SEO in 2025

Jono Alderson shares that we should stop writing articles. He says "Stop assuming that 'producing content' is a core, valuable, or necessary component of modern SEO. Burn your content marketing playbook, and critically assess the role of content in a world where Google can synthesize answers to increasingly large numbers of (types of) queries."Discussion points include:Why do we need to burn our content marketing playbook?How do we critically assess the role of content in a world where Google can synthesize answers to increasingly large numbers of queries?What does this do - how do we adapt our strategy?What does a content marketing playbook look like in 2025?What content strategies won’t make it?Is AI going to make content marketing doomed?Can we use AI in a way that augments our content, without fear of being gazumped?How does this affect the setting of an SEO strategy?

Laura Iancu discusses the intersection between UX and SEO with David Bain.Talking points include:Do you need to be a UX designer to deliver a user-friendly website architecture?What are some simple steps to take in order to deliver a search engine-friendly website?How do you like to stay on top of the latest UX trends and techniques?How do you ensure that UX and SEO works together effectively in a large organisation?What do you look for as a user to ensure that your website is mobile friendly?You say that UXR is your friend - what do you mean by that?You advise that an SEO should practise by constantly auditing competitor websites - what does this look like?You say that the accessibility tab in Google Lighthouse + a screen reader can be your best friends - why is this?

Andy Mollison shares the importance of using AI to help do the dirty work (the boring bits), but don't forget to be human first. He shares that using scripts and tools can automate processes that would normally take hours.Discussion points include:You say “Don’t forget to be human-first.” What does that mean in practice? What elements need to be done by a human?What processes should you be automating?How do you use AI to create meta descriptions?How do you use AI for redirect mapping?You also suggest uploading your tone of voice to AI chat to check content for brand alignment - how does this work?How do you create tone of voice / brand guidelines ?What AI software do you prefer to use at the moment and why?What are the downsides to using AI?How do you ensure that you don’t end up creating generic content that Google won’t like?How will the use of AI continue to evolve in 2025?

In this episode, Nikolas Monti-Potsolakis shares that SEO will be more about people, building relationships and getting to show empathy. Being in someone’s shoes. Understanding. And ultimately caring for their clients' business. For the person. Not just the numbers. Going above and beyond their needs and egos.Discussion points include:How can you measure the ROI of people?What good does building relationships and showing empathy do for SEO?How do you care for a client’s business and what good does that do?How do you get to understand and care for a client’s business?You say, don’t just focus on the numbers - what numbers should you focus on?How do you build the areas around the numbers into a strategy?How do you justify the value of relationships to your boss?How will this approach continue to evolve in the future?

Amit Raj discusses the importance of relevance and depth when it comes to content and link building with David Bain.Discussion points include:What is relevance? Available vs retainable market / KD scoreLinks - context - what content attracts best links? Most relevant links - content pitching publicationsWhat do you mean by depth?What does this mean when it comes to content?What does this mean when it comes to link building?How do you measure relevance and depth?Where does this fit into an overall SEO strategy?

Desmond Boateng shares the importance of not forgetting the human touch, hosted by David Bain.Discussion points include:How do you know when to use the human touch and when to rely on AI and automation?When does the use of AI go too far?You say that Google is smart enough to recognize your AI content - surely if you’re subtle with your use of AI content then this won’t be obvious to Google?How do you go about demonstrating the human touch?How does incorporating the human touch make a positive difference to Google?Are there other search engines that you focus on too, or primarily Google?

In this episode, Julia Carolin-Zeng discusses the return to human written content, how the flood of AI content has caused a decrease in qualityand seeing a return to content written by humans with a human voice.Talking points include:How do you measure this decrease in quality?Is AI not getting better and better?How can human writers possibly compete with the speed of AI?What does “with a human voice mean”?What aspects of human writing can compete with AI?Are search engines not ambivalent nowadays if something has been written by AI - is it not just all about user experience?What is your process for creating an article?

Arnout Hellemans shares that SEO in 2025 is a lot about task completion and query satisfaction. This means that UX and CRO will start to play an even bigger part in the ordering of documents.Discussion points include:What do you mean that SEO in 2025 is a lot about task completion and query satisfaction?How do you optimize for task completion and query satisfaction?What role will UX and CRO play in SEOWhat metrics will Google look at specifically?What are some examples of UX and CRO improvements that a site can make? How do you measure the impact of the improvements for UX and CRO that you make?How does UX and CRO impact the overall content strategy?How should an SEO with in-house UX and CRO teams?Where does brand fit in?

Jade Pruett shares the importance of focusing on creating original, expert-driven content with real stories and insights - and that Google rewards value over keyword stuffing.Discussion points include:What does the best original content look like at the moment?What do you mean by expert-driven content?Can you use internal and external experts?What kind of real stories and insights do Google prefer?What is your preferred way of producing this type of content?Should we try to produce vide, audio and written content at the same time?How do you structure your content for maximum impact? (Visual content and coding)Do you advise creating social posts from this content?How does expert-driven content fit into a marketing strategy?

In this episode, Fabio Embalo shares that in 2025, SEO strategies will prioritise user experience, leverage AI-driven content and branding synergy, and emphasise mobile-first indexing, as search engines evolve to deeply understand user intent and content relevance.Discussion points include:How do we use AI and Machine Learning to analyse search trends?And what about content strategies - how do we use AI and Machine Learning to refine that?Can we use it to better understand user intent?How is search changing through the more prominent use of visual and voice search?And how is mobile use evolving and how is that impacting SEO?How do you optimise for user experience?Is quality always better than quantity?Where does branding fit into this?