Crystal Ortiz: [00:00:00] sometimes as business owners, as clients.

We're thinking to ourselves like, man, this is taking a long time. You know? Like, I just want, I just, I needed more sales like three months ago. You know? But. There is a process, there is trying to get into a rhythm.

And so lots of people give up before the rhythm starts to kick in. 

Welcome to the Simple and Smart SEO Show

Welcome to the simple and smart SEO show podcast!

I'm your host, Crystal Waddell, here to bridge the gap between SEO strategy and real world business success. By bringing you insights, stories, and conversations from the SEO community and beyond.

Grab a coffee. Or your favorite tea. And let's dive into Smarter SEO for your business.

The Art of Relationship Building

Crystal: And this art of relationship building lost sometimes, and I feel like Good SEO bridges that gap.

Crystal Ortiz: That's a really good point. Just think about. Like brick and mortar stores. How many times somebody probably had to walk into a store before they decided that they were ready to buy something.

 I know that's true for the experiences that I had [00:01:00] working in retail. And again, working in e-commerce.

How many repeat visitors do you have? And then you think about your own journey, right? How many times do you have to look at something before you're ready to buy it?

It's just one seed of an idea that then becomes, okay, now I'm gonna go into the next phase. Like for me right now, it's sunscreen. I'm thinking about like a, a body sunscreen that I wanna use all the time. I've been thinking about this idea for a long time. I've known that I wanted to get like a body sunscreen. And they make kinds now that don't smell like sunscreen, right?

So these are all these little things that are going on in my head. And they're going on in everybody else's head, too. With other things, right? And so my next step is looking at different brands. Searching in chat gpt, searching in ai. Searching in TikTok. Like trying to figure out, okay, I know that there's this product that exists.

I know that I need it. That I want it, right? And now I'm sort of starting to get into, into the search journey. If someone were to [00:02:00] target me with an ad right now, for sunscreen, I would not buy.

I'm just not there in my search journey. And so, to your point, right, is like you're on LinkedIn or you're going somewhere and you're just seeing that that lack of, as you said, relationship building.

And so I think that's a really great point and a really great way to think about what we're doing. 'cause sometimes as business owners, as clients.

We're thinking to ourselves like, man, this is taking a long time. You know? Like, I just want, I just, I needed more sales like three months ago. You know? But. There is a process, there is trying to get into a rhythm.

And so lots of people give up before. Before the rhythm starts to kick in. 

Understanding Customer Needs

Crystal: Yeah, I think that's a really good point that a lot of people give up before the rhythm kicks in.

Because you're talking about sunscreen and let's say that's a $20 or less product.

I'm going through the same process right now for a new car.

And I'm thinking about an electric car. I'm, I was leaning towards a blazer and then I [00:03:00] realized, I think I actually wanna go Tesla.

And then it's do I wanna go like slightly used, or brand new with 0% financing? So it's like

Crystal Ortiz: Right. Right.

Crystal: little decisions that you're thinking about. And making comparisons. you're buying something small or you're buying something large, like it is a lot of little decisions that happen there. And

Crystal Ortiz: Yes.

Crystal: I feel like sometimes when you're on the business side of things, you can get really distracted by that end result, right? It's okay, close the sale, show me the money. Just show me your conversion rates. All that type of stuff.

And it's like, wait a second. People in buying cycles, say for a car.

They're buying every five to 15 years now. I found that it was statistic as I was searching for a car.

I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves inside the businesses that we're in.

That these things are supposed to happen so quickly. When if you realistically look at a lot of buying cycles, it doesn't happen like that.

So [00:04:00] it's wow, take a deep breath. 

Crystal Ortiz: yeah.

Crystal: and join the customer in the process. And who knows, maybe it'll make the experience better for both sides.

Yes, especially those longer term buys.

Those things that take a bit longer to convert. That's where brand comes in, right? Creating that brand connection with customers.

Really sticking in their mind for a certain point.

What are people thinking about you when they're not thinking about the things that you actually sell?

That's sort of that brand sentiment. And. That long-term buy, it really does take some time the art of that relationship building.

And you're also thinking about different demographics of people. And different life stages, different business stages, right?

When I was purchasing a vehicle for my family, the last time I did that was when I was pregnant. And I needed to buy a car that was safe for my family.

And so that was a huge factor in my buying decision. And the little [00:05:00] things that added up. So, for example, the sales person was really well trained on the vehicle that I wound up buying.

And that made a huge influence in the, in the buying decision. So when you think about, okay, what am I doing for my business?

It seems simple, but like, are we training the salespeople that we're working with to understand the products really well?

This is especially true for SaaS businesses, you know, software businesses.

Is everybody on the same page as to what this problem is?

How it's solved? And what we do really well?

And for the example with the car, one of the biggest things I was like, this is so cool!

Was that the back car doors open 90 degrees.

So they open all the way. So when I was trying to get the car seat in, it would open all the way.

And it was like a huge thing for me. I was like, this is so cool.

I don't even know if other cars do that.

But at the time I thought that was like. So important to me. It was like one of the biggest factors, right?

And so you never really know what's gonna resonate with [00:06:00] someone about your particular product.

But if you think about what are they thinking about?

Well, if you think about what a mom is going through on a daily basis and you're manufacturing a car.

What is one of the things that they're doing? They're getting a car seat in and out. And what are some of the challenges of getting a car seat in and out?

Well, the door doesn't open all the way. So that's like some, some examples of like little things that add up over time that as is applicable to different types of businesses as thinking about what do my customers face on a daily basis?

How can we solve for that? And then how do we communicate that, especially through the sales process.

oh, that's so true.

Sometimes price doesn't even become the first factor anymore because these

Crystal Ortiz: Yes.

Crystal: things are huge to you.

And are more powerful in their influence in the decision.

Crystal Ortiz: That's a really good point about price.

I think a lot of times people default to, well, maybe we're too expensive.

Maybe we're too yada, yada. Maybe we need to increase our price because we're not in quite in that [00:07:00] price range.

From a psychological standpoint. But it could be something completely different. Than price. That's influencing whether or not someone is purchasing from you.

So that's a really good point.

Listening to Customer Feedback

Crystal: And it's cool now because with social media sites, and Reddit.

Listening to your customer has gotten easier than ever. Or, just eavesdropping on the conversations that they're having.

It's just a matter of then turning that into data that you can use, and

Crystal Ortiz: Mm-hmm.

Crystal: SEO was always built on keywords.

It's like, how do you translate the social listening into something beyond keywords?

To get to the search intent of what your customer's looking for.

Crystal Ortiz: Yeah, I think it's also a matter of, you know, listening to that feedback.

And then doing something about it.

If it's a barrier to purchase, are you going to be able to fix that?

Are they making steps to improve it?

And how are they communicating that to potential buyers of their [00:08:00] products?

If they're not solving for those problems?

They're trying to lower price. They're solving for the wrong thing.

It's not about the price at that point, it's about practicality.

We see that in other businesses. We see that with clients and, and different business models.

Solving for the right problems.

Not only thinking about SEO in terms of what are people searching for.

But also what are the real challenges that they face. Especially when it comes to friction for buying our products.

Reliability Check: First Impressions

Crystal: my husband is like, not a search guy at all. He is not into SEO.

I said, Hey, oh my gosh, this blazer is this price.

This looks so great. His immediate thing was let's check the reliability, and it took him two seconds to type in. Reliability for this, and the car was new.

And so of course that first iteration of something is always gonna be the one with the bugs.

And the feedback from the internet was not good. So it was like immediately that one's off. 

Crystal Ortiz: Immediately, no.

Crystal: Yeah, don't care how much it costs. Don't care how much we save. We are gonna go with something a little bit [00:09:00] more stable for us. 

Shifting to AI: Leveraging Technology

Crystal: I just wanna shift really quick into some AI stuff.

Because I know you said that, like AI content for the sake of AI content is not great.

But have you found ways to leverage AI in your work? To make it faster for how you're working for your clients?

Custom GPTs, anything like that? Any insights that you might be able to share with another small business owner about incorporating AI in a meaningful way into your process?

Mastering AI Prompts for Efficiency

Crystal Ortiz: I think the easiest way to incorporate, incorporate AI into your workflows, especially when it comes to your digital marketing, your SEO, your content.

Is to really get good at your prompts.

Really get good at what it is that you're asking for.

And not overly relying on the final output.

Right? So for example, I use AI to help me put together certain groups of information.

So whether I've plugged in some research that I've done, and I [00:10:00] want it to have a very specific outcome.

For example, Hey, here's the data that I need. Send me back a, a paragraph that outlines this, this, and this.

And give it to me in three to five bullet points.

That's very different than create a blog for me about blah, blah, right?

Because I'm giving it specific information, I'm giving it a lot of context. I know exactly what I'm looking for.

And I just need it to reorganize the same information in a different way.

For a specific purpose. So, for example, I might use it in a presentation.

I might use it in a content brief to help inform a writer on what kind of points they're trying to hit. 

AI as an Assistant, Not a Creator

Crystal Ortiz: I think AI can be really powerful in that way.

Where it's making it really easy for me to communicate with people about what it is that I'm trying to accomplish.

What I'm not using it for is output.

Straight output is create a blah, blah, blah for [00:11:00] me. With zero information. Then you're just, you're gonna be spending more time trying to get it to. Have the output that you want. In the quality that you want. Then you would by just doing it yourself. So you, like, for example, if you were just trying to get it to write a blog for you, it's gonna come out with something really generic and boring and plain, right?

And so then you're gonna have to "un plain" it. You are gonna have to give it personality, and that's gonna wind up taking you more time than if you had just said, Hey, here's what I'm thinking about this blog. Here's kind of the points I wanna hit. Here's the main things. Can you just outline for me what points I need to make, when?

Okay. Then it's gonna kind of outline it for you. And then you as a creative person, are gonna go in there and put in the human aspect of what you're looking to do.

And that is gonna wind up saving you time.

Because now you've taken some of that, that brain work. You said, Hey, here's what I'm thinking.

Here's my points that I wanna come across. [00:12:00] Here it is. And then it's kind of structuring that for you. Giving you kind of an outline.

Hey, don't, don't forget to include this. You're like, oh yeah. That's a really good point. I did forget to include that. Right. Then AI becomes really helpful, right? And it doesn't wind up taking you more time.

What can happen is, if you over rely on it. It actually winds up taking you more time to fix it and make it sound human. And it just winds up being a big old headache.

So I would say that get really good at prompting. And knowing what you want from it. And having the right expectations with ai.

Don't expect it to come up with all this creative stuff for you, because it's not going to.

It can only create, to a certain extent. It's more like an assistant than it is a creator. 

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