SEO Insights • January 3, 2025
The Impact of Multimodal Search on SEO: Navigating Google's SGE in 2025
How the evolution of Search Generative Experience is reshaping SEO strategies and what it means for your website
The Evolution of Search in 2025
As we begin 2025, the search landscape has undergone a dramatic transformation. Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE) has evolved from an experimental feature to a mainstream search paradigm, fundamentally changing how users interact with search results and how websites need to optimize for visibility.
Traditional vs. Multimodal Search Trends
Source: Industry analysis and projections based on Google Search trends
Key Changes in Multimodal Search
Multimodal search has introduced several fundamental changes to how search engines understand and rank content:
- Visual Understanding: Search engines now comprehend images, videos, and diagrams as deeply as text, making visual content optimization crucial.
- Context Integration: The relationship between different content types (text, images, videos) is now a key ranking factor.
- User Intent Mapping: Search algorithms better understand complex queries combining multiple formats.
SGE Adoption Rate (2024-2025)
Source: Google Search Console data analysis
Optimizing for Multimodal Search
To succeed in this new search landscape, websites need to adapt their SEO strategies:
1. Enhanced Content Structure
Content needs to be structured to facilitate multimodal understanding:
- ✓Schema Markup Evolution:
Implement advanced schema markup that connects textual and visual elements
- ✓Visual Content Optimization:
Use AI-powered tools to optimize images and videos for semantic understanding
- ✓Content Relationships:
Create clear connections between different content formats
2. Technical Optimization
Technical SEO requirements have evolved to support multimodal search:
Core Web Vitals 2.0
- Enhanced INP metrics
- Visual stability scores
- Multimodal loading optimization
New Technical Requirements
- Advanced image format support
- Multimodal sitemaps
- Enhanced API integration
Looking Ahead
As we progress through 2025, the integration of multimodal search will continue to deepen. Websites that adapt their SEO strategies to embrace this change will gain a significant advantage in search visibility and user engagement.
Key Takeaways
- •Multimodal search is now the dominant search paradigm
- •Visual content optimization is as crucial as textual SEO
- •Technical requirements have evolved to support new search patterns
- •Early adopters of multimodal optimization see significant ranking improvements
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Written by Emma Gibbins
Head of Technical SEO at FluxAI. Expert in search algorithms and emerging search technologies.