6 SEO Trends to Watch in 2025

With about 68% of online experiences beginning with a search, it’s more important than ever for your website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) to compete for site visitors, clients, or customers. The best way to achieve this is through search engine optimization. The SEO landscape is changing fast with the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), making it necessary for businesses and website owners to stay up-to-date with emerging trends.

I’m Henry Purchase, the founder of SEOSpace—the SEO extension for Squarespace—who’s worked with over 10,000 Squarespace websites. In this article, I’ll be discussing the top 6 SEO trends to watch out for in 2025, including potential challenges and how to stay ahead of the curve. If you’re new to SEO, start by checking out this introductory guide.

1. Alternative search results

One of the most significant SEO trends to watch out for in 2025 is the rise of alternative search results. Search engines are experimenting with new search experiences, which are not only reshaping how users interact with results, but also how you might need to optimize your content.

There are two key ways this trend is showing up. Here’s what we recommend for staying ahead of the curve.

AI-powered summaries

AI Overviews are increasingly appearing in search results. These are brief summaries that directly answer a user's question at the top of the SERP, reducing the need to scroll through result lists. While the aim is to improve user experience, this trend is not without its drawbacks.

AI Overviews currently appear above organic results, thereby taking the spotlight on SERPs. This leads to more “zero-click” searches, where users find the information they need without visiting a website.

To ensure your website benefits from this new SEO trend:

• Concentrate on producing unique and informative content that stands out from what AI and Google already know. As Google and other search engines begin linking sources to their AI-generated summaries, having distinctive content gives you an edge.

• Build a strong brand presence and reputation. When your business is recognized and frequently searched for, it enhances your credibility and increases the likelihood of being referenced in these summaries.

SearchGPT and conversational AI

SearchGPT and conversational AI are AI chats that use natural language processing and machine learning to simulate human conversations. These tools offer more conversational and context-aware results, often bypassing traditional websites altogether.

Given the novelty of these developments, it's not entirely clear yet how to consistently ensure visibility in these results. However, as we progress through 2025, the strategies should become more evident.

In the meantime, focus on these SEO best practices to remain competitive

• Be unique and optimize content for readability. Create unique content from your point of view to stand out. Use concise sentences and paragraphs. Break content into bullet points or numbered lists. Use clear headings and subheadings.

• Ensure accessibility. Make content machine-readable by avoiding overly complex formats. Also, ensure that you fill out all necessary fields when uploading media (e.g., alt text for images).

• Use structured data. Schema markup is a structured data code that informs search engines of how to view and display your website content. If you know how to, implement schema markup, like FAQ schema, to help AI systems understand the relevance, structure, and context of your content. 

2. Wide adoption of AI content

A major SEO trend for 2025 is the increased use of AI-generated content. More businesses are leveraging AI to create content either fully or partially. This enables large-scale content generation and potentially saves costs.

However, as mentioned earlier, it's essential to emphasize uniqueness in your content. If you rely solely on AI, you risk producing material that lacks distinctiveness, as it might mirror what others can generate, too. This can result in duplication, mundane writing, and inaccuracies, all of which can negatively affect your SEO.

Striking a balance is key—to truly stand out, ensure your content offers unique insights and information that can't be found elsewhere. Consider using AI to refine, research, or plan your content rather than generate the whole copy. Remember, the quality of the output is proportional to the quality of the input, so you need to spend time doing research and gathering unique data to create strong content.

3. An increasing focus on E-E-A-T

The importance of E-E-A-T—Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness—is expected to increase in 2025. These are signals search engines use to evaluate the quality of your content. With Google adding experience to its existing E-A-T framework, there's a stronger emphasis on showcasing first-hand knowledge in your content. As a result, it's crucial to demonstrate these qualities on your website and web pages to indicate to search algorithms that your site deserves a higher ranking.

An effective SEO strategy focused on the E-E-A-T concept involves several key elements to ensure web page quality, including:

• Clarity: Ensure your content is easy to read and understand, effectively communicating your message without ambiguity.

• Accuracy: Provide factual, well-researched information that is supported by evidence or credible sources.

• Human effort: Highlight the unique perspectives and insights that only human expertise can offer. This differentiates your content from AI-generated or less informed material.

• Information gain: Offer valuable insights that contribute something new to the topic. The goal is to ensure readers find your content both engaging and helpful.

• Matching intent: When creating content, it's crucial to align it with the user's search intent. This means understanding what the user is really looking for when they type in a search term. Are they seeking information, looking to make a purchase, or trying to navigate to a specific site? 

• Freshness: Keep your content up-to-date with the latest information and trends to maintain relevance.

You need to ensure your page offers higher quality and value than competitors. By providing unique and helpful insights that go beyond what generic content offers, you’ll engage users more effectively.

Interestingly, this approach is no different from what effective SEO has always been about: creating valuable content that meets user needs. 

4. Increasing demand for video content

As AI-generated content becomes more prevalent, the demand for genuine, human-produced content is growing. Videos, in particular, are set to play a crucial role in search engine optimization strategies.

Unlike articles and blog posts, AI has yet to replicate the authenticity and relatability of humans speaking directly to a camera. This makes video content an invaluable tool for connecting with a wider audience.

As users increasingly consume video on search engines and social media platforms, creating authentic, human-centric videos can significantly boost your search rankings and visibility. Consider how you can weave video into your content strategy, whether that’s on social media or exploring video-only platforms like YouTube.

YouTube’s growing importance

YouTube is becoming a powerhouse for SEO. As the second-largest search engine after Google, creating targeted video content for YouTube can increase your reach.

To improve discoverability, optimize your video titles, snippets, descriptions, and tags with relevant keywords. Examples of content you can create for your business include tutorials, product demonstrations, or explainer videos that align with your audience’s search intent. You can use these videos to direct viewers towards your website or encourage them to take action.

For example, most blogs on the SEOSpace website, such as this plugin and extension guide, have a corresponding YouTube video. This boosts SEOSpace’s discoverability and gives readers more engaging ways to consume our content. Engagement was key in 2024, and I expect it to be no different in 2025.

5. A shift toward local SEO

Local search optimization is becoming increasingly important for SEO. As mobile devices and voice assistants continue to rise in popularity, more users are conducting “near me” searches for services and products. This makes local SEO essential for businesses.

Moreover, alternative search platforms are now optimized to provide localized results. Given their growing use, it's vital to create content that performs well on tools like SearchGPT.

The importance of Google Business Profile

One of the most effective ways to boost your local SEO is to claim and optimize your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business).

Ensure you update your profile regularly with:

• Accurate business information

• Relevant categories

• Up-to-date hours

• High-quality photos

• Detailed service listings

This not only improves your visibility in local search results, but also enhances your credibility with potential customers.

Build local authority to dominate your niche

To further strengthen your local SEO in 2025, focus on building your local authority. This includes gathering positive customer reviews, creating location-specific content, and engaging with your local community.

Location-based keywords are also essential. Keywords are those terms/phrases users use when searching for specific information. You can research these terms with a tool like SEOSpace or brainstorm a list based on what someone might search to discover your site, then optimize your web pages and content with these terms. You should naturally include these keywords in your website content, SEO titles, and SEO descriptions.

6. SEO testing

With search engines constantly updating their algorithms, staying ahead in search rankings requires more than just traditional SEO tactics. As these changes make it challenging to pinpoint exactly which strategies will consistently yield results, SEO testing is becoming a crucial practice.

In 2025, expect to see a surge in businesses experimenting with different approaches and tweaks to their websites in an attempt to beat the competition. You can do your own experimentation too. This trial-and-error process allows you to adapt swiftly and effectively. With this approach, you can find strategies that work best to maintain and improve your visibility in search results.

As an example, on SEOSpace’s website, we have a web designer directory that we want to rank higher on search engines. To develop our own SEO skills and test some different techniques, we created a standalone web designer directory on a separate Squarespace website. It contains similar content, but uses different SEO strategies to give us a low-cost way to figure out what works best. 

Try something similar for an important page on your website, like an event landing page or a new set of products. For example, a bakery in Soho, London, could look for a domain like bakery-soho-london.com, and create a one-page website to test out different techniques, then compare and apply to their existing site. Including the target keyword—“bakery Soho London” in this case—in the domain can also help boost the site up search engines.