AI Expansions, Google Updates & Market Shifts
Welcome to the February edition of our SEO News roundup! It’s been a busy month, as we’ve seen significant developments in AI-driven search, Google’s evolving ranking strategies, and search engine market share shifts.
Let’s dive into the key updates impacting SEO and digital marketing.
🚀 AI Overviews Expand—But at What Cost?
Google’s AI Overviews are evolving, now offering longer, more detailed answers that resemble full articles. These responses include dozens of citations, creating more competition for visibility. While this could increase brand exposure, it’s also significantly reducing click-through rates (CTR) for organic search results—dropping from 2.94% to just 0.84% when AI Overviews appear.
What this means for you: Optimising content to be cited within AI Overviews is now more important than ever. At Zool, we help brands improve their visibility in AI-generated search features.
📉 AI Search Traffic Still Tiny—But Growing
Despite this hype around AI search engines, less than 0.17% of an average website’s traffic currently comes from AI-driven searches. However, this number is difficult to track due to challenges in attributing LLM referrals.
Key takeaway: While AI-driven search isn’t replacing traditional SEO yet, it’s growing. Zool actively monitors AI search trends to ensure our clients stay ahead of future changes.
🛑 Google Updates Search Quality Guidelines
Google has updated its Search Quality Rater Guidelines, now addressing:
- AI-generated content detection
- Domain abuse & spam strategies
- The role of generative AI in search
How Zool can help: As Google tightens AI content policies, we ensure our clients’ content meets evolving quality standards, leveraging human expertise alongside AI tools.
📊 Bing’s Market Share Is Growing—Time to Pay Attention
Bing has gained significant market share, now accounting for:
- 28.7% of US desktop searches
- 11.9% of global desktop searches
Why this matters: Businesses focused solely on Google may be missing opportunities. Zool helps brands optimise for Bing SEO and other emerging search engines.
📹 YouTube Links in AI Overviews Surge—Video SEO is Key
YouTube links in AI Overviews have increased by 25% since the start of 2025, with significant growth in ‘How-to’ queries (+35.6%) and industries like healthcare, where YouTube now accounts for 41% of AI Overview citations suggesting that Google is prioritising video content as a key source of information.
Why this matters: Brands that produce optimised, high-quality video content have a greater chance of appearing in AI-driven search results, increasing visibility and engagement.
How Zool helps: We specialise in video strategy, production, and SEO, ensuring your content ranks on YouTube, Google, and AI-powered search results. From keyword-rich metadata to structured data markup, we can optimise videos to boost rankings, traffic, and brand awareness.
🛍️ Google E-Commerce Updates: Review Carousels & Loyalty Schemas
New product review formats: Google is testing carousel and block formats to display product reviews, especially for comparison searches like “Best smartwatches 2025”.
Loyalty program schema updates: Google has added structured data properties for loyalty programs, helping e-commerce brands highlight member-exclusive pricing and special discounts.
Why this matters: Zool helps brands optimise product pages for Google’s latest search features, ensuring visibility in product review updates and structured data-driven search results.
📈 AI Search Impact on E-Commerce & Transactional Traffic
New data shows that 22% of transactional traffic from AI search engines goes to homepages, compared to just 10% from Google. Most of this traffic lands on large e-commerce brands, meaning smaller businesses need stronger category and product pages to compete.
How Zool helps: We can optimise e-commerce sites to capture AI-driven traffic and improve conversion rates.
Final Thoughts: Adapting to the New SEO Landscape
AI search is here to stay, and Google’s continued experiments with AI-driven search features are reshaping the SEO industry. With organic CTR declining in AI Overviews, businesses need smarter strategies to maintain visibility.
At Zool, we constantly adapt to these changes to help our clients thrive in the evolving digital landscape.
📩 Need expert SEO guidance? Let’s chat!
SEO News – February 2025
Digital / Mar 17, 2025
AI Expansions, Google Updates & Market Shifts
Welcome to the February edition of our SEO News roundup! It’s been a busy month, as we’ve seen significant developments in AI-driven search, Google’s evolving ranking strategies, and search engine market share shifts.
Let’s dive into the key updates impacting SEO and digital marketing.
🚀 AI Overviews Expand—But at What Cost?
Google’s AI Overviews are evolving, now offering longer, more detailed answers that resemble full articles. These responses include dozens of citations, creating more competition for visibility. While this could increase brand exposure, it’s also significantly reducing click-through rates (CTR) for organic search results—dropping from 2.94% to just 0.84% when AI Overviews appear.
What this means for you: Optimising content to be cited within AI Overviews is now more important than ever. At Zool, we help brands improve their visibility in AI-generated search features.
📉 AI Search Traffic Still Tiny—But Growing
Despite this hype around AI search engines, less than 0.17% of an average website’s traffic currently comes from AI-driven searches. However, this number is difficult to track due to challenges in attributing LLM referrals.
Key takeaway: While AI-driven search isn’t replacing traditional SEO yet, it’s growing. Zool actively monitors AI search trends to ensure our clients stay ahead of future changes.
🛑 Google Updates Search Quality Guidelines
Google has updated its Search Quality Rater Guidelines, now addressing:
- AI-generated content detection
- Domain abuse & spam strategies
- The role of generative AI in search
How Zool can help: As Google tightens AI content policies, we ensure our clients’ content meets evolving quality standards, leveraging human expertise alongside AI tools.
📊 Bing’s Market Share Is Growing—Time to Pay Attention
Bing has gained significant market share, now accounting for:
- 28.7% of US desktop searches
- 11.9% of global desktop searches
Why this matters: Businesses focused solely on Google may be missing opportunities. Zool helps brands optimise for Bing SEO and other emerging search engines.
📹 YouTube Links in AI Overviews Surge—Video SEO is Key
YouTube links in AI Overviews have increased by 25% since the start of 2025, with significant growth in ‘How-to’ queries (+35.6%) and industries like healthcare, where YouTube now accounts for 41% of AI Overview citations suggesting that Google is prioritising video content as a key source of information.
Why this matters: Brands that produce optimised, high-quality video content have a greater chance of appearing in AI-driven search results, increasing visibility and engagement.
How Zool helps: We specialise in video strategy, production, and SEO, ensuring your content ranks on YouTube, Google, and AI-powered search results. From keyword-rich metadata to structured data markup, we can optimise videos to boost rankings, traffic, and brand awareness.
🛍️ Google E-Commerce Updates: Review Carousels & Loyalty Schemas
New product review formats: Google is testing carousel and block formats to display product reviews, especially for comparison searches like “Best smartwatches 2025”.
Loyalty program schema updates: Google has added structured data properties for loyalty programs, helping e-commerce brands highlight member-exclusive pricing and special discounts.
Why this matters: Zool helps brands optimise product pages for Google’s latest search features, ensuring visibility in product review updates and structured data-driven search results.
📈 AI Search Impact on E-Commerce & Transactional Traffic
New data shows that 22% of transactional traffic from AI search engines goes to homepages, compared to just 10% from Google. Most of this traffic lands on large e-commerce brands, meaning smaller businesses need stronger category and product pages to compete.
How Zool helps: We can optimise e-commerce sites to capture AI-driven traffic and improve conversion rates.
Final Thoughts: Adapting to the New SEO Landscape
AI search is here to stay, and Google’s continued experiments with AI-driven search features are reshaping the SEO industry. With organic CTR declining in AI Overviews, businesses need smarter strategies to maintain visibility.
At Zool, we constantly adapt to these changes to help our clients thrive in the evolving digital landscape.
📩 Need expert SEO guidance? Let’s chat!
