While many fundamental principles of SEO have remained unchanged the landscape is always changing.
Within the industry, we’ve got used to increasing numbers of “zero click” searches which has been further accelerated through the introduction of AI overviews.
On top of this, Google is always rolling out new SERP features which are eating into the real estate owned by organic results. This means that, as SEO’s, we’re getting less CTR for each search. That’s something we’re constantly having to contend with.
Alongside this, there are new technologies, most noticeably AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, which are changing the way that users do research, and find their way to making purchasing decisions.
So where does SEO sit within all this?
This blog talks through 5 key trends and the way we’re thinking about them at Aira.
What are 5 key trends we’re thinking about?
- The impact of AI overviews on traffic (affecting clients in different ways!).
- Google is getting bolder with penalties and more impactful with core updates.
- The 2024 Google Search Algorithm leaks confirmed much of what we suspected.
- We’re really thinking about how we measure performance.
- Laser-like focus on the target audience
Let’s take them one by one.
1. The impact of AI overviews on traffic
If you don’t know what I’m referring to here, I’m talking about these bad boys.
Back in June 2023 at MKHUG, I spoke about these AI overviews, which were previously named Search Generative Experience (SGE).
My main concerns at the time were around:
- Accountability - Both in terms of what would be presented in the SERPs and also whether the information being used for results would be cited fairly (spoiler - they’re not!)
- The negative impact on informational traffic - This was always going to be the most likely type of traffic which would be impacted.
The number of AI Overviews has increased (and will likely continue to!)
This study by SE Ranking showed that the percentage of search results with AI overviews has increased towards the end of 2024.
Anecdotally, speaking as a Google user in the UK, since AI overviews have rolled out in August 2024, they are appearing for more and more searches.
Informational queries are far more likely to trigger AI overviews.
Informational searches were always going to be the main casualty of this.
Moz’s study of 46K keywords showed that 25.4% of informational keywords being tracked in the study displayed an AI overview. This is comparably more compared to the other key search intents.
Naturally some industries have more informational search results than others. Some industries are more “fact” or statistic based which makes it significantly easier for an AI result to appear.
Across our client base, many have kept their rankings for informational terms but seen a drop in clicks and impressions largely due to AI Overviews (and other SERP features).
Take this example of a publisher client of ours who came to us after seeing falling traffic.
There were a few reasons for this, but a key one was the AI overviews.
How can we react to these increasing numbers of AI overviews?
- Focus on building brand across other channels. It’s important to be visible.
The key thing is to not put all your eggs in one basket.
Which channels - and how you go about this - is obviously going to depend on your industry.
There’s no point creating a TikTok page with funny dancing videos if you’re a B2B SaaS company selling enterprise security software, for example.
Instead, focus on the channels where your audience actually spends time. For some, that might be LinkedIn, attending events and speaking at conferences. For others, it could be YouTube and podcasts.
Remember these LLMs gather their information from a range of publicly available sources such as social media, the web, reviews etc so it’s not just important to be visible in one.
- We ensure that for Bottom of Funnel (BOF) terms, our sites are performing as best they can organically.
For BOF terms (i.e. “buy x now”) there are two key advantages:
- There are less AI overviews. This means that there’s more opportunity to compete. Your main challenge may be fighting for SERP real estate with Paid Ads (more on this later)
- These terms have a much higher commercial intent and are actually closer to the money - which is ultimately what we care about.
- Make sure your editorial content focuses on your audience's pain points, not just keyword targeting.
This is a given away. Let’s be clear.
We’re here to make money (or leads/ conversions!) for our clients - we’re not here for the rankings. At most, they are a lead metric or an indication that we’re achieving visibility.
It’s about making sure our target audience finds our content useful and that we’re speaking specifically to the problems they’re facing or that we’re an authority in the space,
We ultimately want to make it obvious that we’re the solution to their problems.
In short - focus on the users problems - not just the keywords.
4. Do not optimise like you do for featured snippets
Let’s talk about what you shouldn’t do.
AI overviews work independently of the main search results.
See this extract from Authoritas.
As a result, playing around with headings and putting answers to questions below specific questions is likely to have minimal (or no) impact in an AI world.
2. Google is getting bolder with penalties and more impactful with core updates.
For several decades, Google’s engineers were able to debug their algorithm and understand why pages are ranking in different positions.
Since then, Google has lent far more into “deep” learning algorithms which have become less predictable - and naturally harder to unpick.
The number of Google Searches updates has continued to increase and increase over the years.
In this article, Dr. Pete Meyers highlights the increasing frequency and intensity of algorithm changes over the past 11 years. He does this using data from MozCast - a tool that monitors daily fluctuations in Google's search results.
4 of the top 5 “Hottest” Core Updates have been in 2024 🌶️
This, again, comes from Dr Pete’s study.
Spicy.
Within these different core updates, there’s often a story of sites and industries seeing huge fluctuations in rankings (and as a result traffic!).
Take the example of Hubspot who saw a dramatic decrease in rankings and presumably traffic to their blog from ~September onwards.
Sites with high Brand Authority have tended to fare better with the Core Updates
Another theme - linking back to the previous point - is that sites with a higher brand authority tended to fare better with the core algorithm updates.
Take this from Tom Capper’s Moz study which showed how losers from the Helpful Content Update back in 2024 tended to have less Brand Authority compared to their Domain Authority
Interesting observation.
Google’s also been far bolder with manual penalties
We all saw what happened to the likes of Forbes Vetted and CNN Underscored when Google decided overnight to deindex them.
If you didn’t, Google updated their site reputation abuse policy to prevent authoritative sites publishing third-party content, helping the content rank higher than it would elsewhere.
The (correct!) decision is that it ultimately creates a poor search experience for users.
How can we react to this?
Stay calm, avoid knee jerk reactions and analyse the data
The first thing to say is that these algorithm updates happen all the time. Often one update will “fix” an overcorrection on a previous update.
If you react with knee jerk reactions to each and every one of them, you’ll tie yourself in knots.
A better way of reacting is to analyse what’s up and what’s down once the situation has stabilised. From there you can make a judgement on what actions you should take.
Avoid strategies you know are risky
If you are actively building a review section on your site to leverage your strong domain, you’re in for a rough ride.
3. The Google Search Algorithm leaks confirmed much of what we already knew
When the Google algorithm leak dropped and we were all flicking through Mike King’s blog pulling out the key findings, we were all filled with excitement….
…but then we realised that all the key revelations were all things we assumed - if we hadn’t already known already.
There are several interesting things that we picked out when going through it.
Content
Google evaluates the core topics of a website, which is presumably used to see whether the site is relevant and suitable to rank for specific terms.
This does mean that it’s probably not worth writing about topics that are peripherally related to your core site focus - and more important to focus on the stuff that’s directly related.
Content freshness is also an important consideration. For example, we can see in the documentation references to lastSignificantUpdate which shows the last significant update of the page content. This shows the value of keeping important content up-to-date.
User Engagement
Google uses user interactions, such as clicks, gathered through Chrome User Experience data as a ranking signal. This is particularly evident in Navboost which is mentioned a fair amount in documentation, which refines search results based on how users interact with them.
Clearly the content we’re producing should look to focus on how to best drive interactions and engagement from the user. This just cements that it’s also useful for rankings.
Site Authority
Google Does Have a "Site Authority" Concept and we can see “siteAuthority” be mentioned in the documentation a fair amount. This is despite consistent denials that there was a concept of domain authority.
How can we react to the fact that we now have this information?
Basically do what we are already doing… but importantly.
- Do focus on quality content… not just content for content’s sake.
- Make sure that the user experience is at the core of what we do and that we’re encouraging engagement (i.e. long clicks!)
- Make sure that we’re still thinking about how to build authority to our site and earn coverage for our content. Hence, we have a Digital PR team.
4. We’re rethinking how we measure performance.
Even when I started in SEO industry a few years back now, the concept of looking only at rankings was already outdated, but now that’s prehistoric.
Let’s say that we’re looking to get money from organic search.
These are the broad steps:
But that doesn’t factor in a LOAD of stuff such as these SERP features:
Rand Fiskin has an interesting take on how to think about marketing KPIs in 2025.
Rand Fiskin from SparkToro did a LinkedIn post talking about how we have changed how we think about marketing KPIs.
This approach applies to more than just SEO and thinks about wider marketing channels - which is exactly how we should be thinking about our digital marketing efforts - even if we’re predominantly doing SEO work.
The summarise Rand’s thinking:
Previously, we thought of the different KPIs as:
- Top Of Funnel - Simply bringing traffic to the site.
- Mid Funnel - The number of micro-conversions taken to the site whether that be newsletter signups, whitepaper downloads, or ebook downloads, for example.
- Bottom of Funnel - The ultimate KPI is sales - this is ultimately the goal of marketing init.
In the current era, though, Rand’s thinking is that ultimately measuring brand exposure is the most important thing we should be thinking about in Top of Funnel and Mid-Funnel KPIs.
This also means that he downweights the value of traffic - deeming it a “vanity metric.”
- Top Of Funnel - The question here is on whether your brand has made some form of splash in the places your target audience pays attention.
- The key metrics are impressions, views and engagements on the platforms most important for your brand - this could be podcasts, LinkedIn, Youtube, TikTok etc - depending on which platform is most important for your brand.
- Mid Funnel - The question here is whether people are specifically searching for our brand. I.e. They’ve heard about our brand and are actively searching us out.
- The key metrics to consider here are branded searches, brand search volume, direct visits and conversion rates.
- Bottom of Funnel - We still have the same final objective - sales. This is still the ultimate point of doing marketing - or why else are we here?
This is pretty persuasive as a way of thinking about setting marketing KPIs - but something to note is that each and every industry or niche is going to be different.
This model isn’t perfect, though.
For B2B SaaS businesses, this model is pretty effective. Ultimately the goal is making sure your brand is the first thing that springs to mind when looking for a specific product or service.
This same logic wouldn’t apply to other niches or industries. For example, if you work in eCommerce selling products people don't think about too much or impulse buys where brand recall doesn't matter as much.
In those cases, more traditional funnel metrics - and focus on conversion rates, for example - are more important as people are looking to make decisions quickly and mostly based on price.
But in B2B, and especially in SaaS, Rand’s thinking is a useful lens: brand exposure and recall aren’t just nice-to-haves — they’re the foundation for long-term success. If people know who you are and trust you before they ever hit your site, the rest of the funnel becomes way easier.
What are the key takeaways for us as we think about reporting?
The central takeaway from Rand's video is to focus your KPIs and reporting on your performance in the areas that are most valuable to your target audience.
This is ultimately the key.
If you are doing marketing for a site centred on more impulse buys where brand recall matters less, you may want to focus more on traffic, conversion rates, average basket sizes etc - then obviously sales.
If brand recall matters more, then it’s worth doubling down on measuring and reporting on exposure in the places your target audience already spends time. That’s where early impressions are made and trust starts to build.
5. Laser-like focus on the target audience
This ties on nicely from the previous point.
The central focus for us is meeting our client’s goals - in the vast majority of cases this is revenue directly. But this could also be Demo Requests, Form Fills, Subscribers etc. All of these ultimately tie back to making money for their business.
Cross Channel thinking is key
At Aira, we are acutely aware that SEO is only a single channel and we have to think across multiple channels to meet our clients objectives. We focus on whatever combination of different channels will help us hit these goals.
When we look at the example of the type of journey a user would take on a B2B SaaS, it is absolutely not linear. Even this model is overly linear.
At each of these stages, we need to consider what we can do to help move folks to the next stage.
Awareness Stage
The focus here is getting seen in the right places.
This is all about showing up where your audience spends their time - and ensuring that you’re being noticed.
What are the kind of things that we can do at this stage?
- SEO driven content - What problems or questions do folks have?
- Paid Media & Paid Social - How can we push our brand at this stage?
- Digital PR - Where are our audience visible? Do we have any authority?
We could also think beyond just digital:
- Speaking at events
- Sponsoring events
- Using social media influencers
- Etc etc
There are so many different types of strategies we could use to gain awareness.
Consideration Stage
At this stage, it’s about staying top of mind.
People know your brand - they are interested in what you’re selling.
The key here is moving them from this stage to the next stage in as seamless a way as possible.
What are the kind of things we could do at this stage?
- Marketing automation - Are our email flows doing their job? Are they personalised, timely, and actually moving people forward? What could we test or improve?
- CRO – Are people taking the actions we want after engaging with a webinar, blog, or landing page? If not, where’s the drop-off? What can we do to encourage them to take the desired action?
- Content strategy - Are we giving people the right info at the right time? Case studies, product comparisons, pricing pages - the stuff that helps them make a decision.
- Paid Media - Should we be running retargeting ads based on the specific content people have viewed on the site?
The goal here: remove friction, build trust, and make it easy for someone who’s curious to become someone who’s ready to buy.
Decision Stage
At this stage, it’s all about getting users to convert - whether that’s booking a demo, buying a product, or filling out a form etc.
They’re close. Now it’s about making the choice as easy as possible and removing any objections or reasons to waiver.
What are the kind of things we could do at this stage?
- CRO – What’s stopping people from converting? Are there blockers on key pages? What A/B tests could we run to improve conversion rates?
- Marketing automation – Do we have the right email flows after sales calls or demos? Could we test new approaches to help close the loop?
- SEO – When someone searches for “[brand] reviews” or “[product] vs competitor,” what shows up? Are we actively managing our online reputation and review presence?
The goal: remove doubt, build confidence, and make taking action feel like a no-brainer.
TLDR: Single-channel thinking misses the bigger picture
If you focus on one channel, you’re leaving results on the table.
There is real value in thinking holistically and about how the combination of how different channels can work most effectively together to drive more conversions.
Whether it’s organic, paid, email, or content each channel can play a role in driving conversions - then it’s about thinking about how we can leverage each channel to drive more conversions.
Blended Search: How we maximise search visibility
When it comes to SEO, this is the landscape we’re generally faced with:
For a majority of SERPs, the space for our website to get visibility is increasingly small.
So what can we do to compete?
We look at the terms that we can achieve organic visibility for, and those which we cannot.
From here, we can work on a strategy which allows us to compete using Paid ads for terms which we’d struggle to compete for organically and have organic content targeting terms we can realistically compete for.
This is why we need blended search.
To help with this, Keyword Navigator, our proprietary keyword opportunity tool allows us to see:
- What the organic opportunity is for specific keywords (in terms of traffic & conversions).
- What the Google Ads metrics are for specific keywords (i.e. total cost, conversions, conversion value and ROAS).
This helps us to make those informed decisions and whether we should focus time and resources on organic content around a topic, paid or a combination of both.
If you like what you see, get in touch
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