The day in the life of an SEO
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[00:00:00] Hi, it's Olga Zarr from SEOSLY. So today I'm recording a very spontaneous episode. I simply thought that I would tell you what a life of an SEO consultant looks like from my own perspective. Of course, everyone may have, may have a difference, but in my case, I just want to share how it evolved. I used to be.
[00:00:25] I used to work at s e O agencies. I used to have SEO jobs. At one point I had two full-time, almost full-time SEO jobs, which was very challenging. Last year, in November, 2022, I managed to go on my own. I gave up all the jobs I had, and I became an independent SEO o consultant. I thought this would mean I would start working less and I would have more free time.
[00:00:56] But the truth of the matter is that I actually started to work even more including weekends because I simply love SEO, and now I am the boss. My own boss and I can simply choose what I work on, how I work on what clients I work with. And this made me kind of get into this constant SEO Addiction.
[00:01:25] Obsession, SEO binge I have been in for almost a year now. And now I just want to tell you how my. My typical ss e o day looks like. So I wake up, I'm an early riser. I'm unable to work in the in the evenings, so I wake up usually at five 6:00 AM I. And I start with simply reviewing my, on my phone when I'm still in bed, reviewing my goals for today.
[00:01:56] And I start with reading an ss e o article. So to put myself into the right mindset to kind of know that there is going to be a lot of ss e o to be done today. So I read one article Y still in bed. Then I of course, refresh I prepare yba Mate, which, which is something I've been dri drinking for for a long time.
[00:02:19] And then I sit in front of my computer, my huge screen. I have problems working on smaller screens. I need to have like very, very huge, very wide screen. So I, I sit in front of my, my screen and I sit there for, Around four hours, depending when exactly I manage to, to kind of get to my desk. So I do around four hours or of very focused work.
[00:02:46] This is usually the most quality work I do in a specific day because my, my brain functions better in, in mourning. So depending on. What day it is. I either do four hours of work on my own website, on SEOs, slide brand on, on doing creative things there, or I spend those four hours working for my clients when I have to do more creative, more time consuming, more, uh, the word, that type of work that, that requires a lot of brain power.
[00:03:20] Then I take a break, a mental and physical break, which is when I. Do a workout. Usually this is a running workout because I'm a runner. I, I've been running for many years. This kind of resets, resets my mind and kind of lets me feel after the workout as if I have just woken up. So this is kind of the trick I do, of course,
[00:03:45] workout, than meal, coffee, stuff like that. Small, small rest. And I am back. Back, uh, at my desk. Usually that's 1:00 PM depending around 1:00 PM and I stay there for another four or five hours, depending on the day, if I still feel like it, I do this more productive type of work.
[00:04:13] Sometimes it's clients, sometimes it's ss, e o, sli. I try to split my. Clients and ss e o s, like ss e o, sly, uh, work evenly. Sometimes it's, I do more for clients. Sometimes I do more for my own website. So I spend there another few hours where I can produce something, meaningful, something creative.
[00:04:36] And usually in my afternoons this is when I, I have calls with my clients, with prospective clients, when I record interviews. So usually those late afternoon hours are where I sit in front of the camera, talking to people, recording stuff. And when I'm done usually eight, 7:00 PM. I stop working, I turn off the computer, and this is when I start relaxing, going for a walk with my dog, stuff like that.
[00:05:09] So I never work, in the evenings at night. I'm simply like unable to do that. I still feel tempted to, to try this, to maybe try, try squeezing more hours or maybe having more free time in the middle of the day and then working and working in, in the evenings. But in most cases it's doesn't really work because I'm like falling apart after eight, 8:00 PM or something like that.
[00:05:38] So, So I'm basically working in like two, two or three kind of portions. I also allow an app somewhere in between. If I feel very exhausted, there has to be an nap, and I take it around two, 3:00 PM especially if I have like an important client call and I need to like recharge, then this is usually the time for an app, and this is the life of an ss e o.
[00:06:07] After. Six, 7:00 PM depending on the day, if I, if I have something planned for the evening, I usually simply lay in bed and read books. Sometimes this is reading about ss e o. Sometimes if I have still some brain power, I would do some s e learning. Sometimes I have to do s e o learning in the morning because, Sometimes the stuff is simply too, too difficult, right?
[00:06:37] But this is, this is more or less it. I'm very happy that, um, over all those years, I was able to set up my day in the way that satisfies me, that helps me be the most productive because I used to, I used to work at the ss e o agencies. I used to go to the office, and this was simply a nightmare for me because, I am this type of person who needs to be alone in her room with my, with my headphones, with my own music.
[00:07:08] And this is when I can get into this creative flow, when I can actually like work, do some, some productive work, work that is going to move the needle for me, for my or for my ss e o clients. So it was very, very difficult for me back in the day to. Get up, go to the office, waste all that time preparing to go to the office, packing my food, getting dressed, putting my makeup on.
[00:07:36] This was really so useless, and now I need like 30 minutes, 15 minutes to be able to get to the desk and start working productively. Then I was waking up around the same hour or even earlier because I used to run before going to the office. So I very often had to wake up at five, or even before five, to be able to start work at eight and be in the office until four.
[00:08:04] And in the office I was never able to do like eight. Solid hours of work. This is not possible if you go to the office because there, there are so many distractions. There were like people chatting, people taking breaks. Everyone is like trying to kill time instead of do something productive, and it was very, very uncomfortable for me.
[00:08:29] I kept doing everything I could to finally be able to work remotely. And when I finally managed to do that, it was in 2019. It was like a total game changer for me and my productivity, my creativity, like skyrocketed. Totally. So my advice here is, To if as much as it is possible, because it may not be possible for you if you are, for example, now if you have a job and this job requires you to do that or to go to the office or work at those specific hours, my advice is to try to
[00:09:05] imagine how would your ideal day look like so that you have time to rest. You have time to, time to recharge your batteries, you have time to do something creative, something fun, and something really game changing. Try to try to imagine what this day would look like and step by step, try to implement a few pieces here and there if you can.
[00:09:32] Of course, you cannot do everything all at once. I also had to. Experiment with different scenarios of that day and this day still isn't ideal. There are days when when I'm simply not that productive, when I oversleep or when I cannot focus or when I feel exhausted after running and I had to go to sleep.
[00:09:54] It all kind of changes from day to day, but it is good to have this ideal and try to try to aim at it and of course, um, change, adjust as this is as necessary, depending on the circumstances, the clients. I, I, I try to, for example, work, uh, uh, on a strict basis, like from this hour to that hour, I do only my own staff From that hour to this hour, I only do client staff or on those specific days, but it didn't really work out because there are days when my clients simply need way more attention, and I won't be like simply saying to them, okay, but this day I don't do it.
[00:10:36] So I'm now more flexible with that, I adjust. What I work on and how much, depending on what's going on. And so far it's been working really, really nicely for me. So this is also something you might, you might try doing. And for me I need to have everything planned. I need to have the plan for, for today.
[00:10:59] I need to have the plan for the entire week. So I use, I have been using a lot of management tools and the one that been, that, that has been working for me very nicely is simply apple. Reminders, apple Notes. I have everything there. I have all the tasks. They are like divided into different folders, into different, in different hashtags.
[00:11:23] So it is relatively well optimized. So I have all the reminders there. I see, I have the todo list for the entire. Almost year, and I see clearly what I need to do, what I haven't been able to do, what I may change, reschedule or, or do in a different way. So I need to have this structure, this structure and this this plan in front of me because I will never be productive and.
[00:11:52] I don't have to do that, but I track my own time because I need to know exactly how many productive hours I have worked today, yesterday, a week ago, in the week. I need to know that. So I've been playing with various tools as well. The one that I'm using for myself only is hubstaff, which is this tool that you use for your employees to kind of monitor if they're working to take screenshots.
[00:12:19] I don't like this tool. I wouldn't recommend, I would, I hate it., that I had to use it as an employee back in the day this is horrible. This infringes your privacy, but that's another topic. But for my own purposes and just for myself, I'm using that and I can clearly see.
[00:12:37] What time I spend on clients, how much time I spend on my own projects. And if I go from the computer, it automatically kind of pauses the timer. So I, I, so I won't have the tool measure the time that I wasn't really working, which is also I think, an important thing for me here. So, that's it. That's it. I think that's the day in the life of an ss e o, and, uh, I would like to learn what your day.
[00:13:07] Life of an s e o looks like what's, what changes have you been adding to your day? What do you think makes. A day in a life of an ss e o. Better or worse, any thoughts, comments are are welcome. If you like this video and my other videos, please give it a, like, subscribe to the channel, leave a comments. I'll be, I'll be very, very happy if you do that.
[00:13:34] And that's it. See you in the next video. Bye-bye.