The Aspirant Podcast
Hello, incredible entrepreneurs, and welcome to 'The Aspirant Podcast!' I’m your host, Natasha Clawson, a Digital Marketing Educator and Strategist, and I’m here to help you build a business that doesn’t just work but thrives—and feels good while doing it.
🌟 Every week, we explore actionable business wisdom designed to help you create a business that aligns with your values, generates the income you desire, and operates like a well-oiled machine with the right systems, processes, and automation in place.
Imagine a business where taking consistent action is purposeful and attracts the clients you actually want to work with. So doing the work you love is more than just a goal—it’s your everyday reality.
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The Aspirant Podcast
Stephanie Long - 3 SEO Trends You Need to Know for 2025 (So You Don’t Get Left Behind!)
In this episode, Natasha Clawson sits down with Stephanie Long, founder and CEO of Mrs. SEO, to dive into the top SEO trends for 2025 and how AI is shaping the future of search. Stephanie shares insights on how businesses can optimize their websites for AI-driven search results, user search intent, and high-quality content creation.
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Hello everyone and welcome back to the show. Today I'm going to be talking with Stephanie Long. She is the founder and CEO of Mrs SEO, which is a company offering SEO services, team training and consulting. The growth of her company has led to the launch of a brand new platform that is directly connecting SEO experts with businesses in need, so we'll dive into that in the episode. If you need an SEO expert, she is going to be the matchmaker for that with that platform and this episode is really great. We're talking about some trending topics how SEO is playing with AI and what you can expect in 2025. So if SEO is a buzzword that you want to learn more about, this is the episode for you. We're going to dive into it right now.
Natasha Clawson:Hello and welcome to the show, Stephanie. How are you today? Hi, I'm well. Thank you so much for having me. I am so excited to have you on today to talk about SEO, and for so many people, this is a buzzword, but they might not actually know what it even means. So if you could just give us a little background, like what are the basics of understanding what SEO is?
Stephanie Long:Sure. So SEO stands for search engine optimization. I always like to say the whole word because people sometimes are like, oh, okay, but it's when you are Googling something and you see the results that someone has optimized a website on the backend. So those are the results you see. That means finding the right keywords that people are looking for. So SEO is all about what people are searching for and what you see in the search results.
Natasha Clawson:Yeah, so it's going to help you get found in Google would be like the really simple explanation. Yep, awesome. So I know your company is called Mrs SEO. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got into this line of work and what you love about it?
Stephanie Long:Yeah, I actually stumbled into it randomly. When I was a student at the University of Washington, getting my undergraduate, I had an internship in the communication department that was what I was getting my degree in and they had me do SEO. And it was funny because I got hired right away, shockingly out of college to do SEO. And so I look back on my internship and I don't think I was actually doing SEO after I actually got an SEO job and I taught at the University of Washington. I always tell my students this I hated it at first. It was so hard and difficult and a lot of data, but I decided I'm going to learn to love this and I did. And so every job I ever worked at I brought SEO into the job because, like we just talked about, most people don't know what it is. So when I would introduce it because I worked in marketing roles when I would introduce it people would get so excited because it is a buzzword. So, yeah, I accidentally stumbled into it and I didn't like it at first.
Natasha Clawson:I can relate to that. There's a lot of data and SEO that can feel a little overwhelming. So I'm excited to talk to you about some of the trends that you see for 2025, especially with AI coming onto the scene. So I know that we're going to talk about three things today. Do you want to tell the audience what those are and then we can kind of dive into those?
Stephanie Long:Yeah, sure. So it's how AI and SEO working together. That's going to be key this year. And understanding users search intent so how people are searching versus yesterday, a year ago. Things are changing constantly. And then also writing high quality content. I can't preach this enough. So if you can only get out one blog a month or any kind of form of content a month, that's better than just mass producing things that are written with AI.
Natasha Clawson:I think a lot of people are going to enjoy hearing that, because a lot of people that I work with have limited time, right? So how can they have the most impact for SEO and for attraction with high quality, but in a limited amount of time per month, because they only have so many hours, right? So awesome. Let's jump into that first one, which is a meaty topic how AI and SEO are going to work together.
Stephanie Long:So what are you seeing here, which is a meaty topic how AI and SEO are going to work together. So what are you seeing here? Yeah, so when I first started 15 years ago, it was like ranking one, two, three, four, five, right down in the search engines. Now it's about ranking for that AI overview. You see that at the top, so that's where you want to rank now, and also in that people also ask section. So I tell my clients it's less about what number are you ranking for, but are you also in that? People also ask section. So I tell my clients it's less about what number are you ranking for, but are you ranking in that top search? A lot of people. And also that AI search is taking over above the fold. So that means before people scroll and you always want to get above the fold when you are. When it used to be before, ai was number one, two, three. Now it's AI is essentially position zero. I say it like this Think about it this way my mom does not know the internet. She is not going to scroll past the AI overview. She is going to think that is giving her exactly what she wants. So you want to be there and if you notice there'll be. How did AI get that information. So your website would be on that right side. So if you click that little hyperlink next to information, you want to be that website that AI pulled in to give that holistic overview.
Stephanie Long:So now AI is understanding longer sentences. Back when I first started, it was like short keywords. I'll use an example black shoes. I love shoes. So I like to use an example. We would optimize for black shoes if that's what you sold. So now AI can understand because people are using voice search. You don't just use Siri or whatever voice search tool to say black shoes. You would say where can I buy black shoes in size nine online? So it understands it can capture all of this. So you want to optimize if you are selling black shoes, your store for longer search. So maybe that's writing a blog and then editing any of the metadata on the backend with keywords. So that's an example of how you can get in the AI overview because it's understanding sentences now.
Natasha Clawson:Yeah, that's really interesting and I'm curious. So this is the AI overview on Google. But what about some of the tools? There's a lot of conversations on how you know how AI is going to impact that. A lot of people are using chat, gpt. What are the things that you recommend to entrepreneurs as they're trying to optimize their websites for this?
Stephanie Long:Yeah, and you can also. So I have a client that actually was found in chat GPT becauseGPT is also using that info that's out there that you optimize for and pulling in that too. So I had a client call me and say, hey, somebody reached out and said they found us via ChatGPT. Is that SEO?
Stephanie Long:And I was like yeah, that's totally SEO and that was the first time that was interesting. So I look at these tools ChatGPT, gemini, whatever one you use as your assistant. I need an assistant too. I get roadblocks. It's only your assistant to create ideas. So if you need blog topic ideas, it can give you an outline. But, bringing back to AI and SEO and writing, don't use it as your whole writing tool. It understands if a human has written it, because humans isn't. Ai is like a robot, right? It cannot be creative. So use it as an outline and then you can fill in the rest of that with your voice and tone. So that's why, I recommend that.
Natasha Clawson:I love it as a collaborator. Personally, I'm very collaborative and I find that I get stuck if I don't have another coworker which, as an entrepreneur, a lot of us don't necessarily have someone we can use as a sounding board all the time. So I feel like I have this coworker who I can just chime in with. The question I have, then, is that you know, I might use it for ideation, and then I will write a draft and then I'll ask AI to edit it or tell me what to improve. Is that a good method for SEO or no?
Stephanie Long:So that's fine, but at the end of the day, you need to be researching for keywords. It's not going to know what keywords you want to rank for or what keywords should be in the blog post, and that's why there always needs to be a human involved. So, at the end of the day, it needs that touch and that personalization which it cannot give you the chats.
Natasha Clawson:Yeah, that's great advice and for kind of like just basic keyword research for someone who's a coach, an author, an entrepreneur, what's a simple method that they can do more with keywords? What advice do you have there?
Stephanie Long:What I would recommend. If you don't wanna pay for a tool they can get costly. Just type in Google like see who's ranking, what content are they writing. So if you're an author, what's your genre, who's ranking under a keyword you're looking for? So then you can go see what content they're writing about. Also, using Google Trends, see what's trending at the moment. You can write content around that that can give you some really good ideas. So it's really seeing who's in the search to help you facilitate content if you don't have a keyword tool.
Natasha Clawson:Yeah, that's great and I know we were going to talk about this later, but I think it fits here. I know like so they can look on Google, but if they want to work with someone, I know you're launching a new app to help them with that Do you want to tell the audience about that?
Stephanie Long:Sure. So it's going to be a marketplace with SEO experts and what my platform does is, or what's unique about it is I've been in this industry, like I mentioned, a long time, so I have many colleagues that I've met over the years and this platform will have all vetted SEO experts on it. So you will know it's personally vetted by me. I either know them or I've had a conversation with them, so they've applied through my platform and then we've talked and I've approved them or not. So when you go on there you can fill out maybe unique keyword research, maybe you want a website audit. It's like a dating app. So it's like a dating app. So it's like a dating app for SEO. It will match you with those that have the experience in that, so you can select from there. You can like them.
Natasha Clawson:Save them, message them, so think about it for a dating app for SEO experts. That's perfect. I love that. I love referrals too, so going to a trusted marketplace is fabulous. And one thing you said, too, is there's not a lot of women in the SEO space, so that's kind of an exciting differentiator for you. I know I'm big on the women's space and seeing women in tech and data is always exciting.
Stephanie Long:Yeah, yeah, I mean Seattle's my hometown. You can imagine. I was in tech. Men are in tech. I was usually the only one in SEO that was a female, so I really want to give a voice to women in this as well. So there's so many women in SEO. Their voice is just quieter and I'm seeing so many, you know, come out and want to be on it.
Natasha Clawson:Yeah, yeah. Well, it's great that we can feature you today and bring those voices up on this. Ai and SEO working together. Are there any other points you want to touch on before we move on to the user search intent?
Stephanie Long:No, I think it's just important to see what's in that overview and then write on content around that.
Natasha Clawson:Yeah, ai has really changing everything about search and I expect that things are going to keep changing. So we all kind of need to stay up to date on podcasts and other things to see what's changing and what's on the cutting edge. So let's go ahead and move to the second topic, which is understanding users search intent. What do you want to talk about in regards to that?
Stephanie Long:Yeah, so it used to be like I would just optimize for one or two. So I'll say SEO expert. I'm going to optimize my site for an SEO expert, because that's what I am, but you can imagine there's millions of SEO experts that are going to come up in the search, so you need to get really niche. So an example would be because I have a lot of women clients, my search intent that I imagine women are searching for but I would need to verify this is an SEO expert that serves women, female entrepreneurs. So again, this rolls into AI a little bit too, because AI understands longer strings of text. So when I type that in who's ranking, what other SEO experts are ranking? Because I want to rank for that. So when I type that in who's ranking, what other SEO experts are ranking? Because I want to rank for that.
Stephanie Long:So when people are searching for that, what are they looking for? Because who's in that AI overview? What are in? Those? People also ask questions. That also gives you really good content. So after you've typed in a longer term, what are people asking, so that you can answer those questions, because you want to be the answer to those questions. That's always what I tell clients when I'm writing them blogs. We want to answer these questions because the search intent is showing these questions are being asked. So looking at the AI overview and then the people also ask again, that will give you the search intent.
Natasha Clawson:Yeah, so that sounds like a goldmine for content.
Stephanie Long:Right, exactly, do not miss. People also ask it's an. I always look at it. It's often overlooked and it's a very simple thing. That is the question. You be the answer, so yeah.
Natasha Clawson:And how? How would you say you differentiate like content. You know like, how do you rank above others for that kind of content? What's your best advice for that?
Stephanie Long:That would then be looking at somatic keywords, related. So, again, if you don't have a keyword tool, you can use Google Trends and see what are related keywords. So I just said you know SEO expert for women business entrepreneurs, so I would look in Google trends and see what are some keywords trending around that because you want to get those related keywords in the copy, so that'll be part of it as well. So that's how you can hopefully get above those people and then just continuously writing great copy. Google will see that you're you're repeatable website.
Natasha Clawson:Yeah, so let's talk about the type of content, because people have lots of different content now video, podcast, blog. Some people say blogs are dead. What can you say about, like, what type of content works best on your website? Why and just dive into that topic a little bit, yeah.
Stephanie Long:Well, definitely, blogs are not dead. I do blog content all the time, but you want to test it right. So what's good also is breaking it up. So about every 300 words on a blog, I will add an image or a video. This is also a good way, for this is a good SEO tip. It breaks up the content and it gets people to not get bored, right Like if they see a long string of just text. There'll be videos embedded.
Stephanie Long:And then another thing about videos and images images you want to make sure to optimize, so don't so when an easy thing to do is you know, when you save an image and it's like one, two, three, four, five dot JPEG, save it as the keyword. So an example would be seo-expert-jpg. So Google can read file names. And then, for videos, make sure you have voice search or closed captions on. So let's say, there's a video. That corresponds with a blog. You want to also get keywords as your talking points, so that's an important part too. But you need a mix of content. So infographics are huge for SEO in the sense that people love to share infographics, and the more infographics you share, you get backlinks. So backlinks means let's say, you shared an infographic I designed. You are giving me a backlink from your website because you shared it on your website, let's say, as an example. So infographics are a really great way to start generating some backlinks from other websites, which helps with SEO too.
Natasha Clawson:Yeah, and for people who don't know what a backlink is, it's essentially another website linking back to your website and Google saying hey, lots of people are referencing your website. You must be great at this topic, so it's giving you some authority there. What are some other ways for people to build, because I know backlinks are important what are some other ways for people to build those backlinks?
Stephanie Long:backlinks. Definitely going on podcasts, right, because then you'll link back Guest blogging. I do a lot of guest blogging. That's important. You can maybe share with people in the industry, like you can go back and forth sharing guest posts and then posting on your social media. That's something people don't think about. That's underutilized. Every time you post on LinkedIn or Instagram or YouTube back to your site, that's a backlink. Also, on YouTube, make sure you have your optimizing and you have applicable links in your video. So let's say you have a blog on that video, link that blog back to your website. So those are quick, easy ways.
Natasha Clawson:Yeah those are some really easy ways that you can do it yourself too.
Stephanie Long:Totally very easy and people don't think that. But that is your. You use that platform to link back to your site.
Natasha Clawson:Yeah, and the other thing before we move on from this topic is the podcast you can easily use like chat, gpt or some of them just have built-in transcription. You can basically take that and make that part of your blog post and now you have all the searchable um, you know, keyword content and everything in there. So that's a way to make that go further. So is there anything else you wanted to say about understanding user search intent? As you know, this industry kind of changes. There's more voice, there's longer phrases that we're looking at.
Stephanie Long:I imagine that it'll start getting even into several sentences. So people asking a lot, and so that's why I even encourage other SEO experts don't focus so much on the one, two, three, four, five ranking. Focus on that zero ranking and that people also ask Again. Think about how would you explain that? How would you explain something to a fifth grader? Would they know to scroll? Would your 80 year old grandmother know to scroll? No, probably they won't. That right there. So what's right there is your, is your answer to write about.
Natasha Clawson:Yeah, and I think this leads really well into the third trend that you see for 2025, which is just really focusing on writing high quality content.
Stephanie Long:So let's talk a little bit about how that sets you apart.
Stephanie Long:Some people just want to write a ton of content and get that out there, well that's great. If it's not quality and people click on it and leave your site, that's going to ding you in Google because it's seeing you're not giving them good content. So, if you can only write one blog post, get out one piece of I don't know if you have products like one product out a month just do that. Don't focus on the quality, because or the quantity, excuse me the quality is so important because that can be like an evergreen piece, meaning Google can keep showing it, you can keep reusing it, maybe updating it. So that's what I recommend If you can't write something every week which I do for clients write something once a month and make it an evergreen post so that it can be reused and reshared. So and put time into it. It doesn't need to be thousands of words, just thoughtful and, again, using that AI overview and the people also asked to answer those questions and have thoughtful, quality answers to that.
Natasha Clawson:Yeah, I think a lot of entrepreneurs are going to enjoy hearing that, because as a solopreneur, you really have a short amount of time and you know if you can show up consistently once a month and that's all that you have time for. Sometimes it could feel discouraging Like you're not putting out as much as other people, but it's encouraging to hear, if you really do that well, that it can be impactful for you. Still and I'm just thinking about it you know, over the course of a year you can have 12 really amazing articles and if one of those goes viral or has a lot of search, all that organic traffic is just going back to your website.
Stephanie Long:So Right and you can add to that. Let's say, you do a video about it a month later, then add to that so you can expand on that but have one really good piece if that's all you have time for and I get that. It's hard for me to always keep getting content out. It's busy, you know.
Natasha Clawson:Yeah, yeah. What are some of the strategies you use to get that content out? Since you're someone who has to do that all the time, love to hear if you have some tips and tricks for people.
Stephanie Long:I do video. I do video because it's quick and I can give really solid tips. Like in 30 seconds I can give a good tip. So instead of maybe a blog post, you could add a quick video and then just have your transcript below and there's your blog. So that's really quick to do.
Natasha Clawson:Yeah, I think video is a great thing. The only thing is not to get hung up on. You know, sometimes people will start making a video and then all of a sudden, three hours later, they're like it's not perfect, but if you can sit down and say, hey, I've got 30 minutes and whatever I have at the end of 30 minutes is going to go out, a lot of people can communicate more quickly and effectively in video than they can in writing, and at least in the same amount of time. Exactly, exactly. And my videos are not polished by any means. I am not a videographer, um, and I don't think people expect that. No, they definitely don't.
Natasha Clawson:Yeah, and what's performing best on social is really relatable content. They want to see real people. So it's just, you know, thinking about being relatable. How do you talk to your friend? How do you, you know, engage with other people? I'm really relationship-based and this is performing really well on social, and it sounds like this is also a great way to approach content for SEO in a really relatable way while looking at those keywords. So, in light of these trends, are there any other points or tidbits you wanted to add before we move on to our final question?
Stephanie Long:I think, just following some good SEO blogs, you know, so you can keep up to date. Maybe you are just wondering how can I update my website really quickly? So there's I can give you these two. But there's Neil Patel. He does Uber Suggest. There's also SEMrush S-E-M-R-U-S-H one word I use that that's the tool I use. Those are some great blogs to follow. They're constantly updating you with new SEO trends. So if you are interested and want to follow and do a little dabbling yourself in it, I recommend doing that.
Natasha Clawson:Yeah, that's great advice to just kind of get familiar with it and learn a bit no-transcript SEO because it's it's like a cake.
Stephanie Long:It's your base, you know you build on that. So, while email marketing is quick, google ads are quick, social media ads are quick. This is something that is your base and will grow over time with you. They're not paid, which anything not paid is better than paid for the longterm, so I highly recommend focusing on that.
Natasha Clawson:Yeah, and there's a good example. Someone told me before that when you're paying for ads, it's like a water faucet and as soon as you turn off that payment, it turns off the flow. But when you're focusing on building something with SEO and backlinks, it's an organic web that keeps going Even if you stop showing up. Obviously, it will slow down if you're not tending it. It's like a garden, but it doesn't just go away. That effort is still there and returning and it just grows over time and it's free.
Stephanie Long:I'm quote, quote, unquote if you don't have it, unless you have a tool and seo expert, right.
Natasha Clawson:So yeah, yes, sorry, that's a good clarification it's it's free in in a sense you know free in terms of your labor and effort If you're doing it, diy 100%.
Stephanie Long:Yes.
Natasha Clawson:So it's been great talking to you about this and getting kind of a bigger idea of where this is going, because it is going to keep shifting. So I love the advice to follow some blogs on this and stay in touch with how the market is changing. Did you let everyone know where they're going to be able to find your app, the Junction Jack?
Stephanie Long:Yep. So junctionjackco and that's live now and you can. If you're an SEO expert listening, you can apply. If you're a business listening, you can go and look around, sign up for an account.
Natasha Clawson:Find your SEO match. So that's great. It's been lovely having you today. I'd love to end with asking you if you have one piece of advice for your younger self.
Stephanie Long:Don't be so insecure. You know I take no prisoners. That sounds harsh, but it's like you know. Just you know what you know and you know you're good at it. So just show up and be bold. And that was not my younger self.
Natasha Clawson:Yeah, I think that's the advice a lot of people would have for their younger self is to go after it.
Stephanie Long:Yeah, if I had only done this 10 years ago, right, 15 years ago right, but I wouldn't have been ready. But now that I look back on, I really could have been ready.
Natasha Clawson:Yeah, yeah, totally. I love that. Well, thank you so much for being on today. It's been a pleasure and love to have you back sometime in the future to talk more about new trends here.
Stephanie Long:So yeah, thank you so much.
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