The future of search: 2025 predictions

Michael King, Founder and CEO of ipullrank, asked his community:

It's that time of year when people start asking me what the future of SEO is.
I'm curious what y'all think it is.
What are the top 3 things you think will happen in SEO in 2025?

The responses ranged from cynical: “Google systematically destroys the affiliate industry one business at a time”

To practical: “SEOs will need to shift to more holistic approaches.”

To the cliche: “SEO will die again.”

My takes?

“Full stack SEO” is the jargon we don’t need, but according to The Verge, we will deserve.

To win the word, you’ll need to win the top 3 channels that searchers look for that word. Search will stem from the topic/problem/keyword, and SERPs will be just one channel across the omnichannel/integrated searchscape that must be addressed holistically to “win” the word.

Google and AIO will be just one skill next to also Tech + on page + digital PR + Social + forums + Youtube + Content Marketing + UGC. It may even trigger a great re-bundling of marketing, digital PR, and SEO teams.

For content creators, overindexing on uniqueness that is helpful, will never be a bad investment. It will be extremely difficult to get into AIO results without it.

Brand will continue to become more and more of a focus as the myths and dangers of full funnel attribution are debunked.

The future of search: 2025 predictions

73 SEO experts shared their predictions for search in 2025, ranging from “the future is coming fast” to “stick to the basics.” Where will you invest in 2025?

Most common themes:

• The Google soap opera will continue: SERP features will get even more varied and crowded in the pursuit of making every result personalized, and more ad types will be introduced in parallel. Google will continue to become the largest affiliate in the world by creating SERP tools for every niche they can legally monetize... And then the government is going to step in and decide how to rule on the Antitrust settlement. Let’s just say I have my popcorn ready 🍿

• AI and personalization in search: Data shows that AI Overviews are likely to start to show to more users, especially logged in. We’re all eagerly waiting to see how AI will drive significant changes in search results, especially through more personalized and context-aware SERPs.

  • Do I think AIO requires special tactics? No. Current best practices of using smart brevity and meeting intent mean it’s pretty much just like P0s, but with a higher weight on EEATS.

• Shift toward holistic SEO and integrated strategies: Comments frequently referenced SEO evolving beyond just keyword optimization to incorporate cross-platform integration, social media, video, forums, and other content types as part of a holistic strategy, ensuring that SEO aligns with broader digital goals. (see also: full stack SEO)

• Local and multilingual SEO growth: With personalization introducing so many new ways to meet audiences, local results will play an even bigger role with AI thrown in the mix. Page translations will move seamlessly to video, AI will be able to translate and hfrelang hundreds of pages at once. As AI improves, local search results will become even more personalized and location-specific, more ad-dense, and more interactive.

• User Experience: Speed, mobile friendliness, and navigation will continue to be fundamental to a “quality” user experience, but ad-dense sites dominating the top of the search results will finally get their due for blocking content without consent.

• Rise of user-generated content and social proof: Forums will continue to dominate, and learning to create native content in places like Reddit, Quora, Youtube, and Twitter. Those who can figure it out authentically, could see significant traffic from these channels.

Funniest quotes

Thanks for the chuckle.

• "SEO will die. And be replaced with SEO. Just like every year." — Ryan Jones

• "In 2025, SEO will die again — for the 25th time." — Elie Berreby

• "IN THE YEAR 2000, AI WILL SEARCH FOR YOU AND WHAT IT WILL FIND WILL BE MOSTLY THAT YOU WATCH TRASH TV." — Jordan Crawford

• "In 2025, 99% of people will have a search engine built directly into their brains eliminating the need for browser interaction.” - Gartner probably." — Brian Oddo

• "Isn't it dead yet?" — Jagdish Purohit

Kuldeep Sharma shared this gem:

What we’re watching out for

• "It won’t die, but it will be more opaque. Google will make good on EEAT by rewarding real expert… Who am I kidding, Google will reward popular brands." — Jonathan Thompson

• "The internet continues to flood with misinformation and mistrained AI generated content making any search engines job harder." — Bradley Rowan

• "SEO for most folks will ONLY be profitable and grow on demand, once Google figures out their 💩… unless one adapts and learns write on Reddit and LinkedIn to meet the current market change." — Jon Weberg

• "I think Gen AI will be used more for image/video creation and Search will become overwhelmed with mediocre content. If Google is split up by the DOJ, there will be a power vacuum that Bing and other SEs try to fill. It will take years to recover and the same ppl that complain about Google everyday will reminisce about the old days, lol." — Kyle Wycoff

Most likely to come true: Prepare here

Why do I think these are most likely to come true? Because at the end of the day, Google wants unique, helpful content people need. The fundamentals of intent, helpfulness, and uniqueness, are always a good thing to overindex on.

• "Instead of focusing on what's going to change, we should double down on what won't change like understanding user intent and delivering helpful experiences to users. Sometimes that might be your website but often times it's being in places your customers are with helpful content that doesn't require them to go to your site. And reminding yourself that's okay to not get an organic hit for Analytics. Increasing the likelihood someone Googles your brand name vs a keyword you rank for. Those are longer term wins that Google can't as easily take away from you." — Mat Houchens

• 1. Holistic SEO will become essential, taking insights from other channels and functioning as part of a larger strategy.

  2. SEO with a focus on customer research.

  3. Organic optimization on social channels.

  (It’s a long shot, but perhaps Google will add brand-related forum links under every branded search result on page one—think of it as the new 'Google stars.')" — Ali Anderson

• "I believe one of the most significant impacts on SEO will come from AI advancements. AI has already started to streamline many aspects of an SEO professional's role, making processes faster and more efficient. While some companies might see this as an opportunity to reduce SEO resources, it should actually encourage them to invest more. AI will allow smaller companies/businesses to compete with larger enterprises by lowering the resource barrier. As a result, bigger companies will need to step up, create even more sophisticated content, with high quality images, engaging videos, and interactive elements to maintain their edge." — Olin Downs

• "I think websites will need to become more conversational - more about the customer and far less about the company. I think companies will pull back from social media for more potential ownership of content, which could impact SEO traffic signals. I also am wondering if PR and SEO may merge in a new way, with PR professionals monitoring social media for incorrect AI-generated data that could be harmful to the company's reputation." — Marjorie Clayman

• "My dream: Entity optimization, quality user experience, and well-written content that adds original insight become table stakes. Niche media companies begin to understand that EEAT requires more than a few easily sourced 'SME' quotes from Qwoted. SEOs refocus on natural language processing, structured content, and meeting user needs via info architecture instead of 'ranking signals' and 'traffic.' Algorithmic 'visibility' scores become far more challenging to track as users adapt to chatting with the computer. Companies get smarter about schema markup, especially around paywalled content." — Deborah Carver

• "The future is agentic." — Mark Fulton