The life of an SEO professional is difficult. And busy! There are so many things to be done within the framework of a day. Leaving out any of these SEO tasks may have an adverse effect on the optimization potential of a website or blog. Clients will not be happy and there will be repercussions, as they say!
The question is, what should be the priority of the tasks at hand? You need to know that. Otherwise, you might be busy propping up some unimportant part of the SEO front while neglecting a rather important point of customer interaction. Put very simply, this is like preparing for a busy day. You chalk out every single hour of the clock so that you touch upon the more important tasks ahead of the others.
In the SEO context, you have to work on tasks like rewriting the meta tags and descriptions of the website, taking care of the rich snippets and other dynamic URLS, along with other sundry jobs. External work requires you to check up the SEO presence of the website, attach integral links or talk to some influencers in order to get them to vote for your brand. All of this needs to be done!
The first tip that I will suggest, do not fly solo. Get a team of dedicated professionals and segregate duty. It is not possible for you to micro manage everything. Entrust segments to people who can do the job for you. Let them prioritize their tasks and get back to you. Ask them why they felt the need to prioritize this way. If their vision matches yours, go ahead with the list. Conversely, talk to them about what you feel and talk it through to a better list of priorities.
The big question that comes up next is, how do you know for yourself about the priorities among these SEO tasks? Here are some pointers that help me to set down my own list of to-dos.
The first question I ask myself is about the goals of the different projects at hand and decide about the most important SEO tasks. Not all of my clients have the same objective. Their time frames to achieve these goals are different as well. I map out a blueprint for myself about the goals to achieve against the time allotted for each of them. It ensures that I don’t end up devoting time to something that does not need immediate attention against a project that cannot wait a day.
I also try to map out my schedule over a period of time. It can be for 30 days up to a year for a long-term project. What I achieve through this map is a clear understanding of the days to come. I can step aside off fire-fighting programs that way. There is no panic in my conference room because the days are planned ahead and I try to cover every area of the tasks that require attention.
Respective team members know what they have to do. This is the next step that helps me immensely. I designate duty with a time stamp. When every team player has their own list of priorities, they all add up to meet mine! I take into account their time frames when mapping out my own. I cannot tell the SEO guy to schedule a website launch in a week when my web developer has asked for a fortnight to get the site ready! Sometimes, most actually, it is these little simplified tasks that make life so much easy.
Capturing the right metrics make up my fourth wall. I pencil in the metrics I need and how I’m going to get hold of that data. Individual team members are also asked to come up with their own metrics and sources of this data. We coalesce these metrics and decide on a date when we compare data with the rest of the team. When your projects meet smaller deadlines successfully, you can be assured of meeting the final big one!
Personally speaking, I think only you can decide your priorities as an SEO professional. Think of what is important to the website and the client. Your priorities will be decided by theirs.
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