The 2025 Midyear SEO Outlook
July 01, 2025
In 2024, we shared our perspective on the shifting state of SEO in marketing, outlining the key trends that demanded business attention. We discussed the growing importance of structured content, the rising impact of zero-click searches, and how user behavior was beginning to change. Now, in 2025, we are revisiting that conversation with fresh marketing insights. Artificial intelligence is reshaping how people search and how businesses show up. With AI-driven experiences now influencing visibility across both search engines and generative platforms, staying visible means evolving with the tools people actually use.
Google searches increased by 20 percent in 2024, and traditional search engines still dominate. But change is clearly underway. Generative tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity now account for nearly 3 percent of search-like traffic, and one in ten U.S. internet users already turn to generative AI first when they need answers. For brands, this means SEO is no longer just about ranking on a page. It is about being the answer wherever your audience goes looking.
- Changes in Search Behavior
- What Remains Essential
- Key SEO Trends for Businesses in 2025
- Looking Ahead
Changes in Search Behavior
One of the most critical shifts observed is the substantial rise in zero-click searches, which occur when users find answers directly within the results page without clicking through to any website. In 2024, 65 percent of global Google searches ended without a click. In the U.S., 58.5 percent of searches resulted in no click. These numbers are expected to grow even more in 2025, largely driven by AI-powered results that deliver complete answers on the spot.
Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) is one of the drivers of this change. Its AI-generated summaries now appear at the top of many search results, significantly reducing the need for users to engage with traditional organic listings. Click-through rates on these featured links have dropped from around 36 percent to 23 percent. Businesses should also keep an eye on emerging features like Google’s AI Mode, which is currently being tested in limited environments. While not widely available yet, AI Mode is another indicator of the direction search is heading as it moves toward fully synthesized, on-page answers that bypass the need for site visits.
What Remains Essential
Despite these rapid developments, the foundation of SEO remains intact. Google’s emphasis on Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) continues to guide how content is evaluated and ranked. Websites must still be technically sound, crawlable, and filled with content that demonstrates credibility and relevance.
The essential principles such as strong content, solid site structure, and trustworthy backlinks still determine whether or not your business appears in front of the right audience. However, the way this content is structured, formatted, and presented needs to adapt to the growing role of AI in search.
Key SEO Trends for Businesses in 2025
Answer Engine Optimization
As more search experiences deliver results without clicks, Answer Engine Optimization, or AEO, is now a must-have strategy. AEO focuses on helping your content become the answer within the search itself, whether in a Google snippet, a voice assistant reply, or an AI-generated summary.
Eric Siu, CEO of Single Grain, puts it clearly: “The distinction between search engines and answer engines is blurring, and brands that adapt to this new reality will gain significant advantages.”
Implementing AEO means structuring your content around common questions, providing clear and direct answers, and applying schema markup that helps search engines understand and surface your information. One agency that adopted AEO strategies saw a 40 percent increase in answer box appearances and a 25 percent rise in AI-generated brand mentions in just three months. Even when clicks decline, visibility like that builds brand awareness and trust.
Generative Engine Optimization
Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO, is about preparing your content to be cited or quoted by AI systems like Google’s SGE, Bing Chat, or ChatGPT. These platforms do not simply pull top-ranking links. They generate responses from a wide range of sources, often citing content that is not on the first page of search results. In fact, 85 percent of sources cited in Google’s AI overviews do not rank in the top organic spots.
The key to GEO is making your content easy for AI to recognize, trust, and summarize. This means writing clear, declarative statements, structuring information with bullet points and headers, and highlighting author credibility. Using schema markup and metadata also helps AI engines understand and accurately reference your site.
Adopting a Hybrid SEO Strategy
Success in 2025 demands a hybrid SEO approach. Traditional practices such as content depth, keyword strategy, and technical site optimization are still essential. But they must now be combined with AEO and GEO tactics to ensure your content performs in both human-driven and AI-driven environments.
This integrated marketing strategy means creating long-form content that addresses broad topics while incorporating clear, concise answers to likely questions. It also means aligning your SEO efforts with content strategy, public relations, and customer service to build a unified and trustworthy digital marketing presence. Your SEO should support not only rankings but visibility in snippets, voice results, AI chats, and other formats that continue to expand.
Looking Ahead
AI is not a passing trend. It is the new context for how people search. As tools like Google’s AI Mode and other generative platforms continue to develop, businesses that invest in flexible, AI-aware SEO strategies will have the advantage. These marketing strategies ensure your business shows up whether a customer clicks, scrolls, speaks, or chats.
“AI search is already reshaping how people find information, and that shift will only grow as younger users adopt these tools as the norm. Businesses that want to stay visible need a hybrid SEO strategy and the agility to evolve alongside the technology,” said Kelsey Phillips, Creative Services and Technology Director at Well Connected Brands.
At Well Connected Brands, we are helping businesses stay visible and relevant in this rapidly evolving search environment. If your website or SEO marketing strategy has not been updated with these shifts in mind, now is the time to act.
References
SparkToro, “Google Search Growth in 2024”; Amsive, “Answer Engine Optimization in the Age of AI”; Single Grain, “How AEO Can Help With Zero-Click Searches”; BrightEdge, “AI Overview Observations and Source Trends”; Google Blog, “Supercharging Search with Generative AI”