SEO 2025: Why it's harder than ever today - and our customers are still growing

Website operators and SEOs are sensing that something is slipping. AI overviews, SGE rollouts and GPT searches are changing the way content is presented to searchers. Many SEO managers are struggling to get any clicks at all from Google. The core updates of recent months have left their mark. And to be honest: if you don't keep up, you will be left behind.

At the same time, many SEO agencies continue to claim that they are "currently successful". But what does that mean today when the majority of traffic is swallowed up by Google itself? When ChatGPT or Perplexity provide the answer right away? And when featured snippets suddenly disappear behind AI answers?

The question arises: Is anything still possible? And is it worth the effort?

Yes, definitely. And we'll show you how - with four fresh project insights straight from our agency. With real figures. Without embellished excerpts. And with what really counts: sustainable strategies in an environment that is changing faster than ever.

SEO 2025: being visible is no longer enough

Before the introduction of AI Overviews, i.e. AI-based answers to Google search queries, the value of zero-click search was already at 65 percent. Mobile users clicked even less, with 77 percent of search queries remaining without a click on a website search result. This was the reality with which SEO agencies tried to squeeze as many clicks as possible out of the rankings. Then came AI Overviews, i.e. direct AI answers in Google Search - also in response to the rise of ChatGPT, Perplexity and other AI tools. Just last week, AI Overviews were rolled out to everyone, regardless of whether you are logged in to Google or not. Google promises that the new AI Overviews will improve the user experience. Sounds good. In practice, it looks different - at least if you look at the click figures. Because they are currently changing dramatically - to the detriment of website operators.

A sensational report by Ahrefs from April 2025 puts it in a nutshell: the introduction of AI Overviews has led to an average drop in click-through rates of 34.5 %.

The data basis? 300,000 keywords, one-year comparison period, all with information intent. The thesis: The better Google delivers the answer directly in the search result, the fewer clicks are needed on the actual website. And this is measurable.

In Ahrefs' study, the average CTR on position 1 fell from 7.3 % to 2.6 % - despite continued good rankings. And that's just the beginning.

The problem is that you don't immediately recognize this development in your tools. Google Search Console does not provide separate data on clicks on AI Overviews. There is no clear visibility of how many users are clicking on your linked content in the overviews - or not.

And this is exactly what we are currently experiencing in practice. Here are some examples from our work and experience.

Case 1: Visibility at record levels - but traffic is dropping off

A perfect example of this is a previous client project of ours. A specialized niche store that we built in its first version. With the relaunch in September 2024 and a switch to Shopify, the customer left the SEO support to an SEO freelancer . Due to the system change and the changing URLs, there was initially a step down. Since January 2025, the rankings have recovered.

If you look at the visibility curve today, you could say: it's working. The Sistrix index value has never been as high as it is now.

We have not been supporting the client for about a year, but we have not been kicked out of the Search Console yet. So let's take a look at the real figures. The Google Search Console actually reveals a different truth than the Sistrix chart:

3-month comparison to the previous year:

• Clicks: from 55,963 to 40,330 - decrease of 28 %
• CTR: from 4.3 % to 3.7 %

It would have been expected that clicks and visibility would have increased, as the Sistrix data shows better rankings than in the same period last year. Through Google Ads, Google Shopping and Google Product Snippets, the search engine has managed to draw the attention of searchers to other aspects. Those who were able to increase their organic visibility still lost out.

The trend is even clearer at 28-day level:

• Clicks: from 15,430 to 10,941 - minus 29 %
• CTR: from 3.9 % to 3.3 %

The downward trend continues. What has happened? We assume that the rollout of AI Overviews for all users (not just those who are logged in) is accelerating its effect here, which is particularly evident in the further decline in the click rate. Especially for niche stores with products that require explanation, Google is now increasingly picking up content - without users even having to click.

Our conclusion on Case 1: Visibility alone will no longer be enough in 2025. Relying on rankings is a long way from traffic. And if you don't adapt your SEO measures to changing user behavior and new SERP logic, you will lose out in the long run - no matter how good the SISTRIX curve looks.

Case 2: Visibility? Exploding. Technology? Optimized. Result? Clicks almost doubled.

A current project from our agency shows how SEO can still work in 2025 - if you know which adjustments to make.

The online store belongs to the food industry, offers products from the "forest" and was still rather inconspicuous in the SERPs until the end of 2024.
Our task: more visibility, more hits, more sales.

How have the rankings developed? Let's take a look at Sistrix:

We had designed and developed the online store and it has been under our SEO management since 2023. Visibility has more than tripled since October 2024. The curve shows: no stagnation, no relapses - but continuous growth

What have we done?

• Content marketing with suitable, well-researched content on product and topic trends
• Technical optimization with a focus on PageSpeed
• Improvement of core web vitals, mobile and desktop - until everything turned green

Is the result also reflected in real traffic? An impressive before and after comparison for the last three months compared to the same period last year in the Search Console:

Last 3 months (2025) vs. previous year:

• +72 % clicks (from 10,591 to 18,256)
• +55 % impressions (from 410,486 to 637,398)
• The CTR increased slightly - despite increased visibility (from 2.6 % to 2.9 %)

And it goes on - because parallel to the content offensive, we have tidied up on a technical level. The Core Web Vitals reports show the results in black and white:

149 good URLs on desktop, 149 good URLs on mobile. 0 pages to optimize - and that's exactly what's noticeable. The PageSpeed optimizations were important. Above all, the store suffered when we integrated Amazon Pay. The JavaScripts caused problems. The CruX board clearly shows the impact of the LCP optimization.

Conclusion on Case 2: SEO still works - but no longer superficially. Anyone who simply "makes content" or installs a theme will no longer win a flower pot today. But if you plan content strategically, deliver it in a technically clean way and optimize loading time, UX and structure at the same time, you can still grow organically in 2025 ... even "despite" AI overviews.

Case 3: Seasonal business? Yes. Growth? Still all year round.

The third example is about a current customer project that is actually highly seasonal: a boat charter company that specializes in vacation regions in Germany. A classic case of: March to October it's on, the rest of the year is a lull.

Or is it?

In fact, this case shows that even in a seasonally dominated market, it is possible to continuously increase visibility if content, technical basis and search intent work together.

Here are the figures from Google Search Console for the last 28 days compared to the previous year:

What stands out:

• Clicks increased from 2,963 to 3,490 → +17.8 %
• Impressions have almost doubled → +71.1 %
• The average position has improved slightly (22.5 instead of 22.3)

The CTR has fallen - as with many 2025 projects - from 4.0 % to 2.7

In short: the visibility is there. So is the attention. But the clicks are becoming more difficult.

The SISTRIX visibility trend confirms the long-term trend:

• Steady increase since 2021
• No dramatic slumps - despite core updates and SGE rollouts
• And a clear level above the fluctuation limit since 2024

What have we done?

• No witchcraft - but no half measures either:
• Keyword and topic clusters for travel times, charter areas, boat types & weather
• Avoidance of redundant pages - keyword: crawl budget & consolidation
• OnPage tuning on category and detail pages
• A/B tests for snippets to still get clicks despite AI overviews

Conclusion on Case 3: Visibility can also be built up all year round in seasonal industries. And with the last 28 days, we can show that an increase in clicks is possible despite AI overviews, even if it is no longer so easy, as you can see if you compare the improvement in impressions (+71.1 %) and the decline in CTR (from 4 to 2.7 %) with the click growth (+17.8 %). SEO is not a weather report, but long-term navigation. Once you have planned your course properly, you don't need to constantly change course frantically, even in rough seas, but simply steer a little harder into the wind.

Case 4: From 1 to 28 languages with International SEO - scaling with structure and substance

TutKit.com is our own project - and at the same time the best proof that SEO will still work in 2025 if you are prepared to combine effort and structure.
What we recommend to customers, we implement ourselves internally. And not selectively, but consistently - in terms of content, technology and user experience.

The starting point: our international rollout began in 2024. At the same time, we scaled our content model - with a focus on clear search intentions ("Know" and "Do"), topic clusters, semantic depth and an architecture that is both crawlable and usable.

The result:

• Clicks: from 124,423 to 1,150,000 - +824 %
• Impressions: from 6.8 million to 58.3 million - +757 %
• CTR: as expected, fell slightly from 4.0 % to 2.0 %

Internationalization ≠ Translation

The basis for growth was not only machine translation, but also

• clean hreflang structure
• own keyword sets per market
• localized content with real relevance
• technical separation of the language versions via separate URL structures

Result:

• 433,941 keywords worldwide
• 197,110 of which in Germany alone
• 11,580 URLs in the top 100, 3,790 in the top 10

Visibility index worldwide: 28.50

The German visibility also shows that the content concept works even without language multiplication. The number of URLs in the top 100 and top 10 is increasing every week. We are gaining visibility.

What else has been done? Everything that others recommend. At the turn of the year, I like to read the predictions of international SEOs, and some shared the same mantra:

"Do more image SEO."
"Make video content first."
"Improve your UX. Strengthen the signals."

So that's exactly what we did.

Image SEO:

• Provide content with optimized, thematically appropriate images
• File names, AVIF image format, alt texts, structured markup - consistently clean
• Image instructions for tutorials & tools added
• Free downloads such as coloring templates incl. coloring app for online coloring

Video first:

• Each video individually unlocked for indexing
• Always: independent image-text instructions as a page
• Goal: the best possible user experience - for man & machine

We are convinced that this content strategy, which is consistently geared towards media diversity, has massively improved user signals such as the length of stay.
The time-on-site increases. The bounce rate decreases. Click paths are lengthened. Google notices that the user is satisfied - and we see it in the growth.

Technical basis: Stable & scalable

More content means: more URLs, more technical challenges. That's why we have been working just as consistently on a technical level: 325,760 pages currently indexed. The chart shows that we have now created a system that enables us to publish and index over 100,000 pages... per quarter. Multilingualism gives us a real multiplier. And of course we are happy to use this when it results in such wonderful charts:

With content scaling like this, large platforms also reach their limits. The databases have to be optimized and all the parameters readjusted so that the website speed doesn't slow down. In fact, there is a connection between large multilingual platforms and PageSpeed problems.

We also encountered these problems and repeatedly counteracted them. Like most recently when we fixed the CLS problems.

Now 141,262 pages under mobile are classified as "good" in the Core Web Vitals. The same applies to computers. It is important to know that the Core Web Vitals only list sites that have a basic level of traffic for real user data. Many corporate websites have just such a view:

We are therefore really proud that so many pages already have significant traffic. Our PageSpeed optimizations have paid off. Every page type on our site has a mobile performance score of over 90.

Even with massive scaling, the quality remains stable and the website fast

Conclusion on Case 4: SEO growth is still possible in 2025 - but it is harder to achieve than ever before.

Anyone who only writes a little blog, translates a little and measures the loading time once a year will go under. But if you think in a structured way, scale content cleanly, deliver technical quality and get involved in all media formats - you can win.

TutKit.com does it - with 28 languages, a scaled video and image strategy, 300,000+ pages and clean KPIs. Because effort is still worth it.

Conclusion: SEO 2025 is not a sprint - it's a professional triathlon

If the last few months have shown us one thing, it's this: SEO will still work in 2025. But differently. Harder. More honest.
It's no longer about a few good rankings. And certainly not about visibility curves that only last until the last update.

It's about thinking holistically - and delivering:

• Technically clean.
• Structured content.
• Internationally well thought out.
• Visually relevant.
• And user-centered at all levels.

All five cases in this article show in their own way: Those who are prepared to take responsibility for the result will still achieve reach in 2025. But the effort has increased. So has the complexity. And that is precisely why it takes more than "a little SEO" today.

It takes a team with experience, precision and passion. This not only tells you what is possible - it proves that it can be done.

You don't just want to rank in 2025, you want to see real results?

Then talk to us.

• We'll show you what you can do.
• We'll show you what you shouldn't do.
• And we'll show you how sustainable SEO really works today.

➡️ Get in touch now
Or write to us directly: info@4eck-media.de

We look forward to your project.