How many SEO clients can one person manage? A way to count

One person can manage as many SEO clients as their month has hours for, and the way to find that number is to count. We couldn't find two published sources that count this the same way, so here's a way to work out your own number. We give no usual one. The count is one sum: the hours a person has for client work, divided by the hours one client takes.

How many SEO clients can one person manage?

Divide the hours one person has for client work in a month by the hours one client takes in a month. The answer, rounded down, is the number of clients that person can carry.

The sum takes four steps:

1. Count the hours you have. Start with one person's working hours in a month. Take out everything that isn't client work: sales, billing, admin and time off.
2. Count the hours one client takes. Add three lines: the month's SEO tasks, the monthly report, and contact, which means calls and email.
3. Divide. Put the first number over the second, and round down.
4. Hold some hours back. Leave room for problems before you call the answer final.

The hours for SEO tasks depend on what you've promised each client. For what an SEO client gets each month, see SEO deliverables.

The report is the one line we can put our own figures on. Every hour in the table is our estimate. Each one assumes the same workload: 10 SEO clients who each get one branded report a month, so 10 reports a month in all.

The last row applies only where a firm or a team does the building.

To use the table, pick the row that matches how you work now. Put its time for one report on the report line of your sum. Then add your own hours for the SEO tasks and for contact. We give no figure for those two lines, because only your own records can.

If you don't have records yet, track one client for a full month before you trust the sum. Write down the minutes each day, by line: tasks, report, contact.

The report line shrinks or grows with the row you're on, and it's worth a second look each time your client list changes. For reports that take less time as you add clients, see how to scale client reporting.

How do you keep multi-client SEO management from eating your week?

Plan the week by kind of work, with one block of time for each kind across all your clients. Then one client's work has a place to go, and it doesn't land on every day.

Set it up once:

1. Sort the work into kinds. Four cover it: SEO tasks, reports, client contact and new requests.
2. Give each kind its own block. Reports get the same days each month. Calls get the same day each week.
3. Use one layout for every report. Do the same with each client's monthly task list.
4. Send every request to one place. Pick one inbox or one form, and ask every client to use it.
5. Set reply hours. Tell each client when to expect an answer, and keep to it.
6. Do the sum again before you sign a new client. If the answer says you're full, something has to move first.

Look back at the table when the week still won't fit. The row you're on sets your report line, and by our estimate, moving to another row is one way to get hours back.

That move has a price of its own, in fees or in staff pay. For what the report hours cost by the month, see What does each choice cost a California agency each month?.

Which SEO client management tips help a small team most?

The tips that help most are the ones that change a number in the sum. A tip helps when it gives a person more hours for client work, or when it cuts the hours one client takes.

Tips that cut the hours one client takes:

• Keep one page for each client. Put the goals, the logins, what you promised and the last report on it, so nobody hunts for them.
• Name one owner for each client. Questions go to one person, and the client knows who that is.
• Use the same monthly checklist for every client. Then nobody plans a client's month from a blank page.
• Price work outside the plan, or say no to it. Unplanned work is paid for in hours you'd counted on for other clients.

Tips that give a person more hours for client work:

• Move a whole line off that person's desk. The report line is one you can move, and the table shows three ways to handle it.
• Batch client contact. One set day for calls keeps the other days free for tasks.
• Cut the meetings that have no client in them. Keep the ones where work gets handed over.

Keep an eye on the contact line. For a rhythm for contact between reports, see agency client communication.

On a small team, do the sum for each person, since each one has their own hours and their own clients. Add the answers to get the team's number. When one person's answer comes out lower than the clients they hold today, that's the first desk to fix.