SEO 2025: Why SEO is no longer limited to Google (or traditional search)

SEO is no longer just about Google. In 2025, your content is being discovered via AI assistants, conversational engines, social networks, YouTube, marketplaces, app stores and local platforms. This guide explains the concept of "search everywhere" and proposes a comprehensive strategy for making your content findable, useful and traceable across all channels: search intent, winning formats, structured data and entity signals, accessibility and mobile performance, social SEO, YouTube/podcasts, marketplaces and local search, multi-source measurement, editorial governance, and a 90-day roadmap. The aim: to capture demand where it is really expressed, now that search is no longer a single form field but an ecosystem of experiences.

Introduction

For years, "doing SEO" mostly meant optimising pages for Google. In 2025, the game has changed: people discover information, a product, an answer or a company through several search interfaces, often without opening a traditional search engine. They ask an AI assistant a question, enter a keyword on TikTok, ask YouTube for a recommendation, filter products in a marketplace, search for an app on a store, or use a map to find a nearby business. The journey is fragmented, instantaneous and heavily influenced by context (mobile, voice, short video, conversation).

This dispersion is not bad news. It multiplies the points of contact. On the other hand, it requires a different approach: thinking of visibility as a network of coherent presences rather than a single ranking of blue results. We call this search everywhere: a method for positioning your brand, services and content where the attention is, in formats compatible with each platform, while maintaining a solid editorial foundation (fast, accessible, well-structured site).

1) "Search everywhere": understanding the new user journey

What do an AI assistant, a social network, YouTube and a marketplace have in common? They have all become search interfaces. Here, the user expresses an intention (question, need, desire, comparison) and expects an immediate and actionable response. To build a strategy, we need to map these channels, their role and the formats that are successful in them.

This table shows that your content needs to be re-packaged according to context. The idea is not to spread yourself too thinly, but to start from a common core (your site) and decline adapted formats. This is the key to being visible "everywhere" without losing your consistency.

2) AI assistants and conversational engines: being the cited source

When an assistant responds, it relies on trusted sources that it can summarise or quote. Your aim is to become one of these sources. How? By combining editorial rigour, evidence, and technical signals.

What conversational engines want

• Pages that clearly answer a question, with logical structure and descriptive subheadings.
• Content backed by verifiable evidence: figures, studies, quotes, method of calculation.
• Structured data (organisation, product, events) and a consistent "brand/author" entity across the web.
• Signals of accessibility and performance (mobile-first, responsive load times).
• Permanent reference pages (glossaries, guides, fact sheets) that become "nodes" of the web.

Box of ideas for getting mentioned

• Create reference guides for your key topics, kept up to date, with a "Sources" section and a clear update date.
• Add targeted FAQs (real user questions) rather than generic queries.
• Centralise your proofs (tables, methods, definitions) on stable pages that are likely to be cited.
• Clear the editorial identity: identifiable author, expertise, about, contact, mentions.

Keep in mind that AI assistants focus the request: they "give the answer". Your role is to provide them with reliable, synthesisable and decipherable answers - and to suggest, on your page, the next step (contact, download, trial, appointment).

3) Social SEO: when networks become engines

Social networks are no longer just entertainment feeds: they serve as thematic engines. TikTok and Instagram for inspiration and short tutorials, LinkedIn for B2B reliability, Reddit for community proof. The algorithm indexes your captions, your words and user behaviour (freeze frames, saves, shares).

Principles for standing out in social search

• Natural descriptions with words used by the target (not just hashtags).
• A hook in the first few seconds (video) or first few lines (post).
• Useful formats: lists, checklists, mini-guides, before/after.
• Structured and readable captions; the algorithm understands better what is clear.
• Combining relevant keywords + hashtags; there's no need to overdo it.

The secret is not to "do more", but to transform each major piece of content on your site into 1 to 3 social variations, each focused on an angle: issue, example, result.

4) YouTube & podcasts: the explanatory long tail

YouTube has become the practical encyclopaedia of uses and products. A relevant tutorial can drain views and leads for years. Podcasts play a similar role on audio: credibility, long time, conversation.

Winning practices

• Descriptive titles and not "slogans": the user must understand the benefit in 1 second.
• Readable miniatures; little text, strong contrast, clear promise.
• chapters (timecodes) to encourage navigation and appearance in search.
• A neat transcription (or subtitles) to aid indexing and accessibility.
• A call to action that is concrete: resource, trial, newsletter, getting in touch.

In B2B, the "detailed article + explanatory video" duo works remarkably well: the text attracts the informational intent, the video converts the practical intent.

5) Marketplaces, app stores, local search: purchase intent

When users are ready to buy, they rarely search on a generalist search engine. They switch to the channel that "knows how to compare": Amazon, Etsy, Booking, App Store/Play Store, or local map listings. Optimisation becomes a matter of data.

What matters in these environments

• Exhaustive files: product/service attributes, benefits, compatibilities, delivery, returns policy.
• Clean visuals: several angles, actual use, zoom, variations.
• Social proof: recent reviews, answers to questions, average rating, return rate.
• Fresh data: stock, prices, lead times, schedules - platforms reward topicality.
• Local: name/address/phone consistency, correct categories, photos, topical posts, responses to reviews.

For a local business, a neat local listing is better than yet another generic post. For an app publisher, a persuasive store page (captures, benefits, reviews) becomes your conversion SEO.

6) Entities, data and "graph": making your brand understandable

Algorithms are based on entities (people, organisations, products, places) and relationships (who is what, who makes what, who published what). Your goal is to make your brand unambiguous: a name, a consistent description, official links, clear "about" profiles.

Entity consistency checklist

• Name, short description, logo, official site, social profiles aligned.
• Detailed and credible "About", "Team", "Contact" pages.
• Accessible legal notices and privacy policy.
• Reference pages: glossaries, definitions, notices that other sites can quote.
• External signage: complete company profiles, quality directories, consistent data.

The clearer an entity is, the more your content is "linked" together and recognised as authoritative on a topic. This benefits both traditional engines and conversational systems.

7) Editorial packaging: one content, multiple formats

The dispersal of platforms means that we have to think in terms of "atomisation": start with a parent content (guide, study, ad) and produce native variations of it for each channel, without losing the thread.

Simple method

• Source: a guide or full study on your site (reference page).
• Derived formats:
  • Explanatory video (YouTube) + vertical micro-extracts (social).
  • Social storyboard (steps, checklists, key figures).
  • Product/resource sheet on marketplace or store page.
  • FAQ/answers for AI assistants (short, clear subpages).
• Messaging: each format links to the source page, which links to all formats.

This approach maximises discoverability without multiplying the work by ten. You gain in regularity and control.

8) Measuring beyond Google: new KPIs by channel

If you only measure Google traffic, you're missing half the story. Every platform has its metrics. The challenge: link these signals to your objectives (awareness, engagement, acquisition, conversion).

At company level, create a lightweight dashboard: 10 to 15 KPIs maximum, summarised each month. The important thing is trend and consistency, not chasing micro-signals.

9) 90-day roadmap: moving from mono-SEO to search everywhere

You don't have to do everything right away. Here's a realistic plan in three 30-day sprints.

Days 1-30: foundation and priorities

• Choose 3 flagship themes or products (the ones that matter to your audience).
• Edit/update one source page per theme (clear, structured, quick, accessible).
• Clean up the entity headings: About, mentions, profiles, logos, consistency of descriptions.
• Update your local listings and essential points of presence.

Days 31-60: multi-channel variations

• Create one explanatory video per theme + 2 vertical micro-extracts.
• Publish a social carousel and a short FAQ linked to the source page.
• Optimise 1 to 2 product/service sheets on marketplace or store (if relevant).

Days 61-90: measurement and iterations

• Implement a mini dashboard with multiple sources.
• Identify 3 "accelerators": video that converts, post that performs, most viewed FAQ.
• Update source pages with feedback: clarify, add evidence, link better.

This plan has one merit: it forces clarity and reuse. You produce less, but better - and you capitalise.

10) Governance, risks and best practice

Search everywhere touches on content, technique, brand and sometimes legal issues. Achieving long-term success requires a few common sense rules.

Lightweight governance

• Appoint an editorial manager and a data/performance referent.
• Define a realistic rhythm (monthly) for updating source pages.
• Document a nomenclature of titles, visuals, captions and tags.

Risks to avoid

• Dispersing without a strategy: publishing everywhere without consistency leads to exhaustion.
• Ignoring accessibility: you lose users and positions.
• Neglecting proof: in the age of AI, claims without sources are quickly downgraded.
• Overpromise: prefer honest, verifiable content.

Getting help, without addiction

Targeted support can speed up the switch to search everywhere (audit, source pages, declinations, measurement). The idea is not to make you captive to a service provider, but to lay foundations and pass on reproducible methods. By way of example, the Lumineth team can intervene on editorial framing, entity consistency, performance and setting up a dashboard, then leave you to your own devices.

Points to remember

Conclusion

"Doing SEO" in 2025 means organising your presence so that your content is findable, useful and credible wherever the user is searching - whether they're typing in a keyword, swiping a finger on a video, talking to an assistant or comparing products. Search everywhere is not an afterthought: it's the translation of a real experience, experienced by your customers and users. By starting with a solid editorial foundation and adapting formats designed for each platform, you capture attention without losing it along the way, you maintain the consistency of your brand and you convert better.

The game has changed, but the fundamental rule remains the same: respond clearly to an intention. It's up to you to build the content that really helps - and make it visible where your audiences count.

Appendix

Mini-glossary: "entity" (object recognised by the algorithms: brand, product, person), "source page" (reference content on your site), "atomisation" (multi-format declination of a content), "KPI" (indicator), "e-reputation" (results linked to your name).

Complementary Resources

• Google Search Central
• YouTube Creators - best practices
• LinkedIn - Social content & search
• E-commerce & marketplaces guides
• Lumineth guides and tutorials