How do you manage your work & time in SEO?

All of the answers below are related to small & medium business clients, so my answers won't be as relevant for in-house SEOs, e-commerce, or enterprise / corporate level SEO. At this time, our SEO clients are on packages ranging from 8-25 hours per month. There are two of us working full-time at http://www.hoodwebmanagement.com and we pull in specialists as contractors when needed, which allows us to stay small and flexible but still offer a breadth of services without the overhead of a specialist employee in every area - so my answers will also vary from larger agencies serving small businesses. How do you allocate your time? What do you focus most of your efforts on when you are working on SEO? Of the time spent on client work - upfront time is spent fixing onsite issues. For some clients this takes a month. For other clients it's never-ending. We're focused on essentials here - head terms on the correct pages, title tags, fixing duplicating content and crawl issues, etc. Once we finish up with the "once-and-done" tasks we focus our efforts on link building and content creation. In my opinion, that's the best return on time spent for most of my clients. Mindlessly tweaking title tags after the initial keyword research is not time well spent, when we could be building up their authority and branding. We're typically talking about sites with a DA of 0-30 up against sites with a DA of 30-60, so we need to get them into a competitive range before we spend time doing minor onsite changes. Occasionally we'll work with a client who already has a better link profile than their competitors. In that case, we'll have a heavier focus on onsite changes, content generation and link building to support that content, and targeting new keywords that we don't already have a footprint in. Regarding balance of client time vs business time: My personal time as the business owner is probably 20-30+ hours per week of business development and management, and 20 hours of client work. When it was just me working solo, that was the same and I relied on contracted specialists for extra coverage. As we grow, my goal is for team members to spend roughly 60-80% of their time on billable client work, and the rest of their time on company content development and process improvement. I'm very interested to hear how this compares to the expectations that larger agencies set for their employees. I haven't found a "guide" that discusses these considerations, so I weigh feedback from other people in the industry with what makes sense for our business model. What tools do you use to keep on task and to manage your workflow? (from pen and paper to a task management software). How do you track your time spent? for internal communication/documentation, ongoing tasks, and planning of to-do items that will take longer than the same day for keeping track of campaign progress and keyword rankings (not our primary metric but we report it for a few head terms for each client). for tracking and reporting link building progress. for time tracking, invoicing, and broad reporting of all time spent on a client for the month. for company file-sharing. (I tried a number of other solutions that were cheaper per GB - none of them were good at instant file syncing, which Dropbox excels at.) For daily To-Do lists, I've got a yellow legal pad that sit in front of me all day and gets covered in notes and doodles. I start a new page of the legal pad every couple days. To-do items that will be done within 1 day aren't entered into Basecamp - it makes no sense. They just go on the paper to-do list for the day and go into the Freshbook notes if it's time billed to the client. What tools do you use or recommend and what do you use them for? (example: SEOmoz's OSE) In addition to the tools mentioned above, we use these other paid tools: : We mostly use SEOMoz for the keyword difficulty tool (both for client communication as well as our own estimates) and Open Site Explorer. We used to use SEOMoz for client reporting but for our reporting style and client volume, it made more sense to keep our SEOMoz account at the base level and switch campaign tracking to Raven which allows unlimited clients and more keywords than we need. This also allows us to get the Majestic data that we need via Raven without a paid Majestic account. We use a ton of other tools on an occasional basis, but the tools above are the ones we use most workdays. We use paid tools like Buzzstream and Link Prospector as needed but not always on a weekly basis. How do you allocate your time for personal branding and company branding? What do you prefer to do in that branding time? (company or personal) As often as I can, so long as client work is on track for the month. Of branding time, it's split between industry and client-facing. For example, if I  write an extensive article about a link building method (aside from 101-level) that is industry-facing and I may put it on our site, or I may use it as a guest post. If I write an article about basic small business marketing, that is client-facing and gets hosted on our own website. They serve a different focus and both are effective in different ways. We're small enough that personal branding and company branding is largely overlapping, so that question is better suited for someone working for a larger agency. For the majority of this spare time / marketing time / branding time, I try to be helpful. Answering SEOMoz Q&A questions, writing blog posts, helping people on Twitter, etc. I suppose it's the consulting version of the model. I like to give time and knowledge freely in order to attract new clients. This applies offline, too, such as giving free presentations to the local chamber of commerce (actionable presentations - not just sales pitches). Overall it's focused on inbound marketing rather than outbound sales.

How do you allocate your time? What do you focus most of your efforts on when you are working on SEO? At this present moment in time I spend about 30-35 hours per week on client work and 15-20 hours a week http://seoroi.com/case-studies/chris-dyson-on-the-business-of-seo-consulting-learning-prospecting-partnering-client-expectations-and-more/. I work predominantly with eCommerce clients and therefore spend a lot of my time working on on-site issues such as duplicate content and poor IA. I also spend time deep in keyword research, optimising titles, product descriptions, implementing changes to the site and testing (CRO/UX) e.g. improving checkout processes I also perform my own outreach campaigns and use freelance writers and designers to assist with developing content for linkable assets. Each client is different and therefore I could not say I spent more time on on-site performance or link building as it really depends on the maturity of the website and client I am working with. What tools do you use to keep on task and to manage your workflow? How do you track your time spent? http://spinlessplates.com/  - is what I use for managing my quotes, invoicing and basic business reporting. It’s very affordable for freelancers at only £20 ($30) per month and saves me a lot of time. I also use it for planning in my daily work and tracking time spent on tasks. http://evernote.com/ – pretty much runs my entire personal and working life from blog drafts, to notes and my to do list. https://gomockingbird.com/ - I use this if I am wire framing a new site or planning infographics with my designer. It’s great as we can work on the same project in real time and it’s very affordable. http://www.baydin.com/boomerang4gmail/– obviously with carrying out my own outreach campaigns I will send lots of emails to webmasters/bloggers, so I really like this free Gmail tool, which reminds me to chase people up if they don’t respond in a timely fashion. What tools do you use or recommend and what do you use them for? I use most of the well known SEO analysis tools e.g. SEOmoz (OSE, Followerwonk) but I also utilise lots of tools that many people may not know much about such as Chase The Footprint for link prospecting. I’ve written up a fairly http://tripleseo.com/free-seo-tools/ I have used on my blog. I really don’t believe in paying for lots of expensive SEO or link building tools when I can often build something for myself or if there is something cheaper out there. How do you allocate your time for personal branding and company branding? What do you prefer to do in that branding time? I am self-employed therefore my personal and company branding are intrinsically linked. However, it’s important to remember that “people buy from people” and therefore you shouldn’t ever sacrifice your personal brand. I generally split my “branding” time up with online and offline activities. I enjoy interacting on Social Media and helping other people with queries or perhaps brainstorming ideas. I have my own small blog and love it if I have time to write for it. I contribute to small business and social media blogs as I find it’s a great way to offer advice, find new clients and improve the perception of the SEO industry with other communities. I generally don’t write for the “big SEO” blogs as I don’t want to be just another voice in the industry echo chamber. I also attend some local B2B networking groups and have an effective referral network.

Cloning... I simply clone myself in order to keep up with everything. Seriously though, a good Internet marketer is never caught up! One thing that helps is being able to delegate work. If you can delegate effectively it will change your life and your business. Of course alot of hard work goes into getting people around you to the point where you can trust them and can delegate things to them and trust that they'll be done well and in a timely fashion.

How do you allocate your time? To be honest, I don't. I believe allocating time is a waste of time. On the other hand, I do plan out my GTDs for the day. The tool I use for this is http://Wunderlist.com (the best task management tool out there) What do you focus most of your efforts on when you are working on SEO? Link building. This is because link building is the best time:results work for our clients. Other smaller tasks include keyword research, optimizing web pages and other technical SEO stuff. What tools do you use to keep on task and to manage your workflow? (from pen and paper to a task management software) http://Reporb.com. It helps us take all our client orders, clients data entry work, project management and SEO reporting. Previously, we used Excel but we found out that we were wasting a lot of time with it when we found out this solution. What tools do you use or recommend and what do you use them for? (example: SEOmoz's OSE) As mentioned above, Reporb (for client management), Wunderlist (for task management), BuzzStream (for link outreach) and BuzzBundle (for reputation management) How do you track your time spent? I don't. Our SEO agency don't. We measure our work by the results we get for our clients. Not the time spent. Any other notes you may have on how you manage your workload. Yes, to anyone doing manual routine stuff. Automate them. You're going to save a lot of time and headaches in your work. Our SEO agency have basically automated 70% of our daily routine work and I'm proud to save we're more efficient than 90% of the SEO agencies out there.

How do you allocate your time? Most of my time is devoted to communication, business development and answering client questions by phone, email or BaseCamp throughout the day. I've taken on more and more of the business development/client services position at my company. We manage quick onsite optimization sprints in an effort to get the most onsite work completed in the shortest amount of time as onsite seems to yield less importance nowadays and it should really be out of the way before anything else begins. We then spend the most time on discovering content marketing opportunities and link development opportunities. Educating clients on social is very effective for offsite as it's something they can manage while you guide the results. What do you focus most of your efforts on when you are working on SEO? Strategy and Process. Neither of those terms typically need caps but I feel they're highly underrated in the SEO industry. The strategy is important and I've always felt at least a strategy gives you a plan to abandon, and a platform to be resourceful from when things start to break. We spend a little more time on initial critical thought and then our execution time is cut dramatically with very high results on the other end. I think of Abraham Lincoln with his quote "If given 6 hours to chop down a tree I'll spend the first 4 sharpening the axe". This meditative state allows your strategic and logical mental faculties to ruminate over an idea and then your overall execution is like that of a ninja once you get to work, already knowing how to respond to any pitfall before it appears. The process for execution of your strategy then is always unique for each client. It may come across as sloppy and reinventing the wheel every time but that's why you need tools and resources to allow your process to be both flexible and scale simultaneously. For what we do, one cookie cutter approach will not deliver the best results. Instead we systematize accounting, invoicing, project management, communication, technical assessments, marketing outreach, resource gathering, implementation techniques, etc. We're then able to customize every plan so each client get's the best fit for their dollar and the best overall marketing ROI. What tools do you use to keep on task and to manage your workflow? (from pen and paper to a task management software) BaseCamp HighRise FreshBooks Raven SEOmoz BuzzStream HootSuite Apple Reminders Google Drive Mac Everything (legitimate fanboys over here) What tools do you use or recommend and what do you use them for? (example: SEOmoz's OSE) SEOmoz OSE ;) SEOmoz pro Screaming Frog (mac) FireFox (for the amazing old-school effective-ass extensions) Tamper Data - an oldy but a goody for quickly seeing what a home URL is up to, etc. Web Dev Toolbar - another oldy but it allows you to check the page with JS disabled, CSS disabled for menu images, etc. FireBug - good for Chrome too How do you track your time spent? We use BaseCamp for PM but eon for specific time management. How do you allocate your time for personal branding and company branding? Haven't ever really done this right. When I first started the business I spent 90% of my time on my own site, now I spend less than 10% and business is booming. We're trying to figure out a good process for keeping the new site fresh and up-to date as well as keeping new prospects in the loop on what we're up to. We'll be focusing more time and effort on blogging and email campaigns for the business as well as basic social in Twitter and Google+. What do you prefer to do in that branding time? (company or personal) Twitter stuffs. It's nice to research the industry and grab the best of the best and either a) rewrite it or revamp it and distribute or b) share if it's sensational i.e. 80% of SEOmoz articles, http://inbound.org, etc. Any other notes you may have on how you manage your workload. Dependence on other linchpins cannot be overstated. In Seth Godin's book Linchpin he discusses the importance of businesses relying on humans to do work for humans. In a culture fraught with technological conveniences and systems designed to remove the human element it becomes very refreshing to deal with a real human from time to time. Especially when all the most public and apparent actions in a company are met with a knowledgeable, flexible, hard-working and well-paid, well-respected individual on the giving end. Someone who can make an immediate executive decision on behalf of his/her executive. Someone who can think for the company and is given the authority and the resources to do so. Trust in an intimate relationship can only be broken and respected if it is truly given and shared. If you don't trust your team to do what you need them to do how they need to do it then then they don't have any trust to break and your business will become a bitter and toxic place to work.

I will make this simple for you. Tracking Time - Look no further than Toggl. Manage Workflow - I've switched from a heavy system like Basecamp to simply using Trello boards to manage my projects. Trello is awesome. I manage my task list in Trello and document all time in Toggl. The final step is to bill clients. I was a big fan of Freshbooks but nothing beats Quickbooks Online, my personal favorite for managing invoices and accounting. The rest of the topics have been covered quite well by others.

I use to track my time in combination with the task management software my client prefers. Most of the time it's either Trello or Asana. What I like about Hubstaff is that it lets me track time per client, project, and at a task level. Often, especially if the working relationship is new, I'll turn on the screenshot capture and productivity measuring features so that the client can see that I've been working diligently on their projects. This helps create a lot of trust early on in the working relationship. If I have other contractors on my team working on the same project, I also have them use Hubstaff too, because it helps me spot problems before they get out of control. I bill for any time spent on the project, including phone calls or other meetings - it's time that's being used to move the project forward, even if it is 100% communication and little action. At the end of the month, I use Hubstaff as my invoicing tool - all my time is compiled into an easy to export timesheet, which my clients will pay via PayPal. Check it out! https://hubstaff.com/ As for personal branding vs. corporate, I consider the former to be work for myself - it's part of marketing myself, expanding my network, etc. Corporate branding gets billed because it's done for the client - that's time you could have otherwise used on another project or for yourself.

How do you allocate your time? Most of my time is devoted to communication, business development and answering client questions by phone, email or BaseCamp throughout the day. I’ve taken on more and more of the business development/client services position at my company. We manage quick onsite optimization sprints in an effort to get the most onsite work completed in the shortest amount of time as onsite seems to yield less importance nowadays and it should really be out of the way before anything else begins. We then spend the most time on discovering content marketing opportunities and link development opportunities. Educating clients on social is very effective for offsite as it’s something they can manage while you guide the results. What do you focus most of your efforts on when you are working on SEO? Strategy and Process. Neither of those terms typically need caps but I feel they’re highly underrated in the SEO industry. The strategy is important and I’ve always felt at least a strategy gives you a plan to abandon, and a platform to be resourceful from when things start to break. We spend a little more time on initial critical thought and then our execution time is cut dramatically with very high results on the other end. I think of Abraham Lincoln with his quote “If given 6 hours to chop down a tree I’ll spend the first 4 sharpening the axe”. This meditative state allows your strategic and logical mental faculties to ruminate over an idea and then your overall execution is like that of a ninja once you get to work, already knowing how to respond to any pitfall before it appears. The process for execution of your strategy then is always unique for each client. It may come across as sloppy and reinventing the wheel every time but that’s why you need tools and resources to allow your process to be both flexible and scale simultaneously. For what we do, one cookie cutter approach will not deliver the best results. Instead we systematize accounting, invoicing, project management, communication, technical assessments, marketing outreach, resource gathering, implementation techniques, etc. We’re then able to customize every plan so each client get’s the best fit for their dollar and the best overall marketing. Source : http://www.w3schools.com/html/synqk.com

I just created our SEO strategy workflow with http://gliffy.com and I use the Link manager, and CRM tools with http://Raventools.com to keep track of my efforts.