NP Digital has released Search Engine Trends 2025, its inaugural report on SEO trends and how it impacts marketing performance and strategy.
Google’s AI Overviews have become a dominant feature on the search engine after launching worldwide in May 2024, with 56% of marketers seeing an increase in web traffic. Despite accuracy issues in Overviews’ initial rollout, 48% report higher revenue from ads and affiliate links, showing that users continue to discover and convert even with the increasing ubiquity of AI summaries.
AI search is also extending beyond Google and other traditional search engines as a key tool on popular platforms, with users flocking to LinkedIn (70%), YouTube (64%), and ChatGPT (43%) for information.
With AI Overviews influencing how users find and interact with brands and products, marketers are adapting their SEO strategies to optimise for links to appear where users look first and not just rank on the first page of search results. More than half (58%) report focusing on frequent content refreshes to stay relevant and 54% prioritise structured data and schema for better visibility.
Meanwhile, 51% indicate tracking AI-based brand visibility, with the most-used methods being analysing traffic on Google Analytics (53%) and monitoring data on the Google Search console (46%). Only a minority have adopted methods to track brand mentions (10%) and search engine results page feature tools (21%) that improve organic listings.
Google’s New AI Mode gains trust in making a positive impact on search
Google’s AI Mode launched in the US in May with a goal of improving how much faster and more contextually helpful AI-generated results are for users. The tool uses generative AI based on the technology of platforms like Gemini 2.0 and shows users in-depth responses instead of simply itemising weblinks.
The majority report an optimistic outlook on AI Mode, with 43% expecting a notable improvement on search results, and 28% expecting some improvement. With two-thirds (67%) indicating they are satisfied or neutral in their opinion of AI Overview, users appear primed for more rollouts of AI tools on Google, with only 3% anticipate its search quality declining with AI Mode.
The ubiquity of AI on search engines and online platforms underscore the importance for marketers to adapt to the developing digital landscape and tailor strategies as users increasingly rely on AI in discovering information. With ‘zero-click’ now the norm, marketers have to leverage visibility, brand mentions, and online conversations to drive traffic and revenue.
Other key findings:
- With marketers closely tracking AI search platforms, several platforms stand out, with the majority actively monitoring ChatGPT or Open AI (74%), You.com (70%), and Microsoft Copilot (41%).
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Marketers are adapting to AI Overviews as a key feature of SEO, with 42% monitoring traffic changes and tracking brand mentions to measure their impact.
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AI search is gaining traction and users are increasingly interacting with these tools daily, with 43% using ChatGPT or SearchGPT for search tasks at least 10 times a week.
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SEO is moving beyond traditional search engines, shifting towards ‘Search Everywhere Optimisation’ as users search for information on social platforms more in the following categories: Food/Cooking (43%), Pop Culture (36%), Current Events (34%), and DIY/Hobby (32%).
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Despite marketers seeing results from leveraging AI Overviews, some 25% reported experiencing major errors when the tool first launched, and over 50% indicated their main concern was the inaccuracy of the information provided.