Are your relevant web pages or blogs shown in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) when users type relevant keywords or phrases on Google search?Â
That is a very important question.
You can see “sponsored” ads at the top of the Search Engine Result Page (SERP).
It’s good!
But, during which time period you spend money, your sponsored page will be visible.
So, what is the solution?
The solution is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Nowadays, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is very important in digital marketing. If you want to rank organically and be visible at the top of the Search Engine Result Page (SERP), you must improve your SEO.
Importance of SEO:
- Increased Organic Traffic
- Improved Brand Visibility
- Targeted Audience Reach
- Cost-Effectiveness
- Enhanced User Experience
- Increase CRO for business
- Local Business Growth
So in this blog, we will talk about top 10 SEO trends in 2025.
So let’s start.
Table of Contents
1. The Rise of AI in SEO:
Our first point is related to AI tools.
AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity will impact Google searches, but the percentage of traffic you can cater to is still important.
AI overview is definitely taking some traffic. Let’s assume that the search volume of a query was 100. ChatGPT and Perplexity have become very popular, so some people will go there and do searches in that particular scenario.
But again, the point is how you can cater to the searches on Google. For them, whether you can do SEO properly or not. Traffic will be there, and it will be diverted, but this does not mean that traffic will not remain on Google.
Traffic will remain on Google, and people will search on Google, too. But the point is how you are catering to that intent. Are you able to write content according to that intent? Are you able to convert according to that intent?
So this is going to be very important.
Yes, some niches will be almost dead due to the arrival of ChatGPT or perplexity tools. AI overview will also be almost dead. If you search for Sachin Tendulkar’s date of birth, you search for Shahrukh Khan’s age.
I mean factual things that generally do not change. In that particular scenario, people generally go to the blog and get an answer on ChatGPT in this way.
Many people have created websites with PIN codes. Now, they will be found in the same way that people get them from AI overview.
A lot of content is made based on date of birth, including autobiography. So, all these niches of content will be almost dead due to the arrival of AI overview.
2. Emphasis on Topic Clusters and Topical Authority:
The second point is that we need to understand the importance of topic clusters and topical authority.
This concept is quite old, but in 2025, it will have more of a say.
What does topical authority mean?
If you create a website in a niche, is there enough content to prove that it is perfect for that niche?
This is called developing topical authority, and topical authority develops from topic clusters. I will try to create pillars around SEO and different sub-pillars.
For example, I will create pillars around SEO and different sub-pillars.
There is a sub-pillar for on-page optimization, a sub-pillar for off-page optimization, a pillar for technical SEO, and a pillar related to SEO strategy.
After that, we will create many pages or blogs in the particular sub-pillar. We try to remove most of the intent, searches, and queries.
It’s basically the concept of pillar pages or topic clusters. This strategy will be used a lot in 2025.
Use this strategy to keep the content in the centre in 2025.
3. Enhanced Technical SEO:
Technical SEO has always been important but in 2025 it will be more important. Because competition is increasing, for example, you did on-page SEO once, you saw the content of the competitor and you did better on page.
After that what will you do?
After that, you will check your technical SEO.
Google has put a lot of technical specifications on us which we have to follow because traffic comes from Google.
But the new players will also bring their own technical rules and if we want to show our website on those search engines, on those chatbots, then we have to follow their policies too.
We can’t say that we want traffic from Google only, we won’t take traffic from Google, we can only take from ChatGPT. We have to work for both, technical SEO will be more important and along with being important, it will be tough.
Tough means, it will be tough for those who don’t have much technical interest.
It will be interesting for those who are coming from a programming background, but it will be more useful for them too.
Now, let’s look at the issues of robots.txt and sitemap. Let’s look at the disavow list.
In a few days, there will be some large language model (LLM) related protocols that will control the permission of AI chatbots on websites.
There may be some such protocols or files that will control the use of website content in the training of LLM chatbots.
So the importance of technical SEO has increased more with regards to SEO in 2025.
4. Crawling and Indexing Challenges:
A solid website structure with good internal linking and other internal linking-based strategies is fundamental in 2025.
Apart from these changes, the problem of crawling and indexing will keep increasing.
Why am I saying crawling and indexing is a huge issue?
Let’s assume today that you have decided on a topic or have a topic on which you want to write content. However, this topic has not been indexed.
Why was it not indexed?
Because many websites have written content of this type on this topic before, there is a lot of competition. Now, Google thinks you are writing content but are not bringing anything new.
If that does not happen, Google will say this content is already available online, and I will not index it.
Technical SEO is undoubtedly a defining factor for indexing.
In those websites that are technically incorrect, the website that is technically correct won’t face any problems. Their content will be indexed easily. The brighter the LLMs, the less Google will need to index content.
This seems a bit wrong, but it is true. The more content Google will be able to understand with the help of LLMs, the less it will index because repeated content is not needed. Unique, useful and interesting content will be indexed.
It is also important to note that just because you have written the content, it doesn’t mean that it is worth indexing.
If you have seen or read someone else’s content, added your views to it, and then written that content again, then it will also be useless because only your understanding will be present in it.
If you don’t have any expertise in that field or subject, then just reading the content and writing it again is not unique, is not useful, and Google will not be interested in indexing it.
That means Google will definitely focus on its E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust) framework for content indexing.
5. User Intent and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO):
The fifth point balances the intent to which people convert. As people understand the importance of the traffic that can be actually converted, the focus will be on CRO.
Today, an AI overview is coming, and some potential traffic will come with an AI overview.
If the search volume of this query does not increase over time, like two years ago when it was 100, the search results get full volume.
Now, the AI overview has come. Now, results are used to get potential cumulative traffic.
Let’s assume that they used to get traffic of 30-40. Now, you won’t get that either. You will get traffic of 20-25.
Okay. Earlier, if your conversion rate was 3%, I assumed a number. So, now, if you want to start a business, you will have to have a 5% conversion rate.
So, it’s not like you will just write content on your pages. Instead, CRO is becoming a very important part.
What type of content are you writing, and what action do you want to get done with it?
People don’t want to come to our website and just consume the content. They want to go to our service pages from here. If we are trying to generate leads, then they give us leads.
If we are pushing them ahead in the funnel, then it will be justified that they are being pushed ahead in the funnel. So, this way, much work is being done on CRO.
Yes, there may be some pages on which you don’t put a direct call to action, but that is not a problem. Those pages are part of the funnel. Let’s assume this page has a direct call to action, but after this, the user will go to this page and then do the conversion.
You will also have to understand that CRO will be a very important factor in 2025.
6. Quality Backlinks Remain Essential:
The sixth point is related to backlinks. Quality backlinks were valuable earlier, quality backlinks are still valuable today.
Quality backlinks are an important ranking factor, especially for tougher keywords.
You do your website’s on-page SEO properly. After doing on-page, your website starts ranking after some time if there is not much competition on that type of keywords on which you have done on-page. Your website will rank quickly.
But if the competition is right on it, in that particular scenario, you will need backlinks etc. Without backlinks, you will not be able to rank, it will be very difficult. So quality backlinks will always be in the trend.
The spammy backlinks like comment backlinks, social submission, directory submissions, etc. are meaningless in today’s time. It is just increasing the number of backlinks.
How do you want to make quality backlinks?
Quality backlinks like guest posting, web 2.0 submissions, PPT submissions, infographic submissions etc. You need to use all these types of backlinks in a good website on which you are doing good work and expect good results from it.
7. New Keywords Trends:
The next trend that will come in 2025 is related to keywords.
In SEO, we normally divide keywords into short and long tails. Some people call this LSI, but it’s not like that. It’s just long-tail keywords.
Now, this categorization is old. It’s old because people have moved forward.
When the internet was new, people typed one or two words and searched for things. Back then, Everything was new; Everything seemed magical. If you searched for a car, you saw car ads and webpage links.
So, this search pattern is used to come up with short keywords.
But now, consumer behaviour has changed. People don’t just search for a phone, car, or electrician; they search for specific things.
They will search for the iPhone 16 pro offer. They will search for five rated best cars under 15 lakhs or 20 lakhs. They will search for a good restaurant near me and see their rating.
This is a new user behaviour. If you do SEO for a business, then long-tail keywords are the keywords for you. Business will come from them.
But this trend has also become a little old because it started to change in 2024.
Now, it is not the time of intelligent search engines, but the era of LLM chatbots where people do not search by typing 6-7 words but ask a question of 2-3 lines.
They can ask by speaking. Gemini and ChatGPT have voice assistants working on phones, computers, and laptops.
Both promote this voice assistant, a feature that can give you a realistic response. So, people will not do small searches but will ask long questions.
Now, keyword research is not the answer, but your content—your website should be optimized around those concepts that are important for your users.
Whether the user searches with one keyword, types a phrase with five keywords, or asks a question with two lines, your page should appear on the Search Engine Result Page (SERP).
It’s very important. You have to optimize your content for keywords concepts and solutions.
User signals are also necessary in 2025. Along with quality backlinks, the user signal becomes very important later when you do on-page.
These are all important factors, including how the user navigates your website, how he consumes the content, and whether he feels comfortable on your page.
All these points are essential and will help your web pages or blogs rank.
8. Focus on PR and Branded Traffic:
The eighth point is if you are doing digital public relations (PR) and getting links on popular platforms and getting traffic.
If you have a website or a business and you have done PR on it, you can see that the links have been sent to different places and from where the website can be used to get traffic.
In that particular scenario, you will see a lot of branded traffic on your website. So, when branded traffic comes to the website, in most scenarios, the popularity of your brand value increases.
It can be any reason. You are doing much good work on social media so people can search for it.
But you can differentiate between branded traffic and non-branded traffic.
Generally, when you do SEO, your non-branded traffic increases, so you should understand that ratio. Don’t be happy just by looking at the data of such a console that your total SEO traffic is increasing.
You will have to understand how much the branded traffic is and how much the non-branded traffic is.
One more very important thing is never to take branded traffic lightly. The probability of conversion from branded traffic is very high, whereas the probability of conversion from non-branded traffic is not that high.
You also need to take a little bit of analytics on the branded traffic that came to our website and the number of conversions we have got from the branded traffic. You can see this in Google Analytics.
In 2025, you will see on many websites that they have made such a strategy that their branded traffic will increase directly or indirectly and ultimately increase their conversions.
So, what I mean is that you have to consider the branded traffic coming to the website in SEO. You have to combine it with your SEO efforts and use its potential.
I hope you have understood what SEO will be like in 2025.
9. New Trends of Local SEO:
The ninth change will come in local SEO, where websites will become more and more powerful.
The highest value in local SEO is the Google My Business Listing or Google Business Profile Listing. We focus on that most. We also focus on local profiles, citations and backlinks.
But we still don’t give much preference to local SEOs. There is also the role of business owners who get lazy many times.
This is a massive problem because Google constantly develops its knowledge of entities. In this case, a Google Business Profile is not enough to provide complete information about your business.
It’s very easy to think that all the information on the Google My Business listing is correct. Still, it can’t confidently explain your product or services and never explains why this business will be suggested.
It’s not enough information that your business is open from 9 to 8, your listing has some keywords and your location address is very reachable.
Why should your business rank in the Google Business Profile?
Google doesn’t have any such reason. You will have to tell Google different website content, which is why your business is better so that it can be ranked.
So, in 2025 and beyond, Google will prefer businesses with more substantial, optimized and semantically well-created websites.
10. Think Beyond Google:
SEOs need to think ahead of Google. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not Google Engine Optimization (GEO). It’s always SEO. But 95-97% of the time, we were working for Google.
But now, with all these new platforms being developed, including LLM Chatbots, they are not able to extract their data from Google.
So where do they go? They go to Bing because, after Google, the second largest search engine, Bing is different from Google’s properties.
So, the Bing Search Console’s importance will increase, which also means the Bing webmaster console’s importance will increase.
That’s why you will have to link your website and verify it. We will have to focus on solving the problems that Bing is facing in crawling your website, which we were not focusing on.
We will have to learn and make our website accessible to Bing because if Bing is not properly crawling your website and not indexing it, then it can be a problem because ChatGPT, Perplexity, or any other different models need continuous data for indexing.
But right now, they don’t have enough resources to make their indexes and to develop their crawling. So, all these different chatbots will use Bing. Google won’t get data.
So, you must focus on indexing your website on Bing and properly linking and optimizing it in 2025.
These ten insights will be helpful for your website and digital marketing plan in 2025.
What do you think about your experience?
Tell us in the comment section.
If you want to compare with the SEO trends in 2024, you can click here.
Thanks for reading; keep learning.