5 SEO & PPC Predictions for 2025

At the start of the new year, it’s always prudent to look ahead at what changes, trends and areas of focus are likely to come up throughout the year. I like to review this annually so that I can ensure I’m ahead of the curve and prepared for anything that comes my way. The knock-on effect of this is that my clients are also prepared with websites and PPC ads that will continue performing successfully.

Here are some of my predictions for SEO & PPC trends in 2025.

Table of Contents

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI snippet on Google Search

Whether or not you try to avoid it, AI is now part of our everyday lives. It’s unlikely that businesses will be able to operate without it in the future, so it’s worth seeing how your organisation can embrace it.

Google now provides AI summaries at the top of many of its search results, so aim to have your site used as a reference in that content. To do so, keep looking at the traditional SEO best-practices of providing helpful content that answers user questions.

Ads are also relying more on AI to generate better-performing advertisements, to map future performance, and to target audiences. While critics state that AI allows for less control and leaves you at the mercy of machine learning, it can also take out a lot of the guesswork. It can be especially useful if you’re a beginner with ads.

Finally, 2025 brings the opportunity to integrate AI into your website directly. There are all sorts of tools to help improve the user experience through AI. Behind the scenes, you can gain insight to user behaviours, and on the front end you can add hyper-personalised user experiences through elements such as personalised content and 24/7 support.

Automation

Graphic of arrows demonstrating an automation process

Automation in your SEO and PPC can save you time and money. But it can also reduce the risk of error, help process huge quantities of data, and reduce the need for onerous admin tasks.

Though there has been some form of automation in these tasks for a number of years, with the arrival of AI opportunities have increased and improved. And, as the industry becomes more competitive, these automations will free up more time to focus on implementing improvements.

Some of the automations out there include backlink tracking, SEO reporting, keyword research, ads audience adjustments, and A/B testing. And that’s just scraping the surface. If this is an area you’re interested in, I recommend looking into the platforms that incorporate such tools such as SEMRush, Screaming Frog and Swydo.

Platform Diversification

Selection of logos from businesses used for search, including Google, Bing, Pinterest, YouTube and TikTok

Google is still by far the biggest player in search, but it doesn’t hold quite the monopoly it once did. Users are now looking at other sources for their search results, so, through 2025, it’s going to be worth investing some time finding out where your audience is getting their information.

Other search engines such as Bing and DuckDuckGo are becoming increasingly popular. But completely different platforms are also seeing more search activity. Think about social platforms such as TikTok and YouTube, and AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. Throughout 2024, these all saw more regular use, and that’s only likely to continue growing in 2025.

Video-First Content

Woman recording a TikTok video

For a long time, we’ve been talking about the growing importance of video. But with the meteoric rise of TikTok and increased focus on short-form videos across other social media platforms, things have really taken off in the last couple of years. And that’s only bound to continue.

In the first quarter of 2024, online videos reached 92% of online audiences worldwide, which means brands that are not using video could be missing out on being seen.

Videos don’t have to be long, expensive, or professionally produced. Nor do they have to follow the latest dance trend – as is so popular on TikTok – unless that makes sense for your brand. You can share videos such as educational pieces, behind the scenes, and Q&As. Just keep them relevant to your audience.

Your presence on social media can help your SEO, so don’t shy away from posting videos on YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram… wherever your audience is.

Learn more about using social media for SEO.

Focus on the Fundamentals

MonsterInsights dashboard

Now, if the new and changing landscape of SEO and PPC feels overwhelming, be reassured that, ultimately, the fundamentals are still the most important thing you can focus on in 2025. Yes, using AI and automation, and looking at new ways to reach your audience is important. And yes, if you’re in a particularly competitive industry, you will probably have to embrace some of these. But, ultimately, no fancy tools or complex strategy is going to be successful if the basics aren’t in place.

If 2025 is the year you’re going to really focus on your SEO or launch your PPC ads, then start with the basics. 

For SEO, that should be your user experience, making sure your website works well on both mobile and desktop, and providing value in terms of unique, helpful content and FAQ’s. Start with these guides:

PPC fundamentals include targeting audiences, using plenty of suitable assets, and providing landing pages that resonate with the ads. Get up to speed with these guides:

Conclusion

Like 2024, 2025 will undoubtedly bring huge shifts in how we do SEO and PPC. These predictions aren’t from a magic crystal ball, but are based on trends and changes we’ve already seen in the last year. There may be more changes that we don’t foresee, but these 5 areas are bound to affect websites over the next 12 months, so making the most of them will help you stay ahead of the competition.

Find out more about how I can help your SEO and PPC in 2025.

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