The Fate of SEO in 2025: 5 AI-Driven Shifts to Watch

It’s no secret that AI tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini are rapidly reshaping how people search. One survey by The Information found that 77% of its subscribers are using traditional search less. And even when people do use Google, a 2024 Sparktoro study found that 60% of all searches today are zero-click. Google is determined to keep users on its platform rather than sending them to your site — and its AI summaries are succeeding. 

For many marketers trained on traditional organic search and search engine optimization (SEO), these statistics set off major alarm bells. Is this the death rattle of SEO as we know it? Or are we getting ahead of ourselves? One thing’s for certain: all marketers—especially those in B2B—must rethink where and how we engage our target audiences. To get to the bottom of the fate of SEO in 2025, let’s examine five of the most critical AI-driven search shifts and what they mean for our strategies. 

1. AI Is Hurting Organic Search Traffic (And Will Continue To)

If you’re still pouring time and resources into top-of-funnel SEO content to grow your audience, it’s time to rethink your strategy. As mentioned above, surveys of those working in the digital sphere reveal that anywhere between 55% and 77% of respondents are Googling less due to AI tools.

Gartner predicts that search engine volume will drop by 25% by 2026 due to AI.

Experts predict the drop will occur due to two key behaviors: People will continue to use ChatGPT instead of Google to find the information they need, or when they do head to Google, users will find all the answers they’re looking for via Gemini’s AI Overviews and other features like “People Also Ask” directly on the Search Engine Results (SERP) page. Zero clicks needed. 

I’ve seen this shift first-hand with one of my clients. AI overviews now appear at the top of Google’s SERP for 75% of their content hub’s top search terms, causing a significant decline in traffic to their site from those terms.

The one exception to this trend appears to be editorial content. For example, overall visits across all of Industry Dive’s publications grew by 18% YoY in 2024. Google’s EEAT criteria that prioritizes content demonstrating Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness is clearly pushing original journalism to the top of the pile.

Similarly, when ChatGPT links to external sources in its answers, it almost exclusively links to editorial sites for informational queries, and only refers to corporate sites when queries are brand-specific.

Related Reading: Editing ChatGPT Outputs: 4 Essential Tips and Prompt Approaches

How Marketers Should Respond

• Monitor traffic surrounding your top keywords to assess which are rising, which are falling, and how many have AI summaries at the top of the SERP

• Use this evidence to propose a review of web traffic goals, particularly in terms of expected organic search volumes

2. Google Is No Longer a Growth Driver

I almost considered making this article’s title “SEO content is dead”. But I’m not saying that you won’t get any traffic from Google. 

What I am saying is that if you are a business trying to optimize your company blog articles for organic search traffic, you’re making an investment with diminishing returns. It’s highly unlikely that you will experience the huge traffic growth from SEO content that you may have seen in the past, even if ChatGPT’s new search tool is some way off from taking out Google. 

There are organizations for whom organic search has been their main focus for top of funnel (TOFU) engagement with their target audience i.e. trying to build brand awareness through connecting with what those people may be searching for.

Now is the time for such brands to take a more diverse approach in how they engage at the top of the content marketing funnel, with TOFU SEO content being just one of a variety methods.

Of course, while web traffic from Google is falling, if your site currently has no SEO content, then producing some as part of an overall SEO hygiene strategy will bring new visitors. But get ready to temper your expectations — anticipate those new visitors to be in the hundreds, rather than the thousands as they may have once been.

How Marketers Should Respond

• Lay out a clear, diversified strategy for engaging TOFU prospects that avoids putting all your eggs in the basket of organic search

• Continue to monitor SEO hygiene, but only as part of your overall approach to website health, rather than as  part of a plan to grow audience engagement

3. Search Intent Matters More Than Ever

It’s important to point out that the sort of web traffic I’m referring to is traffic driven by searches with “informational intent” — those top-of-funnel queries where people are simply looking to learn more about a topic. 

Research conducted in summer 2024 showed that Google searches with informational intent were overwhelmingly the types of searches most likely to feature AI overviews.

However, informational intent is just one of four main types of search intent. It’s very probable the other three types — transactional, commercial, and navigational intent — will continue to bring traffic to your business’s website.

The only informational intent searches that seem to continue to deliver strong traffic numbers are those that are closely brand-aligned. 

For example, one of my clients has seen dramatic falls in much of the organic search traffic to the blog section of its website. The main types of articles that have bucked this trend are blogs that delve into the details of their product and its benefits, beyond what is found on straightforward product pages. This is the classic middle-to-lower-funnel content that can connect with your audience after they have engaged with TOFU content elsewhere. 

In a recent LinkedIn post, Rand Fishkin’s (Co-Founder, Sparktoro) reveals that in the U.S., 44% of all Google searches are brand-specific.

This evidence supports Fishkin’s evolving theory that “people already know where they want to go, and are just Googling to get there.”

Editorial-Style Content Hubs to the Rescue? 

The one hope for content marketers wishing to target TOFU organic searches with informational intent — beyond the brand-aligned content outlined above — may be dedicated content hubs. Just as traffic to Industry Dive’s publications grew this year, we’ve similarly found that clients with content hubs that effectively behave like editorial sites — such as Square’s The Bottom Line — are faring better at holding their traffic share vs. more traditional corporate blog sites. 

These editorial-style sites have limited brand mentions or corporate messaging in their articles, and are housed in a platform surrounded by other editorial content that appeals to readers, rather than fighting for page space with product advertising. If and when they do have brand mentions, they are helpful product benefits explainers like this piece about Square Kiosk. 

What’s the next big trend in marketing? Hear where Square’s Mallory Russell and studioID’s Travis Gonzalez are placing their bets.

How Marketers Should Respond

• Switch your website strategy for new content to focus on middle-of-funnel or lower-funnel content, but don’t ditch everything you’ve learned about best-practice content marketing and only produce promotional content. 

• Rather, shift TOFU content away from SEO blogs on your website to content that engages audiences on their preferred platforms, such as social media or niche B2B media. Or, more radically, build an editorially-focused hub that looks and feels like a B2B media site.

4. Search Is Following Social’s Zero-Click Trend

If you have a content program that’s been attempting to use social media to drive traffic to a corporate website, all of the above may sound familiar. In many ways, organic search traffic is simply following the same path of decline as traffic from socials.

The concept of “zero-click” is something that has been relentlessly pursued by all the main social media platforms as they do everything possible to encourage you to stay on their apps and sites. Or, as SparkToro founder Rand Fishkin puts it, 

Earning traffic on the internet is getting more and more difficult… Zero click is taking over everything. Google is trying to answer searches without clicks, Facebook is trying to keep people on Facebook, LinkedIn wants to keep people on LinkedIn.

He adds that not only are platforms trying to keep you on their sites or apps, but some actively bias against content that contains links out of their site.

In terms of search, AI summaries are simply accelerating a trend that began years ago with other fixtures on Google’s SERP pages, such as featured snippets and the “People Also Ask” dropdowns.

Fishkin’s sentiment about zero-click is echoed by SEO expert Gaetano DiNardi, who points out that zero-click content is in direct conflict with how executives want to measure marketing. Direct traffic to websites is no longer a meaningful metric when trying to gauge TOFU audience engagement. 

How Marketers Should Respond

• As social platforms bias against links, build a strategy for native content that lives on those sites, and focus KPIs on engagement

• In search, consider what value you might place on your content being referenced in AI summaries or other search features as part of your brand awareness metrics

5. Savvy Marketers Are Already Deprioritizing SEO 

The good news? Most content marketers are well aware of the challenges and changing tides surrounding organic search and are quickly adapting: 

• In our 2023 predictions survey (polled at end of 2022), content marketers ranked SEO/Organic search as their #1 predicted channel for success in reaching prospects (53%). 

• One short year later in our 2024 predictions survey, SEO/Organic search slipped to their 4th choice for predicted success of channels (44%), behind email and social media.

  • Similarly, when asked which format they predicted would be their most successful in 2024, 71% of marketers overwhelmingly chose social media (short-form videos, posts, etc.) — while a mere 20% selected blog articles. 

While we’re still waiting for the results of our 2025 predictions survey to roll in, we expect this trend to only continue in the coming year. Developing a multi-channel strategy that’s fit to compete in the new digital marketing landscape should be your first order of business. As Di Nardi points out: 

“Going “all-in” on one traffic source is a risky business heading into 2025. The winning companies are figuring out a multi-channel marketing approach to mitigate traffic erosion in a zero-click world.”

How Marketers Should Respond

• Develop a 2025 strategy that is multi-channel and helps you stay connected with your audience at each stage of the content marketing funnel

• Recognize that the future isn’t about driving traffic to your website. It’s about creating content where your different audiences already hang out and engaging with them there. Additionally, don’t hold back on building your own place for them to hang out by crafting a true editorial hub & community space. 

Stay tuned for my next post where I’ll explore just where those places are for B2B audiences, and show you how to incorporate them into a multi-channel content marketing strategy.