Another year of search has wrapped, and Google described it as year three in a decade-long platform transformation. By 2025, that transformation was impossible to overlook. AI shifted from limited tests and early previews into the foundation of how search truly operates. Below are Search Engine Land’s most significant SEO news stories of 2025. Note: This roundup excludes anything tied to Google algorithm updates. Barry Schwartz has a separate year-end summary on that topic, also publishing today.
10. Perplexity ranking factors and systems
Independent researcher Metehan Yesilyurt examined browser-level user behavior to show how Perplexity scores, reorders, and occasionally omits content. His work revealed a three-tier machine-learning reranking system for entity-based queries, manual authority whitelists, and many engagement and relevance signals. Yesilyurt’s findings also indicated advantages for authoritative domains, strong initial performance, and tech- and AI-focused topics. Rankings were additionally shaped by time decay, tightly linked content clusters, and aligned YouTube trends that boosted cross-platform visibility.
How Perplexity ranks content: Research uncovers core ranking factors and systems
9. Google Search Console Query groups
Google introduced Query groups within the Search Console Insights report. Using AI, this feature clusters related search queries into clear audience themes and does not influence rankings. It rolled out gradually to larger sites with substantial traffic and replaced long, granular query lists with topic-level groupings, making it easier to detect performance changes.
Google Search Console adds Query groups
8. HubSpot’s SEO collapse
HubSpot’s organic traffic appeared to plunge from 13.5 million to 8.6 million in just one month, with most…