Last week we travelled to HubSpot INBOUND 2025 in San Francisco one of the world’s biggest gatherings for marketers and business leaders. We were one of only a handful of UK agencies who made the trek across the Atlantic, and we went with one goal in mind: to bring back the very latest thinking on the future of marketing and SEO so our clients can stay ahead of the curve.
For anyone new to the term, inbound marketing is the opposite of old-school cold calling or hard selling. Instead of chasing customers, it’s about attracting them with content, value, and solutions to their problems building trust first so that sales follow naturally. HubSpot popularised this approach, and their annual INBOUND conference has grown into one of the largest marketing events in the world.
Tens of thousands of people gather in San Francisco each year to hear from industry leaders, tech innovators, and business strategists about what’s next in marketing, sales, and customer experience.
What was amazing is that the key takeaways from INBOUND weren’t a shock to us. In fact, they backed up what we’ve been telling our clients for months: traffic is changing, AI is reshaping search, and the old playbook for SEO isn’t enough anymore. Hearing global leaders say the same thing only reinforced that our approach is the right one.
But attending in person gave us something more: the detail and the data. From how AI is impacting click-through rates to why hyper-personalisation is non-negotiable, we now have the evidence to show exactly where SEO is heading and how businesses should respond.
At BrisTechTonic, we’re not just observers. We’re actively working on developing our systems, processes, and service model so we can keep you competitive. That means adapting how we do research, content, reporting, and personalisation both for our own brand and for every client we work with.
This blog is our full download from INBOUND: what’s changing in SEO, why it matters, and how we’ll help you not just survive but thrive in this new landscape.
Search has never stood still, but right now it’s evolving faster than most businesses realise. The rise of AI Overviews, answer engines, and multi-platform search means the rules of old SEO no longer works on their own. Traffic from Google is declining, click-through rates on top rankings are shrinking, and AI models are beginning to dominate how information is delivered.
But here’s the truth: this isn’t the end of SEO. It’s the start of a broader discipline, what we call Search Everywhere Optimisation (SEO 2.0).
Plain English: Search is changing because people are asking AI tools for answers instead of clicking links. This doesn’t mean SEO is dead. It means SEO needs to adapt so your business shows up in these new search environments.
Image source: Fire&Spark presentation HubSpot 2025
Traditional SEO focused on the keyword funnel: awareness, consideration, decision.
Air purifiers (awareness)
Air purifiers for allergies (consideration)
Dyson air purifiers (decision)
AI search doesn’t work in neat funnels. It interprets meaning and relationships. Someone might ask “Are Dyson air purifiers good for allergies?”, and the AI blends multiple sources into one answer.
Plain English: Instead of just ranking for one keyword, your content needs to cover the whole web of related questions and variations.
Stat callout: Queries are no longer linear; AI generates answers by connecting dozens of related terms and contexts.
One of the clearest signs of change comes from Google Search Console. If you look at the graph, the purple line represents impressions going up, while the blue line shows clicks going down. In other words, your content is still being seen, but fewer people are actually clicking through to your site.
Image source: AI Marketing presentation HubSpot 2025
This is happening because AI Overviews and other zero-click features are answering the question on the page itself, meaning the user doesn’t always need to leave Google to get what they want. In fact, click-through rates for position #1 have already dropped by 34.5% since AI Overviews launched.
Website traffic has become more unpredictable with long declines, sudden drops, and occasional spikes when AI decides to surface your content.
Plain English: More people are seeing your content in search results than ever before, but fewer are clicking on it because AI is giving them the answers instantly. Visibility is up, but clicks are down and that’s why we need to measure success differently.
Stat callout: -34.5% drop in top-position CTR since March 2025.
Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) means creating content that AI tools can understand, reuse, and cite. Instead of just optimising for Google rankings, you optimise so AI assistants can use your content in their responses.
Businesses that embraced AEO have seen:
433% increase in citations
1850% increase in demand
Highest visibility and share of voice in their space
Plain English: Blogs still matter, but not just to get clicks. They feed AI tools with answers. If your content gets quoted, your brand wins.
Stat callout: AEO can drive over 18x more demand compared to traditional SEO alone.
Break long blogs into smaller passages that AI can lift into answers.
Image source: Fire&Spark presentation HubSpot 2025
Plain English: Instead of one giant wall of text, make your content scannable and split into mini-sections.
AI engines like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews are designed to scan content quickly and extract direct, unambiguous answers. If the answer is hidden halfway down a paragraph, there’s a good chance the AI won’t use it.
That’s why we recommend answer-first phrasing: structure your sentences so the main point comes right at the start.
For example:
Instead of: “If you’re in San Francisco and looking for a plant shop with a wide range of houseplants, Flora Grubb is an excellent choice.”
Use: “Flora Grubb is the best plant shop in San Francisco.”
The first option buries the answer. The second puts it front and centre, making it more likely to be picked up by AI.
This style isn’t just for AI — it also improves the user experience. People skim. When your content delivers answers straight away, it builds trust and keeps readers engaged.
Image source: HubSpot presentation HubSpot 2025
Plain English: Write like you’re answering the question in the very first line. Don’t make people dig for the answer.
Stat callout: AI is reducing clicks on #1 rankings by 34.5%, so being part of the AI answer is now just as important as ranking well.
For more detail, we’ll be linking this section to a future explainer post on “How to Write for AI Engines Without Sounding Robotic.”
Traditional SEO used to be about picking a single keyword and writing a blog around it. That doesn’t work anymore. To show up in AI answers and in Google’s evolving SERPs, you need to take one base query and fan it out into dozens of related questions and scenarios.
For example, if your base query is “best houseplants”, the fan out might include:
Related queries: Low maintenance plants, air purifying plants, plants safe for pets
Comparative queries: Snake plant vs pothos care, succulents vs ferns
Personalised queries: Plants under £50 for apartments, best plants for small offices in Bristol, plants for interior design lovers in Bristol
Recent queries: Best houseplants in 2025
Reformulated queries: What plants should I buy for my flat?
This approach means you’re not just relying on one blog to do the heavy lifting — you’re creating a cluster of content that covers every angle of the search. It also makes your brand more likely to appear in AI-generated answers, because models look for breadth and depth across a topic.
Plain English: Don’t stop at one blog idea. Spin it into 20 or more angles so your business shows up in different AI answers and for different customer types.
Stat callout: Long-tail queries (6+ words) convert at 1.94%, compared to just 0.17% for single-word searches.
Use schema, lists, tables, and persona-specific passages.
Plain English: Make your pages structured and easy for AI to read. Think tables, FAQs, and comparison charts.
AI can’t read JavaScript-heavy or messy URLs. Make sure your:
Schema markup is in place
URL and subfolder structures are logical
Pages aren’t obscured
Image source: HubSpot presentation HubSpot 2025
Plain English: The cleaner your site’s structure, the more likely AI will use it.
Search doesn’t live in Google anymore. People use YouTube, Amazon, ChatGPT, Gemini, Pinterest, and even app stores to find answers.
Image source: AI Marketing presentation HubSpot 2025
Plain English: Think of SEO as “Search Everywhere.” If your business isn’t visible across platforms, you’re missing opportunities.
Hyper-personalisation is the new baseline. Instead of one blog on best houseplants, you need tailored versions:
Best houseplants for apartments
Best houseplants for high-income homeowners in San Francisco
Best houseplants for first-time buyers in London
Plain English: One-size-fits-all content won’t cut it. You need variations that speak directly to different audiences.
The future of SEO isn’t about more traffic. It’s about:
Being present everywhere customers search
Structuring content so AI tools can cite you
Expanding reach through hyper-personalised, query fan-out content
Focusing on visibility and share of voice, not just clicks
At BrisTechTonic, we’re helping businesses adapt to this shift building search and AI strategies that serve both humans and AI engines, ensuring you don’t just keep up with SEO changes, but stay ahead of them.