Right now, AI-driven search results are rewriting the rules of B2B marketing — and most companies aren’t keeping up.
A whopping 26 per cent of B2B marketers using chatbots have seen a 10 to 20 per cent boost in lead generation, according to Statista. Yet, despite AI transforming how buyers search, engage and convert, too many sales and marketing teams are clinging to outdated SEO strategies.
Here’s the problem: Your prospects expect instant, precise answers and if your content isn’t showing up in AI-powered search, you’re losing deals before they even begin. Slow response times, irrelevant content and clunky user experiences aren’t just inconvenient — they’re costing you money.
In this article, we’ll break down:
- Exactly how SEO is changing in 2025
- What AI-driven search means for your content strategy
- How to ensure your brand stays visible, relevant and competitive in an AI-first search landscape
Let’s get started.
The shift to AI-driven search results
One of the biggest shifts in recent years in terms of digital marketing has been toward AI. While guidelines for using AI in marketing differ from company to company, in general we saw that first, businesses were told not to use AI to create content. Then, we were told that using AI as a helpful tool to create content was okay, as long as the content was helpful. Now, it seems we’re somewhere in the middle.
How AI-powered search tools are changing user behavior
After all, tools like ChatGPT, Google SGE and Bing Copilot all help users see their content creation process in new ways. Having a massive amount of information on the internet at your fingertips is hard to resist.
Using ChatGPT to help you outline a critical essay, using Google SGE to help your staff visualize data on a spreadsheet better, or using Bing Copilot to help you browse the web for relevant information isn’t cheating, as we were told in the early days. It’s making use of a free virtual assistant that’s eager to help.
And, honestly, people love it.
AI-generated answers tailor user experiences, generate insights they may not otherwise get and help them navigate to the spaces they want to in minutes. They no longer have to click on a million sites to find the answers they’re looking for.
Click-through rates
In fact, click-through rates (CTRs) have dropped since AI has been on the job, which, in some ways, is a good thing.
Maybe you just need a quick answer to the question, “How tall is Pedro Pascal?” You don’t want to have to click on every site that comes up, only to find a bunch of websites that don’t actually have the answers.
When users are looking for long-form content like articles that they can read to fully understand a topic, the companies that best optimize their pages for AI-driven search results will have the greatest success.
AI is now capable of understanding context and responding to long questions in conversational tones. Users no longer have to type in a keyword, so companies should not be so heavily focused on keywords. And they should definitely avoid keyword stuffing.
As Michelle Tansey, founder of Red Queen Marketing, notes: “Everyone now has fast-loading websites and well-optimized pages, so AI is looking beyond the basics. You should try to provide the best answer to a query while also sending strong trust signals. AI search results are prioritizing reliability and authority; they want to make sure they answer the question well, but that the question is also from a source that they can trust to be accurate.”
Key algorithm changes in 2025
Of course, we have to pay close attention to Google’s algorithm updates lest we get left behind. By now, businesses in the digital content space know about the Helpful Content update. Google does not want to see keyword stuffing, AI-written content that does not address the query or webpages that are difficult to read and navigate.
Latest Google updates
The latest Google update, in March of 2025, is more of the same. Tansey fills us in on the details:
“Google’s March 2025 Algorithm Update has continued the focus from 2024, which is a crackdown on poor quality content, especially AI-generated content that doesn’t add anything new. The change here for 2025 is they have specifically stated their focus is on surfacing relevant and original content. The word to pay attention to is relevant because it goes back to making sure your content answers the question. Websites with thin, generic articles are losing rankings, while those providing unique insights, original research and relevant answers are gaining visibility.”
Critical ranking factors
Where we once had to rely on acronyms like E-E-A-T and struggled to stuff all the keywords possible into an article, Google is now looking at more qualitative factors.
- Quality: This factor is up there among the most important. Your content has to be well-written, accurate and insightful.
- Relevance: This one seems the most obvious. The article had better be relevant to the keywords and the search or you would likely be penalized.
- Strong User Experience: Do you have clear headings? Visuals? Video? Graphs? Is the webpage fast and sharp? Your users need to enjoy the experience or they’ll leave and Google will see your high bounce rate.
- Authoritative Backlinks: This factor goes to authority. Backlinks from reputable sites lend credibility to your own website and increase your ranking potential.
- Optimized Keyword Usage: Of course, you still need to use keywords. But they should be relevant, long-tail and combine well with other relevant keywords. They should also show up in headings and your title to make it obvious your article is covering the relevant topic.
You might also like: The key partnerships terms to know in 2025.
B2B content strategies for SEO success
So, what can B2B sales and marketing teams do to ensure they’re ranking well and engaging customers in the modern, AI-driven algorithm?
Content formats
Pay attention to your content formats and aim for a mix of formats that customers like to see.
- Short-form content is great for quickly answering a question, providing insight or offering quick tips.
- Long-form content is perfect for comprehensive guides and coverage of general topics that can be broken down into smaller-form content across multiple channels.
- Readers also love FAQs and key takeaways sections for getting right to the point and deciding if they want to read on further.
Structure content for visibility
FAQs and key takeaways are helpful when it comes to properly structuring your content. This section also goes to creating a great user experience.
Users want easy-to-digest information. Break up paragraphs, offer bold print, include lots of visuals and make sure headers speak to the content beneath them.
Keywords or natural language
Finally, create the right balance between keywords and natural language. AI is smart enough now to find what users are looking for with their natural language, but it’s also helpful to include keywords that users are actually typing into the search bar.
As Paul DeMott, Chief Technology Officer at Helium SEO, says, “Content should contain the language that allows any AI tool involved with the SEO to immediately understand it, as AI is all about frequency and understanding.”
See more: How brand bidding in partnerships impacts paid ads.
Future SEO predictions and next steps for B2B marketers
So, what’s next? The best course going forward is to stay the course as you’ve been doing so far. As long as you’re creating quality, helpful content, meeting the needs of the algorithm is a relatively smooth and easy process.
The goal of Google’s AI is to help users get the information they need quickly and accurately. It’s your job to help Google’s AI do that.
As Demott reminds us, “AI-driven content analysis is getting sophisticated. Search engines are now able to assess the quality and originality of content more effectively. I'm seeing a decline in rankings for sites that rely on spun content or thin content.”
In short, the number one most important step B2B sales and marketing teams can take is to produce relevant content, across channels, that is well-written and speaks to customer needs.
We’ll leave you readers with this final nugget of wisdom from Tansey:
“Look at auditing your existing content and ensure it answers the questions the user is asking. With your content strategy, you want to start aligning your content with real buyer questions and pain points rather than optimizing for keywords. Where possible, try to answer the question upfront and then go into more depth within the article.
For example, if I'm doing a piece of content for the best software for X I'll try and include a summary of my opinion and a few top picks at the start [and a] read on for more information. This tends to perform well compared to other reviews where they make you read a lot of information before providing an answer.”
To win, make sure your content matches your target audience’s search and create readily available content that’s easy to navigate.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
