My Year in SEO

My Year in SEO

I don’t usually wrap my year in SEO up with a blog post of this type. However, 2025 has been one of the most unusual I’ve ever encountered.

It has been technically challenging and one of the fastest changing years in SEO I can recall. The rise of AI, the UK economy putting pressure of businesses, Google algorithm and rankings volatility, they’ve all had an impact on the conditions I’ve encountered with clients.

Some of the old chestnuts have been apparent too. From people with a complete lack of understanding of the value of good quality SEO, to those that think I can wave a magic wand and get them No.1 on Google instantly (spoiler alert – in the majority of cases, I can’t!).

The rise of AI in search

AI overviews, AI tools such as ChatGPT, AI apps – they’ve all contributed to the way search results manifest themselves in 2025.

If I had £1 for every time a client has said they’d like to be in a Google AI overview for one of hundreds of target key-phrases, I’d be a very wealthy man.

No sooner do I think I have a grasp on what these many tools are looking for, the goalposts move. The reality is that your SERPS positions in standard Google searches are one of the defining factors in how likely you are to be shown in AI search results. While the manner in which AI gathers information is constantly changing, for now they rely on search engines and most of the technical aspects that determine your SERPS positions.

Google SERPS is your weather vane

If you’re performing strongly in Google search, you’ll probably see the benefits in AI overviews and ChatGPT results.

AI SEO tool investment is critical

I’ve invested in additional AI search specific tools. They allow me to monitor, react to and adapt my client AI search opportunities. You can’t just sit still and ‘hope’. Investing in high-quality tools is one of the differences between most good SEO consultants and the majority of SEO agencies.

Will AI search overtake Google Search in 2026?

In a word, no. While the rapid rise and use of AI search has surpassed most expectations in 2025, there are many things that the media overstate.

The vast majority of internet users still rely on traditional search tools. There are demographic group differences and there are very apparent age group differences, but Google Search isn’t about to disappear.

UK use of AI will grow dramatically

Part-way through 2025 I published the Ofcom data on UK internet use. It highlights how the general public use the internet. The use of ChatGPT stood at approximately 3% – and that was once per month.

That will rise dramatically in the 2026 report, but it doesn’t mean that people use it for everything.

Google rankings volatility

This has been by far the biggest issue in 2025 where SEO is concerned.

Google SERPS (rankings) has been up, down, roundabout and everywhere imaginable. The volatility of client search results has been without exception and the SEO world has never stopped talking about it. The latter part of 2025 has been particularly problematic in this respect.

Google are undoubtedly tweaking their algorithms. AI is a factor in that, but understanding what Google want is something I’ve dedicated a mammoth amount of time to.

We don’t receive special privileges

Clients often think that SEO consultants have some form of direct line to Google, or a special relationship that sees us receive secret information. I can reveal that we don’t.

We receive exactly the same announcements that they do. That information is usually in the style of 2 or 3 paragraphs of completely unhelpful and rhetorical sentences. They often say they’ll be looking for high-value and unique content or giving priority to smaller businesses (and both of those are real-world examples that never delivered on their promise).

Instead, it has been a year of ensuring technical and error-free perfection on client sites, advising on content, frequency of publication, competitor monitoring and a million other things. All of these are still the key ingredients to getting clients the SERPS results they want.

Volatility doesn’t excuse all SEO issues

The volatility in rankings is frustrating, but doesn’t excuse some comments I’ve seen from a few in the SEO sector. Many have complained of sites moving from Page 1 positions to outside the Top 50 – and staying there.

Movement of such magnitude isn’t necessarily unusual. I’ve seen it happen. However, unless there is a technical or major content issue, it is always very temporary. If it stays a long distance from it’s prior position, there is something your SEO service isn’t addressing. SEO consultants and others that work in the profession like to moan. However, they occasionally like to use Google volatility as an excuse for their own lack of attention to detail.

SERPS volatility will continue in 2026

I expect the SERPS volatility to continue long into 2026, if not throughout it.

There is unprecedented change at present, and Google doesn’t seem to know which way to turn. I’ve seen no signs of it stopping. It would be nice to receive some clarity from Google on what it’s plans are with search. Unfortunately, that’s about as likely to happen as winning the Euromillions jackpot when you never buy a ticket.

SEO and the UK economy

As the UK economy has continued to drag along the bottom of the seabed, I’ve seen two common mindsets.

Invest more in SEO

The first is to invest more in SEO and digital marketing. Accepting the fact that you still need conversion to sales, this is the sensible and experienced business approach.

Lower cost SEO

The second approach is to reduce spending on SEO or other forms of digital marketing. I’ve witnessed this on several occasions, but they were all with potential new client enquiries. It became obvious at an early stage that the client budget was nowhere near sufficient to engage my services and their idea of how much SEO should cost was a long way from reality.

The economic outlook is a factor

You could argue that isn’t linked to the UK economy and is a wider misunderstanding or fixed perception about how much something should cost. However, the economy is a factor as in two cases the client advised me that they were reducing their budgets because of it. In situations like this it can be pointless trying to convince the client that their approach is counter-productive, and I’ve never been one to tell someone else how to run their business, especially from a financial perspective.

E-commerce sales slowdown

Another factor that draws me to the economy is the slowdown in e-commerce sales I’ve seen in the last quarter of 2025.

There is a hesitancy to commit to purchases and, in my opinion, a definite delayed approach with an eye on early 2026. This wasn’t helped by a rather gloomy November budget in which many of the middle-earners of the UK saw the government hit their pockets in one way or another. Without being too political, I didn’t see much to encourage the UK public to be more optimistic.

As we’re yet to see any complete and official figures on spending over this period, I could be proved wrong. If they report an upturn in spending online, I’ll be very surprised. However, the BBC has already reported that the UK saw a fall in retail sales with Black Friday deals failing to lure buyers in November.

The BBC article cites one source as saying consumer confidence is high. I’m not convinced of that.

Common courtesy and SEO

My final observation on 2025 is one I’m saddened by. I have seen several instances where there is an abject lack of common courtesy from those you seek to help – indeed those that asked you to help.

All of these incidents were from inbound enquiries and each had differing levels of courtesy from the enquirer, but I’ll give one as an example.

Request for scan, analysis and SEO quotation

One was a medium sized organisation that asked about SEO services and arranged a video call. This took place, lasted approximately 1 hour, and I was asked to provide a quick analysis of their site, quotation and initial observations.

I duly did so, within the agreed timeframes. If you’d asked me of the likelihood of the client going ahead with the SEO service, I’d have said 95%.

Trying to avoid Google penalties

What makes this even more unusual is that during the analysis I spotted a major issue on the client site. It was a dead link being read by Google on every page across the site – and it was a large ecommerce site. That would have generated thousands of errors and the client site was undoubtedly being penalised for it.

As a gesture of goodwill, as I’ve never been one to with-hold information if it is something the client can fix quickly, I noted this on my report and told them how to rectify it. It was, quite literally, a 2 minute fix.

Surprising silence

Cue complete radio silence. I have never heard back from the prospective client. That is despite 3-4 follow-up emails asking if they still wanted to pursue their enquiry.

If the costs of SEO surprised them, why not just respond and say the services were outside of their budget? At least reply and thank me for pointing out the error on the site? I know they read the report – because the error was corrected, within 4 days of my report being sent.

The risks of being too helpful in business

I am aware that this is not uncommon to anyone in business. You get used to it. However, I think you also learn to read the signs of something likely or unlikely to progress and I would never had imagined this particular instance to lead to complete silence.

There will be some people that say I shouldn’t have given them the goodwill gesture about the error. I understand that opinion, but it won’t stop me doing it again as I recognise this is an unfortunate incident where someone has shown little respect or courtesy for my attempt to help them. Most people don’t do that. It has stuck in my mind though and remains a mystery to me. If I was a betting man, I’d wager that the SEO costs were far higher than their budget and they didn’t want to tell me that.

Other 2025 observations

A couple of other quick observations from the last year, some tongue-in-cheek, some that I’m hoping won’t repeat in 2026, that spring to mind:

• People still listen to their “friends” that tell them X, Y and Z is the next big thing in SEO or digital marketing – with no data to support it. Thankfully, most, but not all, act on the actual data when they’re given it, rather than hearsay.
• Siteground, the hosting company, can’t read very basic instructions without making a mess of them (more than one occasion!).
• Fasthosts, yes, another hosting company, improved their support response times but haven’t improved their appalling email service provision issues.
• Shopify experienced several unusual outages in late 2025, many affecting thousands of websites – something I’ll be keeping an eye on in 2026.
• On the plus side, Shopify’s release of their AI section code tool was without doubt the best e-commerce addition of the year.
• There is a significant increase in businesses enquiriing about migrating from WordPress & Woocommerce to Shopify.
• Even the traditionally larger e-commerce platforms, such as Adobe Commerce, are coming under pressure from the sheer might and functionality Shopify now offers.
• Google Workspace continues to be one of the most confusing UX environments I have ever seen (I try to help clients out on a variety of topics if they ask me, and Workspace’s UX has always been one that astonishes me for the sheer lack of attention to clarity!). If I was a Workspace business, I’d be looking at Office365 very quickly.
• Cloudflare need to get their act together in 2026. They had multiple outages in 2025 that caused complete carnage for many online businesses.

Feedback

If you’ve experienced anything similar to the above in 2025, I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Finally, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year with sincere best wishes for 2026.