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Remember when SEO was all about stuffing in as many key words as possible and hoping for the best? Yeah, those days are long gone... Welcome to 2025, where search engines are smarter than ever, and people are talking to their devices like their old pals. With AI running the show and voice search becoming the go-to, SEO has changed - big time. So, how do you keep up?
Voice Search SEO: Optimising for the ‘Spoken Web’
SEO is evolving faster than ever, and 2025 is set to be a game-changer with AI-driven search engines and voice search gaining dominance. In 2022, it was recorded that 55% of household already owned a smart speaker device such as Alex, Google Assistant or their iPhone's Alexa. With more and more of these tools handling search queries, websites must adapt to meet these changes.
With over half of the searches being voice-based in 2025, optimising for voice search is no longer optional. Unlike traditional searches, voice queries tend to be more natural, conversational, and often framed as questions. This means businesses must adopt a strategy that prioritises answering these queries directly and succinctly. So if you want to show up in voice search results, your website needs to start speaking human, not robot.
So How do you Optimise SEO for Voice Search?
1. Use Long-Tail Keywords: Voice searches tend to be longer and conversational. They are more natural and human so they reflect natural speech patterns. Instead of targeting “best CRM software,” optimise for phrases like “What is the best CRM software for small businesses?”
2. Focus on Local SEO: Since more than 58% of users use voice search to find local businesses, ensuring your Google Business Profile is up to date with correct business details, opening hours, and contact information is crucial.
3. Leverage Customer Reviews: Potential customer rely heavily on reviews, highlighting the importance of positive online feedback. So, encourage customers to leave reviews on Google, Yelp, and other platforms to enhance local SEO rankings.
4. Implement Schema Markup: Using structured data helps search engines understand and display your content better. FAQ schema, How-To schema, and LocalBusiness schema can increase the chances of appearing in voice search results.
5. Optimise for Mobile and Speed: Most voice searches are done on mobile devices, so having a fast-loading, mobile-friendly website is essential for ranking in voice search results.
The Rise of AI-Powered Search: What It Means for SEO
Artificial intelligence is now at the core of search engines, significantly impacting how rankings are determined. AI-driven search refers to search engines that leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing (NLP) to deliver highly relevant and personalised search results.
OpenAI’s models have made search engines more context-aware and capable of understanding user intent more accurately than ever before. Instead of relying solely on keywords, AI-driven search focuses on the reasoning behind a query, interpreting nuances, and delivering results based on contextual meaning in order to improve accuracy and efficiency.
This shift represents a new era in search optimisation, requiring content creators and SEOs to adapt their strategies in order to generate traffic outside the traditional SEO.
Examples of AI-driven search include:
- Google’s AI-powered Search (SGE - Search Generative Experience) - Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) is reshaping how users interact with search results. Instead of displaying a simple list of links, SGE generates AI-powered summaries that provide direct answers to user queries.
- ChatGPT-based search engines - ChatGPT-based search engines use AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT to provide conversational, AI-generated answers instead of traditional search results. Instead of just linking to various websites, these search engines generate well-structured, detailed responses that directly address user queries.
- Microsoft Bing with AI - Microsoft Bing has integrated OpenAI’s GPT-4 to power its search results, making it a direct competitor to Google SGE. Bing AI delivers contextual, personalised search results by understanding the user’s intent and generating summaries, comparison tables, and direct recommendations.
- E-commerce and internal AI search engines (Amazon, Shopify, HubSpot, etc.) - AI-driven search engines in e-commerce and internal site searches help users find products or information more efficiently. Platforms like Amazon, Shopify, and HubSpot use AI to predict user intent, personalise recommendations, and enhance product discovery through intelligent search queries.
So How do you Optimise SEO for AI-Powered Search?
1. Search Intent Over Keywords: AI-powered search engines prioritise understanding user intent rather than just matching keywords. Instead of stuffing content with specific keywords, focus on answering users' questions and providing relevant, in-depth insights. Use tools like Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE) to analyse and align content with actual search intent.
2. Use Structured Data for Featured Snippets and Zero-Click Searches: AI relies on structured data to understand content and serve relevant results. Implement schema markup to increase the chances of appearing in featured snippets and zero-click searches. FAQ schema, How-To schema, and Article schema help search engines extract useful information from your content and present it in AI-generated search results.
3. Optimise Your Technical SEO: A well-structured, fast-loading, and mobile-friendly website is crucial for AI-powered search. Improve Core Web Vitals, ensure pages are easily crawlable, and enhance indexability with semantic HTML and clean code. AI-driven search rewards sites that load quickly and provide a seamless user experience across devices.
4. Provide Expert-Level Content with Original Research: Google’s Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) framework is becoming increasingly important as AI-generated content floods the web. While AI can produce content at scale, Google still prioritises content that demonstrates real-world expertise and credibility. Nonetheless, AI is starting to rank trustworthy sources higher.
Including expert opinions, original research, and case studies strengthens credibility and improves the ranking of your pages. Regularly updating older content with new data and insights enhances its value and maintains relevance in AI-driven search.
Trends in Voice and AI Search to Watch Out For
Voice and AI search are experiencing rapid innovation, fundamentally changing how users interact with search engines. For site owners, this means new areas to focus on for traffic generation, outside of traditional SEO. So, here are some of the key trends to watch out for in 2025:
1. Voice Commerce and Transactional Search
With more users making purchases via voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant, voice commerce is becoming a crucial part of digital marketing. Businesses need to optimise for voice-based product searches, focusing on clear and structured product descriptions, seamless checkout processes, and optimised voice-enabled shopping experiences.
2. Multimodal Search: Voice + Visual + AI
Search engines are combining voice, image, and AI-powered text search into a multimodal experience. With Google Lens and YouTube AI search growing in popularity, users are increasingly searching using images, video, and AI-generated summaries. This shift requires businesses to optimise their content beyond just text-based search.
3. Hyper-Personalisation Through AI Search
AI-driven search engines are personalising results based on user behaviour, preferences, and past searches. Businesses should focus on collecting first-party data, implementing dynamic content strategies, and tailoring experiences based on user intent to remain competitive.
Future-Proof Your SEO Strategy
SEO in 2025 is about more than just keywords - it’s about adapting to AI-driven search, voice queries, and multimodal experiences. To stay ahead, businesses need to focus on conversational content, implement structured data, enhance E-E-A-T, and optimise for voice and image-based search. The landscape of search is evolving rapidly, and those who embrace these changes early will have a significant competitive advantage.
Now is the time to audit your website for voice search compatibility, structured data, and AI-driven search intent. The future of SEO is here - make sure you’re ready for it.
