What Industries Need SEO the Most in 2025?

If we are asked to name the top digital marketing strategies that guarantee results, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) would be among our top 5. 

As a digital marketing agency that has been operating for 24 years, we have seen SEO perform consistently through the years.

In this article, we are going to share our take on what industries need SEO the most.

We will talk about how big and small businesses as well as local and international services can reap the benefits of SEO. 

But before we tell you more about the industries, let’s go ahead and address some common doubts related to SEO.

Is SEO Still Relevant In 2025?

At least once every year, we come across a blog or a LinkedIn post that says “SEO is dead”.

But, that’s never quite true. 

New digital marketing strategies may come and go, but as long as people use search engines to find information, SEO will stay relevant.

Which means, in 2025 when internet penetration is at an all time high, the importance of SEO is more than ever before!

Sure enough, the SEO strategies that worked 10 years ago will not work today.

Because Google continuously updates its algorithm to improve search results, hence the SEO strategies must also adapt to reflect the updates.

Did you know that Google released 16 algorithm updates from 2011 to 2024? 

In 2025, Google continues to improve search algorithms focusing on AI-driven search experiences.

Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) and AI overviews are examples of this shift.

They focus on answering users’ queries in a fast and simple way. 

What does it mean for businesses?

Our expert tip is to remain up to date with AI technology and create user-centered content! 

Four Groups of Businesses that Benefit from SEO the Most

While most businesses derive benefits from SEO, we have seen that some get better results because of their nature of business.

We can divide them into 4 groups.

1. Local, service based businesses

These are companies that sell products or services in a small specific region, like within a town or a city.

That famous cafe in your neighbourhood which sells the best pizzas in town?

That’s a local business! 

Local SEO is a great strategy for these businesses to reach out to their audience.

Typically, these users are close to purchase and would be searching on the internet to make a quick decision.

If the local business can rank in the Google Local Pack for the users’ query, they are sure to get leads!  

Examples: Medical practices, restaurants, legal services, beauty services.

2. National companies

They cater to national audiences and sell their product or services to users within a country.

Often, their target users search on the internet to get maximum choices, compare and make a good purchase.

So, having an SEO presence is very important for the national companies.

Examples: Ecommerce, placement services, digital marketing companies. 

3. Hybrid (local + national) industries

The companies in this industry target both local as well as national audiences.

Implementing a combination of both local as well as national SEO strategies will help this group of companies get the best digital presence to increase their sales.

Example: Multi-location business.

4. International businesses

International businesses cater to audiences regardless of their geography.

They sell their products or services internationally.

A multilingual SEO strategy could be greatly beneficial for international businesses to reach their target audience. 

Example: Ecommerce, SaaS companies.

25 Industries that Need SEO the Most in 2025

Now it’s time to delve deeper into the different industries and see why we suggest these businesses to invest in SEO for running successfully in the market. 

1. Medical services

A Deloitte report states that almost 90% of medical service executives believe adoption of digital tools, connected care delivery, and virtual health will influence their growth strategies in 2025. 

Though medical services have mostly been regarded as a local service, with the growing adoption to digital healthcare, we believe it is evolving as a hybrid industry today.

Wondering how?

A patient in India may consult a doctor in his neighbourhood for a common cold or fever.

At the same time, if he requires expert care, he can connect to a doctor in the US through virtual healthcare platforms.

A good SEO strategy can help a medical service increase their visibility in both these cases. 

To create a visible presence in the locality, local medical services should invest in local SEO services.

Most people search for medical services when they are experiencing symptoms and prefer options that are near their location. 

If your medical service is listed in the top results, the chances of people clicking on it is higher.

Another instance when people may search online for medical services is if they are new in town or their family doctor is away.

In all scenarios, the need is immediate, making the probability of conversion high. 

Virtual healthcare providers must focus on national or international SEO strategy, depending on their business model.

With the growing success of telemedicine, a strong SEO strategy will ensure visibility in search results. 

Tip: Provide all appropriate information regarding the services, like the doctor’s qualification, appointment schedule, location and user reviews so that when a person lands on your medical service, they can find everything they need easily. 

2. Real estate

The Real estate market market in the United Arab Emirates is anticipated to reach a staggering value of $0.69tn by the year 2025, says a Statista report. 

As an agency providing SEO service for real estate, we can confirm the data to be true! 

The real estate market is booming, not only in the UAE but across the globe.

As buyers are shifting to online search for finding relevant properties, it has become imperative for real estate companies and agents to create a strong digital presence. 

In the real estate industry, people mostly search with respect to an area, like “property in Fujairah” , or “realtors in California”.

If your real estate business is not listed on Google, it will not show up in the search or in Google Maps, which means you miss out on a lot of potential clients!

A local SEO strategy can bring your real estate business leads and sales! 

Tip: Focus on the relevant and right keywords and optimise your content for ranking in the top results for those keywords. 

3. Professional services

Companies that offer professional services like financial advisors, accountants, architects, investment brokers, IT consultants etc. come under professional services. 

A strong SEO and online presence is directly related to their reputation because their clients mostly research online before booking a meeting in-person.

If they are not impressed by the online presence, the chances of them connecting for an in-person meeting is very low.

Professional services should focus on local SEO as their customers are mostly the local audience. 

For example, if a person is looking to enroll in an insurance policy, they may begin by asking their family or friends about the policies they use.

Their next step would be to verify the reliability of those insurance companies/agents via online searches.

They may google “best insurance policy near me” to get the top options and compare.

Which means for the companies, investing in SEO for insurance is a matter of credibility and visibility. 

Tip: Focus on building authority and quality in your online presence in the form of customer reviews or success stories so that the relationship can build on trust.

4. Home services and repair

Service providers like electricians, painters, plumbers, home renovators, etc come under this category.

Earlier, people preferred to do these “little fixes” by themselves.

But with their busy lifestyle, it has become difficult for people to set aside time for such things today.

So now, when a tap leaks in the kitchen, people don’t try to fix it themselves.

They take out their phone and search for “plumbers near me” to connect with a service provider.

Imagine if your service is not listed in the search results.

How will people know you are a service provider?

The solution is to invest in SEO, focusing on local SEO, because you need to target the local audience.

People prefer the service providers who are close to their area and can come to help quickly. 

Tip: Focus on getting listed on the first page of search results as click through rates drop significantly in the second page.

Reports state that there is a 143% jump in traffic if a website moves from the second page to the first page on SERPs. 

5. Food & beverage

With the rise in disposable income, the average consumer spending is high.

Much of it is spent in dining out and discovering new food spots.

According to the Food and Beverages Global Market Reports 2025, the food and beverage market will grow from $6962.47 billion in 2024 to $7400.31 billion in 2025 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.3%. 

Cafes, restaurants, bakeries, pubs, caterers etc. come under this industry.

Regardless of the geographical location, the food and beverage industry is a highly competitive and saturated market.

A strong SEO presence can be a major advantage to stand out among the crowd and bring more sales. 

List your business on Google Business Profile and focus on local SEO to get an upper hand in the market.

Don’t forget to add credibility to the profile using professional pictures of your food items and customer reviews.

Considering the competitive nature of the industry, it’s best to hire an expert SEO consultant for faster and better results. 

Tip: Focus on long tail keywords as people tend to be very specific in their searches.

For example, people often search by cuisine, like “pan asian food in London”

6. Startups and small businesses

For startups and small businesses, brand awareness is a major challenge.

They have limited resources and revenue and often have very strict budgets, so investing in large-scale awareness marketing campaigns is not feasible for them.

A professional SEO agency can really help these businesses as SEO requires minimum investment.

Having an online presence early on can act as a big advantage later as SEO is a long term strategy and the benefits double up over time. 

Tip: Ensure your marketing strategies accurately convey the problems your startup or small business is solving.

Choose the keywords accordingly so that you can reach the right people. 

7. Ecommerce businesses

The number of e-commerce users is expected to amount to 3.6 billion by 2029, says a Statista research data.

The user penetration will be 42.4% in 2025 and is expected to hit 49.1% by 2029. 

And with new ecommerce stores opening every day, what does this mean for ecommerce businesses in 2025? 

The entire business model of ecommerce businesses is dependent on the internet.

With competition increasing in the market, the only way to stay successful in the business is by enhancing the online presence. 

Here is why you must invest in SEO for ecommerce.

As ecommerce websites usually have hundreds of pages, optimizing for page speed and page loading time is essential for satisfactory user experience.

Moreover, people search by specific queries like “buy black ankle length dress online”.

So, it’s important that your ecommerce pages are optimized for the relevant keywords. 

Tip: Take extra care to optimize for technical SEO.

Responsive design, easy navigation, friendly interfaces etc. play a major role in retaining visitors and getting sales in the competitive ecommerce landscape. 

8. Legal services

People usually look for a legal firm or a lawyer when they have an urgent requirement.

If during the early days, the go-to method to find a lawyer was to check the yellow pages of classifieds, today online search has replaced it. 

Since the legal services cater to the local audience mainly, strong local SEO optimization can help the business gain more visibility.

Law firms, legal advisors, self practising lawyers, paralegals, bail bondsmen etc. can make use of SEO services to get more clients.

9. Beauty services

A McKinsey report says that the global beauty market is expected to grow 6% annually through 2028!

People are investing a lot in beauty services such as beauty supply stores, hair salons, nail salons, spa etc.

SEO services can help bring more customers by improving the online visibility and reach. 

10. Pet services

For pet owners, pets are like their children.

They love to groom their pets, ensure they are well-maintained and get them the best care if they have any illness.

As a result, there is a good demand for quality pet related services. 

If you are a pet service provider, get your business listed on Google to reach out to a wide audience.

A credible online presence will assure the pet owners that you are a reliable service provider and they will reach out to you with their pets.

Since the business caters to the local audience mainly, invest in local SEO to get the most relevant results.

11. Event management services 

Whether it is corporate events or family events, gone are the times when people themselves arranged all the event coordination.

Nowadays, the first step to planning an event is hiring an event management company who takes care of everything from the venue to decor, food and programs. 

Reports state that the global events industry market size was valued at $736.8 billion in 2021, and is projected to reach $2.5 trillion by 2035, growing at a CAGR of 6.8% from 2024 to 2035. 

If you are an event management company, online presence is a must-have.

Most people find their event management partner online today with specific searches such as “birthday event management services in Delhi”. 

Tip: Ensure you target keywords that cover all the event services you provide and provide content that shows the quality of your services.

12. Placement services

The increase in remote work and technology enabled recruitment processes have led to the growth of online recruitment channels.

Online medium is dominating the global recruitment and job placement market with the largest revenue share. 

For placement services, it is important more than ever to ensure that they have a strong digital presence.

The offline recruitment channels are becoming outdated, hence the shift to online is imperative. 

Tip: Add informative articles on your website to guide job seekers, providing them value and increasing the topical authority.

According to the latest EEAT algorithm update, Google gives weightage to topical authority for ranking. 

13. Education & elearning

From university websites to admission portals and online courses, the education sector has a lot of online touchpoints with the students today. 

Students seek information through online searches to make their decision.

Whether it is learning about the faculty, getting a good idea of the infrastructure, opinion of past students or understanding the curriculum in-depth, students go online to search. 

For an education service to appeal to the students, a quality online presence is non-negotiable.

As this applies to institutions both national and international, make sure the SEO for education are tailored keeping both the audience in mind. 

Tip: Create a steady stream of content to engage the students and answer their most asked questions.

This will help to bring more traffic and increase trust. 

14. Travel and tourism

The travel industry is undergoing a significant change, with travellers focusing on having authentic cultural experiences.

Travelers today are looking for off-the-beaten-path destinations, connecting with local communities and making eco-conscious choices. 

Before planning a trip, travellers go online to search for an itinerary that meets all their needs for a unique travel experience.

If your business is in the travel and hospitality industry, sharing content about the destinations, communities and the culture will impress the visitors.

They will consider you as an authority in the domain and want to partner with you for their travel plans. 

Even if people get to know about a place from a friend or a colleague, the first thing they do is go online and search about it to ensure that it is worth visiting.

They look for pictures of the places, nearby stays, information about the service, activities, amenities etc. before finalizing the visit.

Hence, SEO for travel and tourism is critical to sustain your business. 

Tip: Create meaningful content about the different travel destinations including the cultural experiences and uniqueness. 

15. Hospitality industry 

Just like there is a shift in the way people look at travel, we can also observe a new trend in the kind of stays they prefer.

If earlier, the priority was on comfort and luxury stays, today’s travellers prefer home stays, guest houses, hostels etc.

This reflects their choice towards connecting with the local communities and having offbeat experiences. 

SEO services will be a great advantage to the businesses operating in the hospitality interest as people often book the stays in advance online.

They may do it through online travel agencies (OTAs) like Airbnb or MakeMyTrip or through the respective website of the stays.

In whichever case, the booking mostly happens online, which is why it’s important to have a visible online presence by investing in SEO for hospitality.

16. Influencer marketing services

Influencer marketing is a popular marketing strategy employed by brands today.

Due to the positive response it receives from the audience, many brands look to work with influencers in their niche to promote their products or services on social media. 

For influencers, it is important to be found by the relevant brands and contacted for marketing campaigns.

Having a strong SEO presence can help influencers bring the right brand to them. 

If you are a health and wellness influencer with an SEO optimized portfolio website, when a popular nutrition brand wants to do an influencer campaign, a simple google search will take them to you.

All you need to do is optimize your website with the right keywords in your niche. 

Tip: Make your portfolio website stand out with your previous works and its impact on the business sales.

Add content to showcase credibility, quality and trust.

17. Tech-based businesses

For tech based businesses like B2B companies, SEO is essential as it helps them target audience on all phases of the buyer journey.

By generating content for different stages, like awareness, consideration, purchase, retention and advocacy, the B2B tech businesses can ensure that they are attracting new customers, converting potential customers and retaining existing ones. 

18. Multi location businesses

Multi-location businesses, as the name suggests, have multiple locations across regions, requiring them to implement both local SEO and national SEO for the best results. 

Local SEO will help them drive more sales to the physical store whereas national SEO will drive more traffic to the website, increase credibility and attract customers from different regions. 

Moreover, with this hybrid SEO strategy, a person who is visiting your page will understand that your business is having many branches in different locations.

This will create a sense of trust and reliability, increasing the chances of them partnering with your business.

19. National product or service providers

Companies that operate domestically and create products or services that are consumed by people within the country come under the national product or service providers category. 

Banks, public education systems, transportation services etc. are examples or national product or service providers. 

A strong SEO presence with a national level focus can help to increase brand recognition and awareness.

20. News and magazines

We are living in the times of online newspapers and webzines.

People are increasingly using online channels to consume news and entertainment information. 

Readers may search online with a specific query like “union budget report 2025” and if you want them to land on your news website, a strong SEO strategy is critical.

Since this is a very competitive niche, you will need to be consistent and quick to get the best outcome. 

Due to the urgent nature of this niche, rarely would people go beyond the first five results, so ranking in the top is essential to get readers on your site. 

21. Manufacturing

Manufacturing industry is the backbone of a country’s economy.

It usually operates in a B2B business model.

A great way for them to be discovered by B2B buyers is through SEO services. 

Unlike B2C buyers, B2B buyers don’t convert quickly, but rather take some time for a lead to close.

But, the first impression plays a critical role in generating interest and building trust.

That’s why a quality website with good content and credible information is essential for businesses in the manufacturing industry to create more ROI.

22. SaaS services

SaaS or software as a service is a business model where people can use web-based software without installing or downloading them.

It is becoming very popular today with the market size projected to reach $307 billion by 2026. 

Software like Figma, Netflix and Slack use the SaaS model.

Because of their business model, these services require people to land on their website and try out their software.

That means, web users are important for SaaS services.

Hence traditional marketing methods cannot provide much traffic.

The best marketing strategy is using SEO to attract early adopters. 

23. Automotive companies

Automotive accessories and spare parts is a major business in all parts of the globe.

Automotive enthusiasts are constantly on the look out for accessories that can make their vehicle look better or drive smoother.

Often, they dont mind investing money if they can get genuine accessories for their beloved vehicle. 

If you are a company operating in the automobile sector, you need to invest in SEO for automobiles as people search online to find the best accessories for their vehicle.

They may ship even internationally if your products are unique and of good quality! 

24. Logistics services

In 2025, the logistics market is expected to grow due to technological advancements, increasing e-commerce demand, and the need for more efficient supply chains.

If you are a logistic service provider, you need to invest in SEO because it is the golden time where the online market is not saturated and there is a high probability of discovery if you create a strong online presence for your logistics business. 

A subset of logistic services, moving companies can also benefit from local SEO.

Since their audience is regional, appearing in the search result for local queries like “movers & packers in Dubai” can bring leads with a high chance of conversion.

25. Quick commerce companies

Quick commerce is a growing industry that is seeing great demand due to the convenience and quick delivery they offer.

Swiggy, Dunzo, Big basket are some of the popular quick commerce players in the Indian market today.

The Quick Commerce market in India is projected to grow by 16.60% (2025-2029) resulting in a market volume of US$9951.00m in 2029.

It is revolutionising the retail and delivery sector and if you are a business in the quick commerce industry, you must invest in SEO to increase your visibility.

Focus on building trust, providing quality products and timely delivery and you can surely make your place in the market as it’s a new and growing industry. 

Partner with an Expert SEO Agency 

As a digital marketing company, we suggest SEO to our clients with 100% confidence because we have witnessed the effectiveness of SEO across industries and geographies.

It is a great investment for any business because it can be done with a minimum budget and is a long term strategy, ensuring the results will keep coming over time. 

From ecommerce to fintech, media, technology, food, travel and more, Global Media Insight has worked with clients across different industries on SEO projects, winning them admirable results and great success.

If you are a business looking to know more about how SEO can benefit you, contact us for a quick discovery call and we will be happy to share our expertise and suggest strategies to help you grow your business.

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