From AI to zero-click journeys, here are six takeaways from SEO Week 2025 that every digital marketer should act on now.

I recently attended SEO Week 2025, which brought together leaders in search, content strategists and technical SEO experts to unpack what’s coming next. The lessons, themed around “The Future,” felt especially important to those of us trying to figure out what’s coming next

Big themes included the rise of zero-click search and the merger of brand storytelling and structured data. But one message really resonated with me: the SEO playbook is being rewritten.

For those who couldn’t attend, here are six of my biggest takeaways and why they should matter to marketers, content strategists and brand builders.

TL;DR

  • Zero-click search is now the norm. Less traffic is reaching the open web — brands must optimize for visibility, influence and engagement within the search experience itself.
  • Keyword strategies are outdated. Google’s MUM model demands content structured around entities and user journeys.
  • Clicks are harder to earn. With attention spans shrinking, engagement — not views — is becoming the true measure of success.
  • Domain migrations are brand moments. They’re not just technical exercises — they’re branding challenges.
  • AI is rewriting media and PR. LLMs assess trust and authority. brands need to pitch to the machines and build reputation signals.
  • SEO is now a board-level conversation. Organization leaders must tie SEO efforts directly to business outcomes like revenue, retention and brand trust.

Accept It: Zero-Click Search Is the New Norm

Google traffic is still growing overall, generating 14 billion search terms a day (versus the 37 million from ChatGPT). But fewer people are actually clicking through from the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Rand Fishkin, co-founder and CEO at SparkToro, noted that only 41.5% of U.S. searches in 2024 resulted in a click. Just 1% went to paid ads. While Google is not admitting it yet, the search engine is sending less traffic to the open web.

This is fundamentally changing the way the web works. Where three-quarters of all referral traffic comes from search, these changes mean brands need a big rethink on how they get customers to their sites.

Why it matters: You can no longer rely on organic rankings alone. Marketers must optimize for brand visibility, entity association and on-SERP performance. You must ensure that once customers land on your site, you can keep them engaged and build a first-party relationship with them. That way, you can retarget them after they’ve left.

MUMs and LLM AI Mean the End of Keyword-Only Thinking

Google’s Multitask Unified Model (MUM) is changing the very structure of search. It evolves search data modeling from simple keywords to full-blown user journeys. According to Cindy Krum, founder & CEO at MobileMoxie, MUM doesn’t just understand language — it understands intent across formats, languages and time. It processes search activity as a series of interconnected “micro-moments.” And MUM is why traditional keyword-based SEO is increasingly outdated.

One of Google’s incentives is evident: MUM-powered journeys help the company maximize monetization. By clustering search behavior into one of four defined “micro-moments” (“I want to know,” “I want to go,” “I want to do” and “I want to buy”), Google can serve more SERPs, more ads and keep users within its ecosystem longer. It also leans less on AI processing and the costs it can occasion.

To adapt, brands must map their content against Google’s journey logic, align it with the Knowledge Graph and build multi-modal content that spans video, imagery, diagrams and audio. Krum’s guidance was clear: optimize not just for queries, but for how Google organizes user journeys — and where it monetizes them.

On the AI search front, Krum also shared some research about one of the most pressing questions of the moment: how generative search tools — including ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok and Perplexity — are citing content. The findings reveal that many tools incorrectly identify articles, fabricate links or point to 404s and publisher homepages instead of original content. In some cases, they reference syndicated or plagiarized versions. This shows the growing importance of clear authority signals in your content — including author bios, about pages and structured data that reinforces ownership and expertise — in order to appear in these results as they improve.

Why it matters: SEO strategies must shift toward contextual, multimedia content that aligns with real user behavior — not just search volume.

The Click Is in Its Villain Era

CTRs have dropped from 1.41% to 0.64% in just one year. As Fajr Muhammad, VP of Content Strategy & Growth at iPullRank, said: “We’re in an attention recession — and we’ve trained users to scroll, skim and bounce.”

In today’s content landscape, traffic is no longer a guarantee of connection. Audiences are overwhelmed, attention spans have shrunk to under a minute and clicks are becoming rarer. Muhammad’s message was clear: Brands must shift from counting clicks to earning engagement.

Instead of tracking views and likes, we should be looking at metrics like time on page, saves, completion rates and return visits. In this marketing model, the funnel becomes more of a flywheel, and content must work harder to earn attention, inspire loyalty and spark action at every stage of the user journey.

Why it matters: Your job as an SEO expert isn’t just to drive traffic. It’s to stop the scroll and create resonant experiences through engaging, personalized content that actually rewards the users’ attention.

Migrations and Rebrands Require Entity Strategy

Andrew Prince, Senior SEO Manager at Rocket, shared how Rocket moved millions of pages from Rocket Homes to Rocket.com — a $14M domain acquisition that was launched during the Super Bowl.

Rocket’s high-stakes domain migration was as much a brand exercise as a technical SEO challenge. The team wasn’t just redirecting URLs, they were redefining user perception of the domain itself, which had previously been tied to aerospace.

The SEO strategy included adding high-traffic pages to the new domain but noindexing them to avoid getting hit with Google penalties, building authority through executive profiles and internal linking, and creating content that anticipated user questions like “What is Rocket.com?”

The boldest move of all? When Rocket wanted to bring traffic into the top of the funnel through property search, they acquired Redfin to fill that gap.

Why it matters: Rebrands and migrations require more than redirects. They demand a clear brand narrative, entity-level optimization and an SEO roadmap that balances long-term visibility with short-term risk mitigation.

AI Is Reshaping Media, PR and Trust Signals

Lexi Mills, CEO at Shift6, explored the growing overlap between PR, SEO and AI — an intersection that’s rapidly transforming the media landscape. She painted a picture of a journalism industry under pressure. With two decades of job cuts and the rise of AI-generated reporting tools like Bloomberg’s “Cyborg,” traditional media is being forced to evolve.

As AI journalism becomes more common, the demand for human input hasn’t disappeared — it’s just shifted. Media outlets now increasingly rely on expert sources to bring depth, context and trust to algorithmically generated content. Some publishers now see being fast as more important than being accurate. (Joseph Pulitzer would probably turn in his grave!)

As a result, PR has become more essential than ever — not just to gain coverage, but to ensure credibility in an age where information can be fabricated in milliseconds. Mills’ call was to “pitch the machines.”

As large language models (LLMs) take a bigger role in content discovery, brands must target not only for journalists but for algorithms. LLMs are doing reputational checks — evaluating About pages, bylines and SME bios to ensure that sources are real and have actual experience and expertise in the relevant areas. That means brands need to double down on authority-building for their SMEs across all their digital real estate.

Whether it’s a podcast, trade coverage or media centers, every asset should work together to project authority and relevance. That’s especially true now that discoverability isn’t just about SERP placement — it’s about whether you’re included in the knowledge graph of the “machines.”

Mills made the case that PR and SEO are no longer separate disciplines. A future-proofed strategy that marketers can employ requires them to work in tandem: PR to generate high-value mentions and backlinks, and SEO to ensure they’re visible, structured and understood by both humans and AI.

Why it matters: PRs now need to build an expert presence for their SMEs, make their trust signals unmistakable, and start treating LLMs as a new kind of publisher. Because in today’s AI-shaped media economy, discoverability is still king — but trust is the currency.

Strategic SEO = Business Strategy

Tom Critchlow, EVP of Audience Growth at Raptive, reminded us that SEO leaders don’t win buy-in with rankings — they win by tying SEO to business outcomes.

Critchlow made the case that SEO professionals must evolve into strategic operators. Reporting should go beyond traffic and keyword rankings to show how SEO supports business KPIs: revenue growth, customer retention, brand equity and market positioning.

Executives don’t care about canonical tags — they care about results. To earn bigger budgets and cross-functional support, SEO teams must speak the language of the boardroom.

Why it matters: To get budget and influence, speak the language of revenue, risk and retention — not title tags.

The DDM Content Solutions Takeaway

SEO is undergoing a fundamental shift — and marketers need to adapt fast. The rise of zero-click search means fewer users are making it to brand websites from Google, so success now hinges on optimizing for visibility, influence and engagement within the search experience itself.

At the same time, keyword-based strategies are becoming obsolete as Google’s MUM model prioritizes content built around entities and user journeys rather than isolated queries. With clicks harder to earn and attention spans shrinking, brands must focus on delivering content that drives true engagement — measured by time spent, actions taken and value delivered.

AI is rapidly reshaping the media and PR landscape, with large language models assessing the trustworthiness of sources. Brands must now “pitch the machines” by embedding reputation signals across all digital surfaces. And finally, SEO is no longer a tactical lever — it’s a business-critical strategy. To win influence and budget, SEO leaders must connect their work to outcomes like revenue, retention and brand trust.

Author Bio

Robin Riddle is the lead content marketing strategist at DDM Content Solutions. He works across B2B as well as B2C and specializes in financial services, insurance, and health care. Prior to his time here, he led content marketing businesses at both The Economist and The Wall Street Journal. A passionate advocate for the value of content marketing, Riddle is also heavily involved in industry issues and speaks at many events on the topics of content marketing and native advertising.