How Many Hours Should I Spend On SEO?

How much effort does SEO require?

A common query we encounter frequently revolves around the necessary investment in SEO for tangible outcomes. The answer often varies, resting heavily on individual schedules.

The rule of thumb is to allocate as much time to SEO endeavors as your schedule permits. The rationale behind this is straightforward: the more hours dedicated to SEO tasks, the faster you’ll witness progress.

For those wearing multiple marketing hats, there’s no need to overwhelm yourself. Unless your role is solely focused on SEO, dedicating a full 40-hour workweek to SEO is excessive. This guide aims to outline effective time management for SEO tasks, ensuring you optimize your efforts regardless of your time constraints.

Essential SEO Tasks

What exactly does “investing time in SEO” entail?

At its core, SEO encompasses a variety of tasks, including but not limited to:

• Conducting keyword research
• Crafting content
• Building backlinks
• Analyzing and reporting data
• Evaluating website performance
• Collaborating with stakeholders

These activities constitute the backbone of SEO work for most practitioners. While other tasks may arise, our focus here remains on these fundamental aspects.

Developing an SEO Strategy

Prior to engaging in any SEO-related tasks, formulating a strategy is crucial.

In essence, devising an SEO strategy involves making critical decisions on several fronts:

1. Defining your objectives
2. Identifying your target audience
3. Understanding the queries your audience poses online
4. Determining the content that addresses these queries
5. Establishing metrics for tracking progress

Developing a strategy can be an intensive process, requiring considerable research and planning. Our firm offers a comprehensive four-session program designed to assist businesses in crafting bespoke, impactful SEO strategies.

Keyword Research Duration

Keyword research is a cornerstone of SEO strategy and requires ongoing attention as your strategy matures.

In the initial stages, delving into your audience’s queries can span several hours. As a routine task, it’s advisable not to dwell excessively on keyword research. Conducting a thorough review every 4-6 weeks is recommended, typically taking 3-5 hours monthly, depending on the depth of analysis.

Content Creation Timeframe

Despite differing opinions, content remains paramount in SEO.

The speed at which you can generate content significantly influences the ROI of your SEO strategy. Regularly updating your site with fresh content, be it blog posts, pillar pages, or landing pages, signals to search engines like Google that your site is active and authoritative.

Regular content updates also enhance your ability to target a broader array of keywords, thereby increasing your visibility in search results and driving traffic. Allocating 3-5 hours per content piece is standard, with increased publishing frequency potentially requiring 10-15 hours weekly.

SEO Task	Time Spent Per Week
Keyword Research	2-4 hours
Content Creation	5-10 hours
Link Building	2-4 hours
Technical SEO Audit	1-2 hours
Analytics Review	1-2 hours
SEO Strategy Planning	2-3 hours

How long should you spend on SEO?

The amount of time to allocate to SEO isn’t fixed; it’s more about the principle that the more effort you put in, the sooner you’ll see improvements. Ideally, SEO should be an ongoing, weekly endeavor, encompassing regular content updates. This might mean a commitment of just a few hours each week, but investing more time can accelerate your results. The key lies not just in the quantity of time spent but in how effectively you use that time to prioritize SEO tasks.

Prioritizing SEO with Limited Time

How do you determine which SEO activities to focus on when time is a precious commodity? Let’s examine some common scenarios to provide clarity.

Busy Founders

If you’re a multitasking founder, juggling various responsibilities might be your daily routine, possibly with the help of contractors or a small team. An important note for those in the early stages of business (indie-hackers): consider focusing on other marketing avenues before diving into SEO, which demands ongoing commitment to yield significant results.

For founders deeply intertwined with their business, understanding your customers and future business direction is your forte. However, dedicating substantial time to content creation or link building may not be the best use of your resources. Begin by laying the groundwork:

• Define clear SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) objectives.
• Identify your target personas.
• Understand the inquiries your personas are making.

Then, consider delegating content creation tasks to an intern, team member, or freelancer. With some initial effort and a dedicated budget for content, you can maintain a consistent content flow with minimal weekly oversight, involving review, publication, and analytics monitoring.

Marketer on a Small/Medium-Sized Team

Imagine a scenario where a busy founder brings on a marketer, making SEO one of your many responsibilities. In a compact marketing team, your role may encompass a range of functions:

• SEO
• Social media marketing
• Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
• Email marketing
• Community management

Given the breadth of marketing, it’s crucial to balance your SEO efforts with other growth-driving channels. Dedicating excessive time to a less impactful channel doesn’t yield the best results. However, consistently monitoring your SEO performance, including target keywords and content impact, is essential.

Weekly content creation is advisable, aiming for at least one piece, and maintaining a content calendar with your team can help streamline this process. Time investment might range from 3 to 10 hours weekly, depending on your capacity and priorities. For those keen on amplifying their SEO impact, dedicating a few to 10 hours weekly on link-building efforts can significantly boost your strategy.

The Role of Specialization in Larger Teams

In larger teams, roles become more specialized, focusing on specific areas like content creation, link building, keyword research, or analytics. For a dedicated marketer, SEO-related activities could occupy 10 to 30 hours each week.

Content Marketing and SEO Managers

For those in managerial roles, such as content marketing or SEO managers, SEO will constitute the bulk of your responsibilities. Managers are less involved in the day-to-day tasks, focusing more on strategy, content calendar management, link building campaigns, in-depth data analysis, and team coordination.

At this level, your role significantly influences SEO outcomes, albeit from a more strategic perspective than hands-on daily SEO tasks.

Weekly SEO Commitment

So, what’s the ideal weekly commitment to SEO? At the very least, you should:

• Conduct monthly keyword research
• Analyze your performance metrics monthly
• Produce weekly content

This baseline effort equates to approximately 3.5 hours per week. However, a more thorough approach, including in-depth keyword research and multiple content pieces weekly, could extend your commitment to 5-10 hours weekly.

Ultimately, the guiding principle should be to invest as much time as you can afford, ensuring consistency in your SEO efforts.

Staying Updated with SEO Trends and Algorithm Changes

In the ever-evolving world of search engine optimization, staying abreast of the latest trends and algorithm updates is crucial for maintaining and enhancing your website’s visibility. Search engines like Google frequently update their algorithms to improve user experience and deliver more relevant search results. These changes can significantly impact your SEO strategies and, consequently, your site’s ranking.

To stay ahead in the SEO game, it’s essential to:

• Follow authoritative SEO news sources: Websites like Search Engine Journal, Moz, and Search Engine Land regularly publish updates on SEO trends and algorithm changes. Subscribing to their newsletters or following them on social media can provide you with timely insights.
• Participate in SEO forums and communities: Platforms like Reddit’s r/SEO and digital marketing forums are great places to learn from peers and experts. These communities often discuss the latest updates and share strategies that have been effective.
• Use Google’s Webmaster Central Blog: Google’s own blog is an authoritative source for announcements on major algorithm updates and best practices for webmasters. Keeping an eye on this blog can help you understand changes directly from the source.
• Attend SEO webinars and conferences: These events are not only opportunities to learn about the latest trends and strategies but also to network with other SEO professionals who can share their experiences and insights.
• Monitor your website’s analytics: Regularly reviewing your site’s performance can help you spot potential impacts of algorithm changes. A sudden drop in traffic or rankings might indicate that it’s time to adjust your SEO strategy.

Adapting to SEO trends and algorithm updates is not about chasing every minor change but understanding which updates are relevant to your site and audience. By staying informed and flexible, you can refine your SEO approach to align with the current landscape, ensuring your efforts continue to yield positive results.