Search engine optimisation continues to evolve in tandem with search, and with Google doubling down on AI-powered search, user intent, and content experience in 2025 – now’s the time to reassess SEO priorities.
Many once-standard SEO practices are now outdated – and potentially damaging.
Here’s what website owners and marketers need to know about what’s changed, what truly matters now, and which SEO myths are best left behind.
Why sites are losing visibility in 2025
Noticed a drop in rankings recently? You’re not alone. Many websites are seeing traffic dip due to a combination of outdated strategies, technical weaknesses, and a changing search experience. These are the most common culprits:
- Over-optimised, thin content
Google’s Helpful Content System now rewards human-first content that genuinely helps users. If your content is bloated with keywords, AI-generated fluff, or offers little real value, it’s likely being down-ranked — or worse, deindexed.
The fix: Focus on expert-led, intent-driven content that offers clear, original insights and practical value. Unique perspectives and depth matter more than ever.
- Technical SEO neglect
Sites with sluggish performance, JavaScript-heavy builds, or crawling issues struggle to stay indexed and competitive. Core Web Vitals (CWV), broken links, poor metadata, and inefficient internal linking can all work against you.
The fix: Prioritise a clean technical foundation. Improve CWV metrics like INP (interaction to next paint) and CLS (cumulative layout shift), and don’t sweat over outdated factors like H1 tags and alt text for SEO purposes.
Pop-ups can negatively affect your CVW metrics. Learn more here: How do pop-ups affect SEO in 2025?
- Decline in link-building effectiveness
Old-school link-building strategies—like link farms or low-quality guest posts—are increasingly ignored or penalised by algorithms like SpamBrain, which Google uses to detect and devalue manipulative linking tactics.
The fix: Focus on link-worthy content and PR-based link building. Earn links through authoritative mentions, quality industry citations, and genuinely useful, shareable assets.
- AI-powered search is changing click behaviour
With AI Overviews appearing above organic listings, fewer users are clicking through to websites. This impacts interaction signals, which in turn influence your rankings.
The fix: Optimise for zero-click visibility by providing quick, complete answers within your content. Use structured data, optimise for featured snippets, answer FAQs, and leverage local SEO (like Google Business Profiles) to increase SERP real estate.
Learn the basics of optimising for AI search with our guide: How to boost visibility in AI search results
What does matter now: SEO ranking drivers in 2025
To build sustainable organic visibility, modern SEO must align with how search actually works today. These are the core areas to focus on:
- Intent & relevance
Matching a keyword isn’t enough — content must fully satisfy the user's intent. That means understanding the context of queries and delivering value that addresses the "why?" behind the search.
- Content experience & E-E-A-T
Google prioritises content that demonstrates Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Content authorship, credentials, and credibility are all key signals. The emphasis on E-E-A-T is clearly outlined in Google's ranking system guidelines.
- Core web vitals & UX
Technical quality is now measured through user experience. Focus on rendering speed, interactivity, and visual stability. It’s not just about how fast your server is — it’s how fast users see and interact with your content.
- Entity-based SEO & structure
Google’s understanding of topics is entity-based, not keyword-matched. Structuring your site around clear topic clusters, optimised URL hierarchies, and Schema markup helps search engines interpret your content more effectively.
- First-party data & engagement
With third-party cookies gradually falling out of favour, Google is placing more emphasis on signals it can collect directly — through its own ecosystem. These include how users interact with search results: Do they click through to your site? Do they stay and engage with the content? Do they return later?
These types of first-party engagement signals — like dwell time, return visits, and click behaviour — still help Google assess whether your content is genuinely useful and satisfying user intent.
- Brand authority & demand
Brand searches, social mentions, and general online reputation all contribute to organic visibility. In 2025, brand-building is just as critical as link-building.
SEO myths to let go of in 2025
Despite the clear direction of search, some outdated tactics still linger.
- Exact match keywords are essential
Modern algorithms like BERT and MUM understand context and natural language. Synonyms and conversational phrasing perform better than robotic keyword stuffing.
- Domain authority affects Google rankings
DA is a Moz metric, not a Google signal. Google assesses real authority through quality content, earned mentions, and user trust — not a third-party score.
- More backlinks = better rankings
Quantity doesn't equal quality. Google's own John Mueller has stated that backlinks are no longer among the top ranking factors, and that relevance and context matter far more.
Quality backlinks from authoritative domains are still helpful, but they’re not weighted as heavily in the algorithm, necessitating a different approach to link building. The source relevance, placement, and context of one link can outweigh 100% of links from a lower quality domain.
- Word count is a ranking factor
Longer content isn’t automatically better. A 500-word post that answers a query effectively can outrank a meandering 3,000-word article.
Historically, long-form content has shown to, on the whole, outperform short-form, but with Google’s systems shifting focus from keywords and getting better at determining page quality in relation to user search intent, this is quickly becoming a thing of the past.
What’s key is that writers sufficiently meet the expectations of visitors, letting the subject and creative angle dictate the length of content. Word count itself is not a ranking factor.
- H1 tags and keyword density drive rankings
Google semantically processes page structure, meaning it understands the context and relationships between words on the page, not just the presence of specific phrases or tags.
In light of this, tactics such as placing your primary keyword in your H1 (and indeed the H1 itself) is no longer an essential SEO aspect. A <div> or <span> tag can have just as much - if not more - importance as a heading, based on its relevance to the content. There's no need to change everything into H tags, as Google has stated that the number of heading tags on a page doesn't impact SEO.
That’s not to say you can forget about information hierarchy altogether; it just means H tags should be used to improve readability and offer a true indication of what users can expect to see/learn — as opposed to being used for gaming the algorithm.
- Older pages rank higher by default
Freshness matters — Google values freshness signals, especially for queries around news, reviews, and trends. Regular updates and new insights keep content competitive for dynamic queries. By optimising existing content, creating new and evergreen content, the effects of seasonal and trend demand can be alleviated.
Looking ahead: The AI future of search
Google is leaning further into AI with every update. Here's how that impacts SEO going forward:
- AI Overviews & AI Mode: Expect fewer organic clicks and more zero-click results. Optimise content for featured snippets and fast answers, but entice click throughs by leading basic answers into fuller answers.
- AI-generated content: Can help scale content creation, but still needs human oversight. Expertise and accuracy remain essential — an idea echoed in Google's Helpful Content guidance.
- Voice & conversational search: Long-tail and question-based queries are rising in importance — think how people speak, not just how they type.
- Multimodal search (MUM): Google can now understand and combine text, image, and video — making visual and video SEO key parts of your strategy.
Confused or concerned about Google’s AI mode? Read our continuously updated guide: Google AI Mode for Search Everything we know so far
Stay ahead with TDMP
With rapid advancements in technology and user behaviour, the SEO landscape can feel like shifting sands. What works today might not work tomorrow, and staying on top of these changes is a challenge for many.
At TDMP, our expertise and proactive SEO strategies give clients a stable foundation on which to build their digital presence and their business at large. Whether it’s adapting to AI-driven search or optimising your content for the next big update, we’re here to help — Let’s talk.