Article Summary
Top 5 Changes to SEO
AI Powered Search Engines
Mass Production of content with AI Content Generation Tools
Voice Search Has Exploded
Advanced Tools Making Technical SEO Easier 
What Small Business Owners Need to Do in 2025

If you have been in marketing as long as I have, it has been a wild ride. When I first started in SEO keyword stuffing was the thing to do. We have come so far from where we used to be. The problem now is the rate of change is so fast that the industry changes day by day. 

I want to give you a list of some of the changes coming in 2025 for SEO and how this will affect you and your website as a small business owner. 

Top 5 Changes to SEO

SEO is changing fast. This year has been nothing but advancement after advancement in technology. AI has had a profound effect on the industry. This doesn’t mean that SEO efforts are wasted, it simply means we need to be more strategic. 

AI is not actually artificial intelligence

I heard someone speak on this topic over the summer. AI is not actually intelligent, it can only produce what it already knows (this will become important in a minute). It is actually advanced machine learning. 

So how can we create content that stands out in a world swimming in too much information? By creating unique story based content. ChatGPT cannot write about my experiences unless she lies. She cannot create a story about results based on feelings. We need to start infusing storytelling into more of our content outside of social media. 

Here are the five top things AI has changed about SEO in 2024 and why they should matter for your small business. 

AI Powered Search Engines

AI now interprets search queries with greater accuracy, prioritizing user intent over specific keyword matches.

Why Small Business Owners Should Care: Small businesses need to focus on creating content that genuinely addresses their audience’s needs to improve search visibility.

What to Do on Your Website: Ensure your content is user-focused, answering common questions and providing value rather than focusing solely on keywords. Infuse stories, testimonials, and your unique knowledge into your articles. 

Google’s AI Algorithm Update

Have you heard about the new algorithm update? Google is creating AI call outs. The idea behind the callouts is to support better search experiences. The draw back is that people will likely leave the search engine less. 

There is a positive. With new AI call outs there will be more room at the top of search for multiple content types. This means its now easier to rank for videos and images. This makes the production of multiple types of content even more important! 

Mass Production of content with AI Content Generation Tools

AI tools help create optimized content faster, analyzing top-performing articles to ensure your site remains competitive.

Why Small Business Owners Should Care: Small businesses can now generate high-quality, optimized content efficiently, leveling the playing field against larger competitors.

What to Do on Your Website: Use AI-powered tools to audit your content and improve optimization for keywords, readability, and on-page SEO elements.

Personalization in Search 

AI personalized search results based on user behavior, location, and preferences, delivering more tailored experiences.

Why Small Business Owners Should Care: Personalized search results mean businesses can reach a more specific audience, leading to higher-quality leads.

What to Do on Your Website: Focus on improving your site’s user experience, such as faster load times and mobile optimization, while addressing diverse user intents.

Voice Search Has Exploded

AI-driven voice search and natural language processing are reshaping how users search, with more conversational and question-based queries.

Why Small Business Owners Should Care: Optimizing for voice search can help small businesses capture a growing audience who prefer using voice assistants.

What to Do on Your Website: Incorporate long-tail keywords and question-based phrases in your content to optimize for conversational queries.

Advanced Tools Making Technical SEO Easier 

AI provides deeper insights into search trends, competitor strategies, and automated fixes for technical issues.

Why Small Business Owners Should Care: Small businesses can leverage AI-driven insights to stay competitive and optimize their SEO strategies efficiently. Technical SEO is becoming easier than it’s ever been!

What to Do on Your Website: Focus more on your content and let tools like Ubersuggest help you fix the basic technical SEO errors. 

What Small Business Owners Need to Do in 2025

To stay ahead of SEO with Google’s new AI updates, small business owners need to focus on creating user-centric, high-quality content that aligns with search intent, while also optimizing for multimodal searches. 

Now here are 3 actionable tips you can start using right away! 

1. Optimize for Long-Tail & Conversational Keywords: With AI focusing more on natural language, update your content to include conversational phrases and long-tail keywords that match how people speak and ask questions.
2. Incorporate Multiple Formats in your Content: Google is now analyzing different content formats, so diversify your website by adding videos, images, and infographics that complement your text content to rank for different types of searches.
3. Focus on Specific Answers: AI updates like Passage Indexing mean Google can rank specific sections of your content. Create detailed, focused answers within your blogs or service pages to capture more niche searches.

I will also add one personal tip. If you start your SEO or your article by saying “let’s write this for Google” please.. please.. please reconsider. Your article is not for Google. It should be optimized so Google can understand it but we write and create content for human beings. Don’t simply let ChatGPT write the whole thing. Create stories and add your own unique perspective to an article. In the long run clear high quality and easy to understand content will always win. 

These are my personal takes on SEO in 2025. If you have a hot take I haven’t mentioned I would love to quote you in the article. Send an email to tianna@smbmarketingschool.com with the title “How AI Effects SEO in 2025” and we can talk about getting your ideas up here!