2025 SEO/GEO predictions and five takeaways
Published on July 9, 2025
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Do you feel ready for the way search is changing? In the fifth chapter of conversations between Josh Lohr, Senior SEO Lead at Contentful, and Allan White, Senior Solutions Strategist, the two unpacked what’s changing, what’s not, and how to prepare for the near future of SEO and GEO with confidence.
Video: Watch AI Search Series Episode 5
Don't miss the full series
Ep. 1 ► What is GEO and how does it differ from SEO?
Ep. 2 ► Understanding and optimizing for various LLMs
Ep. 3 ► Three GEO playbooks to prepare your content
Ep. 4 ► How does Contentful help with SEO and GEO?
Ep. 5 ► 2025 SEO/GEO predictions and five takeaways (this episode)
The fundamentals of SEO still matter
Reflecting on my conversation with Josh, one theme stood out clearly: the fundamentals of SEO still matter, but the context is evolving fast. We talked about the future of search, the practical impact of large language models (LLMs), and what we both see as an emerging discipline — generative engine optimization, or GEO.
This post outlines the key takeaways from that discussion, focusing on how businesses can evolve their approach to maintain visibility and engagement in a world of zero-click searches, synthesized results, and emerging AI-powered search tools.
1. Continue to demonstrate E-E-A-T
Josh kicked things off by addressing the noise around declining traffic and waning interest in search. He was quick to correct the record: “Searches are up 22% year over year. Demand hasn’t dropped — just the way people interact with search results has.” That context matters. AI overviews and zero-click results are changing user behavior, not reducing the need for information.
He emphasized that teams practicing good SEO — especially those aligned with Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines — are already well positioned: “Your best practice in high SEO activities will apply directly to GEO.”
2. Don’t block the bots — they’re your new customer
Over the last few years, there’s been a trend in web development to move more of the experience to the client side, and deliver more content within the browser rendered with JavaScript. Google’s search bots have kept up with this trend when it comes to scanning content on our sites — but other AI bots emerging on the scene struggle to scan content that’s delivered this way.
As Josh put it, “Googlebot is smart. AI bots are, frankly, still pretty dumb.” If you’ve locked down your content with complex JavaScript or restrictive robots.txt files, you’re likely cutting off the very tools trying to learn about your brand and surface it to customers.
His advice was clear: AI bots do not currently parse content rendered with JavaScript effectively, unlike Googlebot, so be sure your websites are built in ways they can understand. This might mean relying on server-side rendering more, reviving “JamStack” approaches for web delivery, and investing in how you deliver structured data to the browser.
“Make it simple, otherwise it’s invisible to them,” Josh advised.
3. Data is king, especially the structured kind
When we say “structured data,” we really are talking about two aspects: organized, structured data in your business, and the kind that is delivered to websites for search and other needs. Contentful solves the first problem, and your web developers handle the second.
Contentful recently released a new taxonomy toolset to help businesses organize, structure, and classify their content for this very reason. It can even use AI suggestions to help you tag your content. Josh explained that when entities — people, places, products, concepts — are clearly defined, you can generate and deliver the kind of structured data that LLMs are hungry for more easily.
It’s not just about findability — it’s about controlling how your content is interpreted and displayed in increasingly synthesized search environments. He suggests we use structured data liberally, so, ensure your XML sitemaps mirror your site architecture. “Use descriptive metadata and media attributes. SEO 101, revisited for GEO.”
4. Ask the AI for its sources — and follow the trail
Josh pointed to a recent Columbia study that revealed how unreliable some AI tools still are. “Collectively, they were incorrect 60% of the time,” he said. “Perplexity was the best, only being incorrect 37% of the time. Grok3 — sorry, Elon — was the worst at 94%.” AI systems often fabricate links, misattribute sources, or present opinion as fact.
Source: “AI Search Has A Citation Problem”, CJR
That’s why Josh recommends a proactive approach: “Ask AI where it got its answers. Then go work cross-functionally to get brand mentions into those sources — all while ensuring consistency in brand messaging across all channels.” It’s a wake-up call for content teams: your influence doesn’t stop at your site. It extends to the forums, aggregators, and Q&A sites that AI tools are now mining for answers.
5. Update your KPIs to reflect modern search behavior
Finally, we turned to metrics. Traditional SEO measurement isn’t obsolete, but it needs updating. Josh explained, “Traffic is dropping, but search demand isn’t. So we need to shift our KPIs to deeper pipeline metrics — brand visibility and share of voice (SOV).”
He also highlighted the importance of tracking brand search volume, returning visitors, and direct traffic: “These act as discovery indicators for AI, showing that users are still finding your brand — even if they don’t click in the same way.”
Looking ahead
What struck me most in our conversation is that GEO isn’t about throwing away everything you know about SEO — it’s about building on it and extending it. Josh reminded us that the basics are still essential, but we now need to apply them in a more complex, multi-channel ecosystem, with AI as a new “customer” and type of touchpoint that we need to consider.
For those looking to go deeper, Josh and our team helped put together an updated SEO guide that incorporates the challenges and opportunities that GEO presents. It’s a great place to start if you’re retooling your strategy for the year ahead.
If you’re ready to explore how Contentful can help you structure your content for GEO success, start a free trial or reach out to talk with our team. We’re already helping businesses adapt — and thrive — in this new era of search.
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Meet the authors
Allan White is a Solution Strategist at Contentful, with decades of experience in technical sales, design, web development, and video. A former Contentful customer, he brings these disciplines together in a unique approach to sales engineering, helping field teams tell better stories through presentations, video, and code — helping hundreds of brands navigate their Contentful journey.
Josh is the SEO Lead at Contentful. With 15 years of experience working directly in SEO for global brands and agencies, he gets his kicks playing a variety of instruments and appreciating the nature of his adopted home in Scotland.
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