#BizTrends2025: Grant Lapping | 3 trends dominating search: GEO, social search and voice

Grant Lapping is a digital executive at Midnight. Source: Supplied.

While Google remains the traditional search engine of choice, we’re seeing social, artificial intelligence (AI) and shopping platforms challenge the Google homepage as the natural place for customers to start a search journey. Meanwhile, a smartphone-native young population interacts with tech in a different way to previous generations. Here are three key trends we see shaping search in 2025.

1. Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)

The trend: Generative AI apps such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek are becoming the place where many users look for answers first. Meanwhile, search players like Google and Bing are incorporating gen AI summaries into their search engine results, usually at the top of the page. This is accelerating the shift to zero-click search, where a user gets the answers they need from a search without clicking through to a webpage.

Action points for marketers: GEO will be the search engine buzzword of the year as marketers optimise content for AI-driven search. Brands will need to consider how to become more visible in spaces such as Chat GPT, which will mean optimising content to be more contextually relevant. Leading marketers will start to think of AI summary citations on search engines as a way to build brand credibility, rather than merely as a way to build organic traffic.

2. Search starts on social

The trend: A growing proportion of users start their search journeys on social platforms like TikTok, Reddit or YouTube rather than on search engines. These platforms have become trusted repositories of advice about everything from finance and tech to food and fashion. Two thirds of social media users engage with social search in a purchase journey, while nearly 40% of Gen Z prefers searching on TikTok and Instagram over Google.

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Action points for marketers: This trend isn’t new, but it is accelerating. Brands will need to be smarter about optimising content and keywords (including hashtags, captions and video descriptions) for social media contexts. They should strive to align keywords across platforms to ensure the brand is always recognisable. Strategic partnerships with the right creators and influencers and in-feed advertising can expand their reach and audience.

3. Voice’s share of search set to explode

The trend: This is another trend long in the making, going back to the dawn of Siri, Alexa and Google’s voice assistant a few years ago. It also converges with the GEO trend via the voice functionality in platforms like ChatGPT. According to eMarketer, around half of US internet users use voice assistants, mostly on their smartphones. Gen Z use is growing faster than any other generation.

Action points for marketers: Marketers who are not optimising for voice, especially for local searches from smartphones, risk falling behind a major change in how people search for products. It is important to understand that people use different words when doing a voice search to when typing in their query. These differences are subtle. It’s key to carefully research these especially around longtail keywords. Focusing on content that answers common questions can also help GEO efforts.