SEO to some is an array of actions and tweaks that in most cases cannot be proven directly responsible for a sites success. It is sometimes considered an art. A magical skill that should not and cannot be measured or processed.

But with a vast amount of clients, or a vast amount of your own websites, how do you easily manage SEO?

Here's an explanation behind the phrase I've coined 'Factory SEO'.

In a factory you have a production line. Everything in the factory including the people, the machines and the building is designed to fit perfectly into a process. The process makes productivity. The process means it can be efficient and progress can easily be measured. Let me give you an ideal example:

A factory that packages toys. Imagine a conveyor belt and 4 workers placed on it at different intervals. The first worker takes the main bit of the toy out of the big box next to him and places it on the conveyor belt. The next worker gets the bit that attaches to the main bit out of his box and places it on the belt. The next worker gets the now assembled toy and places it in its packaging. At the end of the belt there is a man who collects the packaged toy and places it on the lorry that will go off to the toy shop once full.

It's a process... Imagine no conveyor belt and just 2 boxes of toys bits. Each worker taking it upon themselves to connect the two bits, package it, and then place it on the lorry. No one with a specific job. Not only is this a little chaotic, it's also very inefficient. Yet, this is the approach a lot of people take to perform SEO. 

Am I suggesting you go and start doing SEO on a conveyor belt in a factory? Yes! ... I mean... no of course not. Every SEO will have a different way of interpreting this, but it can be applied to almost any set up, including large SEO firms to small SEO teams, and even one man SEO's... like myself.

Here's a screenshot of how you might want to set up your SEO Factory:

Down the left hand side is a list of websites, these can be clients, your own sites or a bunch of your company sites, mini sites, affiliate sites, any sites! Across the top is tasks that need to be done. This will differ according to the type of sites, so a different spreadsheet per site type is recommended! In the grey area are the tasks that need to be done once. In the orange area is the daily tasks. Which can be dated/checked once done.

So eventually what you get is a great process on a spreadsheet which can be shared and viewed amongst your team, co workers, outsourced people and the like.

A great thing to do with a Factory SEO spreadsheet is test methods between sites.

So along the top in the daily section you might have '1 forum link' and '1 article submission'. For once site in your list you mark an X by forum link indicating this is not going to be done for that particular site, and for another site you mark an X by article submission, indicating articles won't be submitted for that site. Then you get to see after a few months the outcome of the link building methods pitched against each other.

I hope you enjoyed my first post here, I'd like to hear some of your strategies on 'processing' SEO for better productivity and management, comment away. :)