Right then. It’s that time again – every SEO expert and their dog is polishing their crystal ball, making wild predictions about what’s coming in 2025. Usually, it’s the same old rubbish recycled with a new date slapped on top.
But 2025 is different. For the first time in decades, we’re looking at genuine, fundamental changes to how search works. It’s like Google’s been running a fancy restaurant with a secret recipe, but now they might have to share their cookbook with everyone. We’re in for some properly interesting times.
Before we dive in, let’s get something straight – this isn’t another one of those “mobile-first is important” articles that state the bloody obvious. I’m going to try to focus on what’s actually changing and what you need to do about it.
The Google Antitrust Impact
Let’s start with the massive elephant charging around the room – Google’s antitrust situation. This isn’t some far-off possibility anymore. Google might actually have to share their search data with competitors. No crystal ball gazing here – we’re sticking to what we know.
What’s Happening?
Google might need to open up their data vaults. That means other companies could build search engines using Google’s own data. Think about that for a minute. We could end up with multiple search engines that work as well as Google because they’re using the same ingredients.
What Does This Mean For Your Website?
You need to focus on solid fundamentals that work everywhere, not just Google-specific tricks. That means:
- Creating properly structured content that any search engine can understand
- Building genuine authority in your industry through quality content and real expertise
- Making sure your technical SEO is spotless – clean code, fast loading times, proper indexing
- Tracking your performance across multiple search platforms (yes, even Bing)
Forums Are Taking Over Search Results
Google’s treating forums like the popular kids at school – they always get picked first, whether they deserve it or not. Reddit and other user-generated content platforms are getting their own dedicated spots in search results, and they’re taking serious traffic from traditional websites.
This isn’t just a minor change – it’s a fundamental shift in how Google views authority. They’re putting more trust in real people having real conversations than in carefully crafted commercial content.
What Should You Do About It?
- Get involved in relevant forums where your audience hangs out – but for heaven’s sake, don’t just spam links
- Keep an eye on forum discussions about your industry – they’re goldmines for content ideas
- Consider creating your own community spaces where genuine discussions can happen
- Use the insights from forum discussions to improve your main website content
Most importantly, stop ignoring what real people are saying about your industry. The days of just guessing what people want to know are over.
And before you rush off to add a forum to your website – stop right there. That’s not what this is about. Slapping a forum onto your site won’t magically make Google love you. We’re talking about genuine community engagement where your audience actually hangs out. If they’re on Reddit, you need to be on Reddit. If they’re on industry-specific forums, that’s where you need to be.
The Rise Of NEEATT?
Just when you’d got your head around E-E-A-T, there’s now an added N and another T. NEEATT (Notability, Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness, and Transparency) is a term coined by Kalicube owner Jason Barnard, and even if the SEO community doesn’t embrace it, I kinda feel it’s so neatt (SWIDT?) that I have to. Plus, I’m wildly jealous that I didn’t think of it!
Jason says:
“Kalicube created the acronym N.E.E.A.T.T : Notability, Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness and Transparency. Google’s E.A.T.T does not include Notability and Transparency. At Kalicube, we know Notability and Transparency are fundamental to demonstrating E.A.T.T even if Google doesn’t list them explicitly.”
Sorry though, you can’t just update your author bio and call it a day.
This isn’t about ticking boxes – it’s about proving you actually know your stuff. Google’s getting rather good at spotting the difference between real expertise and someone who’s just read a few blog posts.
Here’s What Actually Matters:
- Real-world experience that you can prove – not just claims of expertise
- Genuine industry recognition – awards, speaking engagements, that sort of thing
- Actual evidence that you’ve done what you’re talking about
- Clear demonstrations of your expertise in action
And Here’s What Doesn’t Work Anymore:
- Generic “expert in the field” author bios
- Vague claims about years of experience
- Empty credentials without backing evidence
- That MBA from 20 years ago that has nothing to do with what you’re writing about
Read more about NEATT over on Search Engine Land.
Zero-Click Content Is Here To Stay
Right, time to talk about something that’s making website owners more than a little bit nervous – zero-click searches. Google’s morphed from being a search engine into being an answer engine, and those AI Overviews are getting more common.
But here’s the thing – this isn’t the end of organic traffic. It’s just changing how we need to think about content. Think of it like this: if someone can get a complete answer to “What time does Tesco close?” without clicking, that’s actually fine. They weren’t going to become a brand new customer anyway, right?
Where there’s a quick and easy answer, providing it in AI overviews is probably the right thing to do – no-one wants to scroll through your 800 word blog post to find out how to upgrade their Netflix account when the answer is simple:
The real opportunity is in partial answers – when Google shows just enough to make someone want to know more.
Here’s How To Make It Work For You:
- Structure your content so the quick answer appears in search, but the valuable details are on your site
- Focus on questions that can’t be completely answered in a snippet
- Use clear, structured content that’s easy for both humans and AI to understand
- Accept that some informational queries won’t drive clicks anymore – and that’s okay
And Please, Stop Doing These Things:
- Hiding your main answers deep in your content to force clicks
- Writing vague meta descriptions hoping people will click through
- Creating separate “AI-optimised” versions of your content
- Trying to outsmart the system with fancy formatting tricks
Content Clustering 2.0
If you’re thinking “oh great, another article banging on about topic clusters” – wait up. This isn’t about creating endless pillar pages and calling it done. Content clustering is evolving, and if you’re still doing it the old way, you’re missing the point.
The game has changed. It’s not enough to just group related content together and chuck in a few internal links. Google’s getting even better at understanding topic relationships, and it’s looking for genuine depth of expertise.
What Actually Works Now:
- Building comprehensive topic coverage that answers real user questions
- Creating content that naturally links together because it makes sense, not because some tool (interpret that as you like!) told you to
- Developing genuine expertise in specific areas rather than trying to cover everything
- Using internal linking that actually helps users navigate your content
What’s A Waste Of Time:
- Creating artificial pillar pages just because everyone else is doing it
- Forcing connections between barely-related content
- Making topic clusters about everything under the sun
- Adding internal links just to hit some magical number
The Crawl Budget Crunch
Google’s could be crawling sites less frequently in 2025, which means every crawl needs to count.
What You Need To Focus On:
- Making your important pages easily accessible to search engines
- Keeping your XML sitemap clean and up-to-date (and yes, they matter again)
- Fixing technical issues that waste crawl budget
- Being strategic about content updates
What’s Pointless:
- Submitting URLs to Google multiple times a day
- Creating new pages just for the sake of “fresh content”
- Updating publication dates without actually updating content
- Having a massive site with loads of thin content pages
Read more about how often Google crawls a site on SEO Sly.
Understanding Your Visitors Better Than Ever
Right, let’s talk about something that’s becoming super important – understanding exactly who visits your website and what they do when they get there. We call this first-party data, which is just a fancy way of saying “information you collect directly from your own website visitors.”
Why does this matter now? Because those tracking cookies that used to tell us everything about website visitors are going away. You know the ones – they’re why that pair of shoes you looked at once follows you around the internet for weeks.
But here’s the good news – you’ve probably got loads of useful information already. Think about:
- What people search for on your website
- Which pages they visit most
- How long they spend reading different types of content
- What they click on
- The questions they ask in your contact forms
- The things they buy (if you sell stuff)
This information is gold dust for SEO. Why? Because it tells you exactly what your actual customers want, not what some generic industry report says they might want.
Here’s What You Should Be Doing:
- Actually look at your Google Analytics (or whatever tracking you use) – what are your most popular pages?
- Check your website’s search function – what are people looking for?
- Read your enquiry emails properly – what questions keep coming up?
- Pay attention to your social media comments – what are people asking about?
And Here’s What Not To Waste Your Time On:
- Copying what your competitors are doing without understanding why
- Creating content about topics nobody’s asking you about
- Ignoring the questions in your inbox while writing about random topics
- Following generic advice instead of looking at what your actual visitors want
The best part? This is all information you own. You’re not relying on third-party data or guessing what might work. You’re using real information from real people who are actually interested in what you do.
Multi-Platform Search Optimisation
SEO used to be like preparing for one big exam, but now it’s like having to take the same test in five different languages. Between traditional search, AI search engines, and platform-specific search, you need to think broader.
But before you panic and try to create different versions of your content for every platform – stop. Good content works everywhere if you do it right.
What Matters:
- Creating clear, well-structured content that any system can understand
- Maintaining consistent brand messaging across platforms
- Understanding how different search engines interpret your content
- Tracking performance across multiple platforms
What’s Pointless:
- Creating separate versions for different search engines
- Trying to game AI systems with special formatting
- Ignoring traditional SEO in favour of AI optimisation
- Spreading yourself too thin across too many platforms
YouTube Is Eating Your Search Results
Video results are dominating more searches than ever, especially from YouTube. But before you rush off to create a YouTube channel and start uploading random videos, let’s talk about what actually works.
This isn’t about jumping on every video trend – it’s about using video where it genuinely adds value.
What Works:
- Creating videos that actually answer user questions
- Using video to demonstrate things that are hard to explain in text
- Building a consistent video presence in your niche
- Optimising your video content properly
What’s A Waste Of Time:
- Creating videos just because everyone else is
- Turning every blog post into a pointless video
- Ignoring video quality and professionalism
- Forgetting about optimisation basics
It’s Time To Get Back To Basics (But Not In A Boring Way)
Here’s the thing about all these changes – they actually make the basics more important, not less. But I’m not talking about the same old “make sure you have meta descriptions” advice you’ve heard a million times.
What Really Matters In 2025:
- Creating content that actually helps your users
- Building genuine expertise in your field
- Making your site technically solid
- Understanding and serving user intent
What You Can Stop Worrying About:
- Perfect Core Web Vitals scores
- Magical AI optimisation techniques
- Exact keyword placement
- Following every minor Google update
Stop Falling For These 2025 Predictions
While we’re here, let’s talk about some predictions you can safely ignore (and if you want more myth-busting, check out my SEO Myths Debunked ebook):
- “AI will completely replace traditional SEO” – Nonsense
- “You need separate content for AI search” – No, you don’t
- “Traditional SEO is dead” – It’s really not
- “Everyone needs to be on every platform” – Rubbish
- “Perfect technical scores guarantee rankings” – If only
Don’t Panic!
2025 is bringing some fairly big changes to SEO, but here’s what it all boils down to: focus on what actually helps your users, build genuine expertise, and get the technical basics right. Everything else is just noise.
Stop chasing every shiny new trend and start focusing on what actually moves the needle for your business. And if you’re struggling with that, I know a UK SEO Consultant who can help…
