How to prioritize your SEO investment efforts

Summary

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Episode Summary: “How to Prioritize Your SEO Investment Efforts”

Podcast: Voices of Search
Host: Tyson Stockton
Guest: Tom (Crowd)
Date: September 27, 2025

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Overview

This episode explores how to focus SEO investments, particularly when leveraging AI workflows, within a limited budget. Tyson Stockton talks with Tom from Crowd, who shares practical advice on prioritizing content creation and utilizing AI to maximize efficiency and impact in modern SEO strategies.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Top SEO Investment Priority: Content & AI

• Tom makes a clear recommendation:

  "Content, definitely content. I think brands that can execute more content in more places are going to be the brands that win in AI powered search experiences and become that differentiator."
  (00:57)

• Content stands as the foundational element to focus SEO resources, particularly as AI becomes more prevalent in powering search results.
• Brands must excel at creating useful, valuable, and strategically placed content to win in evolving search experiences.

2. How and Where to Integrate AI

• Tom emphasizes utilizing AI at the beginning of the content process, rather than for direct content creation.
  • Use AI for research, content briefs, and content audits:
    • Identifying whether to improve existing assets or create new ones
    • Structuring the website’s content (hub and spoke models, topical clusters)
  • AI streamlines efficiencies, but human expertise and experience remain critical:

    "Don't use it to handle full creation. I think demonstrat[ing] human experience and expertise in your content output is definitely now more valuable than ever."
    (01:37)

3. Balancing Content Velocity with Strategic Value

• Tyson summarizes Tom’s approach:

  "It sounds like a core fundamental in your strategy or process is accepting this reality of we need to increase our velocity and output of content for our footprint on the web, regardless of on site or off."
  (02:09)

• Tom agrees, but cautions not to create content for its own sake:

  "Making sure that you're not creating content for the sake of creating it, but it does have utility, it does have value."
  (02:38)

• Importance of understanding influential sources and how they inform AI-driven search:
  • Know which sources have trained large language models
  • Use this knowledge for PR and partnership strategies

4. Efficiency & Deliberate Action

• Move quickly to expand your digital footprint, but always with intentionality and strategy.
• Tom’s closing reinforcement:

  "Move faster, move quicker, but be deliberate and be strategic in that placement."
  (03:09)

  • Tom’s affirmation:

    "100%."
    (03:16)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On content as priority:

  "Brands that can execute more content in more places are going to be the brands that win in AI powered search experiences and become that differentiator."
  (00:59) — Tom

• On AI’s role:

  "Use [AI] to help you build content briefs, identify what you can improve versus what you need to create net new..."
  (01:10) — Tom

• On balancing speed and strategy:

  "Move faster, move quicker, but be deliberate and be strategic in that placement."
  (03:09) — Tyson/Tom

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Timestamped Key Segments

• 00:43 — Main question: Where to prioritize SEO efforts with limited budget and AI integration?
• 00:57 – 01:47 — Tom’s answer: Prioritize content, use AI to improve efficiency in content research and structuring.
• 02:09 – 02:54 — Discussion on balancing content velocity with utility and understanding influential sources.
• 03:09 – 03:16 — Closing summary: Move quickly, but strategically.

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Conclusion

If you can only invest in one area of SEO with AI workflows and a limited budget, prioritize content, especially at the research and planning stages. Leverage AI for efficiency, but always pair it with human expertise, ensuring content is valuable and thoughtfully placed. Expand quickly but strategically—velocity and strategy are non-negotiable in today’s AI-driven SEO landscape.

Transcript

[A]

The Voices of Search Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast, I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice then visit iheareverything.com welcome to the Voices of Search Podcast. A member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network, ready to expedite your company's organic growth efforts. Sit back, relax and get ready for your daily dose of search engine optimization wisdom. Here's today's host of the Voices of Search Podcast, Tyson Stockton.

[B]

Final question is a toss up and with this we want to know, if you're working with a limited budget and you need to invest in one aspect of SEO to implement AI workflows, what would you prioritize and why?

[C]

Content, definitely content. I said I think brands that can execute more content in more places are going to be the brands that win in AI powered search experiences and become that differentiator. So I would prioritize invest in budget that helps you deliver on that statement and I would invest that budget at the start of the process around, you know, research using it to, you know, help you build content briefs, using it to help identify what you can improve versus what you need to create net new using it to help you structure not just individual content pieces but how that sits on on the website. You know, think about hub and spoke models, topical clustering. I think all of those things are areas where you can use AI in order to help, you know, make you more efficient in that process. Don't use it to handle full creation. I think demonstra human experience and expertise in your content output is definitely now more valuable than error ever. But content would be the area and the start of that content process is where I would lean in AI workflows.

[B]

And it sounds like a core fundamental in your strategy or process is accepting this reality of we need to increase our velocity and output of content for our footprint on the web, regardless of on site or off. And so it feels like one of the core pieces that you're looking to solve for then is that velocity and output and then where can you use this to kind of empower and enable that?

[C]

Yeah, yeah, 100%. And knowing where, you know, making sure that you're not creating content for the sake of creating it, but it does have, it does have utility, it does have value and then also making sure you understand all of the influential sources around your category, around your brand that have been used to train the large language models and are appearing in these powered search experiences to then hand off into kind of like, you know, the PR and the partnership conversations.

[B]

Yeah, it's move faster, move quicker, but be deliberate and be strategic in that placement.

[C]

100%.

[B]

Well with that, that's going to wrap up this episode of the Voice of Search podcast. Thanks again to Tom from Crowd for joining us. If you'd like to contact Tom and find out more about him, be sure to check out his LinkedIn profile in our show notes or also check out his company's [e-mail] be sure to go over there and check out some of the things that mentioned in this episode like the Search Anywhere product as well as the brand AI. And if you haven't subscribed yet and would like a daily stream of SEO and content marketing, be sure to hit that subscribe button on your podcast app or on YouTube and we'll be back in your feed in the next following day. Now with that, that's all for today. Thanks for stopping by and we'll see you in the next episode.