The Future of SEO: Emerging Trends, AI Impact, and What Businesses Must Do Next
As digital marketing shifts towards a cookieless future and AI-powered search, SEO is more critical than ever. With ad targeting becoming harder, organic visibility and high-quality content will drive brand success. Optimising for voice and visual search, AI Overviews, and zero-click results is key. Businesses must balance technical SEO with engaging, user-focused content while leveraging AI tools without losing authenticity. To explore what this means for the future of search, ADMATIC Performance Specialist Irene Sang sits down with Michael Lam, Head of SEO, to discuss how businesses can adapt and stay ahead.
Adapting SEO Strategies for a Cookieless Future
IS (Irene Sang): How will the shift to a cookieless future and privacy-first search impact SEO and digital marketing strategies?
MA (Michael Lam): A cookieless future and privacy-first search will make it more challenging for ad targeting. This will make organic search visibility become more important. With this shift, SEO and content marketing will play a greater role in creating visibility for brands. Content strategies should focus on creating high-quality, informative, and helpful content that aligns with specific topics and user interests. This should be instilled with personalised experiences of the business to ensure the content is unique.
Optimising for Voice and Visual Search Success
IS: With the rise of voice and visual search, what new tactics should businesses adopt to stay competitive in SEO?
ML: With voice search, businesses need to adapt their online content to be more natural and conversational. Voice search is typically questions-based – what, how, where, etc? To be found via voice search, businesses need to provide answers to these questions that users are likely to ask. Frequently asked questions are a good starting point. Find out all the frequently asked questions from the sales team and provide informative and helpful answers to these questions within your website content.
With visual search, the often neglected SEO tactic of image optimisation becomes more important. Especially for businesses that sell physical products. Make sure you implement alt text describing the image. It also becomes more important to provide high quality images and use schema markup to provide additional information about the images such as product details or ingredients. It will come down to which business provides the best information on their images and will be the ones that get listed.
The Impact of AI Overviews on Organic Traffic
IS: How will Google’s Search and AI-powered answers impact organic search traffic?
ML: There has been a growing trend over the past few years whereby Google has been trying to provide the user with the answer in the search results page versus sending the user to the website. This trend is referred to as the “zero click” trend. AI Overviews will only increase this trend.
The impact is that when Google provides a concise answer in a featured snippet or AI Overview, users may not feel the need to click on any of the organic search results. This directly reduces organic traffic. Therefore, a mindshift to brand exposure on the SERP as the goal, rather than a click through, is required. Ultimately, when the user is ready to transact, they will still click through to the site to complete the transaction. However, pre-sale information will increasingly be communicated via “zero click” results.
Balancing Technical SEO with Engaging Content
IS: As search engines prioritise user experience (UX) and intent, how should businesses balance technical SEO with content quality and engagement?
ML: Technical SEO as the foundation in that it ensures that search engines can effectively crawl, index, and understand your website. This includes factors like site speed, mobile-friendliness, site structure, and security. On the other hand, content quality and engagement is the driver. High-quality, engaging content is what attracts and retains users. It addresses user intent, provides valuable information, and encourages interaction.
UX should be at the heart of both technical SEO and content creation. Ensure your website is easy to navigate, loads quickly, and provides a seamless experience across all devices. On top of that, create content that is informative, engaging, and easy to consume.
Technical SEO and content quality are not mutually exclusive. They work together to create a positive user experience and improve search engine rankings.
Leveraging AI to Enhance SEO Strategies
IS: With the rapidly evolving AI capabilities, how can businesses leverage AI tools for SEO while maintaining a balance of authenticity and technical automation?
ML: There are new AI tools popping up everywhere. They are helping us become more efficient and effective in completing our SEO tasks. These tools range from keyword research, to content creation, to large data analysis and insight generation. These tools help us automate repetitive tasks and save valuable time so that we can spend it on more creative activities that demonstrate our expertise and experience.
AI should be seen as a tool to augment, not replace, human expertise. With the increasing use of these AI tools, the content that will stand out (and rank well) will be the content that is unique, demonstrate personal experience, and connect emotionally with the target audience.
Staying Ahead in an Evolving Search Landscape
The future of SEO is being shaped by privacy-first search, AI advancements, and evolving user behaviors. As brands adapt, they must focus on organic visibility, content relevance, and technical excellence to stay ahead. By embracing these strategies, businesses can enhance their search presence and long-term success.
Get in touch with an ADMATICian today to explore how we can help you navigate this shift.
