What if the next move in your SEO strategy happens outside your website?

If you leaned into SEO because you were exhausted by social media, this conversation might feel a little too familiar. Crystal Waddell admits she hoped to escape the social content treadmill. Ryan Erwin explains why he sees organic social, SEO, and AI search as connected parts of a broader marketing strategy.

In Part 2, the director of SEO and AEO at VaynerMedia shares how his team combines search insights with social content, how he thinks about measuring AI visibility, and why hands-on experimentation matters more than confident-sounding advice.

We also explore AI agents, human oversight, and the difference between sharing an opinion and presenting it as a fact.

🔎 In this episode:
• Getting SEO, creative, and other teams working together.
• Measuring visibility, citations, share of voice, and sentiment in AI search.
• Choosing success metrics that reflect your business goals.
• Where schema markup fits into Ryan’s approach.
• Using SEO and LLM insights to inform organic social content.
• Why Ryan sees value in a connected, multichannel strategy.
• Using AI agents to speed up insights while keeping humans involved.
• Spotting unsupported claims from self-proclaimed experts.
• Building trust through customer stories, reviews, and honest improvement.

💬 A thought worth keeping:
“Take what you already have, make it better, have a plan to expand it to answer your customers' or future customers' questions.” - Ryan Erwin

🙌🏽 Your next step:
Choose one question your customers regularly ask. Use it to improve a relevant website page and create one helpful social post. Give each piece a clear job, then track the response against your business goal.

🎧 Missed Part 1?
Listen to Everyone Wants AI Search Hacks. Nobody Wants to Fix Their Website for our conversation about technical fundamentals, user experience, and staying adaptable.

Follow The Simple and Smart SEO Show for practical conversations about helping your business get found.

Connect with Ryan Erwin: RyanErwin.ai

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Looking for Digital Marketing help with your Shopify Store or Small Business? 

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Hey, Shopify store owners! (Especially if you're selling on Etsy, too!)

Here's a quick question: Are people actually finding your products on Google?

If SEO feels confusing, overwhelming, or like something you'll "get to later", this is for you.

I'm hosting a free, seven day Shopify SEO challenge that breaks it down into simple, doable steps.

No tech headaches, no fluff. Join us at

 Hey, Shopify store owners! (Especially if you're selling on Etsy, too!)

Here's a quick question: Are people actually finding your products on Google?

If SEO feels confusing, overwhelming, or like something you'll "get to later", this is for you.

I'm hosting a free, seven day Shopify SEO challenge that breaks it down into simple, doable steps.

No tech headaches, no fluff. Join us at

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Free checklist: Is your Shopify store quietly losing sales? Run the 5-minute self-check →

Book a Strategy Call With Crystal!

Want to follow up on what you've heard? Search the podcast!

AFFILIATE LINKS:

SEO TOOLS :

Keywords Everywhere: My favorite keyword research tool!

Get SurferSEO! The ultimate content creation tool!

E-COMMERCE TOOLS:

Start your Shopify Store! (use my link)

Klaviyo: The leader in Ecommerce Email

Grid and Pixel: Get John and his team's help in setting up your flows and campaigns!

SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS:

Metricool (Awesome and easy to use social media scheduler!)

Note:
If you make a purchase using one of my links, I ...