Not quite ready for the 2025 SEO predictions just yet, but here are some common themes I’ve noticed in SEO within companies this year.
Over Optimisation
I’m seeing this everywhere in traditional SEO, whether it’s internal linking, churning out tons of SEO recommended content, endless website restructures, or strategies driven by SEO software tools. It’s causing a real disconnect between what users actually want and what the tools and platforms are pushing teams to do. It feels like we’re going full circle, with old habits creeping back in as teams look to scale, cut costs and lean on AI outputs. I’m telling clients to dial it back and simplify what they’re signaling to Google. Keep your website lean and efficient.
In ecommerce SEO especially, I’m seeing a lot of bloat from brands (mostly big ones) trying to target every single product or category variation by using tech that automatically scales the creation of landing pages. Almost every time I see this, the retailer gets a nice gain in organic visibility during the honeymoon period – lots of high fives all around – but after a few Google Core updates, that visibility starts to drop. While some of it sticks around, the collateral damage definitely needs to be looked at. Don’t get me wrong, some ecommerce retailers are on the flipside, where they actually need to open up facets and create new landing pages. But it’s crucial to find the right balance between your inventory and what real users are actually searching for. Don’t just flick a switch – take the time to analyse the data.
SEO Software Bloat
In larger organisations, there’s a lot of SEO software bloat, and with budgets tightening, tools and platforms are being reviewed. For most websites, you really don’t need loads of SEO tech. A lot of the data is available via APIs, and with the rise of no-code app builders, there’s a real opportunity for SEO teams to create bespoke tools for their needs. That’s not to say there aren’t some great SEO tool providers out there – you just don’t need all of them, and some simply aren’t worth the cost.
Server Side Issues
Can you believe I’m not even going to mention JavaScript?
Server-side issues are a big one. As mentioned before – redirects, redirect chains, unnecessary redirects, and conflicting redirects – all muddy the waters. Keep the signals as clean as possible for Google. Issues with CDNs, firewalls, and aggressive bot-checking have not only hurt website visibility but also the user experience. Then there’s the misuse of robots.txt – too many rules, incorrect usage, and overuse, causing all kinds of conflicts. Probably not a popular opinion, but some of the tech stacks I see just to host a simple WordPress site are mind-boggling
User Intent
This ties in with website bloat. In many cases, having one strong page performs better than multiple weaker ones. It’s worth manually checking the search results to see what types of pages are ranking for your target queries. If your website has been around for a while, it’s likely suffering from this issue – where different stakeholders have created similar content for different audiences. But Google often only shows one URL in the search results, regardless of the audience type. For example, landing pages aimed at retail investors, institutional investors, and advisers may target similar queries, yet Google only displays one of them, diluting the relevance and impact of having multiple pages. This can also lead to poor user experience as users are landing in wrong areas of the website.
User Experience
Google has always claimed to care about user experience, but the focus on rewarding great UX has really ramped up. This shift is driven by Google Chrome data feeding into their ranking algorithm. Sometimes, it’s as simple as looking at your core landing pages on mobile and asking yourself, ‘Is what users see when the page loads really what they want?’ and ‘Is this website as helpful as it could be?’. If you want to see what your users are actually doing on your site and their experience, Microsoft Clarity offers a free tool that not only provides heatmaps but also live recordings of user sessions.
Shiny Object Syndrome
Lots of questions are being raised about AI and SEO, and rightly so. But AI has also become a shiny object that’s distracting everyone. Most brands and websites really need to focus on the basics – solid SEO, creating valuable content, and offering a product or service that people talk about positively across the web. Not to go full Bezos on you, but AI and success in search still come back to customers and user experience.
And no, that pricey cloud-based, AI-driven content management system isn’t 100% SEO compliant (whatever that even means).
SEO Oddities
Google flux, instability, or just tightening the screws? Google search is changing fast, with search result page designs shifting daily, AI results evolving, and the web growing in size. These changes are bringing new challenges for indexing and crawling, which is why we’re seeing more oddities in Google – pages ranking in countries they shouldn’t, URLs dropping out of search results for no clear reason, canonical issues popping up, and an overall increase in head-scratching moments. Not blaming Google here, just making an observation.
Reactive SEO
If you’ve noticed a recent drop in organic traffic, especially after a major Google update like a Core or Helpful Content update, it’s very likely your website has had underlying issues for a long time. In almost every case where I see a site affected by one of these updates, there’s a clear pattern of visibility issues stretching back years. If I were a business owner relying heavily on organic traffic or wanting to reduce exposure to these updates, I’d be taking proactive steps to prevent problems down the line. It’s always more cost-effective to address SEO issues before they become critical. Fixing things after a Google update can be a slow and expensive process
If you’re wondering whether any of the above applies to your website, you can use Google’s free tool, Google Search Console, which will let you run spot checks on all of these issues. While it won’t give you specific actions to take, it’s a solid starting point before you dive into deeper analysis or seek SEO additional support.