SEO in 2025: AI, E-E-A-T, Core Web Vitals & Local Strategies

AI's expanding role in search

Google's AI Overviews now appear for a significant portion of queries, pulling synthesised answers from multiple sources and displaying them above traditional results. This has compressed click-through rates for informational queries while increasing the importance of being a cited source.

For businesses, this means two things: your content needs to be structured so AI can extract and cite it, and you need to focus on queries where users still click through — commercial intent, comparison, and how-to queries that require depth beyond a summary.

E-E-A-T: Experience matters more than ever

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. The extra 'E' for Experience was added in late 2022, but its impact has grown steadily. Google now more actively rewards content created by people with genuine, first-hand experience.

What this means in practice: author bios with real credentials, content that includes specific examples and case studies, and websites that demonstrate topical authority by covering subjects comprehensively — not just targeting isolated keywords.

For service businesses, this is an advantage. You have real client stories, real expertise, and real results to showcase. Use them in your content strategy.

Core Web Vitals: INP replaces FID

In March 2024, Google replaced First Input Delay (FID) with Interaction to Next Paint (INP) as the responsiveness metric in Core Web Vitals. INP measures how quickly your page responds to any user interaction — not just the first one.

This change particularly affects JavaScript-heavy sites, single-page applications, and pages with complex interactions. If your site feels sluggish when clicking buttons, opening menus, or filtering products, INP will flag it.

The fix usually involves reducing main-thread blocking time, deferring non-critical JavaScript, and optimising event handlers. A good target is INP under 200ms.

Local SEO: Still underrated, still powerful

For businesses serving specific geographic areas, local SEO remains one of the highest-ROI channels. Google Business Profile optimisation, local citations, review management, and localised content continue to drive leads for service businesses.

In 2025, Google's local results increasingly favour businesses with complete profiles, recent reviews, and consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) data across the web. If you serve local customers and haven't optimised your GBP recently, it's low-hanging fruit.

Where to focus your SEO budget in 2025

If you're limited on budget, prioritise in this order: fix technical foundations (Core Web Vitals, crawlability), optimise existing content for E-E-A-T signals, build topical authority through strategic content clusters, and then invest in link building.

Don't chase every trend. The fundamentals — quality content, solid technical SEO, and genuine authority — have been the constants through every algorithm update. They'll remain the constants through the AI transition too.