12+ Top 2025 SEO Trends & Predictions From Industry Experts

What does the future of SEO look like, and how will top global brands succeed with search efforts in 2025 and beyond?

With the recent launch of our all-new comprehensive 70-plus page 2025 Previsible State of SEO Jobs Report, there’s no better time to put these questions to some of the top search industry subject matter experts.

AI’s shifting impact on SEO continues to occupy a center stage position, and the take-aways and insights from our industry experts offer a valuable and helpful look at how savvy SEO professionals are strategizing in the lead-up to 2026.

Let’s jump right in and take a look at the future of SEO from 12 top subject matter experts.

12+ TOP 2025 SEO TRENDS & PREDICTIONS FROM INDUSTRY EXPERTS

Nick LeRoy
Owner
SEOJobs.com
LinkedIn — Bluesky — X

Prediction: “Search results will worsen, and businesses will continue to lose organic clicks in 2025. This is already leading to companies deprioritizing the organic search channel, which also impacts SEO employment. While I think results will become worse near term, I think that will become the turning point for Google to make additional changes — we can only help them be a bit more SEO-friendly.”

Wil Reynolds
Vice President of Innovation
Seer Interactive
LinkedIn — Bluesky — X

Prediction: “SEO professionals are going to have to get much better at storytelling with limited data. We know that people aren’t going to have fewer questions, but they’re going to more places than ever to get answers. If I was in SEO in 2025, I would be expanding my skill set to also look to optimize content from a more human perspective, because content that resonates with humans has a potential to be performing in AI and SEO, but most importantly in all of the places that are growing — Reddit, LinkedIn groups, Facebook groups, .etc.”

David Bell
Co-Founder
Previsible
LinkedIn

Prediction: “The Google AI Mode will garner a lot of attention this year but low adoption.  People’s habits change slowly over time and this experience is more for appeasing shareholders than a true rollout.”

Ann Smarty
Co-Founder
Smarty Marketing
LinkedIn — Bluesky — X

Prediction: “The biggest challenge in the SEO industry is the shift in campaign measuring. From rankings and clicks, we are moving to impressions and brand visibility. Strategizing is also becoming more important than tactical tasks (which are being handled by generative AI already). We are going through a very disruptive stage in SEO. There are more discovery channels (which lead to search) that are dynamic, personalized, and hard (if not impossible) to monitor. SEO will survive but we will likely have to come up with a new term for it, like “Organic discoverability optimization” or something similar because it is not just about organic search positions anymore.”

Eric Enge
President
Pilot Holding, Inc.
LinkedIn — Bluesky — X

Prediction: “Without a doubt, the SEO industry is facing huge changes in 2025 and beyond. The advent of AI Overviews (AIOs) puts a lot of pressure on us because they will cause significant traffic reductions for many sites – for many sites this will run around 35%. Yes, times of change are when the greatest opportunities are created. New winners and losers will be defined. To be one of the winners, we need to consider the new opportunities created. Questions like these need to be answered: How can we get branding value from ranking in AIOs? Is the traffic we’re losing low converting anyway? What queries are high intent and therefore provide high potential business value? And, last, but not least, what does it take to rank in AIOs? Times of big change can be scary, but they also present us with the opportunity to answer these questions before our competition does, and that’s how you can become a winner in this new AIO environment.”

Tyson Stockton
COO and Co-Founder
Previsible
LinkedIn — X

Prediction: “As the SEO industry continues to mature we are seeing the market further acknowledge the importance and complexity of search with an increase in director-level and above roles. There is a timidness around content SEO, as many are still trying to understand how best to leverage emerging technologies.”

Cindy Krum
Founder and CEO
MobileMoxie
LinkedIn — Bluesky — X

Prediction: “For many of us in the SEO space, things are feeling a bit precarious and unstable. Seeing legitimate, human created sites being wiped out by the Helpful Content Update, and seeing Google being unwilling to change anything in their algorithm or communication to help, even after an on-site, in-person meetup was very unsettling and speaks volumes about where Google and the industry stand. While SEO will never really be dead, it is important to know that Google has switched their focus away from becoming the best search engine ever, because they rightfully believe that they have done it, and now they are focusing on being the most profitable and monetizable search and AI platform out there – which is a different game. SEOs need to acknowledge this change and update their perspectives and skillsets. Understanding how to optimize the larger digital landscape, outside of just Google will be the critical for practitioners who want to level-up, stay relevant and actually drive the traffic and conversions that we need to keep the internet alive; to keep the internet from devolving into simply bots talking to and generating content for other bots.”

Marcus Tandler
Founder and Host
SEOktoberfest G50 Summit
LinkedIn — X

Prediction: “SEO is undergoing a profound evolution. The rise of AI overviews is fundamentally changing search results, forcing a move beyond keywords to genuine user understanding. Prioritizing helpful content and a seamless user experience is becoming non-negotiable, and building a strong brand across multiple channels is now a core SEO strategy. However, recognizing the risk of Google dependency, diversifying traffic sources, especially through social platforms and multimodal optimization — especially video — is crucial for future success.”

Lane R. Ellis
Content Marketing Manager
Previsible
LinkedIn — Bluesky — X

Prediction: “As we push towards 2026 the most successful SEO professionals will be those who broaden their search repertoire, decentralizing from solely traditional engines and expanding creatively into AI’s growing share of the search pie.”

Michael King
Founder and CEO
iPullRank
LinkedIn — X

Prediction: “My prediction is that the SEO community finally capitalizes on its opportunity to mature as a business function. A subset of SEOs will truly recognize that generative AI has brought us to an inflection point. There is an opportunity to evolve beyond the structured spamming and focus on the relevance engineering work that these new search modalities require. There will be a realization that search channels are not just performance channels, but also brand channels. On the back of that will be brand efforts more closely tied to search activations.  At the same time, there will be a whole new generation that reinvents the spam wheel due to the nuances of how conversational search works. For example, cloaking will probably come back to life until the new players get their crawlers to smarten up. Ultimately, 2025 will be a year of stark contrasts: those who adapt to strategic, integrated SEO will thrive, while those clinging to outdated tactics will face increasing irrelevance. This bifurcation will place significant strain on agencies and in-house teams unprepared for the shift, highlighting the need for continuous education and a deeper understanding of user intent within the evolving AI-driven search landscape. The health of the industry hinges on embracing this evolution, not resisting it.”

Greg Gifford
Chief Operating Officer
SearchLab
LinkedIn — Bluesky — X

Prediction: “I predict that everyone in the SEO industry is going to collectively freak out about AI overviews and AI search, only to realize — eventually — that SEO and websites still matter, things just work a bit differently than they have in the past. Core marketing skills will become important again, and human-written content will win the day.”

Jordan Koene
CEO and Co-Founder
Previsible
LinkedIn

Prediction: “The biggest shift in SEO for 2025 won’t be in search engines — it’ll be in skill sets. AI isn’t just a tool; it’s becoming a prerequisite. The most effective SEO professionals will be those who master AI for productivity, data refinement, and tool development. As consumer and user discovery evolve, the ability to build, refine, and scale SEO efforts with AI will separate high-impact teams from those left behind.”

“SEO success in 2025 will depend on AI fluency. From leveraging AI for productivity and automation to refining datasets and developing scalable tools, SEO professionals will need to evolve fast. Search isn’t just about rankings anymore — it’s about understanding how users discover content across AI-driven experiences. Those who invest in AI skills will future-proof their careers; those who don’t risk falling behind.”

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FUTURE OF SEO JOBS

As these insightful predictions from Nick, Wil, David, Ann, Eric, Tyson, Cindy, Marcus, this author, Michael, Greg, and Jordan show, the future of SEO is filled with new challenges and opportunities.

We offer many thanks to each for sharing their helpful insight on what the future holds for successful SEO efforts.

There is much more to learn about the future of SEO jobs in our comprehensive new 2025 Previsible State of SEO Jobs Report, and industry media coverage about the insights it contains has begun in earnest, including Search Engine Land’s “Remote, Content SEO Roles in Decline: Report,” SEOJob.com’s “2025 SEO Job Report,” and Digital Information World’s “SEO Job Market Shifts: Listings Decline, Leadership Roles Surge, and AI Skills Drive High Salaries.”

LEARN MORE & GET THE FULL FREE REPORT

Dig into all the latest SEO jobs insights and download the full 70-plus page 2025 Previsible State of SEO Jobs Report and learn the trends shaping SEO jobs, salaries, and skills for the year ahead.

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