Simple and Smart SEO: A podcast for Shopify sellers who want to expand beyond Etsy!

Think your Shopify store is optimized because you've written product descriptions, filled out your SEO titles, and improved your page speed?

You might be focusing on the wrong things.

In this episode of The Simple and Smart SEO Show, Crystal Waddell sits down with ecommerce SEO expert Parth Suba to challenge some of the most common assumptions about Shopify SEO.

From overlooked Google Merchant Center product data to underused Shopify smart collections, Parth reveals opportunities that store owners may be missing, even when they've been working on SEO for years.

He also shares how expanding a grocery retailer's product categories helped increase revenue by 60%, why customer questions belong on your product pages, and how AI search is changing the way online shoppers discover products.

Crystal shares mistakes she discovered in her own Shopify store and the practical changes she's making to improve organic visibility.

🎯 What You'll Learn

• Why Google Merchant Center matters beyond paid shopping ads
• How Shopify smart collections can uncover new search opportunities
• Why your existing product categories might be limiting visibility
• Which SEO tasks Parth believes store owners may be overprioritizing
• How customer questions and feedback can improve product descriptions
• Why anticipating AI search follow-up questions matters
• How duplicate product URLs can complicate Shopify SEO
• Where video content and structured data fit into ecommerce search

💡 Key Takeaway

Your next SEO opportunity might not require creating another product or writing another blog post. It could be hiding in your existing product data, collection structure, or unanswered customer questions.

✅ Your Next Steps

1. Review your product information in Google Merchant Center for missing or incorrect fields.
2. Check Google Search Console and your store's internal search data for category opportunities.
3. Find one common customer question that your product pages aren't answering.
4. Review your Shopify collection pages for useful content below the product grid.

🔗 Connect With Parth Suba

Website: https://seomarathon.com

Find Parth Suba on LinkedIn.

SEO Talk Community

🎙️ About the Show

The Simple and Smart SEO Show, hosted by Crystal Waddell, helps small business owners, Shopify sellers, and creative entrepreneurs understand SEO, AI search, and digital visibility without unnecessary complexity.

Visit https://simpleandsmartseo.com

Text me your questions or comments!

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

Support the show

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 ...

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

Linkedin

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

Book a call with Crystal!

Text me your questions or comments!

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

Support the show

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 ...

Everyone wants to know how to show up in AI search. 

But what happens when the website you’re sending people to is slow, difficult to use, or hard for crawlers to access?

In Part 1 of this conversation, Crystal Waddell sits down with Ryan Erwin, director of SEO and AEO at VaynerMedia, to talk about the foundational work that gets overlooked when everyone’s chasing the next big thing.

Ryan has spent 16 years hearing that SEO is dead. His reaction now? Bring it on.

From page speed and image optimization to accessibility and experimentation, we explore why getting the basics right still deserves your attention, even as search keeps changing.

🔎 In this episode:
• Why Ryan welcomes the recurring “SEO is dead” conversation.
• How to approach SEO as both an art and a science.
• Prioritizing website improvements by effort and potential impact.
• What turning off JavaScript can reveal about your website.
• Where image optimization, alt text, and content delivery networks fit.
• Ryan’s journey from Hammacher Schlemmer to VaynerMedia.
• Why understanding both content and technical SEO matters.
• Bringing SEO into the conversation before the final copy is written.

💬 A thought worth keeping:
“Here's the content that you need and why, and here's how you get search engines and LLMs to access that great content.” — Ryan Erwin

🙌🏽 Your next step:
Visit one important page on your website from your phone. Is it easy to read, navigate, and use? Choose one improvement that would make that experience better before adding another tactic to your list.

🎧 Coming in Part 2:
You Quit Social Media for SEO. Plot Twist: You Need Both. We’ll explore AI visibility, social content, measurement, and Ryan’s approach to using AI without abandoning human judgment.

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

Connect with Ryan: 

LinkedIn

Connect with Crystal:

LinkedIn

SimpleandSmartSEO.com

Text me your questions or comments!

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

Support the show

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 ...

Better Food Habits for Busy Women Without More Overwhelm with Kelly Miller

How do entrepreneurs build better food habits when you are already busy, overwhelmed, and accustomed to choosing the easiest available option? 

In part two of Crystal Waddell's conversation with Kelly Miller, also known as Health Coach Kel, they move from customer language and product naming into an honest discussion about food, confidence, health, and the lives busy women are trying to build.

Crystal shares her personal experience with weight loss, GLP-1 medication, cravings, and the gap between losing weight and developing sustainable food habits. 

Kelly responds with a practical, judgment-free approach: honor where you are, identify what may be getting in the way, learn the flavors you enjoy, and build a small collection of ingredients and cooking techniques you can reuse.

The conversation expands into emotional eating, nervous-system awareness, cooking with family, and the changing definition of success in midlife. 

Crystal and Kelly reflect on why a homemade meal, a slow cup of coffee, or meaningful time with your child can feel every bit as valuable as the business milestones many entrepreneurs spend years chasing.

What You Will Learn

• How Kelly uses customer language to name Our Rooted Kitchen and attract the right people
• Why losing weight and changing your relationship with food are not necessarily the same process
• How to begin improving food habits without attempting a complete lifestyle overhaul
• Why learning your preferred flavors can make grocery shopping and home cooking easier
• How Kelly's tic-tac-toe grocery map organizes nine broad whole-food categories
• Why reusable pantry staples and a few basic cooking techniques can reduce food waste
• How stress, survival mode, and emotional rewards can affect the way people use food
• Why entrepreneurs may need to redefine success around health, relationships, gratitude, and daily life

Episode Timestamps

Time | Topic
00:00 Choosing gratitude and a life you love
00:30 Welcome to the Simple and Smart SEO Show
00:48 How customer language shaped Our Rooted Kitchen
02:38 Crystal’s relationship with food
04:32 Where to start when cooking feels overwhelming
06:31 Cooking at home without wasting money
07:10 Kelly’s tic-tac-toe grocery map
09:51 Sugar, cravings, and changing food habits
11:47 Food, stress, and the nervous system
14:03 Redefining success beyond business growth
16:42 Why Kelly chose printed cookbooks
18:28 Where to find Kelly
19:55 Kelly’s sourdough starter kit
20:41 Gratitude and goodbye

Key Takeaways

Start with your real life. A useful food plan must account for your schedule, current skills, preferences, and the support you may need.

Use flavor as the entry point. Learning whether you prefer spicy, salty, creamy, briny, or other flavor profiles can make basic ingredients feel more appealing and reusable.

Build skills instead of collecting recipes. Chopping, stovetop cooking, and baking can create a practical foundation for working with many different foods.

Small successes rebuild self-trust. Repeating one manageable action can build confidence more effectively than expecting an immediate, complete transformation.

Success can become more personal. Business growth matters, but health, family experiences, rest, and gratitude may become equally meaningful measures of a good life.

Episode Highlights

“You do it step by step, and you honor where you are.”

“What are the flavors that you like? That's where we start.”

“Don't start or end your day with sugar.”

“We're allowed to have these experiences and still be boss women.”

Listener Action Steps

1. Write down three meals or restaurant flavors you genuinely enjoy. Identify the seasonings, textures, or ingredients they have in common.
2. Choose one versatile grain, one vegetable, and one protein to use in more than one meal this week.
3. Practice one basic technique: chopping, cooking on the stovetop, or baking.
4. Notice one moment when stress or exhaustion influences a food choice. Record it without judging yourself.
5. Choose one non-business experience you want to treat as a meaningful measure of success this week.

Resources and Mentions

Health Coach Kel: https://healthcoachkel.com

Our Rooted Kitchen: Learn more through Health Coach Kel's website and social channels

Alive in Your Hands: Kelly's sourdough beginner journey and starter-kit guide

Simple and Smart SEO: https://simpleandsmartseo.com

About Kelly Miller

Kelly Miller, also known as Health Coach Kel, helps busy women build greater confidence and capacity around food, energy, and everyday life. Her background includes marketing, ecommerce, SEO, health coaching, and product development. Through Health Coach Kel and Our Rooted Kitchen, she encourages women to reconnect with cooking, growing food, and practical habits that fit real life.

About Crystal Waddell

Crystal Waddell is an SEO educator, ecommerce business owner, and visibility strategist for creative entrepreneurs and small businesses. On The Simple and Smart SEO Show, she shares practical strategies to help business owners improve visibility, connect with right-fit customers, and grow without unnecessary complexity. Learn more at simpleandsmartseo.com.

Disclaimer

This episode includes personal experiences and general wellness discussion for educational purposes only. It is not medical, nutritional, or mental-health advice and does not replace care from a qualified professional. Speak with an appropriate healthcare professional before changing medication, treatment, diet, or health practices. Some links may be affiliate links, which means Crystal may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

Text me your questions or comments!

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

Support the show

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 ...

What if your most useful keywords are not hiding inside another research tool, but in the questions, complaints, and conversations your customers are already sharing? 

In this episode of The Simple and Smart SEO Show, Crystal Waddell talks with Kelly Miller, also known as Health Coach Kel, about listening beyond the analytics to understand what people actually need.

Kelly brings together her experience in marketing, ecommerce, SEO, health coaching, and product development to explain why DMs and comments can be a goldmine for customer language. 

Crystal and Kelly also explore social SEO in a zero-click search environment, the risks of posting and ghosting, and how to use autoresponders without losing your personality or your audience's trust.

The conversation closes with a practical reminder for overwhelmed business owners: growth does not always require adding another tool, offer, or task. 

Sometimes the smartest move is to remove what is not serving you, listen more carefully, and focus deeply on one right-fit customer or problem.

What You Will Learn

• Why DMs and comments reveal customer motivations that keyword-volume data cannot fully explain
• How posting without engaging can disconnect you from your audience and weaken your market research
• Why social platforms matter as Google and other search experiences provide more answers without a website click
• How to use ManyChat, autoresponders, and team support while remaining clear about who is responding
• Why your lived experience and applied knowledge can become a credible, differentiated point of view
• How better follow-up questions uncover the obstacle behind a customer's stated problem
• Why auditing what you can remove may create more progress than adding another strategy
• How narrowing your focus can reveal more relevant opportunities within one audience or offer

Episode Timestamps

Production note: These timestamps begin with the conversation audio. Adjust them if a separate introduction or advertisement is inserted.

Time | Topic
0:00 | Meet Kelly Miller, also known as Health Coach Kel
0:45 | Kelly's journey from marketing and ecommerce to health coaching
2:30 | Why DMs can be more valuable than keyword tools
3:44 | The problem with posting and ghosting
5:13 | Social SEO and the rise of zero-click search
6:47 | Using ManyChat and autoresponders without losing your voice
8:08 | Why transparency builds trust in DMs and communities
12:04 | Owning your perspective instead of borrowing authority
12:55 | Finding better questions by listening to customer problems
15:30 | Remove before you add
18:03 | Auditing your day, priorities, and business focus
20:42 | How customer listening changed Kelly's cookbook concept
23:01 | Why getting really good at one thing creates momentum

Key Takeaways

Customer language adds context to keyword data. Search tools can show demand, but direct conversations reveal the feelings, objections, and immediate problems behind a search.

Engagement is research. Responding to comments and participating in adjacent communities can improve customer understanding, product development, and visibility.

Automation still needs a human voice. Simple, transparent automated messages can help a solopreneur respond efficiently without pretending every reply is personal.

Your perspective is part of your authority. You do not have to continually reference a larger expert when you can explain what you learned, applied, and discovered yourself.

Focus creates relevant expansion. Going deeper into one customer, product, or problem can uncover a connected set of content and offer opportunities.

Episode Highlights and Quotes from Kelly:

“Let's be messy. Let's be ourselves.”

“What are you willing to give up to get what you want?”

“I believe 100% you gotta focus and get really good on one thing.”

Listener Action Steps

1. Review your last 10 DMs, comments, emails, or sales conversations and highlight the exact phrases customers repeat.
2. Choose one repeated question and turn it into a useful post, email, podcast topic, product-page section, or FAQ.
3. Audit one automated message. Make it shorter, make it sound like you, and clearly identify automation or team members when needed.
4. Remove one tool, task, or offer that is taking energy away from the customer or problem you most want to serve.
5. Subscribe to The Simple and Smart SEO Show for practical visibility strategies designed for small business owners.

Resources and Mentions

Health Coach Kel: https://healthcoachkel.com

Simple and Smart SEO: https://simpleandsmartseo.com

Our Rooted Kitchen: Learn more through Health Coach Kel's website and social channels

Tools mentioned: ManyChat, Ubersuggest, Surfer, ChatGPT, and Claude

About Kelly Miller

Kelly Miller, also known as Health Coach Kel, helps busy women build greater confidence and capacity around food, energy, and everyday life. Her background includes marketing, ecommerce, SEO, health coaching, and product development. Through Health Coach Kel and Our Rooted Kitchen, she encourages women to reconnect with cooking, growing food, and practical habits that fit real life.

About Crystal Waddell

Crystal Waddell is an SEO educator, ecommerce business owner, and visibility strategist for creative entrepreneurs and small businesses. On The Simple and Smart SEO Show, she shares practical strategies to help business owners improve visibility, connect with right-fit customers, and grow without unnecessary complexity. Learn more at simpleandsmartseo.com.

Disclaimer

This episode is provided for general education and discussion. Tools, platforms, and marketing approaches should be evaluated for your business, audience, and current platform requirements. Some links may be affiliate links, which means Crystal may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

Text me your questions or comments!

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 aise

 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

Support the show

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 ...

Episode Summary

What if SEO belonged in the earliest business conversations; not just in a checklist after the strategy is already set? 

In Part 2 of Crystal Waddell’s conversation with Will Soprano, Will reframes SEO as a company-wide philosophy that connects search behavior, customer insight, product-market fit, brand messaging, and revenue.

Will and Crystal also unpack why small businesses get into trouble when they copy companies like Amazon, Apple, or Nike. 

Instead of duplicating big-brand tactics, they explain how to identify the intended impact, use the advantages of being small, and exploit market inefficiencies. 

Crystal brings the lesson to life with the story of growing her handmade senior-night numbers from a $30 product into a premium $300 offer by refusing to compete on price and continually disrupting her own business.

What You’ll Learn

• Why SEO should inform executive, product, brand, content, email, and social decisions.
• How semantic alignment reveals when different channels are telling different stories.
• Why deterministic fact-checking and human review still matter in AI-assisted workflows.
• How Google Search Console can expose gaps between why people arrive and what a business intends to offer.
• Why product questions and answers may serve a small ecommerce business better than replacing them with a chatbot.
• How small businesses can use speed, focus, and self-disruption as competitive advantages.
• Why knowing your ideal customer and your own strengths is essential to finding an inefficient market.

Timestamps

0:00  SEO as a company philosophy

3:19  A fast check for semantic alignment across channels

4:05  Will’s tool-agnostic SEO stack and internal tools

4:37  Building a deterministic fact-checker

5:25  Automating audits, reporting, and SERP documentation

7:01  ICP and persona artifacts that help content teams

7:41  Spotting product-market fit problems in Google Search Console

8:11  Crystal’s practical LLM workflow for a small business

9:44  Why copying Apple, Nike, or Amazon fails

10:34  Product Q&A versus chatbots for ecommerce

12:22  Start with the impact—not the tactic

12:55  Netflix, self-disruption, and the small-business advantage

15:15  Using resources differently at large and small companies

17:09  Crystal’s $30-to-$300 product evolution

19:21  How to find and exploit an inefficient market

21:38  Where to connect with Will

22:31  Final thoughts

Episode Highlights

“SEO is a philosophy of finding our customers and helping them find us.” — Will Soprano

“The only company that gets to act like Apple is Apple. The only company that gets to act like Nike is Nike.” — Will Soprano

Listener Action Steps

Check whether your website, email, and social channels describe the same customer, problem, and promise.

Choose one tactic you admire from a large brand. Write down the impact it creates, then design a smaller, more appropriate way to create that impact in your business.

Review the real queries bringing people to your site in Google Search Console. Compare them with what you intended each page or product to be known for.

Add or strengthen customer questions and answers on one important product or service page.

Identify one market inefficiency: a need competitors overlook, serve poorly, or address only by competing on price.

Resources & Mentions

Connect with Will Soprano on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/willsoprano

Book a mentoring conversation with Will: growthmentor.com/mentors/will-soprano

Read Will’s writing: williamsoprano.com/blog

Learn more from Crystal Waddell: simpleandsmartseo.com

About the Guest

Will Soprano works at the intersection of SEO, digital products, brand strategy, content, and technology. Drawing on experience with startups and Fortune 500 companies, he helps businesses make their products and services discoverable—and helps customers find them.

About the Host

Crystal Waddell is an SEO educator, Shopify seller, and visibility strategist for creative entrepreneurs. On The Simple and Smart SEO Show, she shares practical tools that help business owners turn visibility into meaningful business results.

Text me your questions or comments!

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

Support the show

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 ...

Purpose-Driven SEO: Turn Visibility Into Sales

More pages, more keywords, and more traffic do not automatically create more sales.

In this bonus solo episode, Crystal shares a practical, purpose-driven SEO playbook for small businesses, Etsy sellers, and Shopify stores. You’ll learn how to create content that supports an actual business goal:

• helping the right customer discover your brand, 
• trust your product or service, choose the right product, 
• and complete checkout.

Using real examples from Collage and Wood, Crystal explains how she connects search demand, buying situations, category entry points, product organization, and original experience to turn online visibility into owned traffic and revenue.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• The four questions to answer before creating or optimizing a page
• The three jobs every page can perform: attract, build trust, or help someone choose
• Why keyword volume alone isn’t a good enough reason to create content
• How to connect search demand with a real customer, buying situation, and product
• What you can add to content that AI cannot recreate
• How category entry points help customers and search technologies understand your products
• Why connected topics are more valuable than a disconnected pile of keywords
• How videos, interviews, expert quotes, profiles, and original content create more opportunities for AI visibility
• The difference between rented reach and an owned business ecosystem
• How Crystal redirected Pinterest traffic from Etsy to Shopify
• How that strategy now helps her Shopify store generate approximately $5,000–$10,000 per month
• How to create a clear path from discovery to checkout

The Four Questions to Ask First

Before creating or optimizing a page, ask:

1. What do I want my business to be known for?
2. Who am I uniquely equipped to help?
3. What problem is this content helping them solve?
4. What should they understand, believe, or do next?

Every page should have a clear business purpose. It should attract the right person, build trust, help them choose—or intentionally support another step in the customer journey.

What Makes a Page Strategic?

A keyword is not enough.

A topic earns a place in your content plan when it connects:

Search demand + category entry point + product fit

For Collage and Wood, a page about senior night posters connects senior parents, coaches, and photographers with a specific buying situation: celebrating and recognizing a senior athlete. It then guides those customers toward the right product, such as a custom senior poster or photo collage number.

Add Something Only You Know

Original content doesn’t have to mean conducting academic research. It means contributing something that is genuinely yours, such as:

• A lesson from your business
• A screenshot from your process
• A mistake you made
• A repeated customer question
• A podcast guest’s insight
• A before-and-after example
• A verified result
• A practical opinion
• A helpful video that answers a buying question

AI can summarize widely available information, but it cannot recreate your lived experience, customer conversations, processes, and firsthand results.

Turn Rented Reach Into Owned Revenue

Etsy, Pinterest, YouTube, and social media can introduce new people to your business—but the goal is to direct that visibility toward assets you control:

• Your website
• Your email list
• Your customer relationships
• Your original content
• Your product and customer data

Crystal used Pinterest to generate traffic on Etsy, but Etsy displayed competing products alongside hers. By building a stronger Shopify destination, she created an owned customer journey that now captures Pinterest traffic and turns that visibility into consistent monthly revenue.

Join AI SEO School

If you’re an established Etsy or Shopify seller with sales and traction—but marketplace dependence, disconnected pages, or unclear product organization are limiting your growth—AI SEO School will help you build a clearer path from discovery to checkout.

Inside the school, you can keep improving your:

• Content strategy
• Collection pages
• Product pages
• Category entry points
• Product taxonomy and data
• AI and search visibility
• Customer journey from discovery to purchase

Join today and receive a seven-day free trial, including the Free Visibility Challenge:

👉🏽 https://AISEOSkool.com

Connect With Crystal

🌐 Simple and Smart SEO: https://simpleandsmartseo.com

🛍️ Collage and Wood: https://collageandwood.com

If this episode helped you rethink your content strategy, subscribe to the channel and share it with another small-business owner who wants SEO to produce more than traffic.

Text me your questions or comments!

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

Support the show

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 ...

Is the traditional content marketing playbook finally dead? 

In this episode of the Simple and Smart SEO Show, host Crystal Waddell sits down with tech and enterprise SEO strategist Will Soprano to unpack what modern search optimization actually looks like in the age of AI, multi-surface discovery, and decentralized channels. 

Will explains why he views SEO not as optimizing for an algorithm, but as building systems to help customers find your business and increase revenue. 

From managing SEO at an enterprise scale across dozens of properties to leveraging real editorial and human relationships over AI content farms, Will breaks down the tactical mindset shift every marketer and business owner needs to survive. 

Key Takeaways:

• The Shift from Search Engines to Customer Intent: Why treating SEO as direct revenue and customer communication beats traditional rank-chasing. 
• The Death of the Old Playbook: Why scaling generic AI content fails and how search discovery is shifting to a "Google AND..." multi-platform ecosystem (ChatGPT, Reddit, Wikipedia). 
• The Three Modern SEO Buckets: A breakdown of product-led SEO, progressive revelation, and high-impact editorial SEO. 
• Utility as Content: How programmatic tools (like interactive calculators) drive real user value and organic traffic. 
• Relationships as Your #1 SEO Strategy: Why genuine collaboration and publisher partnerships outshine paid placements and spammy link building. 
• The Multi-Surface SEO Mindset: Why SEOs need to bridge the silos between web, app, email, and social journeys to avoid leaking revenue. 

Connect with Will:

Linkedin

Website

Text me your questions or comments!

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

Support the show

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 ...

🌞 Summer Replay Series — A Simple & Smart SEO Show Throwback

Originally aired Season 3 • Host: Crystal Waddell • Guest: Julie Berninger, Gold City Ventures

We're pulling this one back out of the archives for the summer replay series, and for good reason. If you've ever wondered whether digital products could give you back some of your time (and your sanity), this conversation is the one to revisit.

Host Crystal Waddell sits down with Julie Berninger, co-founder of Gold City Ventures, who has helped over 15,000 students launch Etsy printable side hustles. Julie traces her path from climbing the corporate tech ladder (including nearly five years at Amazon) to building a business she actually loves — one built on printables, partnerships, and a whole lot of smart, empathy-driven SEO.

What makes this episode worth a second listen isn't just the tactics — though there are plenty. It's the mindset shift underneath them: stop treating competitors like threats, start using keyword research to find what nobody's selling yet, and always, always design for the human on the other side of the screen. As Crystal puts it, SEO and user experience aren't separate — they're two halves of the same customer journey.

Whether you sell physical products and want to dip into digital, or you're staring at a brand-new shop wondering how to land that first sale, press play. This one holds up.

🎯 What You'll Learn in This Episode

• The seasonal product strategy that helps new sellers get their first sale fast — and why you should build for a holiday two months out
• When to niche down vs. diversify your Etsy shop (Julie breaks it into three clear seller scenarios)
• Why group-gift buyers are gold — the bachelorette-party insight that changed how Julie thinks about target customers
• The copycat truth nobody tells you: why Julie's most-copied product is still her bestseller
• Etsy SEO for Google, including descriptions, alt tags, and the backlink strategy Etsy quietly rewards
• How to design for empathy — and why some "high-earning" products may not actually fit your life
• The video tip that beats fancy production every time

⏱️ Episode Chapters

• (00:00) Welcome to the world of digital products and Etsy
• (01:00) Julie's journey: from the corporate ladder to Etsy success
• (03:30) The power of partnerships — how Julie and her business partner Cody found their groove
• (06:00) Niche down or diversify? A framework for digital product sellers
• (08:00) The magic of seasonal products and targeting group gifts
• (12:00) The backlink strategy Etsy rewards (and how it helps you rank on Google)
• (14:00) Copycats, imitation, and protecting your work
• (20:00) How competition can actually create demand for what you sell
• (23:00) Keyword research: the secret to finding products nobody's selling yet
• (25:00) Why Julie invests in courses instead of Googling for 100 hours
• (26:00) Delivering digital products: Canva vs. Google Docs vs. flat PDFs
• (29:00) The legal side of Canva templates — and why "your brain" makes a better product
• (30:00) Etsy SEO insights: descriptions, alt tags, titles, and tags
• (31:00) Designing with empathy — the funeral keepsake that made Crystal pause
• (36:00) Does video really boost conversions? Julie's real experiments
• (38:00) Balancing SEO and the human experience
• (40:00) Where to find Julie and Gold City Ventures

💡 Key Takeaways

1. Start with seasonal products. Etsy shoppers are hunting for special occasions and specific people. Pick a holiday about two months out and make printables for it — the sales, views, and favorites signal to Etsy that your shop is worth showing.

2. Group gifts beat solo buyers. Julie's lightbulb moment: a feminist-tattoo shopper buys one. A bachelorette shopper buys 15–20. Look for customers who purchase in bulk for a group.

3. Diversify based on where you are. Making $50k+ a year in one niche? Open a second shop for printables instead of experimenting in your main one. Casual seller under $1k/month? You've got nothing to lose — diversify directly.

4. Copycats are less scary than they feel. Julie's most-exposed, most-copied product — a bachelorette scavenger hunt she's linked on a hundred podcasts — still sells best. Your real asset is the skill you build creating it. No one can copy your brain.

5. Competition can expand your market. More sellers googling "fun bachelorette party ideas" means more demand for the exact products you make. Sometimes imitation grows the whole pie.

6. Use keyword research to find gaps. Julie's best seller in recent years wasn't in her usual niche — it was something she found through keyword research and was the first to sell on Etsy. (Her one desert-island tool: eRank.)

7. Optimize for Google, not just Etsy. Etsy is essentially fronting the ad money to put your products in front of Google's massive audience — so make it easy for Google. Write full, detailed descriptions (materials, techniques, size) and use accurate alt tags that genuinely describe the item.

8. Match your product to your life. A tender, personalized funeral keepsake can sell beautifully — but it comes with urgent, emotionally heavy customer service. Before you chase a high-earning product, ask whether you can truly show up for that customer right now.

9. Design for humans, then optimize for search. A great product that can't be found won't sell — but a findable product that doesn't help people understand it won't either. Do both.

10. The right video beats a fancy one. A simple clip of a hand picking up a tag so buyers can see scale and detail will out-convert slick production every time. There's no secret hack — just show the product clearly.

🗣️ Standout Quotes

"You miss a hundred percent of the shots you don't take. So you've got to go for it." — Julie Berninger

"My most exposed product, the most copied product, still sells. So if you have the right strategy and your product is the best product, then you don't need

Text me your questions or comments!

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 aise

 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

PodMatch
PodMatch Automatically Matches Ideal Podcast Guests and Hosts For Interviews

Support the show

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 ...

Think Etsy is just for crafters and hobbyists? Think again. In this rerun, Crystal sits down with Etsy coach Monica Little, who grew her handmade skincare brand to multiple six figures and 5,000+ orders on Etsy before pivoting to help other small business owners do the same.

If you've ever listed a product on Etsy and waited for sales that never came, this episode is for you. Monica breaks down why simply being on Etsy isn't enough — and what "sophisticated selling" actually looks like when thousands of similar listings are competing for the same eyeballs.

Crystal and Monica also dig into something close to Crystal's heart right now: launching digital products. Etsy has quietly become the go-to marketplace for templates, guides, worksheets, and planners — the exact kind of SEO resources Crystal is preparing to sell — and Monica explains why the timing is so good.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why listing your products on Etsy doesn't automatically lead to sales — and what actually moves the needle
• Why Etsy is becoming the go-to marketplace for digital products (and why Amazon isn't)
• What "sophisticated selling" means: photos that stop the scroll, social proof, and evoking emotion over logic
• How to use every lever Etsy gives you — free shipping, discounts, Star Seller, and video — and when video is (and isn't) essential
• How to sell high-end products on Etsy (yes, even $350–$550 items) without competing on price
• Why racing to be the cheapest is a trap — and how to price with confidence instead
• Etsy SEO tips: using the search bar for keyword ideas, snooping on best-seller listings, and verifying keywords before you use them
• How many products you really need to gain traction (hint: it's far fewer than you've been told)
• Research tools like Everbee.io and eRank — and why Monica still swears by plain old Etsy searches

Whether you're an established seller who's been avoiding Etsy, a total beginner, or — like Crystal — getting ready to launch digital products, this conversation is packed with practical, do-the-work-and-stand-out strategy. As Monica puts it, this is the rise of "the dedicated business owner era."

Connect with Monica Little:

• Instagram: @monicalittlecoaching
• Free Etsy training — 3 marketing secrets to stand out: 
• Podcast: The Product Biz Podcast (catch Crystal's guest episode!)

Connect with Crystal & the show:

• Host: Crystal Waddell, Simple and Smart SEO Show
• Loved this episode? Leave a review and share it with a fellow maker or shop owner.

Text me your questions or comments!

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 aise

 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

PodMatch
PodMatch Automatically Matches Ideal Podcast Guests and Hosts For Interviews

Support the show

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 ...