SEO is one of those tasks that can quickly feel as if it’s never done, or the work is endless. Especially in some areas where there are relatively few benchmarks or easy ways to organize your SEO efforts. It’s also unfortunate but true that working mostly from a computer can lead to several distracting habits, like obsessively checking email or social media updates.
So where local SEO is concerned, how can you optimize your own habits and organization so that you’re conducting a streamlined and efficient SEO project? We’ve gathered several tips to get you working smarter, not harder, on your local SEO. They’re designed to improve your productivity, help you gain tangible and measurable results, and improve results for your business or your clients.
Compartmentalization is Key
Do you have a daily checklist? Monthly objectives to meet? In most cases, the answer is ‘no’, and that can be an immense drain on your efficiency. Having pared-down objectives and checklists gives you goals to reach! And since local SEO involves so many different tasks, it’s often easiest for one to break down those different tasks into specific objectives to meet, each with its own time block.
Once you assign each task a daily, weekly, or monthly time block, it’s a little easier to measure how much return you’re getting for your hourly investment. For example, time block your link building, your reputation protection, and your citation corrections. Often, the lapse into unproductive habits happens when all the tasks you’re given to complete in a day feel impossible; and if you know you can’t get it done, why not go at a more relaxed pace? Compartmentalizing elements of your local SEO campaign can help you stay focused.
Reduce Your Distractions
Distractions are everywhere; and the smallest distractions can easily de-rail your workflow! And believe it or not, most people have an average attention span of 15 minutes or less. But there are many different tricks you can use to reduce distractions and keep yourself focused on your SEO project. Listening to music is among the most effective, according to research on the subject. Having a clean workspace, giving yourself short scheduled mental breaks using the pomodoro method, and blocking the websites you often use for when you waste time from your browser are all very effective methods for staying on-task.
Use Apps To Manage Your Projects
Virtual solutions to help you manage your tasks are absolutely essential, and can not just help you streamline your SEO projects, but can help you with reporting and deadlines. There are many different free and paid iterations of mobile and web apps which help with project management, and ideally, they should focus on doing a few key things for you: centralizing any shared assets, like spreadsheets and files, send alerts about deadlines, and helping automate reports on progress.
Automating Routine Tasks
Wherever you can, you should automate as much work as possible. For example, instead of manually doing your social media cross-posting, outsource that to a program to save between ten and twenty minutes a post! Even content generation can be automated or outsourced to save time.
The Bottom Line
The internet is a well-known magnet for wasted time! And when you’re working on SEO, it’s easy to get distracted or to work inefficiently. Streamlining your local SEO projects by organizing the tasks you need to do, using apps to help you manage your time, and using techniques to reduce your distractions can all be powerful ways to help you stay on-task and under-deadline. You’ll be surprised how much time and energy you can save streamlining your local SEO efforts!
