How to Prioritize SEO Tasks

Like almost everything in digital marketing, SEO is constantly evolving and changing. What worked last year (or even last month) may not work now. But what hasn’t changed is the importance of a clear and effective strategy to make sure your site is optimized for search results. 

Think about it this way: a website ranking at the top of the search results can experience a significantly higher click-through rate than the site sitting at the bottom of the first page. That can mean a massive difference in visibility and potential traffic, which is why SEO can be such a powerful instrument in your marketing toolbox. 

The challenge lies in understanding not only what needs to be done but what needs to be done first. With limited time and resources, prioritizing SEO tasks can feel like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle blindfolded. 

This blog will walk you through practical ways to prioritize your SEO tasks for maximum impact. We’ll cover everything from understanding your business goals and KPIs to adjusting your strategy based on performance data or last-minute stakeholder requests. 

Understanding Your SEO Goals

Before tackling SEO tasks, align them with business goals, focusing on revenue impact to secure stakeholder buy-in. Set long- and short-term SEO objectives by identifying KPIs that support key goals, like improving SERP visibility for market share or boosting organic traffic for lead generation.

Early on, choose core metrics such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, and conversion rates. Consistently track the same metrics over time, monitor high-impact keywords, and keep ROI in mind to prioritize efforts with the greatest revenue impact.

Remember, SEO results are gradual. Significant growth in rankings and traffic often comes from small, cumulative improvements over time.

Building and Prioritizing Your SEO Task List

Conduct a Comprehensive Site Review

To prioritize your SEO tasks effectively, start with a comprehensive site review, focusing on areas that directly impact search performance. This includes on-page elements like meta tags and content quality, as well as technical aspects such as site speed, proper indexing, and mobile-friendliness. Addressing critical issues, such as broken links or slow-loading pages, will help improve both user experience and search engine visibility.  

Using tools like Screaming Frog, Google Search Console (GSC), and Ahrefs, you can identify problem areas, such as crawl errors, missing metadata, or performance bottlenecks. By pinpointing these issues early on, you’ll have a clear list of potential tasks to tackle, laying the groundwork for effective prioritization.

Fix Critical Issues First

Once you’ve reviewed the site, prioritize high-impact problems, such as 404 errors or indexing issues first. These tasks can quickly improve site health and user experience. For example, we recently worked with a client whose content wasn’t rendering due to a JavaScript issue, severely affecting Google’s ability to crawl the content. Critical issues like this should be addressed ASAP to keep your site accessible and optimized for search engines. 

Determine Each Page’s Role in the Marketing Funnel

Understanding where each page on your site fits within the buyer’s journey is key to prioritizing your optimization efforts. Start by analyzing whether a page is geared towards awareness, consideration, or decision-making. Prioritize optimization on revenue-driving pages first—these are often service pages for service providers or collection and product pages for e-commerce sites.

Don’t forget to give attention to top-of-funnel content as well. Ensuring that these pages are optimized can help attract potential customers early in their journey and build topical authority for your site, supporting the rest of your contextual optimization efforts and strengthening overall site relevance.

Focus on Quick Wins

When building your SEO task list, it’s smart to target the low-hanging fruits first. These are the opportunities that require minimal effort but can deliver quick results. For instance, focus on optimizing pages currently ranking at the top of page 2 in the search results. With just a few tweaks—like updating content for low-competition keywords or improving metadata—you can push these pages onto page 1, where they’ll receive significantly more traffic. Small improvements, like updating metadata, add up over time and can make a big difference in your site’s performance, especially at scale. 

Balance Short-Term and Long-Term Strategies

In SEO, it’s important to balance tasks that deliver quick results with those that support long-term growth. While quick wins—like optimizing existing content on revenue-generating pages—can yield faster results, it’s equally important to dedicate time to long-term strategies such as content creation and link-building. These efforts help build your site’s topical authority and align with information gain expectations, which is essential for sustained success. 

Assign Tasks Based on Available Resources

Once you’ve prioritized your SEO tasks, the next step is to allocate these tasks effectively based on your team’s available resources. Begin by determining which tasks require specific team members’ expertise and identify any that can be automated to save time. 

Effective time management makes a huge difference for your team. Set aside time for recurring tasks such as technical audits and performance reviews while ensuring your team can handle ongoing content updates. Once you’ve outlined a list of tasks, prioritize them based on effort versus value and assign them according to your team’s bandwidth. However, no matter how prepared you think you are, you’ll want to stay flexible. Be ready to adjust priorities for holidays, PTO, or stakeholder requests as needed.

To stay on track, use project management tools that fit the size and complexity of your project. Tools like ClickUp, Trello, or Monday.com are great for tracking tasks and progress, but even a well-organized spreadsheet can do the trick for smaller projects. By aligning tasks with the right team members and resources, you’ll ensure your SEO efforts stay effective and efficient.

Reassess and Reprioritize Regularly

To keep your SEO strategy effective, regularly reassess and reprioritize your tasks based on new data, algorithm updates, and evolving business goals. Tools like Google Search Console, GA4, and Ahrefs can be used to monitor performance trends and identify areas for improvement. Stay flexible as priorities shift with competitive changes or stakeholder requests, and reevaluate your strategy regularly. This process ensures that your SEO efforts remain aligned with both current and future objectives.

Core Updates & Algorithm Changes

A long-term SEO strategy is important, but staying adaptable to Google’s algorithm updates is also key. Regularly keep up-to-date with the latest algorithm changes and adjust your priorities as needed to stay aligned with new SEO best practices. This balance helps keep your site relevant and competitive in search results.

Monitor Results

Effective monitoring of your SEO efforts means using analytics and reporting tools like Google Search Console, GA4, and Ahrefs to track and assess your site’s performance. By consistently reviewing site traffic, rankings, and conversions, you can see what’s working, spot trends, and identify areas to improve.

Adapt to New Data

As you gather data, be ready to adapt your priorities based on performance results and emerging opportunities. Review and refine your strategy to align with current performance and market trends. This proactive approach allows you to make data-driven decisions about how and when to tweak your SEO efforts for better outcomes.

Stakeholder Requests

An effective SEO strategy should evolve over time to accommodate changing business goals and market conditions. If stakeholders make specific requests outside your current plan, assess their urgency and value. Consider how these requests fit your priorities and balance them against other tasks on your list. Reevaluate and reprioritize as needed to address new business objectives, competitive shifts, or other updates.

Conclusion

Regular team catch-ups, like monthly strategy meetings, help keep everyone on the same page, especially when working across multiple team members or marketing platforms. Keeping a backlog of tasks, like technical fixes or cleanup items, ensures you’re not overwhelmed and can stay on top of both current and future priorities.

You can keep your SEO strategy relevant and competitive by staying proactive and adaptable. Regularly reassessing your priorities in response to new data, algorithm changes, or stakeholder requests will help you stay aligned with shifting business goals and market trends. This approach ensures you’re tackling both immediate opportunities and long-term growth.

Key Takeaways

• Understanding Business Goals: To prioritize SEO tasks, start by figuring out the overall business objectives and how SEO can help you achieve them. 
• It’s All About Balance: In life and SEO, balance is key. Focus on tasks that provide quick wins with low effort while planning for long-term strategies such as content creation.
• Stay Adaptive & Flexible: Keep an eye on website performance and adjust your strategy based on data, algorithm changes, and industry trends.