Welcome to our February 2025 SEO News Recap! In this edition, we cover some general SEO advice, increased competition for Google, AI updates, and more! Also, don’t forget to check out our latest installment of “ROI Answers” at the end of this article to find answers from our experts to commonly asked SEO questions.
Tabbed Navigation: Should You Use It?
John Mueller was recently asked about tabbed navigation; when you intentionally hide content behind a series of tabs on a product page or informational page, for example. He replied that he’s never known a crawler to click on tabs or other elements, though if the contents of the tab are loaded in the DOM (document object model), it’s possible they’re getting indexed. Still, they may not rank well. Mueller cautioned that if users come to your site expecting to see the information that they found in the SERPs, and it’s not immediately clear where that information resides because it’s trapped within a tab, you may confuse them and cause them to bounce. He reminded us to, “make it easy for users to want to stay.”
Content Consolidations Can Take Time to See Changes
John Mueller recently revealed that Google struggles with content merges more than full site moves. When you take content from one page, add it to another page, and then redirect the old page to the new page, it can take some time for Google to acknowledge the changes. “Time” could mean weeks or more, so be sure to pack your patience when consolidating content around your site.
Reddit Blames Google Algorithm for Missed Growth Targets
Despite a seemingly cozy relationship with Google, including paid content deals and prominent search rankings, Reddit has pointed fingers at a Google search algorithm change for weaker-than-expected user growth. The platform missed its daily active visitor estimates, causing its stock to plummet. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman blamed Google’s search algorithm for missing its user growth targets.
“A Google search algorithm change caused some “volatility” with user growth in the fourth quarter, but Reddit’s search-related traffic has recovered in the first quarter.” Reddit CEO Steve Huffman
Despite Reddit’s prominent presence in Google search results, this apparently has not been sufficient to satisfy the company’s growth expectations or investor confidence.
Is Bing Becoming a More Serious Competitor for Google?
The Head of Search at Microsoft, Jordi Ribas, seems to think so. Recently released stats on Bing’s year-over-year market share show growth: +1.8pt market share in the U.S. and +3.7pt globally (from Comscore and StatCounter, respectively). Note that these stats are for desktop users only, and mobile wasn’t shared, which may hint at slower growth there. According to Ribas, Microsoft’s search and news business grew 21% last year, which matches Microsoft Advertising’s reported Q2 2025 growth.
Although Google still dominates in search market share, other players seem to be working for bigger slices of the proverbial pie. When asked whether he thinks LLMs will eventually replace all the “traditional” search engines, Ribas seemed confident that their model would succeed because the LLM is additive to the experience while remaining “grounded” by the web search engine.
Yahoo Search Rolls Out New AI Features
Earlier this year, Yahoo entered the ring with its own AI Chat companion in search. This came about a year after a tweet from the brand about making search cool again. So, are Yahoo’s new features any cooler than what’s already out there? Let’s break down what we’ve seen so far:
- AI Chat rolled out in Yahoo search in January as a sparkly new button in the related searches section, which takes you away from the SERP by prompting you to start a new chat in their AI interface.
- As AI features were integrated, users saw options to toggle between search and AI Chat.
- Soon after, Yahoo seemed to be testing AI overviews in search results – notably, without citations (but they do ask for feedback if you don’t like the output).
- Interestingly, their version of AI overviews falls below the first round of sponsored posts, unlike Google’s which are right at the top of the page.
- Then came the citations! Learn More links were added to AI overview outputs in mid-February.
So far, Yahoo seems to just be getting up to par with other search engines’ AI features, but we’re hoping that “cool” factor is coming next. We’ll keep you posted!
Google’s Updated Search Quality Raters Guidelines Includes Generative AI Guidance
Search Quality Raters (SQR) are people who work for Google to evaluate the quality of websites and the value they provide when answering a Search user’s query. In January, Google updated the guidelines they use to rate websites with 11 new pages, and some of the new information included mentions of generative AI.
Google said the update was aimed at ensuring the guidelines matched the most recent spam policy update, which says, “Using generative AI tools or other similar tools to generate many pages without adding value for users” is an example of scaled content abuse.
According to the new SQR Guidelines, if it looks like generative AI was used to create content at scale, paraphrase existing content on other pages, embed content, or in some way game the system, the website should be deemed “lowest quality.” The bottom line is to be careful how you use generative AI and always produce content that is helpful to your users.
It’s Not Your Imagination: The SERPs Were More Volatile in 2024
In an article for Search Engine Land, Mordy Oberstein analyzed the average volatility of Google’s search engine results pages and found that they were 26% more volatile in 2024 than in 2023. Categories like Home & Garden, Business & Industry, and Beauty & Fitness experienced even higher volatility.
This seems to be the new norm for the SEO world, but there are things you can do to help mitigate the challenges high SERP volatility brings. Stick with doing the right things: write helpful, original, and unique content for people, ensure your technical SEO is strong, and diversify your channels. YouTube, Bing, and generative AI tools like Chat GPT and Gemini are additional sources of referral you can focus on. Unsure how? Contact us to learn more.
Google AI/Gemini News Bites
- In January, Google announced an agreement with the Associated Press to receive a feed of “real-time” information from the news organization. The goal is to improve the usefulness of results shown in the Gemini app.
- Google’s AI Overviews in search results pages seemed to receive an upgrade in January when users reported seeing as many as 61 sources listed in its results. The speculation is that Google was testing Gemini 2.0 and its Advanced Deep Research product, as CEO Sundar Pichai mentioned in December they would be.
- If you query a comparison of two specific products in Google, you may see an AI Overview with a lengthy side-by-side comparison. When we say “lengthy,” we mean it. The full screenshot of the results for our search “iphone 15 vs iphone 16” won’t fit on this page because the AI Overview compares eight dimensions in detail.
- Unsurprisingly, AI Overviews appear to be hurting click-through rates. One study showed that when an AI Overview showed up in the results for a query, the CTR for keywords in the top 20 declined. However, if the AI Overview listed a website as a source, its CTR improved slightly. For insights on how to improve your chances of becoming a source, contact your ROI Revolution SEO team, and we’ll be happy to share tactics we’ve had success with.
- Google is internally testing Search AI Mode, according to 9to5Google. This new mode is a deep research mode that will answer open-ended questions with easy-to-understand breakdowns and links to sources across the internet. The goal is for Google to better answer open-ended questions that aren’t currently well served.
- A recent study by BrightEdge shows that AI Overviews are citing YouTube as a source 25% more often since January 1st. Videos on the platform that show instructional content, visual demonstrations, verification, and current news have seen the biggest surge. Despite Google’s claims to the contrary, YouTube still seems to be its video platform of choice.
Level of Trust in AI Depends on Socio-Economic Status
A study group at Rutgers University, interested in the level of trust Americans have in artificial intelligence, published The National AI Opinion Monitor earlier this month. The overarching questions were “Who trusts AI the most?” and “Who has the most knowledge of AI?” There were 4,767 respondents, and the results were interesting.
Highlights:
- People with higher incomes and education are more likely to trust and use AI.
- 47% of respondents have some level of confidence that AI will “act in the public interest.”
- Half say they trust companies to use AI responsibly.
- More people trust journalists over generative AI to report the news.
- Using eight true/false questions, the study tested objective knowledge of AI among the respondents, and less than 1% answered all eight questions correctly. People with higher income and education were more likely to have better knowledge than others.
ROI Answers: SEO FAQ of the Month
Q: Why should I use a tool for keyword tracking if I have Google Search Console?
A: Google Search Console (GSC) is perfect for seeing what keywords you are ranking for, but it has its limitations. You can only see 1,000 queries you’re ranking for in its interface, and it doesn’t show you keywords that you aren’t ranking for. If your website is actually ranking for tens of thousands of keywords, GSC will come up short.
If you are targeting keywords that your site isn’t ranked for yet, you need a separate tool. By listing all your target keywords in a tracking project, like the ones AWR, SEMrush, and Moz offer, you are forcing the tool to search each keyword and report back on whether you are ranking for it, which of your URLs Google is linking to, and what kind of movement it has seen recently.
Do you have questions about anything you’ve read in this February 2025 SEO News Update? Reach out to ROI Revolution’s SEO team to see how we can help!
