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The past 12 months have proven to be absolutely transformative for online search trends. The rise of Artificial Intelligence, AI-powered search platforms, and AI copilots like Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Microsoft CoPilot have challenged Google’s traditional search platform. Although Google has created its own copilot, “Gemini”, and made some changes to its SEO ranking algorithm to compete with these AI advances and competitors, there is guaranteed to be even more wild changes in the year to come.
So how do we as content creators, marketing professionals, and business owners alter our SEO strategy to keep up? Well, it ultimately comes down to staying on top of 2025’s SEO trends as they arise, and not being reactive but proactive in your approach.
The Rise of AI Usage and Its Impact on Organic Search
The emergence of AI and its public accessibility in 2024 brought us the launch of Google’s AI Overviews (AIO), formerly known as the Search Generative Experience (SGE). Google search users were, as a whole, thrilled with this advancement, as it allowed them to find the answers to their queries without leaving the first page of Google. Although AIO has struggled with generating occasional hallucinated answers over the last year, this idea of “Zero Click Search” (search engines providing answers directly on the SERP), is not going anywhere.
So the next question, naturally, would be “Should we write our content to reach that “zero-click search” spot?” Well…no…Mainly because there are only one or two of these spots available and the speed with which Google’s ranking algorithm changes means there’s no guarantee that Google will pick it up.
With unlimited competition for the same spot, it’s not worth the time and energy needed to write for it. Search Engine Roundtable even considered the race to AIO a “maddening adventure”.
Although it is possible to have content that ends up being cited by AIO, which is theoretically considered prime placement, it’s nearly impossible to figure out which part of your piece earned Google’s trust, so it’s better to just take the win and focus on other ranking strategies.
These constant changes to Google’s algorithm and AIO have profound implications for organic search as we know it. The conventional click-through rate curve is undergoing a shift, as various SERP features may diminish the prominence of even the highest-ranking listings. Increased competition and changing search habits suggest that holding the top position may not hold the same significance as it previously did. So how should we alter our SEO strategy to adapt to the change?
What Your Focus Should Be for New Content
The emerging evidence around Google’s ranking factors only further solidifies my thoughts from months prior: content strategies around SEO should always be to create the best content for the best user experience. If you create the highest quality content for a certain search query, then that content is likely to secure a more enduring position on the first page.
In some ways, this paradigm shift serves to unshackle content writers from the constrictions of always having to write with an SEO-first mindset.
Google released a statement not too long ago affirming its commitment to prioritizing high-quality content regardless of whether it is produced by humans or generated by AI. But any good content creator knows that using AI to create bulk content quickly is one of the most common mistakes marketers make. It creates hallucinations, inaccuracies, spam content, repetitive statements, and keyword stuffing, just to name a few. To combat this, Google has warned that generating content solely for the purpose of manipulating search rankings violates its spam policies.
Google’s EEAT
So what does it take to be considered “quality content” by Google? Enter Google’s E-E-A-T ranking strategy. Originally introduced in 2022, Google’s E-E-A-T strategy stands for “Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness”. What does this mean in practical terms? Let’s break it down:
Experience:
Does the writer have real, first-hand, or real-life experience with the topic they’re writing about?
Expertise:
How much of an expert is the writer on this topic? Are their credentials listed?
Authoritativeness:
Is the writer or their website considered an authority on this topic? Do other experts link to your existing content? Has it been used in research? etc.
Trustworthiness:
The largest and most important pillar of the system. Trust is assessed based on experience, expertise, and authoritativeness. Google takes the author, content, and website authority into account.
I predict E-E-A-T will be the main focus for content creation going forward into 2025. Establishing yourself as a topical authority positions your brand as the preferred resource for specific topics or inquiries.
Focus on creating high-quality content for your audience rather than just search engine rankings. The principles of E-E-A-T are evaluated by real people, not automated systems. In fact, Google employs 16,000 Search Quality Raters to review and assess the quality of content.
Market Research and Search Intent
Feel like you’ve mastered what’s needed for E-E-A-T? Now let’s discuss search intent and why understanding your target audience is crucial. Researching demand is critically important as well, and can do this simple with Google Keyword Planner, or other search marketing tools. Here is a quick checklist from InVideo’s blog.
To determine which topic will get the most traction for your high-quality written content, it’s essential to perform a bit of market research and determine your target audience’s search intent.
Google has become increasingly adept at understanding user experience during searches. This enhanced capability allows the platform to identify and deliver the most relevant content that aligns with the user’s search intent. The company has separated search intent into 3 main categories:
“Buying” Search Intent:
when a user is searching for something with the intent to buy. For terms with buying intent, Google will show eCommerce results.
“Informational” Search Intent:
when a user is searching for a term to research a topic.
“How-To” Search Intent:
when a user is looking for how to do something.
The process of understanding your buyer’s search intent (often referred to as “semantic search”) will provide essential and valuable context and will help provide a direction for your content.
The quickest and easiest way to your target audience’s search queries is to…maybe you guessed it already…search for it! Perform a quick Google search for your topic. What type of results come up? Are audiences looking to buy a product, solve a problem, or simply gather information? Once you determine your user intent/buyer intent, you can create valuable content tailored to these queries.
Topic Clusters
So you’ve performed your market research, created some valuable content that’s getting attention, and would like to build your site authority on that topic. Enter, topic clusters!
Topic clusters use a “hub and spoke” SEO strategy that starts with a comprehensive pillar piece around a topic (the “hub”). Then you’ll build on that pillar piece with strategically crafted subtopic pages (the “spokes”). The key is to internally link your subtopic pieces back to your hub page and, conversely, internally link your hub to each of your spoke pages.
This type of strategy helps build a content ecosystem that should improve your authority and trustworthiness which will, in turn, positively affect your search ranking.
Voice and Mobile Search
In addition to E-E-A-T and knowledge of search intent, voice search (think Siri and Alexa) will also play a pivotal role in 2025 search trends. In the first year of being readily available, voice search skyrocketed to around 10 percent of global search volume. That amounts to about 50 billion voice searches every month. It’s predicted that by 2026, more than half of U.S. internet users will use a voice search assistant.
Voice search has already led to two significant changes. First, the way people speak is different than the way they type, causing voice searches to be generally longer than their typed counterparts. This shift emphasizes the importance of long-tail keywords now more than ever. Second, individuals frequently utilize voice search to locate nearby products or services, highlighting the essential role of local SEO in your content strategy for 2025.
Additionally, voice search is closely connected to mobile technology. Google has adopted a mobile-first indexing approach, meaning it uses the mobile version of websites as the main reference for indexing and ranking. Consequently, creating a mobile-friendly website has emerged as a critical SEO trend to monitor.
Key Takeaways for New Content Writing in 2025
Overall, when it comes to writing new marketing content for 2025 SEO trends, here are the main tips you should be focusing on:
- Determine your target audience’s search intent and desired search outcomes and write toward that goal
- Stop writing keyword-focused content!
- Focus on high-quality content that meets Google’s E-E-A-T standards
- Organize your new content into topic clusters to build site authority
- Double-check and optimize the mobile version of your website and write more for voice search
- Incorporate questions and keep your content conversational
- Write for more long-tail keywords
- Use AI to help you write, but ensure your FINAL piece is human-focused and human-written
Going into 2025, new content that is organized in this way will not only have a better opportunity to rank for organic traffic but will also be more likely to attract high-quality backlinks, thus building your overall site authority and trustworthiness.
How to Audit & Optimize Your Existing Content
When it comes to optimizing your existing content, much of the above tips still apply. You should ensure your pieces are organized in topic clusters, are written for user intent, meet Google’s E-E-A-T standards, and incorporate questions and long-tailed keywords. But there’s an extra step in content optimization that must be considered: a full site audit.
Especially if your site holds several years of content, it’s essential to give your content pages a complete overhaul and completely eliminate any pages that were only written for SEO. Pages, for example, that Google may consider “keyword stuffed” or disorganized is just one example.
Why is this so important? Part of Google’s helpful content standards include auditing your entire site! Not just the pages that are newly written. Even 10, 20, or 30 pages of helpful content would be better for the Google algorithm than 40 or 100 pages of keyword-stuffed material.
It may seem counterintuitive, but the onslaught of AI-written content has caused Google to crack down on any content that is not reader-focused and user-centered. This even includes content that you wrote years ago without AI that was only written for relevant keywords.
Prepare for the SEO and AI “Tsunami”
Quality marketers, writers, and business owners have seen the changes in content marketing for the last year, but 2025 is destined to only bring more changes as advancements in AI intelligence and AI availability grow. Although we can only predict what these changes may look like, there is no doubt that tech giants will always value human-centered and human-written content over fully AI-written junk.
Some may feel capable of learning as they go and adapting to the recent changes. Others may feel overwhelmed and worried about keeping up while also staying on top of all of their other responsibilities.
If you are part of this group of overwhelmed content writers, Farotech is here to help! Our team of extremely knowledgeable marketing professionals has access to the most innovative SEO strategies and will craft content that drives long-term success and conversion rates. Contact our team today for more information and let’s help you dream bigger when it comes to your marketing.