Work split / six task types
What Is The Work Of Search Engine Optimization? Six Tasks, One Month
The work of search engine optimization is six repeating jobs: find what is broken, fix the pages, write the briefs, wire the internal links, earn outside links, and report what changed. Hours split unevenly: diagnosis and page fixes take about a third, writing takes a quarter, outreach and reporting share the rest. Nothing in the list is mysterious; the discipline is the split.
Ask for the task split before you ask for the price. The split explains the price.
What Is The Work Of Search Engine Optimization, In Short?
It is the recurring labour of making a site easy for search engines to crawl and easy for buyers to choose: auditing structure, fixing pages, briefing and editing content, connecting pages internally, earning outside links and reporting outcomes. Around seven in ten hours go to diagnosis and page work. Writing is the visible part; the invisible part decides whether it ranks.
The Job Is Six Jobs Wearing One Title
Ask five agencies what search work is and you will get five lists. Ask them how they spend a month and the lists converge. The vocabulary differs, the labour does not: someone has to look at the site, someone has to change it, someone has to write, someone has to connect, someone has to earn links, someone has to explain.
That is why retainers are hard to compare. Two proposals can both say "content and technical" while one spends most hours rewriting titles and the other spends them chasing links. The split is the real scope document.
When a client asks what they are buying, we send the split before the contract. It makes the trade-offs visible: more outreach means fewer briefs that month, and no amount of enthusiasm changes the hours available.
The six task types below are the ones that survived. Each has an owner, a share and a deliverable you can hold.
The Six Task Types, One By One
1. Diagnostics: finding what is actually broken
This is crawl, index and query work. We pull every URL, check what search engines can render, compare the sitemap against reality, and map which queries already send impressions to which pages. Nothing gets fixed here; everything gets measured. Diagnosis is cheap relative to the mistakes it prevents, which is why it holds the first fifteen percent of the month.
2. Page fixes: structure, speed, intent
The largest block. Titles and headings get rewritten against query intent, thin pages get merged or retired, templates get cleaner markup, and slow pages get lighter. This is also where cannibalisation gets resolved: two pages fighting for one query become one page that wins. Without this block, new content lands on a surface that cannot hold it.
3. Briefs and writing: the part everyone sees
A quarter of the hours goes to briefs, drafting and editing. A good brief names the query, the reader, the decision they are making, the sections required, the internal links to place, and the claims that need evidence. Writing without a brief produces pages that read well and answer nothing, which is the most expensive outcome in the whole split.
4. Internal links: the cheapest ranking lever
Ten percent, and consistently the best return. Internal links pass context and authority, help crawlers reach new pages fast, and let one strong page lift a whole cluster. Most sites have the pages and not the wiring, so the work is often a spreadsheet, an anchor-text plan and a careful edit pass rather than new content.
5. Outreach: earning links instead of buying them
Fifteen percent goes to digital PR and link earning: original data, expert commentary, tools, and the emails that get them placed. It is slow, it is relationship work, and it is the task most often cut when a month gets busy. Cutting it is a decision with a twelve-month consequence, so we put it on the schedule and protect the slot.
6. Reporting and planning: closing the loop
The last ten percent is where the next month is decided. We compare cohorts, look at what moved and what did not, and rewrite the plan based on evidence. A report that only lists rankings is a status update, not planning. The useful version ends with three decisions: keep, change, stop.
Six Types Of Work, Side By Side
| Task type | What it covers | Hours | Deliverable you receive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diagnostics | Crawl, index checks, query mapping, competitor gaps | 15% | Issue list ranked by revenue risk |
| Page fixes | Titles, headings, templates, speed, consolidation | 25% | Shipped changes with before and after |
| Briefs and writing | Briefs, drafts, editing, evidence and quotes | 25% | Published pages plus reusable briefs |
| Internal links | Cluster wiring, anchor plans, orphan recovery | 10% | Link map and applied edits |
| Outreach | Digital PR, data assets, publisher relationships | 15% | Placed mentions and live links |
| Reporting | Cohort analysis, next-month plan, decisions | 10% | One page of numbers and three calls |
Read the middle column first. If a proposal cannot show hours, it cannot show scope either.
What A Week Actually Looks Like
The month is the unit of planning, the week is the unit of proof. A healthy week touches several task types instead of bouncing between them, because context switching costs more than most teams expect. Here is a week from a live programme.
Monday
- DiagnosticsCrawl diff after weekend deploy
- ReportingPull weekly lead numbers
Tuesday
- Page fixesCategory template pass
- Page fixesRetire three thin pages
Wednesday
- BriefsTwo briefs to writers
- Internal linksApply cluster map
Thursday
- OutreachTwenty targeted emails
- OutreachFollow up on data asset
Friday
- ReportingCohort read and notes
- PlanningNext week split agreed
Two rules keep the week honest. No Friday without shipped page work, and no month where outreach quietly disappears from the calendar. If either slips twice in a row, the split is wrong and the plan needs rewriting, not more hours.
Output You Should Be Able To Hold
- An issue register with severity, owner and status. Not a PDF of warnings.
- Shipped changes on live URLs, with a screenshot and the reasoning.
- Briefs a writer can use without a meeting, including internal links.
- A link map showing which page supports which, and the anchors used.
- Monthly placements with the URL, the context and the traffic estimate.
- One-page reporting on cohort cost per lead, plus three decisions.
- A quarterly plan stating what will not be done, and why.
- Documentation so the work survives a change of team.
Four Things The Work Is Not
It is not one big fix
There is no switch. Even a full technical cleanup lands as a series of shipped changes, each one small enough to verify and reverse.
It is not AI output at volume
Drafting tools help with the fourth task type. They do not diagnose, decide which page wins a query, or earn a link. Volume without judgement adds pages that compete with each other.
It is not a monthly surprise
If the report is the first time you hear what happened, the reporting task is decorative. It should end with decisions you already discussed.
It is not a ranking guarantee
Nobody controls the results page. The work controls the inputs: crawlability, intent match, structure, links. That is a defensible promise, and the only honest one.
How We Split The Work With Your Team
Before a proposal, we run a short diagnostic and publish the split we would use for your site. Clients usually see Whats Is SEO? carrying more hours than expected in the first month, then less once indexing and speed are stable. If the term is still fuzzy, start with Technical SEO Services and come back with the questions it raises.
From there the split is reviewed monthly. If diagnosis keeps eating hours, something upstream is shipping changes that break the site, and the fix belongs in the release process rather than in the retainer. If outreach keeps slipping, we say so and move the hours openly instead of quietly reallocating them.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many hours a month does the work need?
Enough hours to cover all six task types at least thinly. Below roughly twenty hours a month something is always cut, and the cut is usually outreach or diagnosis, which are the two that prevent expensive mistakes.
Can we do this in house?
Yes, if one person owns the split and the hours are protected. Most in-house teams keep diagnosis and planning, and buy writing or outreach. The split still applies; only the owners change.
Why does writing take only a quarter?
Because writing is the visible end of a longer chain. A page needs a query decision, a structure, internal links and often a link to support it. Hours spent there without the other five tasks produce pages that cannot compete.
What happens in the first month?
Diagnosis runs heavy, page fixes start shipping, and the first briefs go out. Reporting in month one is a baseline, not a result. Any agency promising movement in week two is measuring noise.
How do you prove the work happened?
Live URLs, commit dates, published briefs, placement records and a changelog. Traffic is evidence of outcome; the changelog is evidence of work. A serious programme shows both.
Does the split change over time?
It should. New sites need more diagnosis and page work; mature sites shift hours toward briefs, links and reporting. A split that never moves means the plan is not being reviewed.
See the split before the invoice
Send your URL and we will return a task split with hours and deliverables, no charge.