How to Set Technical Tasks for Other Specialists in SEO Work

An SEO specialist is far from a lone wolf; they often need to engage other professionals to complete their tasks. Therefore, it’s essential to know how to interact with them to make the work more effective and the results align with the initial concept.

Uncertainty and ambiguity in technical tasks (TT) can create many difficulties. Even if the SEO-specialist does not consider their role to be managerial in terms of teamwork, they must be prepared to take responsibility for setting clear tasks for colleagues.

Problems with Poor Quality TT 

A poorly defined TT, prepared by an SEO specialist for other professionals like a copywriter, designer, or developer, can lead to a range of problems:

Inefficient work 

Obviously, a TT that is not clear enough can lead to incorrect implementation by other specialists, thus making site search optimization ineffective. In the best case, the budget will be wasted; in the worst case, it will harm the project.

Delay in task completion 

If the TT lacks sufficient information or is poorly formulated, it can lead to developers or copywriters spending more time and resources on task implementation than planned, due to the need for task reworking or constant clarifications from the SEO specialist.

Repeated task execution 

Eventually, an incorrectly formulated TT can lead to the need to re-execute the same work to correct all the mistakes made. This results in double the effort and cost.

Tension in the team 

Any such situation leads to discord in the team and, worse, diminishes your authority as a professional and casts doubt on your managerial qualities. This problem may not be evident in the short term, but in the long run, it can significantly complicate your life and work.

Setting the TT 

Assigning tasks to other specialists in SEO can be quite a complex process. It requires not only a good understanding of project requirements but also communication skills and understanding of how the work can be implemented.

Depending on the project, an SEO specialist may set tasks for: 

• Copywriters – for writing unique and optimized content for website pages that meet search engine requirements. Developers – for optimizing the technical component of the site, such as improving loading speed, fixing errors, creating a quality site structure, and other factors. Link builders – for finding and placing quality external links on the site, as well as checking and managing existing links. 
• Analysts – for analyzing the results of site promotion and assessing the effectiveness of the team’s work. 
• Project managers – for coordinating team work, adhering to deadlines, and monitoring task completion. 
• Designers – for creating a site design that meets SEO requirements, such as ease of navigation, readability of content, etc. 
• Contextual advertising specialists – for setting up contextual advertising on the site and optimizing ads.

In general, an SEO specialist can assign tasks to any specialist whose work affects the site’s promotion in Google and achieving project goals.

To properly set TT for other specialists, the SEO-specialist should follow these recommendations: 

1. Define the goals and objectives of the project – this is the first step that needs to be done before preparing the TT. This will help better understand the requirements and limitations you will set for other specialists. 
2. Provide a clear description of the task – The SEO specialist should provide a clear and understandable description of the task to be performed. The description should be concise and succinct, but at the same time substantive and informative. Only practice and the ability to look at the situation from the perspective of another employee, who does not possess your knowledge and competencies, can help here. After that, determine if such a task is clear to you. 
3. Define requirements for the result – it is necessary to define the requirements for the result of the work, so that other specialists in the team know exactly what is planned to be achieved. These can be requirements such as increasing site traffic or increasing conversion. Even if the employee is not directly responsible for completing the task, they should still have an idea of what their work is aimed at. 
4. Describe the audience and keywords – The SEO specialist should provide information about the target audience of the project and the keywords that will be used in the work of other specialists. This will help them better understand how exactly the created content should look. 
5. Indicate deadlines and budget – it is necessary to specify the deadlines for the work and the project budget, so that other specialists know how much time they need to spend on completing tasks and what resources will be available to them. 
6. Provide feedback – it is important to provide feedback to other specialists during the work process to ensure that the task is being solved correctly and in accordance with the TT. If something goes wrong, you can make adjustments promptly.

Tasks for Different Specialists 

In theory, the list of tasks and specialists for whom the SEO-specialist can prepare TT is unlimited and cannot be fully described. However, some of the most common options can be provided, along with some recommendations.

Copywriter 

For copywriters, the TT often includes the following points: 

1. Topic and style of the text – indication of the topic of the articles, their volume and style of writing, for example, informational, descriptive, emotional, etc. 
2. Definition of keywords and phrases – a list of keywords and phrases that must be included in the text for optimization under search queries. 
3. Requirements for content uniqueness – defining the required percentage of content uniqueness and requirements for plagiarism checking. 
4. Support for current SEO tasks – informing the copywriter about current SEO tasks and what elements need to be included in the text to support them, such as links to important site pages, use of certain keywords, etc. 
5. Requirements for the structure of the text – indicating the necessary headings and subheadings, lists, tables, and other elements that will help improve the structure of the text. 
6. Deadlines for task completion – defining the deadlines for completing the task. 
7. Additional requirements – indicating additional requirements, such as the degree of technical complexity of the text, requirements for illustrations, and others.

Link Builder 

For link builders, the following requirements should be specified for the quality of external links that they should find and place on the site: 

1. Search for quality external resources – description of criteria for determining the quality of resources on which links will be placed, as well as indication of the subject of the sites, which should correspond to the subject of the customer’s site. 
2. Analysis of existing external links – checking the current link profile, identifying erroneous links, checking the resources on which links are already placed. 
3. Placing links – determining the place where the link will be placed, the format of the link (rented, article, etc.), the text of the link, anchor, and other characteristics. 
4. Management of external links – checking the presence of links, checking their correctness, removing links in case of undesirability of their further placement. 
5. Reporting – monthly report on the work done, attracted resources, and the result of their use.

Developer 

For developers, the TT may include the following tasks: 

1. Optimization of site loading speed – the developer must identify problems that can slow down the loading speed. He must take measures to eliminate these problems, such as reducing the size of images, compressing files, etc. 
2. Elimination of technical errors – the developer must fix all technical errors on the site, such as 404 errors, duplicate content, problems with canonical links, etc. 
3. Creation of a quality site structure – the developer must create a site structure that is convenient for users and Google. This includes creating a logical site structure, optimizing URLs, creating a sitemap, etc. 
4. Optimization of the mobile version of the site – the developer must optimize the mobile version of the site for the convenience of users on mobile devices. He should check that the site is adapted for different devices and screen resolutions, as well as optimize the loading speed of the mobile version of the site. 
5. Placement of analytics code – the developer must place the analytics code on the site to track site visits and user behavior. 
6. Implementation of micro-markup – the developer must implement micro-markup on the site to improve the display of site information in search results.

At the same time, the TT for the developer must necessarily contain a number of requirements: 

• functionality – description of functionality to be added or improved. 
• performance – requirements for loading speed, server response time, performance, etc. 
• security – requirements for protecting the site from hacking, data leaks, viruses, etc. 
• compatibility – requirements for compatibility with different browsers, devices, and operating systems. 
• adaptability – requirements for site adaptability to different screens and devices. 
• technical requirements – description of technical parameters, such as programming 
• languages, frameworks, databases, etc. 
• testing and debugging – description of requirements for testing, debugging, and documenting the code.

Analyst 

For analysts, the TT should specify: 

1. What metrics need to be tracked and analyzed to assess the effectiveness of site promotion. These can be, for example, indicators of site visits, conversions, the number of queries from Google, etc. 
2. Requirements for reporting and the frequency of its submission.

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In general, the TT should clearly define the deadlines for task completion and the responsible persons for each of them. It is also necessary to consider the specifics of the project and the business goals of the customer – so that the TTs you have compiled fully meet these requirements.