A major Search Console change that reshapes how clicks and impressions are tracked, Google’s back-to-back updates, and AI Overviews cutting clicks.
Q3 2025 quietly changed how SEO performance is measured. Many businesses opened Google Search Console to find sharp drops in impressions, confusing trends, and data that no longer lined up with reality. Read on for this and notable changes affecting SEO and content through a small business lens.
Google Wrapped 2025 With Three Core Updates and One Spam Update
Google completed the December 2025 core update, closing out a year that included three broad core updates and one spam update. According to Barry Schwartz’s Search Engine Land’s year-in-review.
The pattern across 2025 was consistent. Sites didn’t lose visibility because of single mistakes. They lost ground due to accumulated issues like thin content, unclear intent, and weak trust signals.
Applying This to Your Business:
- Strengthen content depth, intent clarity, and trust signals site-wide
- Review performance across the entire year, not just one update window
- Avoid chasing “update fixes” and focus on sustainable improvements
- Invest in social (YouTube shorts!) – LLM’s are scraping now so position for the future
LLM.txt Didn’t Matter and Still Doesn’t
Despite industry chatter, there’s no evidence that llm.txt affects rankings, indexing, or AI visibility. Aleyda Solis reported from Search Central Zurich 2025 that Google does not use it as a signal. This was mostly noise.
Applying This to Your Business:
- Ignore
llm.txtfor SEO purposes - Use proven controls like robots.txt and noindex
- Focus on quality and trust
Paid Search Clicks Hit a Five-Year High as Costs Continue to Rise
Q4 2025 saw Google Search ad clicks reach a five-year high, driven by a 13% increase in spend as advertisers leaned harder into paid channels during a competitive quarter. According to Tinuiti’s Digital Ads Benchmark Report, growth in clicks was largely fueled by higher investment, not efficiency gains, with many advertisers paying more to maintain visibility.
For SMBs, this reinforces a familiar pattern: paid search remains effective, but increasingly expensive. As CPC pressure builds, SEO plays a bigger role in capturing demand without compounding costs.
Applying This to Your Business:
- Expect paid search to require higher budgets to maintain the same volume
- Use SEO to support high-cost keywords that are expensive to bid on
- Treat SEO as a long-term hedge against rising ad spend, not a replacement
Reddit Launched Verified Profiles, Strengthening Community Signals
Reddit is testing Verified Profiles, allowing businesses and notable contributors to confirm their identity. This matters because Reddit content is frequently surfaced in Google results and AI summaries as people are looking for human voices.
Applying This to Your Business:
- Establish and verify an official Reddit presence if relevant
- Contribute genuinely helpful answers, not promotions
Google Search Console Now Groups Queries by Topic
Search Console now uses AI to automatically group related search queries, reducing the emphasis on individual keywords. While many experienced SEOs have been clustering queries manually for years, this change makes intent-based analysis more accessible.
Instead of obsessing over exact phrases, GSC now surfaces broader themes and trends, helping you understand what people are actually looking for when they find your site.
Applying This to Your Business:
- Open Search Console and review Insights → Top and Trending queries
- If a topic is trending up, consider expanding it into a content hub, webinar, or social posts
- If a topic is trending down, that page may be due for a refresh or clearer positioning
AI Continues to Cut Organic Clicks
AI Overviews expanded further in Q4, especially on informational and comparison-style searches. Many sites held rankings but still lost traffic as users got answers without clicking.
Tim Soulo, CMO at Ahrefs, shared insights from the Ahrefs Evolve 2025 conference on how AI is reshaping search, marketing workflows, and the way teams think about keywords, intent, and real outcomes:
Applying This to Your Business:
- Shift content toward decision-stage and service intent
- Add visuals, examples, and next steps AI summaries can’t replace
- Strengthen internal linking to guide users once they land
5. Reddit Launched Verified Profiles, Strengthening Community Signals
Reddit is testing Verified Profiles, allowing businesses and notable contributors to confirm their identity. This matters because Reddit content is frequently surfaced in Google results and AI summaries as people are looking for human voices.
Applying This to Your Business:
- Establish and verify an official Reddit presence if relevant
- Contribute genuinely helpful answers, not promotions
Next Steps: Turn Confusing SEO / AEO Signals Into Clear Priorities
Q4 2025 made one thing clear: SEO didn’t get harder, but the signals got noisier. Between AI cutting clicks, rising ad costs, and ongoing algorithm updates, it’s easier than ever to misread what’s actually happening on your site.
A focused SEO audit helps separate real issues from reporting noise and surface where effort will actually move the needle. At Big Cedar, we look at SEO and AEO together, connecting search data, AI visibility, and conversion paths to increase the type of traffic that turns into leads.
If you want clarity on where to focus next and what to ignore, get in touch to see how an SEO audit can set your strategy up for 2026. Contact Big Cedar for a strategic consult.
