This article was authored by Michelle Brown, Robin Nerkowski and Patrick Trayes.
2024 is a year that was marked with highs and lows for all of us - both professionally and personally. The U.S. political environment continued to be tense and divisive, technology advancements seem to be moving at warp speed, and yes, Taylor and Travis seem to still be going strong. As we look forward and plan our marketing for 2025, it’s important to anticipate what could happen in the coming year so that we can prepare, budget and gear up for what lies ahead.
2025 UX Trends
People expect a modern and respectful user experience across all devices. Think about the number of screens someone interacts with in a given day and how they’re quickly and perhaps subconsciously resetting expectations. Your TV remote and phone are always nearby, and advertisers know it. Have you chosen or skipped an ad with your remote? Have you held your phone to scan a QR code to sign back into Netflix? These are some of the things that have become the norm so it’s only natural that they will bleed into web technology. Here are some ideas to keep your website experience fresh in 2025:
Use QR Codes to Simplify Actions
Instead of telling people on a desktop device to download your mobile app, give them a QR code to scan from their phone to make the action easier. You can even track those who have downloaded the app from this link and market to them differently. But be careful not to alienate the older part of your audience who still may not understand or embrace these newer technologies - and make sure that you include less sophisticated options to accomplish the same action too.
Create Digestible Content
The average person reads around 300 words per minute but most people aren’t fully paying attention to what they are reading all day long. Chances are you got an email or text while reading this article that you got distracted by. So, since we know people are being pulled in different directions, let’s give them content in a way that anticipates that.
Promotions That Pop
Promotional content should be presented on a page in an eye-catching yet simple way that visually interrupts the user experience. They should shine a light on unique features and benefits of the product/service to resonates with users and offer clear calls to action that will seal the deal on conversions.
Product and Service Page Content Presentation
A paragraph of required privacy policy content is perfectly fine (much respect to our legal and compliance partners!) but approaching product or service pages with content formatted like that will certainly lose your audience. Instead, design areas of content using bullets or icons, add visual dividers and imagery to break up content, and think about how to model your content in your content management system so you can reuse content like FAQs or disclaimers.
Personalized User Experience
If you walked into a physical store and saw a lot of things that don’t really feel “you”, you will likely politely walk out. But now, envision walking into a store and seeing things that are related to what you’ve just been searching for online. Bam – you feel excited and are much more likely to buy something, right? The same concept applies online – and while it requires some investment, the data behind content personalization it is quite compelling. 88% of U.S. marketers saw clear performance improvements due to personalization. It simply makes sense that if you tailor a website around the actions someone has previously taken, it becomes more relevant, and that relevance is what helps move the conversion needle.
2025 SEO Trends
Search engine optimization (SEO) will continue to focus on the value of the website to and end user’s search. 2025 will see an increased emphasis on:
High Quality Content
Google’s well-known content principle of E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness) has been around a while but in 2025 these guidelines will be more important than ever. People-first content that doesn’t just plug in the right keywords, but offers real value is essential. That means content creators should be paying extra attention to:
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Intent: These days, search engines are looking to do much more than match up a query to keywords on the page. They now use AI-powered semantic search to understand the reason for the user’s search and the subtle meaning behind the content on a page to deliver the most suitable search results. This means, to be rewarded with better rankings, you must know your audience and how to speak to them in your content.
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Authoritativeness: Google’s job is to find the best search results for their user’s query, so they are thoroughly vetting the options to provide the most reliable sources. To have Google view your site as a credible source, you must think beyond individual pages and take a holistic approach to planning your content. For example, which site do you think Google would view as the authority in the financial services industry - the one with an abandoned blog that hasn’t made any posts since 2021, or the site that’s regularly posting monthly articles on common financial questions and trends? If you want your site to be viewed as an authority on a subject, peppering in keywords on a page isn’t enough. It must demonstrate experience and expertise as a whole – so will need a well-defined content plan to get you where you want to be.
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Keeping AI Tools in the Right Place: There are many tools out there to generate content using AI, and they do have benefits. These tools can absolutely save you time and money, but relying on them too heavily produces generic content that may be factually inaccurate. AI generators analyze existing material to learn about a subject, but they don’t come up with original ideas or unique concepts the way a person can. The bottom line is that AI tools can provide a great starting point – and support, but you still need authentic human insights to create quality content that aligns with E-E-A-T.
AI Overviews
Highly visible AI generated overviews, appearing as a snippet at the top of the SERPs, can produce a whole new level of engagement for your website. With better click-through rates than conventional search results, this feature that Google rolled out as part of the Search Generative Experience in May of 2023 is the latest spot to shoot for in the SERPs. While SEO techniques still apply when optimizing for this coveted location, the shift has prompted the birth of another area of optimization called Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). AEO is centered on content that answers questions in a clear and concise manner to encourage an appearance in these overviews. Both SEO and AEO techniques should be part of your optimization strategy moving into the next year.
Schema
While schema code might make a human’s eyes cross, search engines love it. If you don’t already have schema on your site, add that to your list for 2025. Structured data can be added to everything from location pages to boost local near me search results, to product pages, contact pages and even FAQ pages to highlight quick answers to user questions. Other benefits of schema include:
2025 Digital Advertising Trends
Digital Marketing will utilize many of the same tools we’ve been using for years but in new and exciting ways. Changes in the way that popular browsers like Chrome use and allow third-party cookies mean relying more on first-party data.
AI for Ad Targeting
For years digital marketers have relied on targeting specific keywords, domains, content types or behaviors for advertising purposes. Typically these are set at the beginning of a campaign within your ad platform of choice, with optimizations happening manually based on performance data. Platforms like Google Ads and StackAdapt have rolled out new campaign types and targeting options that allow their AI tools to automatically choose where ads show and who sees them based on engagement and conversions. These new options aren’t a “set it and forget it” situation, but should allow you to reach and engage with new users in places that a more manual setup might have missed. We recommend still keeping an eye on these campaigns the same way you would any other digital marketing channel, helping to validate or push back on the choices made by the AI tools.
First-Party Data Targeting
While the Google Chrome browser was initially set to phase out third-party cookies earlier in 2024, they have since backpedaled on that decision, though they are still rolling out features that make it easier to control your privacy. Those changes, coupled with more websites choosing to add Cookie Consent banners, mean many targeting tools that marketers rely on are not as reliable for reaching audiences. Using your own first-party data is a great way to remarket to existing customers based on information you already know about them. These lists may come from your CRM or an email list, and can be used to target all users or a subset of users based on the campaign. These lists are also helpful for suppression purposes if you’re looking to prospect and don’t want current customers to see ads.
2025 Analytics Trends
Google officially retired the legacy Universal Analytics tracking platform in 2024, removing the ability to access historical website data, and forcing many marketers to shift entirely to Google Analytics 4. This platform continues to roll out new features, and while many have reported it to be a downgrade from the old version it remains the top free website analytics platform in the United States.
Predictive Analytics
GA4 already employs a learning model for Anomaly Detection to indicate when certain values fall below expectation based on your historic data. This means it can alert you if a certain metric, like Conversions, was lower than anticipated based on what you’ve received in the past. This means that you can identify issues with content or campaigns earlier and make necessary changes. GA4 also offers some predictive metrics based on past performance and expected trends, though currently this is only available for ecommerce metrics. Based on these metrics you can monitor expected purchase and churn probability and estimate expected revenue. We expect more predictive reporting to roll out in 2025 to allow marketers to make more informed decisions.
Cross-Device Tracking
Google Signals was rolled out as a feature within GA4 to track users based on their usage of websites while signed-in to their browser with a known Google account. This allows the user journey to be captured across multiple devices as it leads to conversion, meaning when someone visits your site on their laptop then fills out a form that night on their cell phone you can attribute the conversion to both devices and visits. This feature has improved over time with more reliable results provided and we anticipate it to improve even more in 2025.
2025 Website Technology Trends
Technology has never moved faster than it has recently. 2025 will see this trend continue, so strap in and make sure you take make the investment needed to keep up with rapid pace of technology these days.
Digital Experience Platforms
Most websites are in a CMS to facilitate content management, but CMS companies are now stepping up their game and reimagining their platforms to be digital experience platforms (DXPs). Sure, nearly everyone needs a CMS for their business websites, but they may also need a mobile app, digital billboard or even digital advertising in their physical location. Rather than rely on multiple systems to manage this - which can be costly and time-consuming to manage – the concept of a Digital Experience Platform was born. One platform to centrally manage content – and seamlessly push it out to many channels. Smart right? For some companies this seems like something from the future, but the future is here and 2025 is when we expect this to explode in popularity.
Mobile Optimization
No one has the patience to wait around for a slow website to load. According to Google, if your mobile site takes more than 3 seconds to load, users abandon ship. As of November 2024, mobile had 62.9% of the worldwide market share of internet usage so the load speed of your site on mobile is key. If you aren’t doing everything you can to ensure your site has the best mobile experience, make that a top priority in 2025. This includes optimizing images for load time, mobile video optimization, and ensuring that every mobile interaction is as simple and intuitive as possible.
AI Driven Content
We couldn’t have an article on 2025 trends without talking about incorporating AI into your website. Many businesses and organizations are exploring AI-powered site search tools, AI powered chat features, AI-powered content personalization and more. The spirit behind it clearly makes sense but just like everything else – this doesn’t replace human beings and should not take the place of common sense. In addition, before using any customer or prospective customer facing emerging technology, you want to ensure that you fold your legal and compliance teams into these plans.
Personalization
Content personalization has been popular for many years, but we believe that in 2025, it’s something customers will come to expect – and appreciate too. Many CMS platforms and third-parties allow for the creation of personas, and content personalization specific to those personas. Creating personalized journeys for segments of audiences ensures that the user experience is relevant and that inherently supports conversions.
2025 Website Security Trends
As cyberthreats grow in both sophistication and quantity, it’s important that businesses and organizations ensure that they are maximizing their website security and thwarting against any attacks. If you don’t already have these services in place, it is time to talk to your website host to find out how each may help protect your site.
Web Application Firewall
Ideally you want to block threats before they even come to your website. This is where a Web Application Firewall (WAF) comes into play. This technology will filter, monitor and block threats to your site, including geo-blocking capabilities to block known bad actor nations.
Advanced Bot Management
Automated attacks from bots are on the rise, so identifying and protecting your site from bots is more critical than ever. Bot management services employ machine learning, threat intelligence, behavioral analysis, and fingerprinting to help ensure your site can stand up against these dangerous threats.
Credential Stuffing Protection
If your site has a login, protecting it from credential stuffing is essential. Bots can specifically target sites with credentials – hitting logins repeatedly in an attempt to hijack and compromise personal account information. Credential stuffing protection leverages machine learning, AI and more to interrupt these bad actors before they do damage.
Screen Scraping Protection
Bots can capture content and data and misuse that in illegal or inappropriate ways. A screen scraping protection service will analyze activity and limit malicious bots if it detects and abnormality. This provides peace of mind to businesses and organizations that their site content is protected.
At ZAG Interactive, we can’t wait to see what 2025 has in store for us and how we can help maximize your digital success. If you want to chat about how we can take your presence to the next level, contact us.