How to use your time effectively for small SEO tasks to become more visible. Four steps to success.

In our fast-changing digital world, there is often little time for SEO. If you only have a few hours a month to optimize your project on the SEO side, you should use this time effectively. Distribute the small time budget you have over the month with the following 4 steps:

Step 1: Planning the times

A very important step, which is often neglected, is the scheduling. Sound preparation is not only immensely important in SEO. Get a calendar and enter the days when you’re in charge of SEO.

If you want to invest 90 minutes a month in SEO, start with one hour at the beginning of the month. The remaining 30 minutes will be distributed over the next three weeks.

Step 2: Mapping

In the first step you create a table with your most important keywords. Between 50 and 100 keywords should be on your list. Afterwards you check the rankings for the keywords and assign the ranked URLs in a new column. If there is no content for relevant keywords yet, add the column “still to be created” to the table.

With the finished list you get a good impression of the effort and you can better plan your next tasks. Prioritizing the list according to urgency helps you with planning.

Step 3: Check before publishing

Creating content does not fall into the SEO time budget. Before you publish new content, you should take a moment to answer the following questions:

• Is the content designed for my main keyword?
• Does the content contain 2-3 related keywords?
• Is the keyword included in the title?
• Is the description formulated in an appealing way?
• Does the content answer the questions of the users?
• Does the content also answer further questions?

Step 4: Content optimization

Thirty minutes isn’t much. For this reason, these minutes should be used as effectively as possible. Therefore, try one of the following four approaches to your content:

• Sharing: Share content with your potential audience and get feedback. For example, from your partner, friends or experts in the respective field.
• New Content: Expand your content to rank related keywords.
• Low-Hanging-Fruits: Update your content to bring relevant keywords forward.
• Link building: Share your content on networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Forums or even Xing.

Conclusion

SEO is usually very time-consuming. Success can be achieved through the right approach. However, the focus should be on the interaction of all online marketing disciplines.