Key takeaways from HiveMCR 2025

Manchester’s historic music venue, New Century Hall, hosted a jam-packed day of organic search marketing insights in May. Our digital account executive Alex Allsopp and senior content editor Claire Catlow were lucky enough to get their hands on tickets for a great SEO conference which brought together an impressive line-up of speakers.  

Here, Alex delves into the key takeaways from the event, covering the impact of AI overviews, how E-E-A-T is still relevant and what to expect when looking at your overall website performance.  

The effects of AI Overview in SEO 

After returning from HiveMCR 2025, a lot of the information I’d heard was beginning to sink in. So, where do I start on what turned out to be a great day? Amazing speakers? The insights? Overall, the biggest topic will come as no surprise – and that’s how AI is changing the SEO landscape.  

There were certainly a few points that came from this conference. Still, the one that stuck with me the most was the conclusion that Google's recent implementation of the AI Overview has started a domino effect, causing a gradual fall in impressions, clicks, and click-through rates. 

What is the impact of AI Overview? 

Well, there's nothing to immediately panic over, however, the feeling is that businesses and clients might have to shift their expectations on what they will see in performances.  

One speaker described how Wikipedia has seen a decrease in traffic by just under 1.6 billion search queries since 2022, fueled by AI Overviews. The knock-on effect is that clicks have dropped by 34.5%.  

This doesn’t necessarily mean it'll happen to you but rather  that digital teams should adopt new tactics if they see a drop in traffic. However, the conference heard that  this now means the traffic that is generated to your website will be much more valuable, with users showing a greater interest in your business, while customers who aren’t searching for you directly will be filtered out. 

Elsewhere in the conference, the audience heard that visibility and impressions are still important, if not more so since the overviews introduction. While impressions are decreasing, we were told it is still crucial to keep impressions at the top of your performance indicators. Brand awareness, strong competition in markets, and a constant evolving digital era are all the factors in which to keep your impressions as strong as possible.  

Although Google is still seen as a dominant force, 2024 marked the first time it experienced a drop of 1.9 million searches, with competitors such as Edge, Samsung, and Quora slightly gaining ground. Therefore, ensuring you are still visible throughout all reachable platforms will create a strong brand awareness. 

Furthermore, non-traditional apps such as Reddit are also beginning to see a rise in popularity as a means for informational queries. In fact, statistics presented to the conference show women prefer apps like YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, X and Quora while men prefer Pinterest, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook. Statistics used showed that Reddit receives more traffic than all Large Language Models (LLMs). 

So, it is important to understand and assess your brand's visibility in different channels. It was widely agreed across the SEO tech panel that everyone is talking about brand and how brands are perceived online. 

What are AI Overviews and what do they entail?  

AI Overview has exploded on the scene in recent times, with businesses become more aware of what the overview can achieve in searches - and for good reason.  

In one presentation, we heard that statistics show that only a third of the overview result is actually being viewed. This is where expectations might need to be shifted because although being included in an AI Overview is certainly a strong point for brand authority and visibility, there is no guarantee this will then lead to sales. The AI Overview has been implemented to help answer informational queries rather than generate precise decisions on products themselves.  

How to get an AI overview snippet 

How to get that all-important AI Overview snippet? Well, there are four key points involved which you need to use: 

1. Clear and concise content
2. Keywords
3. Relevancy
4. Your content is about a clearly defined topic 

Not only will these help Google crawl your website better, but it also gives you an increased chance to achieve an AI Overview snippet.  

Is EEAT (expertise, experience, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) still relevant?  

Although not part of the AI overview debate, there was a lot of discussion on EEAT and whether Google and the industry still consider it useful. The overall consensus was, yes.  

Google still uses the EEAT algorithm to evaluate a website's credibility and content quality, meaning it influences search results. Therefore, content such as blogs is still important for your website and SEO strategy. Precise and accurate research into a clearly defined topic with excellent insights, with short and sharp paragraphs, will help boost both your EEAT as well as an increased chance of featuring in an AI snippet. 

My conclusion about HiveMCR 2025 

It was an amazing day with a lot of interesting insights. There was so much more I would love to discuss but if there was one thing to take away is that, if your metrics aren’t seeing an upwards spike - don’t worry. 

Just ensure you're focusing on those valuable users who still click through to your website, as impressions and visibility are still key; meanwhile, do pursue other means of entry into different channels you might be missing out on.  

Lastly, always make sure the content you're writing or uploading is clear, precise and relevantto increase your chances of featuring in an AI Overview. 

For expert advice on how the future of search is expected to evolve and the impact this may have on your business, contact our digital marketing experts today.