Most seasoned SEOs are no stranger to adaptation. It seems like every day something drastic changes and we’re forced to adjust our strategies to the ever-moving target that is the Google algorithm. Our minds and our strategies are always evolving, expanding, and seeking to innovate.
However, any SEO worth his or her salt also knows that there are certain processes that form the foundation of any strategy, the kind of backbone that breeds the creativity and flexibility agile SEO requires. Your average SEO process is going to include keyword research, competitive analysis, and some form of linkbuilding. Your most successful SEOs will have harnessed the art of process to prioritize proven techniques and eliminate those that do not produce results.
Having recently finished reading The Checklist Manifesto for our company book club, I was reminded of the sheer simplicity of the checklist and how it helps increase efficiency and reduce oversight. A checklist reminds us to honor our formal process and helps us to avoid neglecting basic, foundational elements upon which our creative process is built. The Process Strategy Template document, which is available here on Google Docs (just make a copy or download to edit), is an organizational tool I developed to combine the convenience of a checklist with the luxury of a calendar.
A brief overview of the major points of the Process Strategy Template:
- Never forget a formal process element again as the document provides a consistent and replicable project plan that is guaranteed to include all static action items.
- After you complete the fields for our initial attributes, the Process Strategy Template automatically generates deliverable dates as well as the corresponding person responsible for that milestone based on those attributes.
- Deliverable dates are determined based on the Kickoff date of the project or any specific deliverable that serves as a prerequisite, whichever is more appropriate.
- Final process flowchart may be used to populate milestones in a preferred project management software, such as Basecamp, or as a static deliverable or internal project plan.
How Does it Work?
“Excel to the rescue” was not a phrase I ever expected to hear after my first (and last) MIS class back in college…let alone one that I’d find myself using with almost embarrassing frequency. The Process Strategy Template uses a relatively simple collection of Excel formulas to populate, structure and format our flowchart. In fact, this can be applied to any structured process (I’m currently working on an alternate version that sets a timeline for wedding planning, just to explore new ways to apply this tool!).
Below is a brief explanation of each of the primary formulas so that you may adjust the template to meet your own timelines and needs.
Note: For each of the template fields, you will notice that each formula begins with =IF(ISBLANK($xx$xx),””, This is done purely for formatting reasons so that the cells do not return an error message when the initial attributes are not populated.
Deliverable Date
One of the hardest things when kicking off an SEO project is making sure that not only are all milestones completed in a timely fashion but also that they are prioritized to foster efficiency. Using this template, milestone deliverable dates are populated by calculating the number of days that have elapsed since Kickoff (or any prerequisite milestone) which are set individually in each cell.
As you’ll see below, each of these deliverable date formulas is structured based on work days rather than simply raw number of days. This is hugely helpful because it automatically keeps your milestones off weekends, which may not matter to you internally if you plan to work weekends but it will prevent you from assigning client milestones to weekends.
The formula to populate due dates is incredibly straightforward. Simply indicate the prerequisite date ($R$4 in the example below, which refers to the Kickoff Date in our example) and the number of work days to elapse from that pre-req date (20 work days). Remember, we’re using the WORKDAY formula – 1 week is 5 days.
The cool part here is that you can also set your deliverable date to be before your prerequisite due date. For example, if you know you need to send your Discovery Questionnaire one week in advance of the Kickoff Date, simply include a negative number of work days to elapse, which will adjust the deliverable date backwards.
Person Responsible
The formula to auto-populate the responsible party is laughably simple. All this does is pull the information directly from the corresponding field at the top into each appropriate milestone. The advantage to this process is that the template allows you to enter in the responsible party once and apply it to all appropriate milestones in the template.
For example, if the field for the person responsible is cell C7 (“Project Account Manager” from the example) the formula would be as follows:
The key here is the initial setup, as you must make sure that each milestone is correctly mapped to the field attribute at the top. I’ve found that color-coding according to the person responsible helps to prevent errors during setup.
Pro-Tip: Use Data Validation (see the “Individual Responsibilities” tab included in the example template) to ensure that the appropriate team members are being assigned to deliverables in the initial entry fields. Data Validation can also help with team management by clearly defining the deliverables expected of each team member.
Monthly Reporting
Monthly reporting is common in any business plan and setting your reminder milestones at the start of the project ensures that you are producing your reports at a consistent time every month. However, this can be tricky because you’re not setting a static number of days to elapse (making our WORKDAY formula ineffective). That’s where the EOMONTH formula comes in!
The EOMONTH formula identifies the last day in a given month (which you set the prerequisite date the same as with the Deliverable Date formula). Add “+1” at the end and you’re left with the first day of the following month…it’s that simple! For our example I’ve added “+3” as it’s often unreasonable to expect monthly reports to be completed on the 1st, but feel free to adjust according to your needs.
Bonus: Client Name
Personalizing your documents for each client is, in my opinion, as important as using correct grammar and consistent formatting. Including the appropriate client name shows your attention to detail and reinforces that this deliverable was created specifically for that client.
Before you enter the client name in the initial field at the top, you’ll notice some deliverables make generic references to “Client”
However, I’ve built into the template a formula that, once the client name is populated, will replace the word “client” in these milestones with the appropriate name:
The formula here is a combination of static text and a SUBSTITUTE formula to populate the client name by simply pulling from the input field. Adjusting the =IF(ISBLANK()) to make sure that our generic content remains even before the input field is completed and we’re left with the following:
How Can the Process Strategy Template Work for You?
The Process Strategy Template is built to be as flexible or rigid as you need it to me. Because the template is built using Absolute Values for the cell references, you can feel free to add, delete, or move sections of the document without affecting the remaining milestones (unless, of course, you delete a milestone that was a prerequisite for any deliverable due dates). Additionally, you can include as many or as few initial attributes as makes sense for your business to ensure that all team members are clear as to their roles and expectations for the project.
Finally, as mentioned above the Process Strategy Template can be used to import deliverables into your project management system of choice with only a few small formatting changes. For example, by re-formatting the document into a .csv file containing three columns for Milestone, Person Responsible, and Deliverable Date you can upload to Basecamp and populate your entire SEO calendar and milestone assignments in minutes.
Once more, the spreadsheet is available on GoogleDocs here!
Can you think of other ways to improve SEO Process through automation? Please share and help us all get better!
Brett Snyder is a Senior SEO Specialist at Nebo, an Atlanta web design & interactive marketing agency. He also explores the pleasures and pitfalls of personal blogging on BrettASnyder.com and loves meeting new people in the marketing world, so please feel free to leave a comment and we’ll connect!
