I was working for a newsletter publishing company when the internet first came on the scene in the mid-1990s. During one meeting with a large bank headquartered in San Francisco, we all talked about whether we had “gone online” yet. Several of us had tried to, but were unsuccessful.
Things moved pretty quickly after that. My company quickly built a website and created a new type of electronic newsletter called the “@Netletter,” which I still think was a pretty clever name.
A year or two after this, I first became aware of something called search engine optimization, or SEO. I was amazed to learn that marketers could write copy and design websites so that their sites appeared at or near the top of results pages when people used certain words and phrases for online queries.
SEO Trends to Watch For
The field of SEO has evolved considerably since those early days. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the importance of search engine optimization to an online content marketing strategy.
As a content creator, I try to stay informed about the latest trends in SEO. One of the best resources in my toolbox is a blog/e-newsletter written by SEO expert and consultant Jenny Munn, who I met when we were both starting out as full-time freelancers in 2009. Jenny is my go-to resource any time I have questions about SEO, so I asked her to share some insights about SEO trends in 2024-2025.
SEO is Constantly Changing
One of the main things Jenny has learned about SEO over the years is that it’s constantly changing. “Keeping up with SEO is not for the faint of heart!” she told me. “The nature of online search has always evolved due to technology advancements and changes in human behavior, but it’s changing more rapidly now than ever before.”
This is due largely to the rise of artificial intelligence, which Jenny says is taking search to a whole new level. More specifically, SearchGPT combines traditional online search engine features with generative pretrained transformers (or GPT) to generate search results. This capability has positioned SearchGPT as a major competitor to Google and Bing.
SearchGPT is currently only available to ChatGPT Plus and Team subscribers, but it will be opened up to ChatGPT free users early next year.
Jenny says SearchGPT will affect SEO in several ways. “For starters, user behavior will evolve and change as we use AI search engines versus traditional search engines. This means search strategies need to expand beyond solely optimizing for Google and Bing to include optimizing for AI search.”
The big debate in SEO circles now is whether people will click on links provided by SearchGPT. “The ‘yes’ side argues that the lack of ads will drive higher click-through rates, while the ‘no’ side believes SearchGPT’s answers will be sufficient, reducing the need to click through,” Jenny says. “As always, time and data will tell.”
Rise of Zero-Click Searches
Along with AI searches, so-called zero-click searches are another SEO trend Jenny is watching carefully. These are searches where people get all the information they need from a featured snippet, instant answer or AI overview displayed in the search result and don’t have to click through to an actual website.
Not surprisingly, the result of these zero-click searches is less Google website traffic. According to Jenny, this has some in the SEO community questioning the value of search engine optimization. But is SEO really becoming less valuable?
“In most instances, these zero-click searches are informational searches and represent only a tiny fraction of what SEO is really about,” Jenny says. “Informational searches usually don’t convert because people aren’t looking to buy anything — they’re just looking for information.”
For example, someone who wants information will visit a webpage, get the information they need and hit the back button or close out the tab. They’ll probably never visit the website again, but they’re satisfied because they got what they needed. “Do we really care if this visitor clicks to our website if they were never going to convert anyway?” says Jenny.
The modern equivalent to getting someone to click on your website and notice your brand during an informational search is your content snippet and logo getting referenced and linked in a featured snippet or AI overview. “Doesn’t this make SEO more valuable for your website to show up when there is a transactional intent, or when a visit to a website is necessary?” says Jenny.
“If 65% of SEO traffic no longer results in a website click, aren’t we all fighting for the 35% of critical clicks? In my mind, all of this makes SEO more, not less, important — at least for businesses that rely on generating high-quality leads regularly.”
Generating website traffic just for the sake of traffic isn’t important unless you’re an affiliate website, publisher or blogger. “What is important is generating intent-based SEO traffic from the right audience,” says Jenny. “This is always going to be a smaller percentage of visitors than a mass audience.”
In other words, it’s the quality, not the quantity, of website clicks that matters.