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AI is reshaping SEO, but the core principles – understanding your audience, optimizing your site, and leveraging a skilled team – remain essential.
In other words, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
As we move into the new year, remember these three principles to harness AI for SEO wins.
This year, we experienced another massive shift in Google Search with AI Overviews, which is changing the way people engage with the search results – again.
Here’s a simplified version of how AI Overviews work (if you’re into the more complex version, see Google’s documentation on generative summaries for search results):
In a win for SEO, data suggests there is a strong correlation between ranking in the SERPs and the links featured in AI Overviews.
A study done by Rich Sanger and Authoritas found that:
So, do sites that rank outside the SERPs’ Page 1 get included in AI Overviews? Yes.
Is it common? No.
This is why everyone needs to know that SEO is not dead – again.
As for how AI Overviews work exactly, we will never know 100%, and that’s nothing new in SEO. So, I’ve always said that we need to beat the competition, not the algorithm.
In 2025, we need to double down on the SEO strategies we know work right now to make our sites the most relevant pick for any number of queries.
We need to analyze the competition and do better.
There will be research that suggests what we can test. For example, the Sanger/Authoritas study concluded that people could:
My advice? Go back to the basics.
There will always be some major event in SEO that throws us for a loop.
Stay grounded in proven strategies while keeping an eye on the future.
Test, learn, adapt, and grow.
AI is disrupting the workforce in a way that has not been seen since the Industrial Revolution. While there will be job losses, AI will also create more opportunities.
While 85 million jobs may be displaced by automation in 2025, 97 million new roles are projected to emerge, per the World Economic Forum’s prediction.
AI can automate repetitive tasks, analyze vast datasets, and streamline operations.
However, it cannot replicate human workers’ creativity, strategic thinking, and emotional intelligence – all of which are key to effective SEO.
As we think about how to adopt AI tools and systems into our SEO programs, we need to consider how it will impact the quality of our strategies.
If AI can streamline processes while retaining the quality of our work, it’s a win.
And there’s no scenario I can see where AI should replace any one function of SEO without human oversight.
So, as we head into 2025, there are two major shifts that companies will face:
While reducing payroll or contractor investments may be alluring, the key is boosting efficiency while maintaining human oversight for quality and innovation.
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Here’s how human oversight must evolve in the era of AI:
Shift human resources to high-level strategies like identifying brand content strategies, setting priorities and personalizing AI outputs.
For example:
Those that don’t embrace AI will fall behind quickly.
However, adopting it recklessly without adhering to search engine guidelines and user expectations can be equally as damaging.
Create ethical AI guidelines, monitor for plagiarism and misinformation, and ensure your content strategy has human oversight to uphold relevance and trust.
For more on this, check out my articles here on Search Engine Land:
In Walter Isaacson’s biography, “Steve Jobs,” Jobs said that “our task is to read things that are not on the page.”
It’s the ability to give customers what they want before they know what they want.
In 2025, the brands that succeed online will not just be those that integrate AI efficiently. They will be those that use AI to understand and anticipate their customers’ needs.
SEO has always been rooted in the bigger picture of audience behavior and insights.
Queries only tell half the story, but knowing what your potential customers want and need is the key to creating helpful, quality SEO and content strategies.
With AI, we now have a powerful tool to better understand user intent, audience behavior, and preferences, allowing you to be ahead of the game.
Say you’re an ecommerce brand that wants to boost online visibility and sales for seasonal clothing lines. But, you struggle to align your content strategy with customer interests.
AI-driven predictive analytics could analyze historical data, search trends and consumer behavior to forecast demand for specific products.
You could then create and optimize content around predicted high-demand items, targeting relevant keywords and aligning with trends.
That’s just one scenario. AI’s ability to analyze large amounts of customer sentiment and preference data allows brands to uncover more insights about their audiences than ever before.
For instance, you can use an AI-powered analysis to review customer feedback from surveys, website interactions, market research, and more to identify themes and preferences that can inform your SEO strategy.
In 2025, consider the following:
AI is changing the game, but SEO fundamentals remain the same.
When you focus on solid SEO foundations, smart AI adoption and understanding your audience, you can continue to compete in the coming year and beyond.
Test, learn, and adapt. Make 2025 your year to win with AI.
Contributing authors are invited to create content for Search Engine Land and are chosen for their expertise and contribution to the search community. Our contributors work under the oversight of the editorial staff and contributions are checked for quality and relevance to our readers. The opinions they express are their own.
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