If you’re thinking about getting into SEO or are just wondering what an SEO does all day, what you think they do compared to what they actually do is probably wildly different.
They’re not just typing in random keywords all day or looking at SEO tools. Although this is part of SEO (slightly), there’s a lot more to it. And because of this, SEOs have quite a variety of things to do each day.
The Role of an SEO Specialist
Before we get into the day in the life of an SEO specialist, it’s probably best to go over their role. This will help you understand their life a little bit better.
Essentially, an SEO is responsible for improving a website’s visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). This includes all aspects of a website, including its on-page, off-page, and technical SEO.
They focus on these areas to increase the likelihood that you rank for specific keywords. For example, if you own a cat food business, an SEO professional can help you rank for keywords like “Best cat food”, “Dry cat food”, etc., to bring you clicks from your target audience.
Key Responsibilities and Tasks
| Responsibility | Tasks |
| Keyword Research and Analysis | – Conduct in-depth research to find relevant keywords.- Analyse search volume, competition, and relevance.- Identify long-tail keywords for optimisation. |
| On-Page Optimisation | – Optimise meta titles, descriptions, headers, and image alt tags.- Use internal linking to guide readers through the site.- Structure content for readability and keyword relevance. |
| Content Strategy Development | – Develop content plans aligning with keywords and business goals.- Collaborate with writers for SEO-friendly content briefs.- Monitor and update existing content as needed. |
| Technical SEO | – Run audits to identify and fix site issues (broken links, duplicate content, etc.).- Ensure site crawlability and indexability with developers.- Improve site speed, mobile responsiveness, and user experience. |
| Link Building | – Develop strategies to acquire high-quality backlinks.- Identify guest posting opportunities.- Build relationships with industry sites and influencers. |
| Competitor Analysis | – Analyse competitor websites and SEO strategies.- Identify potential opportunities and market gaps.- Use insights to adjust SEO tactics. |
| Performance Monitoring and Reporting | – Track rankings, traffic, and other KPIs.- Use Google Analytics, Search Console, and SEO software for reporting.- Prepare regular performance reports for stakeholders. |
| Staying Updated on SEO Trends | – Keep up with algorithm updates and industry news.- Refine strategies based on trends and guidelines. |
| Local SEO (if applicable) | – Optimise for local searches and manage Google My Business.- Target location-based keywords and optimise for nearby searches. |
| Collaboration Across Departments | – Work with marketing, design, content, and development teams to align SEO goals.- Communicate technical requirements and support content and UX strategies. |
Essential Skills and Qualifications
An SEO specialist must be highly skilled in their craft, with a solid understanding of search algorithms and best practices for ranking. Additionally, they must keep up-to-date with changes to these algorithms and adjust their strategies accordingly.
Good communication skills are also necessary, as SEO specialists often work with writers, developers, and designers to implement a comprehensive marketing plan. Flexibility, creativity, and the ability to analyse and interpret data are all vital skills for the job.
Alongside this, an SEO specialist needs a strong understanding of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Experience with various SEO tools such as Google Analytics and SEMrush is also beneficial.
As you can see, the role of an SEO specialist is complex, requiring a combination of technical, analytical, and creative skills to succeed.
Morning Routine of an SEO Specialist
Starting the day on the right foot is essential for any SEO specialist. Every SEO specialist should really be diving into performance metrics in the morning. They should be looking at any news for their industry as well as the SEO industry.
Checking SEO News
SEO is always changing, so a lot of SEOs, including myself, look at SEO news first thing in the morning. It enables us to stay updated with the latest updates and trends, which helps us make decisions throughout the day.
There are tons of websites you can use to get SEO news from. Some popular options include sources like the Search Engine Journal, Moz, and Google’s official updates. If you’re in a specific field, for instance, finance, then checking news around the industry is beneficial.
Reviewing Performance Metrics
After catching up with the news, an SEO specialist can then dive into the website’s performance from the previous day or week. Some areas they check are traffic volume, bounce rate, engagement levels, conversion, etc.
The reason we do this after checking the news is that it can explain some traffic increases or decreases. We can then use the performance metrics and latest news to change or keep our existing strategy.
Some tools that SEO may look at include SEO-specific tools like SEMRush or Ahrefs and reporting tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics. They may also check other tools depending on their goals and KPIs, such as CMS’s, etc.
Prioritising Tasks and Setting Goals
Using the data from the performance review and the news updates, we can then draft a list of tasks for the day, week, month, year, etc. It depends on the goal of the day and where we are in the strategy.
We create this list and then prioritise it. With SEO, you can have a million and one different things to do. You can’t do all of them. Therefore, we usually use a prioritising system to ensure we first hit the most important tasks.
High and Low-Priority Task Examples
| High-Priority SEO Tasks | Low-Priority SEO Tasks |
| Fix Crawl Depth Issues | Conduct Seasonal Keyword Research |
| Resolve Status Errors (404, 500, etc.) | Update Alt Text for Older Images |
| Address Keyword Cannibalisation | Optimise Meta Descriptions for Low-Traffic Pages |
| Create New, High-Quality Content | Check for Broken Internal Links |
| Optimise Title Tags and Meta Descriptions | Add Schema Markup for Non-Critical Pages |
| Improve Page Load Speed | Submit Site to Additional Directories |
| Implement Mobile Optimisation | Optimise for Voice Search Keywords |
| Optimise Header Tags and On-Page Elements | Review and Update Low-Impact Backlinks |
| Set Up and Configure Google Analytics/Search Console | Create Additional Social Media Profiles |
| Enhance Internal Linking Structure | Optimise for Featured Snippets |
Mid-Morning Routine of an SEO Specialist
With the morning setup complete, SEOs can then focus on keyword research and competitor analysis. This phase involves gathering insight into search terms, SERP intent, and competitor tactics to change, build, or continue with an SEO strategy.
Identifying Target Keywords
Keyword research isn’t what a lot of people think it is. It’s not just guessing what keyword will perform. Most of the time, SEOs have to work within a budget. Therefore, their job is to pick the best keywords to target. Keywords that’ll actually drive an ROI.
For example, let’s say you own a glow stick company. You’ll have a selection of keywords you can target. To name a few, “Where to buy glow sticks” and “Are glow sticks safe for children”. Both keywords are related to the industry, but depending on your goals, the keywords you choose to target will change.
The reason is because of intent. If your goal is to produce more top-of-funnel content, “Are glow sticks safe for children”. If the goal is to drive more sales, bottom-of-funnel content is more ideal, for instance, “Where to buy glow sticks”. As you can see, both keywords hold value, but the value is different.
This is just one factor they look at as well. They look at search volume, keyword difficulty, type of content required, keyword CPC, the budget required to create the content, etc.
Analysing Competitor Strategies
Competitor analysis can teach us a lot. It can teach us what to do and what not to do from an SEO perspective. As SEOs, we should keep tabs on our competitors to learn from them. Some areas we look at consist of competitor keywords, site structure, content strategy, backlink profiles, etc.
Reviewing Content for SEO Opportunities
Alongside the above, we may perform a site audit (or already have one created). We can then look for “quick fixes” that can generate fast results.
For example, on a site audit, we may see some keyword cannibalisation in our meta tags. If that’s the case, we could fix this now. If a website is ranking in the top 15 and is getting keyword cannibalised by an unimportant page, fixing this could actually bring us to the top 10.
Again, let’s say we have duplicate content on a few pages, and one of them ranks in the top 15. If we get rid of the other duplicate content, the page ranking in the top 15 will probably climb some ranks.
Afternoon Routine of an SEO Specialist
After doing analysis and some research in the morning, SEOs usually spend time collaborating with other team members and implementing fixes.
Collaborating with Content Creators
Though content is a big part of SEO, not all SEOs write content. It just isn’t time efficient. It can take hours just to write one landing page or blog post. Instead of wasting time here, they could be spending time on more important tasks.
They may collaborate with more than just writers as well. It depends on their set of skills and the scale of the operation. They may collaborate with web developers, graphic designers, videographers, etc. Whatever is needed to create quality content or to maintain a website’s health.
Optimising On-Page SEO Elements
Once the content is drafted, the SEO specialist can perform on-page SEO. This involves reviewing and optimising page titles, headers, meta descriptions, etc., targeting a specific keyword.
The specialist can also check another on-page SEO element, such as internal linking structure, ensuring that pages link to each other correctly. They can also fix other internal-linking-based issues like crawlability.
Outreach and Relationship Building
Backlinks play an important role in SEO. Some SEOs, including myself, suggest that backlinks are 60% of the work. Target, high-quality backlinks can increase your rankings tenfold, making them incredibly important.
An important part of claiming backlinks, however, is through outreach and networking. When nobody knows you, it’s hard to get backlinks. However, if you’re well-known, getting backlinks is a breeze, making relationship building an important part of SEO.
Monitoring Backlink Profiles
Backlinks are important, but they need to be healthy. There can’t be too many poor-quality links. Otherwise, search engines will look at them as “spammy”, resulting in poor website performance.
A healthy backlink profile should have a variety of high-quality links from reputable sources. The hyperlink text should also be varied and natural. Too many backlinks with the same hyperlink text look unnatural, and search engines will look at this suspiciously.
Because of this, SEOs look to maintain a healthy backlink profile. This may involve getting more links, disavowing links, or requesting websites to change their hyperlink text to something else.
Late Afternoon Routine of an SEO Specialist
As the day winds down, an SEO specialist commonly reflects on what works well and where challenges were encountered. This may not happen every day but over a build-up of days or weeks.
Setting up for the Next Day
With the day’s work nearly complete, the specialist sets their priorities for the next day. This allows them to “hit the ground running” as soon as they clock in tomorrow.
What they prioritise depends on the website and the strategy. However, it could be to plan new content, review content from the writer, do an SEO audit, check the status of another ongoing project, do outreach for backlinks, etc.
Reflecting on SEO Wins and Challenges
Reflection is almost always overlooked as a “tedious” task, however, it’s an important part of an SEO routine. If you don’t sit back and reflect, sometimes opportunities can get missed, and challenges can arise. Therefore, SEOs usually take some time out of their day to understand the valuable insights they gathered from the day.
Final Word
In summary, the life of an SEO specialist is diverse and heavily focused on analysis, research, communication, and creativity. The role requires a solid understanding of search algorithms, expertise in keyword research, and good communication and analytical skills. The work never stops, but seeing the positive results of a well-executed campaign makes it all worth it for these professionals in the industry.
