A day in the life of a search engine optimiser

In these corona virus times I thought I would share a typical day with you. Because of the nature of my work, I am able to continue providing search engine optimisation and other digital marketing services which means that I continue to support to my clients – those who are still trading anyway.

My day typically starts at 8am which is when I get to my desk, boot the PC, switch on the radio (Nick Ferrari’s morning show on LBC) and go and make that essential first coffee of the day.

The first task of the day

Paper pad and pen - a To Do list

The 1st task of the day is to open my dairy to see what appointments are upcoming, what preparations are required and how any meetings are taking place – a physical meeting, a phone catch-up, a video meeting etc.

Next, it’s a look at my To-Do list to see what’s on the agenda for the day.

The hunt for content

Then it’s time for a look at the news to see whether there are any IT/Marketing/SEO/IT Security stories worth sharing and then I start my proper hunt for content for Social Media.

Tools that I use include Drumup.io, Google Alerts, Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Land.

  • Drumup is like a search engine for articles. I save some keywords and it finds relevant news articles for me to share. I only use the free account
  • Google Alerts, another free tool, carries out the same process on Google. I save some keywords and Google emails me a list of new content that includes my saved terms.
  • Search Engine Watch is a website dedicated to search engines and search engine optimisation. It was where I learned a lot of my craft in the early days. It was started by Danny Sullivan who went on to found
  • Search Engine Land and now has a pretty high flying job with Google. With both sites, I look for interesting/helpful articles to share

I open each story or article from all sources in a new browser tab. I’ll simply hold the CTRL key down as I click – which forces my browser to open the clicked link in a fresh tab. Then I scan thorough each article to check quality and relevance before using another free tool, Buffer, to add the stories to my social media posting queue. This means that I can easily and quickly build a content list that will be shared by Buffer at a time of my setting.

I may also look at one of my pre-written “Top 10” hints and tips lists. Update the publishing dates, ensure the content is up to date and then upload the spreadsheet to Hootsuite where the platform will share the tips to the platforms of my choice at the times I have set.

Then I’ll repeat the exercise for those clients for whom I manage their Social Media activity.

Email Time

Now it’s Email time. I open Outlook and work through my emails. Spam gets deleted, urgent mail is responded to, acted on or added to my “To-Do” list – which is on paper. Even though I love my technology, and have tried numerous digital To-Do applications I still find that pen and paper works the best for me.

The To-Do list

To Do list and pen

Now it’s time for me to look at the top items on my To-Do list and start working through the day’s tasks.

Number one task every day is to log in to ManageWP where I have registered all the WordPress sites that I am responsible for. ManageWP has them all stored in a dashboard and reports which sites have plug-ins that need updating or whether any particular site needs attention.

Once any updates have been applied it’s now time for my second coffee and logging on to a site to start on the required search engine optimisation activity.

This could include a fresh scan of competitor websites to see whether there’s anything different that I should be targeting, another round of keyword research to make sure that I am targeting key words and phrases used by prospects and making sure that all the elements of the site are well optimised, particularly where the client has access to the site and may have added fresh content or swapped out images and a hunt for opportunities to build more backlinks

Second look at Emails

Before lunch I’ll take another look at my emails, delete all the junk, act on urgent ones and “To Do list” those that need action but which are less urgent.

It’s probably about 1pm by now and time for lunch. A poached egg on toast, a two egg omelette, a sandwich perhaps another coffee or glass of water, and a walk in the fields, weather permitting

After that I may turn to content creation, writing a blog post or an email or finding topics for my clients to write about that i can then provide an SEO “polish” to for optimum search engine responses.

I’ll look at the Google Ads, and other PPC accounts that I’m managing on behalf of clients. Making sure that the Ads are performing, that the key words are relevant and that the campaign is as well optimised as possible.

If I’ve written a marketing email I’ll get it approved by the client, upload it to MailChimp (my email platform of choice), make sure the address lists are up to date, create an email and send a draft to my client for approval.

Once signed off, I’ll schedule the sending, Early afternoon, middle of the week, for business clients and early evening, possible on a weekend, for retail clients. Timings determined by the optimum open rates.

The hunt for content continues

Time for an afternoon coffee and a swing back through various news sites, this time tech platforms such as

For tech related articles and Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Land again, just to see if anything new has been posted

Back to the Search Engine Optimisation

As we enter the middle part of the afternoon I’ll look another client website and look to repeat the SEO activities for them.

If I’ve received any enquiries for quotations or new proposals I’ll look to pull my thoughts together and send my proposal for consideration.

As the working day draws to a close I’ll take a 3rd look at my emails and respond to anything that can’t wait until the following morning.

I might email clients with ideas to improve their websites, carry out some more SEO on a site, perhaps register a client website with some web based directories and see whether there’s anything I can do to my own website to improve performance

Finally, I’ll update my To-Do list in preparation for the coming day, shut down my PC and have a quick tidy-round.

If you want any help with your digital marketing please don’t hesitate to get in touch for an informal chat by email (andy@enterprise-oms.co.uk) by phone (01793 238020) or ask me on Social Media – Linkedin or Twitter and I’ll be only too happy to talk.Thanks for reading and I hope you stay well

Staying in touch with clients and teams – the digital transformation.

For years, technologists have been promoting digital transformation but corona virus, lock-down and working from home has really pushed many businesses to take a fresh look.

Lock-Down means that a lot of us are having to work very differently, working from home, whether from a home office, the dining table, the kitchen table or a bedroom dressing table or a shed at the end of the garden it’s all quite new

There’s no doubt that as a result of this forced, rapid, transition, many of us will find that continuing to work from home is far better than commuting to an office, warehouse, workshop or other business location. And, in the long term, everybody wins. No commuting means time saved, no travelling to meetings means time and travel costs saved and no travelling is much much better for the environment too.

One to one video conferencing

There are a number of platforms that will help you to do this. Simple platforms such as Skype and Messenger are familiar to a lot of people, Google Hangouts and Microsoft teams are also in pretty common use but they often lack some of the features that make video-conferencing much easier.

Video Conference Options

Video Conference comparison

The key features that I look for include

  • Maximum permitted meeting length
  • Screen sharing – so that I can share presentations etc.
  • Recording, can the session be recorded so that I can share it with the delegates for them to refer back to?
  • What services do the free accounts NOT have?

As an example, Zoom, which has really increased in popularity over the last couple of months has a Free account that allows video conferences of any length with 2 people but this drops to just 40 minutes for 3 or more but does permit screen sharing. However, there are concerns over the security of Zoom.

To overcome this, the Zoom Pro account at £143.88 + VAT annually increases the meeting length to 24 hours and provides 1Gb of cloud storage,

Webex, a Cisco product, is more secure. The free account limits the number of people in your call to 100, places no limits on meeting length but does not offer any recording and does not offer screen sharing.

The Webex Small Teams account, £135.00 + VAT PA adds screen sharing and recording to the free account.

Other providers of similar services include

If you want any help with your digital marketing please don’t hesitate to get in touch for an informal chat by email (andy@enterprise-oms.co.uk) by phone (01793 238020) or ask me on Social Media – Linkedin or Twitter and I’ll be only too happy to talk.Thanks for reading and I hope you stay well

Living through Corona virus times

Email marketing, SEO, Blog and Social Media images

Times are tough, I know but having worked with companies through 3 recessions I know that some will thrive, some survive and others go to the wall.

Some will fail no matter what they do but for a lot of companies there are alternatives.

You can accept the status quo and roll with the punches OR you can fight for your survival.

My experience is that those who fight for their survival will come through the current situation fighting fit and with a great chance to thrive because they will be better than they were and they’ll be ready to leap on opportunities that have been left begging by those who simply accepted the status quo.

So FIGHT for your business and if I can help – get in touch.

Book a free 40 Minute, remote, consultancy

I have demonstrable success in the fields of SEO, Social Media, Email Marketing and much more.

All you have to do is get in touch for a free chat by LinkedIn message, email (andy@enterprise-oms.co.uk) Zoom, Webex, Skype etc

Ring Me:      01793 238020      07966 547146
Email Me:    andy@enterprise-oms.co.uk
Find Me:      Linkedin     Twitter
Visit Me:      Bowman House, Whitehill Lane, Royal Wootton Bassett, Wilts, SN4 7DB