How to optimise for search in 2025 

By Freya Smith

Despite recent changes in the way people search online, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is still a valuable investment for your business. 

As more of us turn to social media and AI chatbots, the key is to ensure your SEO strategy covers all relevant platforms and evolves with emerging trends. 

We’ve put together a list of the most important things to consider for effective SEO in 2025. 

Optimise for AI-Powered Search Results 

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of optimising your content so that it ranks highly on a Search Engine Results Pages (SERP). For instance, in Google, a well optimised website would appear in the first results you see and may therefore receive more traffic from users who are searching for that organisation’s products or services. 

The introduction of Google’s AI Overviews now enables users to find answers to questions with just one search, without needing to visit a website. According to search engine marketing company Semrush, in March 2025, AI Overviews were being triggered by over 13% of searches in the US, with the greatest shift towards AI answers in the science and health industries. To protect your visibility in SERPs and still get traffic to your website, it’s important to optimise your content to appear in these overviews. Following SEO best practices and creating highly relevant, useful content means your website could be featured and see an increase in traffic. 

Cover All Platforms 

From YouTube to Instagram, users are now searching across a wide variety of platforms. It’s important to consider the various ways your audience is searching for information when creating and optimising content. 

Each platform has its own algorithm and user behaviour, so you need to tailor content accordingly. Simply optimising for Google won’t guarantee success across all channels. YouTube videos and social media clips are now appearing in Google search results, so creating content across different platforms is worth your while.  

Voice and visual search are additional ways in which people are now finding information. To optimise your content for voice search, consider incorporating natural language, long-tail keywords, and answering user queries. For visual search such as Google Lens, gain visibility by creating high-quality images with relevant alt tags and file names. 

Create Quality Content 

Google has reiterated the importance of Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) for maximum appearance across the search landscape. 

Although it may be tempting to leave content generation completely up to speedy AI tools, creating original, people-first content that demonstrates your company’s specific expertise is more important than ever. 

To stay ahead of the game without sacrificing content quality, adopt AI tools for assistance with keyword and user behaviour research, data analysis, and content optimisation suggestions. If you are using AI-generated content, be sure to think of it as a first draft – make edits and add additional information to strengthen the writing. 

Optimise for Mobile Performance 

With Google’s mobile-first indexing, how your website performs on mobile devices is an essential factor in determining your ranking in search results. Your website should load quickly, be easy to navigate, and provide a seamless user experience across all screen sizes. 

Other technical SEO strategies are still important for search rankings. This includes optimising your website’s HTML tags, gaining authoritative backlinks, and ensuring your Core Web Vitals meet Google’s standards. 

Key Takeaways 

• The search landscape has changed with the growth of AI-powered and multi-platform search. 

• Websites that include helpful, original content and that are optimised technically for user experience will be favoured by the algorithm. 

• Utilise AI-tools to enhance your SEO strategy without relying too heavily on AI-generated content.