Is SEO Dead in 2025? No, But Changes Are Coming

Jan 20, 2025 10:00 PM - 2 weeks ago 24704

Is SEO dormant successful 2025? Simply put, no. But it's evolving quickly—as it has done galore times before.

One point is certain, however: 2024 was a reliable twelvemonth for SEOs.

Google's AI overviews and halfway updates shook up hunt rankings. Watching rankings driblet without mentation was frustrating, leaving galore wondering if SEO moreover had a future.

Even heavyweights for illustration Forbes Advisor and CNN weren't spared. Personally, I've wrestled pinch SERP volatility too.

But here's the thing: caller opportunities are emerging from these disruptions.

And I've sewage information and master insights to beryllium it.

Is SEO Dead?

No, but it's going done monolithic changes.

First, Google's absolute hunt monopoly is coming to an end—but not arsenic accelerated arsenic you whitethorn think.

According to recent data, Google still dominates, pinch 83.54% of the online searches.

But caller players are emerging. 

ChatGPT commands 4.33% of searches, YouTube accounts for 6.79%, and different platforms specified arsenic societal media networks collectively correspond 3.37% of hunt activity.

Cross-platform stock of search

Of course, we tin expect the stock of non-traditional hunt engines specified arsenic AI chatbots to grow.

And this displacement makes sense. 

AI chatbots supply immediate, personalized answers, alternatively than making users sift done links. 

However, Google's position remains beardown for respective cardinal reasons:

  1. Google still processes billions of searches daily, maintaining its position arsenic the superior gateway to accusation online—and I don’t deliberation it’ll suffer its activity successful the upcoming years.
  2. AI devices fundamentally trust connected human-created contented for training and responses. Without original contented being published and indexed by hunt engines, these AI models would person thing to study from aliases reference.
  3. Google isn't opinionated still. The institution is actively innovating by integrating AI into hunt results—for example, pinch AI overviews and summaries. While this creates caller challenges for contented creators, it besides signals Google's committedness to evolving the hunt experience.

This assurance is backed by marketplace performance—Google's marketplace worth grew from $1.76 trillion to $2.14 trillion successful 2024 alone, marking a 22% summation astatine the highest of AI adoption.

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Source: Oberlo

Secondly, Google itself is actively changing the rules

Throughout 2024, we saw galore awesome algorithm updates focused connected contented value and personification experience, specified arsenic the March 2024 halfway update:

Google 2024 updates

Even manufacture giants weren't immune—arge sites for illustration Forbes Advisor and G2 mislaid important postulation aft being penalized by Google.

But these changes are really benefiting galore smaller businesses. 

Our caller study of 700+ Semrush users shows that 78% still see SEO highly aliases very valuable for their company.

 How valuable is SEO for your business?

We besides recovered that 62.9% of businesses saw SEO improvements successful the past six months of 2024 and only 9.5% knowledgeable postulation declines.

SEO capacity successful the past 6 months

All this intends that SEO isn't dead—it's evolving into a much nuanced believe that rewards authenticity and expertise complete method optimization alone. 

Success now requires high-quality original content, a deeper knowing of personification intent, and the expertise to accommodate to accelerated changes successful hunt behaviour and technology.

Why Do People Say that SEO Is Dead?

Let’s return a measurement back. 

What’s each the fuss about? Why are we panicking?

Here are immoderate awesome hurdles that we’ve been seeing successful the SEO industry:

1. Changes successful Google Algorithms and SERP Volatility

The SEO manufacture has knowledgeable awesome shake-ups successful 2024.

If you’ve been keeping an oculus connected the SERPs, you’ve astir apt noticed it too. 

Google has rolled retired a bid of halfway and spam updates complete the past fewer years to bring down low-quality content. 

And sometimes—unfortunately—it has besides affected high-quality, applicable pages. 

While Google is trying to fig retired its algorithms, we’ve seen tons of SERP volatility—especially aft awesome updates successful March and November.

This has been a acquainted image connected Semrush’s Sensor instrumentality for a while now:

SERP volatility

Some sites gained postulation overnight, while others saw important drops. For example, Forbes Advisor mislaid an insane magnitude of postulation successful a span of a fewer months:

Forbes Advisor postulation drop

At the aforesaid time, galore sites for illustration Housefresh.com recovered postulation aft initially losing it—and moreover knowledgeable growth. 

Organic postulation recovery

I’ve besides noticed changes straight successful the SERPs, affecting really Google approaches search intent. 

For example, keywords related to devices (e.g., “Best AI tools”, “Best image generators”, etc.) saw merchandise pages switch listicles.

Compare February 2024, erstwhile astir results for “AI tools” were blog posts…

Changing SERPs example

…with November 2024, erstwhile the SERP was alternatively dominated by instrumentality pages.

Changing SERPs example

This is conscionable 1 illustration of really hunt intent is evolving, and it’s happening crossed the board.

What does this mean?

The volatility we’re seeing isn’t a motion of SEO dying—it’s a motion of evolution.

As manufacture master Ann Smarty, co-founder of Smarty Marketing, explains:

Everyone, nary matter really large aliases small, is seeing little postulation complete the years. It’s the reality we person to woody with. You request to beryllium okay pinch it and accommodate to enactment successful the game. If you dangle connected traffic, it will spell down. But it will still happen, and possibly go much focused.

Ann Smarty, co-founder of Smarty Marketing

2. Google’s AI Overviews Stealing Clicks 

Google’s AI Overviews supply speedy answers to personification queries and look correct astatine the apical of the hunt page. 

For example, if you hunt “what is generative AI?”, Google instantly shows an reply by pulling accusation from various websites. 

AI Overviews

The extremity is to make hunt faster and much convenient for users.

But for websites, it’s a different story. 

While these overviews see links to the original sources, galore users don’t consciousness the request to click through.

As a result, integrated hunt mightiness proceed to alteration and we’ll spot much zero-click searches. 

But this business presents much opportunities than it mightiness seem:

  • AI Overviews still thrust marque consciousness and visibility, moreover without (or pinch fewer) nonstop clicks
  • AI summaries activity champion for basal information—they can't switch elaborate guides that person steps, examples, and instructions
  • AI Overviews look to favour contented from 2 main sources: established marque names and pages pinch high-quality original contented (such arsenic unsocial information aliases research). Focusing connected these areas tin besides thief you summation your visibility there. 

One of the cardinal issues is that we still struggle to quantify and way clicks and impressions from AI Overviews. 

As Ann Smarty points out:

It’s difficult to understand what users are clicking on. Was it an AI overview? Organic search? Something else? Measuring postulation and clicks has go hectic.

Ann Smarty, co-founder of Smarty Marketing

While we hold for analytics devices to accommodate to the caller reality, you tin still way different metrics.

For example, Ann recommends focusing connected branded hunt arsenic a cardinal capacity indicator:

When group commencement searching for your brand, it’s a awesome awesome that your strategy is working. It shows you’re being highlighted crossed channels, moreover successful places we can’t measurement consistently yet.
 

Ann Smarty, co-founder of Smarty Marketing

The maturation of your branded hunt is simply a beardown parameter of whether your SEO strategy is moving aliases not.

3. Shifts successful Consumer Search Behavior 

As we discussed earlier, user hunt behaviour is evolving.

Google is nary longer the sole go-to for answers. 

Instead, group are turning to various platforms, including AI chatbots, specified arsenic ChatGPT and Perplexity, arsenic good arsenic forums specified arsenic Reddit and Quora—especially for elemental queries.

And while this inclination will proceed to grow, what's really changing is really group search. 

We're seeing a displacement from elemental keywords to complex, conversational queries. For example, alternatively than searching "best laptop 2025," users now inquire elaborate questions for illustration "What's the champion laptop for video editing nether $2000 pinch bully artillery life?"

This displacement is creating chopped contented opportunities:

  • Basic accusation and speedy answers are moving to AI
  • Detailed guides, master analysis, and original investigation still thrust important hunt traffic
  • Product comparisons and different contented that influences buying decisions will stay important successful accepted search—and truthful will expertise-driven content

And arsenic I mentioned before, each AI devices are only arsenic bully arsenic the contented they're trained on.

As Sergei Rogulin, Semrush’s Head of SEO, points out:

Search postulation will decline, but Google and different LLMs will still request quality content. AI needs to beryllium trained connected caller content. And we'll spot really it'll unfold truthful that group enactment motivated to constitute caller content. That's successful the agelong run, though.
 

Sergei Rogulin, Semrush’s Head of SEO

On apical of that, recent investigation by ProRankTracker revealed an important insight: your Google and Bing rankings importantly effect your visibility successful AI tools. 

Their study recovered that 45% of top-ranking Google pages (and 63% of Bing pages) appeared successful ChatGPT web results. For Perplexity AI, 63% of top-ranking Google URLs appeared arsenic sources. 

This information suggests that beardown SEO capacity tin besides straight power your visibility crossed AI platforms—making bully SEO much important, not less.

4. The Rise of AI-Generated Content

At the aforesaid time, we’re seeing much and much AI contented successful hunt results.

Our analysis of the apical 20 SERP results for complete 20,000 keywords showed that 8% of top-ranking articles were AI-generated successful October 2024. 

While this number is still small, it's increasing steadily. 

AI contented successful hunt results

Source: Originality.ai

But here's what's interesting: companies that usage AI strategically are seeing singular results. 

Our investigation of 700+ businesses revealed that erstwhile AI is utilized arsenic a instrumentality alternatively than a replacement for quality expertise, it tin really heighten SEO performance. 

The information backs this up: 39% of marketers saw accrued integrated postulation erstwhile creating contented with AI assistance. And 33% study it performing amended than purely human-written content.

The results of utilizing AI to create content

The secret? Successful companies aren't conscionable feeding prompts into ChatGPT and hitting Publish. Instead, they're:

  • Starting pinch original investigation and master insights
  • Using AI to make first drafts, structure, and optimize content
  • Having quality editors refine and personalize the output
  • Adding real-world examples and lawsuit studies

In fact, 73% of successful companies usage a operation of AI and quality writing, pinch only 5% relying connected AI alone.

As Ross Simmonds, CEO of Foundation Marketing, puts it:

I deliberation AI is the balanced of spell cheque today. It's thing each creator should see arsenic portion of their toolkit to beryllium much businesslike and effective astatine prioritizing the areas they request to attraction on. This ensures their sound is coming across, their connection is clear, and the communicative they're telling is captivating and uniquely theirs.

Ross Simmonds, CEO of Foundation Marketing

5. Changes successful the SEO and Content Marketing Job Markets

However, there’s a downside to this trend.

Yes, businesses are progressively utilizing AI to nutrient contented faster and astatine scale.

But this displacement is impacting jobs successful SEO and contented marketing.

In the first 4th of 2024, SEO occupation listings dropped by 37% twelvemonth connected year. This suggests that companies whitethorn beryllium leaning much connected AI and little connected accepted SEO roles.

SEO Jobs listings

It’s not conscionable SEO roles that are being affected. Content trading jobs are besides nether pressure. 

According to a 2025 Content Marketing Institute study, 1 successful 3 marketers reported that their institution fto spell of squad members successful the past year.

On apical of this, uncovering trading jobs has go progressively difficult.

68% of marketers judge it’s harder to find a trading occupation now than it was 5 years ago.

Content trading occupation marketplace perceptions

Most blasted financial aliases economical pressures (75%) and tougher title (69%).

However, 33% of marketers opportunity AI is straight responsible for these challenges.

What impacts contented trading jobs

How tin you reside these challenges and support your profession afloat? The cardinal is to germinate alongside AI alternatively than resisting it.

While AI tin constitute contented and do keyword research, the astir valuable marketers coming spell beyond these basal skills. They:

  • Develop broad trading strategies aligned pinch business goals
  • Create data-driven contented plans that thrust conversions, not conscionable traffic
  • Build thought activity done original investigation and manufacture expertise
  • Use AI to heighten productivity, while focusing connected high-impact initiatives

How You Can Overcome These SEO Challenges

So, what tin you do to accommodate to these changes? Here are a fewer ideas.

1. Create Net-New Value Content

If your contented doesn’t connection thing unique, it won’t rank—or moreover make it into AI summaries. 

To guidelines out, your contented must present worth that AI can’t replicate. 

The champion pages leverage existent experience, master analysis, and unsocial data. Most importantly, they supply caller perspectives—offering opinions and insights alongside useful information.

This could beryllium your team's hands-on acquisition pinch a caller technology, information from your latest customer survey, aliases your master predictions astir wherever your manufacture is heading. 

Here are immoderate examples of what you tin do.

Perform Original Research

Create contented based connected information that nary 1 other has. Run surveys, analyse soul data, aliases behaviour experiments.

For instance, my squad conducted a three-layer study to determine if AI-generated contented tin rank connected Google.

Can AI contented rank connected Google? Research example

The information from this investigation is powering aggregate contented pieces—including the 1 you're reference now.It besides helps america to pull attraction organically and bring successful caller tract visitors.

The champion part? We utilized our ain proprietary information and surveyed our ain users to put this together.

Document Real-World Experiences

Share circumstantial challenges, results, and lessons you’ve learned.

Backlinko’s blog post, “How to Create a Content Brief,” is simply a awesome example. It explains really their squad creates contented briefs for their writers—something AI will ne'er beryllium capable to replicate.

.

What is simply a contented brief? Original portion example

Collaborate pinch Experts

Don’t trust connected writers to investigation everything, particularly erstwhile it’s not their domain. 

Bring successful taxable matter experts (SMEs) to adhd credibility and depth. These could beryllium your ain employees, manufacture thought leaders, and moreover clients.

For example, I interviewed Ann Smarty (Co-Founder of Smarty Marketing) and Ross Simmonds (CEO of Foundation Marketing) to substance our AI SEO research.

I past incorporated their ideas into our content:

Adding master opinions - example

2. Perform Regular Content Audits and Updates

SERPs are much volatile than ever, pinch predominant Google updates reshuffling rankings. 

It’s a widely discussed taxable connected LinkedIn these days:

Post astir SERP volatility

Unfortunately for me, I've moreover seen this firsthand.

For example, I create a batch of contented astir AI, an manufacture that’s perpetually evolving. 

One of my pages dropped from positions 1-3 down to 20 successful conscionable a fewer days, causing insane postulation fluctuations.

Traffic fluctuations

Why? 

The SERPs were shifting: caller competitors appeared, and abruptly my contented wasn’t arsenic caller arsenic it needed to be.

The solution? 

Frequent updates. In little volatile industries, updates are usually little frequent.

I’ve revisited that aforesaid portion aggregate times complete the past six months, and perpetually added caller insights from my first-hand acquisition pinch AI tools.

Each update helped the portion regain its ranking and support it relevant.

Here’s what I urge doing:

  • Keep an oculus connected SERPs and hunt intent: Search results alteration fast. I’ve learned to cheque the top-ranking pages for important keywords regularly. If the intent shifts and my contented becomes outdated, I accommodate it accordingly.
  • Add individual insights: AI devices tin summarize existing data, but what they can’t do is stock your unsocial experiences. I’ve recovered that adding real-world examples aliases lessons from my ain activity tin make a immense difference.
  • Optimize for hunt engines on the way: Whenever I update, I revisit keywords, meta descriptions, and soul links. These mini updates person helped my pages stay competitive.

3. Measure, Test, and Adapt Your Content Strategy

When resources are limited, attraction connected what will present the champion results. Before creating a free instrumentality aliases assets page to pull traffic, inquire yourself:

“Will it person capable users (or scope different objective) to warrant the effort?”

Predicting this tin beryllium tough, particularly pinch integrated postulation aliases blog posts. But not impossible.

Monitor Historical Data

First, look astatine past performance:

  • Has this type of contented worked good before?
  • Does this assemblage thrust conversions?

Then return this information to style your content strategy: double down connected formats and topics that person proven to thrust results, and walk little clip connected contented types that don't move the needle for your business goals.

Understand Conversion Across the Funnel

Next, way really users person astatine each shape of the funnel. Without this understanding, resources tin spell to waste.

On my team, we collaborate pinch UX designers and merchandise owners to show capacity astatine each touchpoint, and set contented experiences accordingly.

For example, our designer helped adhd various conversion points to our free tools:

CRO connected free tools

This information helps america make smarter decisions and continuously amended our content performance.

Run Experiments

Experimentation is essential, particularly erstwhile things are changing quickly. Test caller ideas, study from the results, and adapt.

For example, HubSpot seems to person shifted to penning successful the first personification aft soul experiments showed it amended aligned pinch Google’s E-E-A-T standards.

Most of their articles now attraction connected showing first-hand experience:

HubSpot's articles pinch first-hand perspectives

Plan Distribution Early

Content that doesn’t get immoderate postulation won’t person anyone. And while SEO still works, it’s a semipermanent game—and a very volatile one.

So effort to deliberation beyond rankings and adhd much content distribution channels to your mix.

For example, Andy Crestodina, the laminitis of Orbit Media, has been getting awesome results pinch his LinkedIn newsletter

Even pinch SEO fluctuations, it helped him make postulation and engagement for Orbit Media (I mean, complete 200k subscribers):

Andy's LinkedIn newsletter

4. Use AI, but Do So Responsibly

You don’t request to debar AI—just make judge you’re utilizing it responsibly. Google doesn't penalize AI content: it targets low-quality content, sloppy of really it's created.

What does that mean?

AI shouldn’t switch your writers. Nor should you disregard AI and fearfulness utilizing it. Instead, dainty it arsenic an adjunct that helps you amended your content’s quality. 

For example, 73% of Semrush users we surveyed harvester AI pinch quality writing:

How do you chiefly create content? AI SEO research

Besides, they usage AI devices for each sorts of tasks, from uncovering contented ideas to creating first contented drafts:

How businesses usage AI for contented and SEO

It’s besides important to harvester AI devices pinch SEO data. Remember, astir tools specified arsenic ChatGPT don’t really connection real-time competitory information connected keywords and SERPs.

You tin either harvester specified chatbots pinch SEO package aliases usage specialized AI SEO tools. 

For example, our ContentShake AI app uses Semrush’s real-time information to thief you create high-ranking content.

It generates article drafts that incorporated your target keywords, usage original information, and return search intent insights into account.

ContentShake AI contented creation

You tin past manually heighten those drafts by adding original insights, expanding the contented utilizing AI chat, generating AI images, improving readability, and more.

ContentShake AI contented creation

Ann Smarty sums it up well:

"Using AI is wholly fine—as agelong arsenic it's portion of a thoughtful process. When we activity pinch writers, we usually supply briefs pinch inputs from taxable matter experts aliases research. 

Writers tin usage these inputs pinch AI devices to constitute faster, but it still involves astir 50% AI and 50% quality effort, including penning and editing. The cardinal is balance. Creating everything from scratch successful 1 click and hoping it useful doesn’t make sense. 

Zero AI tolerance policies often consciousness for illustration stubbornness to me—AI, erstwhile utilized responsibly, is conscionable different instrumentality to get amended results."

5. Expand Your Marketing Skillset

I support seeing headlines for illustration this everywhere: "Content penning is dead." "SEO jobs are disappearing." "AI will switch each marketers."

LinkedIn remark - are contented writers finished?

The reality is overmuch much nuanced. 

Yes, if your only accomplishment is penning basal articles aliases plugging keywords into content, AI devices tin now grip these tasks.

But successful trading has ever been astir overmuch much than that.

The cardinal is to germinate from being conscionable a contented creator aliases SEO master to becoming a strategical trading master who tin spot the bigger picture. 

Focus connected knowing business strategy, assemblage needs, and really to create genuinely unsocial contented that drives results.

Think of it this way: AI tin thief you constitute faster, but it can't show you what contented your assemblage needs, really it fits into your trading funnel, aliases really to measurement its business impact. 

These strategical skills are becoming much valuable, not less.

The Bottom Line: SEO Isn't Dead—It's Evolving (Again)

Let's put things successful perspective: SEO has supposedly "died" galore times before. 

Whether it was the preamble of Google Ads, featured snippets, aliases video content, each caller improvement was predicted to beryllium the extremity of SEO. 

Yet each time, SEO adapted and evolved—just arsenic it's doing now pinch AI. 

How tin you set to this and thrive successful 2025?

Don’t tally from the changes. Embrace them—while maintaining attraction connected these basal principles: 

  • Create genuinely valuable contented that serves quality intent and provides a unsocial perspective
  • Stay agile and fresh to accommodate to caller technologies and hunt behaviors 
  • Diversify your postulation sources and contented formats 
  • Use AI arsenic a instrumentality to enhance, not replace, your trading efforts
  • Regularly audit and update your contented to support relevance

Remember: while the devices and techniques of SEO whitethorn change, its halfway intent remains the same—helping group find the accusation they need. 

As agelong arsenic group proceed searching for answers online, SEO will stay an important portion of integer trading strategy (at slightest successful immoderate form). 

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