks to the BERT update, Google also understands this type of keywords better and thus provides you with correspondingly better rankings.
Of course, the Page Experience metric does not replace the existing ranking factors. Rather, it serves as a supplement to the whole. A continuously important factor is the quality of your content. The following five tips will get your site ready for the new year:
Olga Fedukov completed her studies in Media Management at the University of Applied Sciences Würzburg. In eology's marketing team, she is responsible for the comprehensive promotion of the agency across various channels. Furthermore, she takes charge of planning and coordinating the content section on the website as well as eology's webinars.
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