Levi Clucas, Technical SEO Lead at Footprint Digital and three-time Brighton SEO speaker, joins Austin Willman to break down what good SEO actually looks like in 2025 and beyond.
Levi shares why the best SEOs lead with intuition over checklists, how she uses a simple spreadsheet to solve one of the most persistent problems in site migrations, and why the shift toward human-centered content is reshaping everything from local SEO to LLM citations.
She also opens up about the soft skills that have defined her decade-long career, including radical transparency with clients, building real relationships across teams, and why saying “I don’t know” is one of the most powerful things an SEO can say.
If you’re worried about where search is heading or what AI means for your career, this episode is a grounding, practical conversation to come back to.
Topics covered:
- Why good SEO starts with intuition, not a checklist
- How local SEO plays by different rules
- The Technical Site Map document Levi presented at Brighton SEO
- Why communication is the real reason migrations fail
- How EEAT and reputation signals have become central to visibility
- What LLMs are actually picking up on when they cite businesses
- Why team pages are now among the most visited pages on client sites
- How to embrace AI without letting it replace your thinking
Takeaways:
- Good SEO is built on intuition and industry knowledge, not checklists
- Local SEO follows different rules and rewards unconventional thinking
- A single spreadsheet can solve most site migration communication failures
- Transparency and honesty build stronger client relationships than perfect answers
- Saying "I don't know" increases trust more than guessing under pressure
- Team pages and individual author profiles are now among the most visited site pages
- LLMs cite businesses that sound human and customer-focused, not service-focused
- Embrace AI as a tool but keep people at the center of your strategy