07/19/2025
SEO is constantly evolving, especially with the rapid advancements in AI. Here's a breakdown of the latest to follow in SEO, particularly with an eye on July 2025:
1. Dominance of AI Overviews and Generative AI Search:
AI Overviews (AIOs) / Generative Search
Experience (SGE): These are Google's AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of many search results. They aim to answer queries directly without requiring a click to a website (zero-click searches are on the rise).
What to do:
Focus on creating highly informative, comprehensive, and authoritative content that directly answers common user questions. Structure your content clearly so AI models can easily reference and summarize it. While AIOs can reduce clicks, appearing in them boosts brand recall and credibility.
Answer Engines & Alternative Search:
Users are increasingly turning to AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Perplexity for information discovery.
What to do:
Optimize your content for these "answer engines" by providing clear, concise, and accurate answers. Focus on authoritative sources and high-quality backlinks, as AI models often pull from reputable sources. Track referral traffic from non-Google sources.
AI-Powered Content Evaluation:
Google's algorithms are becoming even more sophisticated at understanding content quality and relevance through AI and machine learning.
What to do:
Focus on truly helpful, high-quality, and people-first content. Avoid generic, AI-generated content at scale without human oversight.
2. Deepening Importance of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness):
This framework is more critical than ever, especially for "Your Money Your Life" (YMYL) topics (health, finance, legal, etc.). Google uses E-E-A-T to assess the credibility and reliability of your content and website.
Experience:
Demonstrate real-world experience. Share personal insights, case studies, original data, and behind-the-scenes processes. Author bios should highlight relevant experience.
Expertise:
Showcase deep knowledge. Content should be written or reviewed by credentialed professionals or experienced practitioners. Provide in-depth guides and avoid "fluff.
Authoritativeness:
Build external recognition. Earn high-quality backlinks from industry-specific sites, get featured in interviews, guest posts, or podcasts, and maintain consistent brand mentions across platforms.
Trustworthiness:
Ensure your site is secure (HTTPS), has clear contact details, privacy policies, and encourages honest reviews. Be transparent about who you are and your business.
Content Strategy Evolution:
Human-First Content: Despite AI's prominence, content that genuinely helps and connects with humans will still be rewarded. AI should be a tool to enhance, not replace, human creativity and insights.
Video Content: Video continues to be a major force in search.
What to do: Optimize video metadata (titles, descriptions, tags), add transcriptions or captions, and use video schema markup to improve visibility in video carousels and search snippets.
Community Search Results: Forums, Reddit, Quora, and other community platforms are increasingly appearing in search.
What to do: Participate in relevant online communities, create content that addresses questions asked in these spaces, and encourage customer reviews and discussions.
Longer Tail Queries & Multi-Touch Journeys: Users are asking more specific questions, and their search journey often involves multiple platforms (e.g., starting with ChatGPT, then YouTube, then Reddit, and finally Google).
What to do: Focus on topical authority and comprehensive content that answers nuanced questions, rather than just chasing single keywords. Understand the full user journey.
4. Technical SEO Remains Foundational:
Mobile-First Indexing: This is a given. Your site must be mobile-friendly and optimized for speed.
Page Speed & Core Web Vitals: These user experience metrics are still crucial. Compress images, use lightweight themes, and optimize code.
Schema Markup: Continue to use structured data to help search engines understand your content better and enhance visibility in rich results (like featured snippets).
Site Structure & Internal Linking: A well-organized site with logical internal linking helps search engines crawl and understand your content.
5. Measurement and Adaptability:
Shift in Metrics: While organic traffic is still important, the rise of zero-click searches and AI Overviews means you might need to focus more on brand awareness, engagement, and conversion quality rather than just clicks.
Continuous Monitoring: SEO is an ongoing process. Regularly track ranking changes, organic traffic trends, and Google Search Console data. Adapt your strategy based on performance and algorithm updates.
Latest in SEO in 2025 revolves around understanding and adapting to AI's impact on search behavior, while doubling down on creating genuinely helpful, high-quality, and trustworthy content that demonstrates real-world experience and expertise.
