A schedule of activities is a plan of action for your client’s SEO campaign, which gives a general view of what will be done and relative timeframes.

Giving your client an indicaiton of what will happen and when is mandatory and the least you can do for your new SEO client because it not only gives you an idea of what you need to do but also puts their minds at ease knowing that you have direction in what you’re trying to achieve.

From experience, nothing bugs clients more than having to chase you up constantly asking for updates or for your plan for the coming weeks and months. This is often not a case of ‘annoying client’ but more of ‘uninformed client’ and all because they weren’t given an idea of what’s going on.

You don’t need to get into the nitty gritty – save that for when things actually happen and for your own internal notes.

An example of an SEO schedule of activities will contain the following:

- a plan for 6 months (or otherwise, depending on your contract) – this shows long term vision!
- month by month breakdown in the areas of overall strategy, on-site SEO and link building (doesn’t hurt to give expected outcomes as well)
- indication of when reports will be prepared, distributed and discussed (and the type of reports too, eg. monthly progress report, quarterly report, half yearly report, etc)

If you’re a well-organised person, you’ll already be doing something of this nature anyway but for the rest of us, it’s a good habit to get into and once you do, you’ll wonder how you ever worked without it.

SEO is on-going and long term. Many people don’t appreciate this aspect of SEO but with a well-organised schedule of activities, you can help develop the appreciation and maintain cordial relations with your clients.

Appreciate your thoughts!