SEO Insights: May 2025 Report
We are in an era of search where the rate of change and development is on a scale that was unimaginable even a year ago. The accelerated introduction of AI as a new search tool and its use to generate and refine the search results has dramatically changed the SEO landscape as we know it.
Having been working in the field of SEO for over 20 years, we’ve seen search evolve and improve significantly during that time. There were major algorithm updates along the way, such as Penguin and Panda, that completely changed the approach to SEO and each time there was a chance to adapt to the new Google. Today however, search is evolving very rapidly and adapting to the new Google must happen quickly and with a renewed focus.
The AI spam problem
Before the introduction of the Panda algorithm, which focused on content quality, spam content on Google was rife. It was common to generate a short piece of content and run it through some software to create “spun” pages. This approach meant that you could scale content generation for new pages very quickly, even though the value of the content was very low.
As Google became better at detecting low quality content, this technique of generating hundreds or thousands of new pages, slowly became redundant.
Today, Google faces a new problem but possibly even much more complex than the spun content one.
AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google’s own Gemini can churn out content at a rapid scale with just a short prompt to tell it what you want to write. This content, unlike the old-style spun content, generally reads very well and can appear to be very human-like in its style, grammar and structure. This makes it much more difficult for Google to detect it.
It also causes an additional problem in that Google trains its AI model on the content it discovers on the web. If that content is AI generated, then it’s training itself on information which may not be accurate or particularly great in the first place. This can lead to the AI learning from lower quality AI generated content…and the process keeps repeating itself. This can lead to an eventual deterioration in the quality of the output from Google’s AI search results.
This is a complex problem for Google to solve and it’s what’s leading to a change in how Google rates and rewards content today.
User-first content
You’ve probably now come across Google’s AI Overviews in the search results. This is its AI generated summary that appears above the organic results.
Although we may not like them for their negative impact on click through traffic from the search results, there are many occasions where we can now say that it is helpful to have this overview. For example, to answer our queries quickly and easily without us having to click through to multiple websites which often have pages bloated with unnecessary content.
We like to find answers quickly and easily and the AI Overviews are providing that to users. This approach doesn’t just apply to search results, it applies equally to web pages.
How often have you landed on a web page, looking for a specific piece of information, only to have to read a load of introductory blurb that really isn’t of any real value? It’s all too common and it is why users are slowly turning to AI search tools to find the exact information that they are looking for, and why Google is prioritising AI Overviews.
There has never been a more important time than now to totally consider the user when it comes to page content, how to lay it out and how best to present it. No longer should content be created for search engines. This type of content generally creates a poor user experience and can lead to reduced rankings through poor page engagement metrics.
And when we talk about content it’s not just about textual content. This also encompasses other types of content such as images, videos, reviews, products, in-page navigation and so much more.
The content opportunities
It’s no secret that Google prioritises established and authoritative websites in search. Websites that it feels it can trust and are likely to have good content that users will find helpful and relevant to their search.
So how can other, less authoritative websites compete? The opportunity lies in doing something different. Saying the same thing as the trusted websites already ranking is not going to move the needle. You need to consider a new angle, a new approach, something that will give Google a reason to serve your page to a user, to complement the existing results, not to repeat them.
This might be in the form of a more video focused approach that competitors aren’t embracing, or a focus on data or information that other websites aren’t featuring on their pages.
This is not a time to use AI to generate content, it’s a time to use AI to support the content.
Danny Sullivan, Search Liaison at Google, recently gave an example of how Amazon uses AI to give an overview of the reviews for products on product pages. This is a great use of AI and how it can be used to provide some real value to the user.
With some intelligent application of AI, web pages can be made to be more dynamic and helpful for users. This is how content is evolving. We are all generally busy in our day to day lives and we are generally less patient than in the past. Adapting content strategy to how users search today, and offering something truly unique, is how we can compete with more established businesses in search.
The Artemis approach
Over the years we have always adapted and re-focused content and web pages in line with how search and user behaviour has evolved. This new era of search is requiring a very different approach to content and through our extensive R&D programme, we are testing and implementing our new approach into our clients’ websites.
As with any major shift in any industry, we are constantly adapting our methodology to meet the ever-changing needs of a complex search engine and an increasingly demanding user demographic.
