Google’s algorithm is becoming increasingly sophisticated, with several updates—both major and minor—rolled out each year. Google has one goal in mind: to create a better search experience for its users. Looking ahead to 2025, we anticipate several SEO trends based on customer data, our experience, and statements Google regularly makes through channels such as the Search Central X account.
Even in 2025, many companies will continue to underestimate SEO, and there will still be companies that are unfamiliar with it—not only in the Netherlands, but also in countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, and Spain. All this while advertising costs continue to rise [1].
Many companies rely on risk diversification in their business operations. This allows them to avoid becoming dependent on just one or a few customers or a single product. That is precisely why it is striking that many companies still rely, for the most part, on Google Ads.
Within your marketing strategy, SEO helps diversify risk, working hand in hand with channels such as Google Ads. SEO helps lower your cost per conversion, and all on-page optimizations improve the quality score of your ads. SEO is essential for a strong and sustainable marketing mix that incorporates various marketing channels.
The advantage of SEO is that search engine algorithms are becoming smarter and more sophisticated. For example, Google is getting better at evaluating content based on its substance, and its algorithm is getting better at understanding which search terms your content should be discoverable for. Google is also gaining a better understanding of website user experience (UX), and user data is factored into determining your rankings.
Using black-hat SEO strategies is therefore outdated and can even backfire. It’s important to focus your SEO strategy on adding value for your target audience.
Do you really want to take your SEO strategy to the next level? If so, it’s a good idea to hire an SEO expert (a freelancer or an SEO agency). SEO is a broad field, and technical SEO, in particular, can quickly become complex.
The SEO trends we anticipate boil down to Google’s goal of providing a better experience for its users. The most relevant and reliable website should rank highly for a search query. To achieve this, the website must be well-designed based on users’ needs and contain the right content.
So it’s important to have a good (and fast) website with valuable content. Furthermore, Google is constantly working to make SEO less susceptible to manipulation; link building is one example of a method used to manipulate rankings in Google.
The SEO trends we expect to see in 2025 are as follows:
In the U.S., Organic Shopping results are now prominently displayed for all e-commerce queries. Little is known yet about how Organic Shopping works, but the number of Organic Shopping packs being displayed is also growing in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe.
We expect Google to continue rolling this out across Europe in 2025, including the revamped Google Shopping experience. So it promises to be an interesting year for e-commerce.
A well-designed website that meets user expectations is important. Google is getting better and better at determining— based in part on user signals [2]—whether a website is helpful to users. For example, Google is more likely to show category pages from online stores with good filter options when a user is looking for a product but doesn’t yet know exactly which one.
A good UX involves a design where content is clearly legible and easy to scan, the page’s layout aligns with the user’s search intent, and everything works well on a mobile device. We expect that UX, along with good content, will become crucial in the coming years.
Every year, Google says that “content is king” and that most link-building methods are no longer effective. Our client data shows a clear trend: websites with an irrelevant link profile have lost market share over the past year following various updates.
This isn’t surprising either, because link building is the primary way to influence search result rankings without adding any value for your users. When the algorithm detects unnatural links, it neutralizes them. As a result, these links no longer have any impact—neither positive nor negative.
Although you might not realize it right away, this trend is evident. In practice, we see that many companies rank well even though, on paper, they don’t have the highest authority. Google’s algorithm isn’t just getting better at recognizing good content; it’s also getting better at distinguishing between high-quality and low-quality backlinks. If you acquire poor, irrelevant, or illogical backlinks through link building, Google will catch on, and those backlinks will no longer have any effect.
We expect that link building will once again become less important by 2025, but that many online marketing agencies will still offer it. However, most links add little to your search visibility, and you’re better off investing your budget in activities such as content or UX optimizations.
One of the link-building methods that Google encourages is PR [3]. With PR, you earn links in a completely natural way based on your expertise or a newsworthy story. Although link building is becoming less important, we expect PR to become even more important in the world of link building.
Google emphasizes throughout its documentation that expertise and effort are important. This is mentioned, among other places, in the SEO Fundamentals, the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, and information about search results.
Key components of Google’s E-E-A-T are “Experience” (demonstrating that you have experience) and “Expertise” (demonstrating that you have the right knowledge). It is therefore important that content be created by someone who truly knows what they’re talking about.
As an example, Google cites searching for information on how to file a tax return. When you search for information on this topic, as a user, you want to read information from someone who has a lot of experience with it. So make it clear to users that you know what you’re talking about.
In everyday life, you often come into contact with artificial intelligence, whether you realize it or not. As you probably know, Google’s algorithm is based on AI and ML (machine learning). We expect AI to be used more widely and to become further integrated into search results. With AI, you’ll gain better insight into how to optimize your landing pages and add value for your users.
In addition, AI models such as ChatGPT (based on GPT-4o mini and GPT-4o) help with writing content, rewriting texts, analyzing content, and automating tasks. These AI models are evolving rapidly, and countless applications will be developed for them. Furthermore, since February 2023, Google has also allowed content created with AI, as long as it adds value for users.
More and more Internet users are using their phones to look up information and make purchases [4]. A Google Local Pack is now displayed on about 19% of search results pages.
With the continued growth of mobile shopping and the ease of finding nearby stores, we expect local SEO to become even more important in 2025. So be sure to optimize your Google My Business listing or claim your profile if you haven’t already.
Although it can be frustrating, we expect major platforms like Amazon, Etsy, and Bol.com to continue gaining ground. These large tech companies have substantial budgets to experiment with what provides the best user experience, how content can better align with user preferences, and which products are in demand. By 2024, it was already evident that Google was displaying these platforms with increasing frequency, including in Organic Shopping results.
A silver lining: we expect there to still be room in the market for niche websites. It’s precisely as a niche website that you can truly stand out and help users in a more comprehensive way, because large platforms can never explain everything about a topic to users. Small platforms will struggle and ultimately lose out.
High-quality content is and will remain important, and good content is becoming even more important. Google strives to answer its users’ search queries in the best possible way. Google is constantly optimizing its algorithm to better understand websites and content. It is therefore crucial that you fully commit to high-quality content that adds value for your target audience.
Answer your visitors’ questions in your content and carefully analyze the data from Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Keyword Planner.
In addition to high-quality text, the visual presentation of your content is also important. Include calls to action, images, videos, illustrations, infographics, and other relevant visuals in your content. Structure your content using HTML headings and internal links. This helps make your content easy for your visitors to scan.
Structured data will continue to grow in importance in 2025. Structured data, also known as Schema markup, adds markup (annotations) to key information on a web page. Structured data helps search engines and LLMs (such as ChatGPT) better understand your website and content. Several websites that have implemented structured data have benefited significantly from it, with higher CTRs and more visitors [5].
Whereas the search results page used to consist of simple search results with a meta title and meta description, these days you’re increasingly likely to see additional results. More and more snippets are being displayed, such as:
In order for a search engine to stand out and offer added value compared to AI search engines (such as ChatGPT and Perplexity), it’s almost essential to display more than just 10 links. We therefore expect Google and Bing to continue focusing on this and to roll out developments from the U.S. to Europe as well.
Google doesn’t just look at the quality of the content, but also at the person who wrote it. Google’s algorithm determines whether you actually have expertise and are an authority in your field. To increase your “author authority,” it helps to be active as a guest blogger and share high-quality content through your social media channels.
In addition, include an author profile on your blog posts, create a solid “About Us” page, and link to your social media channels. Use those social media profiles to project an image of authority—for example, by clearly showcasing your expertise and educational background on your LinkedIn profile.
Another clear trend that emerged last year is the use of an increasing number and variety of search queries. Whereas users previously searched only for terms such as “clothing labels,” they are now conducting broader searches, for example:
Users are noticing that Google’s algorithm has improved significantly and that Google now understands more search queries better. The result? Users are searching more broadly to find the answer to their question faster and more easily. AI models such as Bing’s Copilot and ChatGPT are also contributing to this trend.
Adapt your content accordingly. Keep a close eye on Google Search Console and other keyword tools. For example, if you see search terms that aren’t included in your keyword research and for which you don’t yet have content on your landing page, add relevant content about that search query to your landing page so you can better help your users.
For years, people have been saying that voice search is about to take off. In practice, however, the results have been underwhelming, depending on your target audience. We don’t expect voice search to take off. Voice search is very convenient for turning on a light via Google Home, but we don’t expect it to see any further breakthroughs by 2025.
However, voice search is a trend you shouldn’t overlook. It’s particularly popular among younger generations, who use it to avoid having to type. So it may still take a few years before voice search makes its definitive breakthrough.
With AI tools like ChatGPT, it’s a breeze to have content written. Much of this content adds no value or is of very poor quality. Because marketers still often believe that you need to publish a lot of content, we expect AI to be widely used for content creation by 2025.
Unfortunately, there is a downside to this: much of the content is useless. We expect Google’s algorithm to respond more effectively to this and evaluate the added value of content even more strictly. The goal is to prevent the overload of useless content from entering the index.
In 2023, Google began testing the Search Generative Experience (SGE) in more than 120 countries. Due to European legislation, it has not yet been rolled out in the EU [8]. Nevertheless, we expect the SGE to be rolled out further worldwide and eventually shown to every user.
It’s now clear that user experience, demonstrating expertise, and high-quality content are top priorities for Google—and that these trends are becoming increasingly important. So, in everything you do with your website, think about the user and put him or her first. These 15 trends are the most important ones for 2025, and they’ll help you further improve your search visibility.
[1] https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2015/05/21/how-much-does-adwords-cost [2] https://searchengineland.com/google-search-antirust-trial-hearing-updates-431977 [3] https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide#promote [4] https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/mobile-commerce-future-trends [5] https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/intro-structured-data [6] https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2020/11/timing-for-page-experience [7] https://www.semrush.com/sensor/?compare=serp%216 [8] https://tweakers.net/nieuws/215436/generatieve-ai-in-google-zoekmachine-komt-in-120-landen-uit-maar-niet-in-eu.html
With a passion for SEO and an unmatched drive to achieve results, Jarik Oosting is the driving force behind SmartRanking. With more than 15 years of experience in the field, Jarik has built up a wealth of knowledge, ranging from technical SEO to complex migrations. As the founder of SmartRanking, he has assembled a team of like-minded SEO specialists who help companies achieve their online growth goals. He is also the author of the book *GEO – Being Visible in AI Answers*, which explores how companies can remain discoverable as AI search engines reshape the search landscape, and he is a frequent speaker.
His academic background in Information Science at the University of Groningen, with a specialization in Natural Language Processing, gives him a unique perspective on the world of SEO. For Jarik, it’s not just about search engine visibility, but about sharing knowledge and guiding companies toward sustainable online success.