Search engine optimisation, or “SEO” for short, is now critical to many businesses’ digital marketing. Without it, some companies would cease to exist. Therefore, whether it’s a leading e-commerce or a local service company, SEO is now a critical part of business operations.

Therefore, businesses must stay current and adapt when Google’s algorithms change, such as when a core algorithm update is rolled out.
In this article, Ryan Walsh will discuss some significant SEO changes already underway and how we predict search engine optimisation will change in 2025.

 

Date: 13/01/2025
Author: Ryan Walsh

Table of contents:

1. What is H-E-E-A-T content marketing, and how to produce it
2. How A. I am changing search engine optimisation
3. Why you need to optimise for different search engines to “spread your bets”
4. Why we think your content marketing needs to adapt for shorter attention spans
5. Why managing your reputation now manages more than ever
6. How will organic SEO change?
7. Further predictions for how search engine optimisation will change in 2025

 

Introduction

Search engine optimisation is now critical to many businesses, yet, as we saw in 2024 with November and December Core Google Updates, you can’t get lazy and complacent.

Good SEO agencies are, therefore, constantly adjusting and adapting their SEO strategies.
The old SEO rules still apply; nothing changes regarding Google’s desire to place high-quality content marketing at the top of the SERPs.

However, small incremental changes, such as AI, featured snippets, and direct answers through Google Gemini, are becoming increasingly common in the SERPs.

 

What is H-E-E-A-T content marketing?

Google rolled out a massive update, named simply the “Google Helpful Content Update,” it was significant for two main reasons.
Reason number one: Businesses that have been beavering away, producing ultra-helpful, well-written, and informative content marketing, often see their organic visibility increase.

Secondly, if agencies, that’s digital marketing agencies, focused on optimising the website for shoppers / real humans rather than just trying to climb Google’s ranks, then they would also see the benefit of their hard work.

So, let’s break that down a bit more to explain what we mean…

Businesses that focused on writing helpful content and produced a high Google E-EAT score (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and

Trustworthiness) would be rewarded with more organic visitors and higher ranking in the SERPs.

However, businesses that just focused on SEO, like a robot performing tick box exercises and trying to get keywords to the proper density in terms of a percentage, did not fare too well after the Google Helpful Content update.

So, we can’t stress this point enough…

When aiming to improve your business’s search engine optimisation, don’t focus solely on trying to climb Google’s ranks.

Instead, take this approach: Produce the best quality work and offer the best advice to your customers. When you offer super helpful work that’s top quality, it’s clear you’re one of the experts in your industry. Then, you will start to climb to Google by just showing that you know what you are talking about!

What does HEEAT stand for?

HEEAT stands for helpfulness (H), experience (E), expertise (E), authority (A), and trust (T) – or H-E-E-A-T

You may have read countless blog posts regarding Google E-EAT.

Many SEO consultants are talking about H-E-E-A-T content marketing, another set of guidelines for how businesses should write content marketing.

 

Content quality is crucial.

So, even in the early days of Google’s algorithm, content marketing quality has been key since the start of using Google’s PageRank system.

Okay, back then, Google’s algorithm was much more straightforward, but ever since Google’s PageRank, the algorithm has looked at keywords and backlinks to decipher how vital that page was and what the business was writing about.

Fast-forward to today. Sure, Google’s algorithm is much more complex, with Google RankBrain being part of it. Therefore, machine learning is involved, not to mention a much better understanding of NLP, which enables voice search.
Countless algorithm updates, such as the massive Google Hummingbird Update, have entered Google’s core algorithm, making the results much more accurate and precise. However, what Google wants hasn’t changed much in the last twenty-odd years.

Google wants quality content marketing…

It is that simple.

So, businesses that do two things—publish top-quality content marketing and earn powerful, quality links—rank at the top of the SERPs.

On-page SEO is still key, but just be more subtle.

So, you will have SEO companies globally that say you must follow set rules of on-page SEO, such as H1 through H6 tags, well-optimised alt text, and internal links.

Sure, this is all important, but using a plugin or an SEO tool to make your traffic light system turn green is too simplistic.

You can’t take such a simplistic mindset when improving the on-page SEO because it’s more intangible than that.

It boils down to this… how can you offer the best advice? Which provides the best U.X.

Let’s break that down: online shopping is not all that different from offline shopping.

If you walk into a store, the shop is well laid out, the customer service person helps you, they are friendly and welcoming, and they try to give you the best advice, you are going to buy from them, or at least you may consider returning when you want to buy another item.

This is the same online. If you offer the best advice and design your business can create, the SEO will fall into place.

Sure, you need to send a few cues to Googlebot about that page’s topic, but don’t focus too much on getting SEO plugins to light up green. We believe it’s better to focus on writing super helpful content marketing.

 

Hedge your bets, optimise for different search engines

So, our best advice is to optimise for different search engines, not just Google.

Remember how fast ChatGPT came on the scene?

Well, that’s how much the game can change quickly.

So, do look at where your organic traffic is coming from. If some of it is coming via, say, Microsoft’s Bing, you may also want to dedicate more time to optimising for that search engine.

 

Improve the readability of your business content marketing

So, when discussing Google’s readability, we don’t mean how readable it is to more humans, although that’s important to get right.
What we are talking about here is making Googlebot’s job and Google’s algorithms job a bit easier.

So, what do we mean by that…

Well, put yourself in Google’s algorithms shoes for a second…

You’ve written a mammoth 2,000-word blog post and are now off for lunch. The job is done, so to speak, or is it?

So, think about splitting your text up with the rise of featured snippets, Google’s direct answers via Google Gemini, and voice search.

Use a lot of titles, sub-titles, and FAQ-style content because it is much easier for Google to offer your content marketing as a high-ranking organic page or a featured snippet if it has directly answered that question.

“how do you get rid of dog fleas? What’s the best treatment on the market?”

It’s not a glamorous search or question to ask Google, but if you have answered that question in a comprehensive piece of content marketing, your business will likely rank higher in Google’s SERPs.

We think attention spans are getting shorter, and you should adapt your business SEO accordingly:

Video

Many people like to read a written article and spend time consuming it if it’s crucial to a problem they want to fix.

For example, if you’re about to purchase a new car, you’ll likely read many blog posts from car review experts.

However, our attention spans are decreasing, and for most purchases, we often want an immediate answer.

So, we recommend using video content to increase engagement and decrease your company’s bounce rate.
Whether you’re a dentist making an introductory video for your dental practice or advising on the best washing machine to buy, use video marketing to explain more about your business’s products or services.

Here’s why our SEO agency recommends using video marketing where possible:

– Can help to decrease bounce rates
– Can help to boost engagement
– Can help to quickly convey a sense of what your business is like, what you can offer
– You can often explain the benefits of a product much quicker than if you were to write much text.

Engagement

So, since Google RankBrain and machine learning are now part of Google’s core algorithm, we would say it’s even more important than ever to focus on engagement metrics.

You don’t need to splash out on expensive SEO tools to monitor your business’s engagement metrics.

Nope, because you can log into your Google Analytics account, which can be set up and created free of charge.

Then, we would recommend monitoring the following SEO metrics:

– Bounce rate
– Time on page
– Number of pages visited

 

In summary

In summary, we think that, in 2025, there’s going to have to be attention to the following two aspects of improving a business search engine optimisation:

Producing top-quality content marketing

Refine and enhance content marketing that doesn’t rank high in Google’s SERPs.

 

Zero click searches

So, it used to be the aim and goal of any SEO consultant to get their client to the top of Google’s organic results.

And it should still be the core aim of any agency. However, there’s now a rise in “zero-click searches”—what are these?
Zero-click searches are when Google or another search engine, such as Microsoft’s Bing, offers a direct answer in the SERPs.

So when someone asks a question to Google, such as “Why is my car saying DPF failure on the dashboard?”.

Instead of being presented with just 10 organic links, you may get a direct answer in Google’s SERPs.

So, as SEO agencies, we must be aware that zero-click searches, where the customer’s answer is answered directly in the SERPs, will become increasingly common.

 

What does Google H-E-E-A-T mean, and why are these considered among the five pillars of SEO quality?

Why you must write for humans and not for bots

Write for people, not just for Google

So what do we mean when we recommend “write for humans, ” not just for the algorithms?

Well, this is a saying that’s been around for a long time regarding improving a business’s search engine optimisation.

That is, you should overly focus on SEO in isolation and be fixated on where your business ranks on Google.
Of course, a business needs to be focused on improving its SEO. Yet, the top marketing companies worldwide make the point that you only stand a chance of ranking at the top of Google when shoppers/readers spend a long time on your website and have a very low bounce rate.

So, the top search engine optimisation companies worldwide say to focus on the human element, meaning produce content marketing that shoppers will find interesting. Only then can you improve engagement metrics.

Engagement metrics include bounce rate, time on site, and number of pages they visit.

Let’s take one of these as a good example. It’s widely thought that Google’s algorithms consider the average shopper’s dwell time.

Now, the only way your business will improve your dwell time, which is how long the average shopper spends on the page, is if the information interests the shopper.

So, if the page doesn’t answer the question or is slow, the dwell time will be low.

If the dwell time is super high, then this shows that a shopper is interested in what you are selling as a business.

Or they are at least interested in the blog post, so improving engagement metrics is essential to improving your company’s organic search engine optimisation.

Engagement metrics include bounce rates, dwell time, and the number of pages your average shopper has visited.

 

Provide genuine solutions to real problems.

Content marketing works best for most companies when you focus on answering your business’s commonly asked questions. Before a shopper purchases an item, they usually have questions they want to answer.
If your website provides the best possible answer to that question or a series of questions, you will gain more organic traffic. If you can show Google that your business has a low bounce rate, coupled with a high dwell time, this shows good engagement, and therefore, your organic SEO should improve.

Keep content engaging & user-friendly.

So, for example, you could have two of the best minds in the world in one room explaining, let’s say, rocket science to an audience.
Yet, even though someone may have in-depth knowledge and expertise on a subject, they cannot convey that knowledge in an engaging and user-friendly way; sometimes, they confuse people by making something sound too complicated.

However, then you have someone who’s an expert at something but also a people person, so they can articulate something very complicated but in a way that’s easy to understand.
So, suppose you can combine these qualities—content marketing that explains something, showing you are an expert on the subject—and explain it easily. In that case, engagement, i.e. dwell time, is likely much higher.
If the dwell time is much higher, you check this figure on Google Analytics; your business will likely rank much higher in Google.

Therefore, our point is that sometimes, you can be an industry expert on a subject but not convey the information in a blog post in a way that’s easy to understand.

If you don’t make the work easy to understand, people will get confused, the bounce rate will increase, and your SEO work will suffer. So, make things easy to understand.

EXPERIENCE (Google E-EAT)

Demonstrate hands-on familiarity.

This is part of Google E-EAT. The experience part means that the author should demonstrate real-life experience of what they are writing about.

So, quite simply put, because of Google’s semantic web and Knowledge Vault, Google can now understand whether an author knows what they are talking about.

Thin content marketing won’t cut it; too much will damage your business’s Google rankings.

So, quite simply put, you need content marketing in which the author knows what they are talking about.

So, in a nutshell, what you need to do is if you handed the work over to your SEO agency to write the content marketing. They need to work with the experts in your company.

For example, you may have staff with different specialisations and expertise. They should then work with the copywriters when they write content marketing about that subject.

So, for example, if you are writing a piece of content marketing regarding employment law, your copywriters at your SEO agency should work with at least one, if not several, employment lawyers to gain their expertise, which should then be incorporated into the article.

 

EXPERTISE Google E-EAT

So again, this is part of Google E-EAT

When writing content marketing, you must show expertise in what you are writing about.

If an agency is writing “content thin” work, for example, it may have a low word count and be thin of helpful information.
In other words, it could just be an absolute waffle.

 

Cite high-quality research

You should write your content marketing a little like a dissertation.

And what do we mean by that?

When writing a long piece of content marketing, like you are reading here, adding some outbound backlinks is often a good idea, as these help Google understand where you’ve gained your facts and statistics.

If you cite many high-quality websites, such as statistics from Stanford University, Google will know that this is a well-regarded, well-known university. Therefore, if you cite relevant facts and statistics, it becomes clear that the work is well-researched. For example, you could use anchor text leading to a page from which you’ve obtained your statistics.

This shows the Google algorithm that you’ve done your research, which means that the work is likely to be more accurate. Therefore, Google algorithms can place much more confidence in the work’s helpfulness, making it possible to rank much better in Google’s SERPs.
Offer thorough, well-structured explanations.

Again, this comes down to writing helpful and good-quality content marketing.

If the work is well structured and you answer the question comprehensively, it shows that you care about offering helpful advice to your customers as a business.

So, offer a detailed answer to all of the work you create.

Present formal training,

certifications, or credentials.

AUTHORITATIVENESS Google E-EAT

Build a recognised brand or
personal authority.

So, when you ask a question, Google, such as a question regarding SEO.

Neil Patel is an example of a website that will often appear on the first page of Google’s SERPs.

That’s because he is widely considered a leading expert.
So, if your business wants to appear on the first page of Google’s SERPs, you must make your brand an industry expert. Therefore, you must have experts write for you.

For example, we highly recommend offering a link to the author’s LinkedIn account when you write content marketing like this. Googlebot will then follow the link, crawl, and index your LinkedIn page; therefore, it can become apparent whether or not you are an expert in your field.

For example, this article was written by Ryan Walsh; when you check Ryan Walsh’s LinkedIn account, you can see that I, the author, have over 10 years of experience working primarily with Welsh businesses to improve their search engine optimisation.

So, you need to let your brand stand out as an expert in what you are writing about. To do that, you should ask the experts within your company to write the content marketing. Then, please link directly to their LinkedIn account.

For example, if they belong to a professional body, say the ACCA, and you run an accountancy practice, link to the page where they are listed as a qualified financial accountant.

Gain external validations, backlinks, endorsements, and Google Business reviews).

So, Google wants to know whether you’re a respected business or have many customers/clients who approve of your company.
One way of doing this is to see how many genuine business reviews your company has.

So, for example, if your business has quality backlinks from world-leading brands and you have a lot of genuine, excellent customer reviews, then Google will index this.

Google will also rank your business much higher because your brand and business are trusted. It’s trusted more because it’s clear you have quality backlinks; you also have gained many quality business reviews.

Be a go-to resource that others cite and trust. Become, therefore, a “thought leader.”
So, let me give you an example.

Let’s say that whatever business service your company offers, you become an influencer/expert at what you do by writing your business’s content marketing and promoting your services on social media.

If other businesses, blogs, and websites link to you or your quality content marketing, Google will see that you are an expert at what you do.

If you’re an expert at what you do, you will have a lot of quality do-follow backlinks. As you accumulate these links, because they are still widely considered one of the most important Google ranking factors, your business will start climbing up Google’s rank. However, the only links worth building and accumulating are quality backlinks.

Brand mentions and the semantic web.

It’s worth mentioning, here just for a second, a bit more about the semantic web and brand mentions.
So, some SEO agencies become fixated on building links.
Some clients become fixated on building links. Links are important, but so are brand mentions.

If your brand has a distinctive name and is mentioned on the BBC, then this can be enough for Googlebot to notice that your company has been noted.

The more mentions you get on healthy websites, such as the BBC, the Guardian newspaper or CNN news, the more you say on these websites, the more companies’ SEO will improve.

TRUSTWORTHINESS Google E-EAT

Provide secure browsing (HTTPS)
and data protection.

In summary, many marketing consultants believe that a business’s search engine optimisation can be slightly improved if it has an HTTPS connection. What we mean by this is that a business must encrypt its customers’ credit card information to make it more secure.

This will not give your business search engine optimisation a massive boost, but it will help improve your business’s marketing trustworthiness. Therefore, your business’s Google E-EAT score will be a bit higher. This is important because it makes your customer’s credit card details more secure. But more than that, as any good marketing agency will tell you, the more you can improve your website’s

Google E-EAT score, the more the website will improve in terms of where it ranks on Google.

Demonstrate accuracy & reliability with fact-checking.

So, again, when writing a blog post, a reader wants to have confidence that the advice you offer is reliable.

Let’s say you are reviewing a set of washing machines.

Yet, if you start to cite awards that the different washing machines have been awarded and offer a link to those websites, it shows that the work has credibility. You are recommending various products, but you are also backing that up with independent reviews, say from Which or another well-respected company that reviews products.

 

Partner with a hugely experienced SEO agency

We are one of Cardiff’s most experienced, knowledgeable, and respected SEO agencies. Our fixed-price monthly packages start from just £500 per month.

Call us today if you want top-quality, white-hat search engine optimisation applied to your company website.

The business is owned and managed by Ryan Walsh, an SEO expert with over 10 years of experience helping many companies in Wales get onto the first page of Google SERPs.