SEO Specialist VA.

Also posted as

SEO assistant, content SEO VA, link building assistant, SEO analyst (jr)

Core loop

Research → brief → implement → crawl → measure → report

Pays more than general VA by

Roughly 40–70% at the same experience level

Hardest part

Saying 'I don't know yet' when a client wants a ranking promise

Easiest way in

A sandbox site you actually fixed, documented change by change

Progress is saved in this browser only. Nothing is sent anywhere.

1. 01

   How search actually works

   You can explain crawling, indexing and ranking to a client, and explain why nobody can guarantee a #1 spot.RatesRed/green flags26 min

   • Three separate stages. Crawling is Google finding the page, indexing is Google storing it, ranking is Google choosing it. A page can be crawled and never indexed, and that is the most common problem you will find.
   • Blocking a page in robots.txt stops crawling, not indexing. If you want a page out of the index you use a noindex tag and let Google crawl it to see the tag. Blocking it in robots.txt actually prevents the removal.
   • Search intent is the whole game. 'Coffee beans' wants shops, 'how to store coffee beans' wants an article, 'baler coffee roasters' wants that specific business. Serving the wrong format loses no matter how good the writing is.
   • The way to find intent is to look at the SERP, not to theorise. Open the search, look at what is ranking, and match that format.
   • Domain Rating and Domain Authority are third-party guesses, not Google numbers. Useful for comparison, embarrassing to present as fact.
   • Anyone promising a guaranteed ranking is either lying or planning to rank you for something nobody searches.

   Worked example — One keyword, three intents

   'espresso machine' → SERP is all shopping listings and category pages. Intent: buy. A blog post will never rank here.

   'espresso machine vs drip' → SERP is comparison articles and a video. Intent: research. This is your blog post.

   'espresso machine repair quezon city' → SERP is a map pack and three local sites. Intent: local service. This needs a Business Profile, not an article.

   Before writing a single word, search the term and screenshot the top five. That screenshot is your brief's first slide, and it ends most arguments with clients.

   What this pays

   What SEO work pays a Filipino freelancer

   SEO is one of the few VA-adjacent skills where the ceiling is genuinely high, because results are measurable. The gap between the entry and lead row is almost entirely 'can you tie your work to revenue'.

   Swipe the table sideways →

   Experience	Hourly (USD)	Monthly (USD)	What changes it
   Entry (0–1 yr)	$4–6	$650–1,000	Keyword lists, meta tags, uploading posts. Someone else decides strategy.
   Junior (1–2 yrs)	$6–9	$1,000–1,450	You run audits and briefs. You can explain why a page isn't ranking.
   Mid (2–4 yrs)	$9–13	$1,450–2,100	You own a content calendar and a technical backlog. You brief writers and devs.
   Senior (4–6 yrs)	$13–18	$2,100–2,900	You own traffic targets. You can defend a strategy to a sceptical founder.
   Lead / strategist (6+ yrs)	$18–30	$2,900–4,800	You tie rankings to pipeline and revenue. You manage other SEOs.

   This table has 4 columns and scrolls horizontally on small screens.

   Same skill, different client

   • Verse's job board (median)$7.30

     Across live SEO listings. Higher than the general VA median of $3.50 — the specialism pays.

   • US agency, white-label$8–15

     Steady volume, less client drama, but you never own the relationship.

   • US client, direct$12–25

     Where the money is. You need to be able to run a call without a manager.

   • Local PH SME$3–6

     Good for a first case study, bad as a career. Take one, then move up.

   Sources: Verse's live board (n=2,081 listings), OnlineJobs.ph SEO expectations ($4.20–11.20+), and 2026 agency rate cards quoting $9–16/hr for specialists.

   Red flag / green flag

   Spot the difference

   Same situation, two ways it can go.

   A prospect asks about results

   Red flag

   "Yes, we can guarantee you'll rank #1 on Google for your main keyword within 3 months, or your money back."

   Nobody can guarantee a ranking, because nobody controls the algorithm or the competitors. Anyone who promises this is either lying or planning to rank you for a keyword nobody searches.

   Green flag

   "I can't promise a position — nobody can, and anyone who does is selling you something. What I can commit to is: a full technical audit in week 2, 8 pages of new content a month, and a monthly report showing exactly which pages moved and what I'm doing next. If clicks haven't moved in 6 months, fire me."

   Honest about what's controllable, specific about deliverables, and puts a real check-in on the table. This wins more clients than the guarantee does.

   Explaining why traffic dropped

   Red flag

   "There was probably a Google algorithm update. It happens sometimes, we just have to wait it out."

   This is the SEO equivalent of a shrug. Sometimes it's true, but if you can't tell the difference between an update, a tracking break, a seasonal dip and a self-inflicted technical error, you're not doing the job.

   Green flag

   "Clicks dropped 22% starting March 12. Three things I checked: (1) no core update was confirmed on that date, (2) GA4 tracking is still firing, (3) Search Console shows 340 pages moved to 'crawled, not indexed' on March 11 — which lines up with the site migration your dev did. I think it's the migration. Here's the fix and it'll take a week."

   You ruled things out in order, named a date, found a cause, and proposed a fix. That's diagnosis, not weather commentary.

   Do this

   Pick five search terms in any niche you know. Search each one, screenshot the top five results, and label the intent and the winning content format.

   Hand in: A five-row intent table with a screenshot and a format verdict per row.≈ 35 min

   Check before you call it done

   • Every row names the dominant content format, not just a category label
   • You noted whether there is a map pack, shopping row, or featured snippet
   • At least one of your original guesses turned out to be wrong, and you wrote that down
   • You used an incognito window

   Mark module done
2. 02

   Keyword research that produces a plan

   You can turn a business into a keyword map that tells someone exactly what to publish next.WorkflowTools2 templates40 min

   • Start from the business, not the tool. List their services, their products, the questions customers ask on the phone, and the words competitors use.
   • Expand the seed list with Keyword Planner, Google autocomplete, People Also Ask, and the related searches at the bottom of the page. All free.
   • Cluster by intent, not by string similarity. 'Best flat white in QC' and 'flat white near me' are one page. 'What is a flat white' is a different page entirely.
   • One primary term per page. If two pages target the same term you get keyword cannibalisation and Google picks the wrong one, usually the weaker one.
   • Volume is an estimate and difficulty is a vendor's opinion. Write them down with the source and date, then decide with the SERP.
   • Deliver a content map, never a raw keyword list. Columns: URL, primary term, secondary terms, intent, current position, format, priority, status.

   Worked example — Baler Coffee Roasters, five rows of a real map

   / → 'specialty coffee roaster quezon city' · local · exists, pos 18 · homepage · P1

   /shop/single-origin → 'single origin coffee beans philippines' · transactional · not ranking · category · P1

   /blog/store-coffee-beans → 'how to store coffee beans philippines' · informational · none · 900-word guide · P2

   /blog/flat-white-vs-latte → 'flat white vs latte' · informational · none · comparison + table · P3

   /wholesale → 'wholesale coffee supplier manila' · commercial · none · service page + form · P1

   Five rows and the client already knows what to build first. A 400-keyword export tells them nothing and quietly signals you do not know how to prioritise.

   Workflow

   Keyword research that ends in a publishing plan

   New client, or a quarterly content refresh. Budget half a day.

   1. 1

      Write down what the business actually sells, in their words

      Before touching a tool. If you can't explain what they charge for, you'll build a keyword list for the wrong company.

   2. 2

      Seed 10–20 obvious terms by hand

      From their homepage, their sales calls, and the questions they get asked. Tools expand seeds, they don't invent them.

   3. 3

      Expand with a tool and pull the real numbers

      Volume, difficulty, and crucially the SERP — who currently ranks. If page one is all Reddit and Quora, that's an opportunity. If it's all Amazon and Wikipedia, walk away.

   4. 4

      Sort by intent, not by volume

      Informational, commercial, transactional, navigational. A 90-volume transactional term beats a 9,000-volume informational one for a small business.

   5. 5

      Cluster into pages, not keywords

      One page can rank for 30 variants. "best coffee beans manila", "where to buy coffee beans manila" and "manila coffee bean shop" are one page, not three.

   6. 6

      Assign each cluster a page type and a status

      New post / update existing / merge two thin pages / do nothing. The 'do nothing' column is what makes this a plan instead of a wish list.

   Where this breaks: Handing over a 2,000-row spreadsheet. Nobody reads it, nothing gets published, and you look like you did a lot of work that changed nothing. Ship 20 clustered rows with a publish order instead.

   Tool comparison

   Keyword and SEO research tools

   You do not need a $200/month tool to get hired. You need to know what the numbers mean. Start free, and let a client pay for the paid one.

   Swipe the table sideways →

   Tool	Best for	Learning curve	Cost	Verdict
   Google Search ConsoleLearn first	What a site ALREADY ranks for. The only source of true data.	Easy — but takes months to read well	Free	The most underrated tool in SEO. Every other tool estimates; this one measures. Learn the Queries and Pages reports cold.
   Google Keyword Planner	Volume ranges straight from Google.	Easy	Free (needs an Ads account)	Ranges are vague without ad spend, but it's free and it's the source everyone else resells.
   Ahrefs	Backlinks, competitor gaps, accurate difficulty scores.	Medium — a week to get useful	$129/mo (free Webmaster Tools tier)	The industry standard. Use the free Webmaster Tools tier on your own site to learn the UI before a client pays for a seat.
   Semrush	All-in-one, and the name most US clients recognise.	Medium — cluttered UI	$140/mo (limited free tier)	If a client already has a seat, use theirs. Listing it on your CV opens doors even if you prefer Ahrefs.
   AnswerThePublic / AlsoAsked	Real questions people ask. Great for FAQ sections and AI citations.	Instant	Free tier	Cheap way to find long-tail intent. Increasingly important now that AI answers pull from question-shaped content.
   Screaming Frog	Crawling a site for technical problems.	Medium — looks scary, isn't	Free up to 500 URLs	Free tier covers most small business sites entirely. Learning this one thing puts you ahead of most VAs applying for SEO roles.

   This table has 5 columns and scrolls horizontally on small screens.

   Copy-paste

   Steal these

   Swap the bracketed bits and send.

   Keyword map (the deliverable, not the raw list)

   One row per PAGE, not per keyword. This is what you hand a client. Build it in Sheets.

   Copy template to clipboard

   Target page	Primary keyword	Vol	KD	Intent	Also ranks for	Action	Priority	Owner	Due
   /coffee-beans-manila	buy coffee beans manila	320	12	Transactional	where to buy coffee beans manila; manila coffee bean shop; coffee beans delivery manila	NEW page	1	Writer	Mar 14
   /blog/how-to-store-beans	how to store coffee beans	1,900	8	Informational	coffee bean storage; keep beans fresh	UPDATE — add FAQ + schema	2	Me	Mar 18
   /blog/beans-101 + /blog/bean-guide	coffee bean types	880	15	Informational	—	MERGE into one, redirect old	3	Me	Mar 21
   /wholesale	wholesale coffee supplier philippines	140	22	Commercial	bulk coffee supplier ph	NEW page	4	Writer	Mar 28

   Notes column rules:
   • Priority 1 = transactional + low KD + we have no page. Always do these first.
   • Never more than 8 rows in one month's plan. A plan nobody finishes is not a plan.

   Client kickoff questions (before any research)

   Send before your first SEO call. The answers decide the entire keyword strategy.

   Copy template to clipboard

   Before I start research, six questions:
   
   1. What do you sell, and which one makes you the most money?
   2. Who's your ideal customer, and where are they? (City? Country? Whole world?)
   3. Name 3 competitors you'd hate to lose a deal to.
   4. What do customers say when they describe your product to a friend?
   5. What's the one page on your site you most want people to land on?
   6. What have you already tried, and what happened?
   
   Access I'll need (view is fine to start):
   • Google Search Console
   • Google Analytics 4
   • The CMS (WordPress / Shopify / Webflow — read-only first)
   • Google Business Profile, if you have a physical location
   
   If you don't have Search Console set up, tell me and I'll do it — takes 10 minutes and it's the single most useful thing we can turn on.

   Do this

   Build a 20-row keyword map for a real local business near you. Use only free tools. Mark each row with intent, format and priority.

   Hand in: A Google Sheet keyword map with the eight columns above and a one-paragraph 'build these three first' note.≈ 90 min

   Check before you call it done

   • No two rows target the same primary term
   • Every row has an intent label backed by a SERP you actually looked at
   • Volume and difficulty cells note their source and the date pulled
   • Priorities are justified in the note, not just assigned
   • At least three rows are pages that do not exist yet

   Mark module done
3. 03

   On-page SEO without keyword stuffing

   You can improve a page's title, structure and links so it reads better for humans and clearer for crawlers.Time splitRed/green flags1 template34 min

   • The title tag is the highest-leverage 60 characters on the page. Primary term near the front, then the differentiator, then the brand.
   • Meta descriptions do not rank you, they win the click. Write them as ad copy and stay near 150 characters.
   • One H1 per page, and headings that describe the section honestly. H2s that are just keywords make the page unreadable and rarely help.
   • Internal links are the most underused lever in SEO. Link from your strong existing pages into the new one with descriptive anchor text, not 'click here'.
   • Alt text describes the image for someone who cannot see it. If a keyword fits naturally, fine. If not, leave it out.
   • Keyword stuffing has not worked in over a decade and now actively hurts. Cover the topic properly and the terms show up on their own.
   • Log every change with a date. When traffic moves in six weeks, the change log is the only way anyone knows why.

   Worked example — One page, rewritten

   Before

   Title: Home | Baler Coffee Roasters | Coffee QC | Best Coffee | Buy Coffee Beans Online Philippines

   H1: Welcome to our website

   Meta: Baler Coffee Roasters. Coffee. Beans. Quezon City. Order now.

   Intro: We are a company that sells coffee. Our coffee is the best coffee in the Philippines for coffee lovers who love coffee.

   Internal links: none

   Alt text: IMG_2841.jpg

   After

   Title: Specialty Coffee Roaster in Quezon City — Baler Coffee Roasters (58 chars)

   H1: Small-batch coffee, roasted in Quezon City every Tuesday

   Meta: Single-origin beans roasted weekly in QC. Free Metro Manila delivery over ₱1,500. Wholesale enquiries welcome. (146 chars)

   Intro: We roast single-origin beans in small batches every Tuesday and ship them within 48 hours, so what arrives is a week old, not a year.

   Internal links: 4 added — to /shop/single-origin, /wholesale, /blog/store-coffee-beans, /visit

   Alt text: Green Benguet beans in a drum roaster mid-first-crack

   The 'after' mentions coffee less and will rank better. Specificity, dates, prices and places are what make a page look like a real business to both readers and machines.

   Where the hours go

   Where an SEO retainer's hours actually go

   A 20 hr/week retainer for one small business client. Notice how little of it is 'doing SEO' in the way beginners imagine.

   • Content: briefs, editing, publishing35%

     The biggest block by far. SEO is mostly a publishing operation.

   • On-page fixes and internal linking18%

     Titles, headings, links, images. Unglamorous, high return.

   • Reporting and client comms15%

     If you skip this you get fired even when the work is good.

   • Technical: crawls, fixes, monitoring12%

     Front-loaded. Heavy in month one, light after.

   • Research: keywords, competitors, SERPs12%

     Feels like the main job. Is roughly a tenth of it.

   • Link prospecting and outreach8%

     Low hours, low hit rate, occasionally huge payoff.

   Half your week is making and fixing pages. If you want to charge senior rates, get fast at the content pipeline — that's where the leverage is.

   Red flag / green flag

   Spot the difference

   Same situation, two ways it can go.

   Writing a title tag

   Red flag

   "Coffee Beans Manila | Buy Coffee Beans Manila | Best Coffee Beans Manila Philippines | Cheap Coffee Beans"

   Keyword stuffed, over 60 characters so Google will rewrite it anyway, and it reads like spam. A human seeing this in the results scrolls past.

   Green flag

   "Fresh Coffee Beans in Manila — Roasted Weekly, Same-Day Delivery" (63 chars)

   Contains the keyword naturally, adds two reasons to click that competitors don't have, and reads like a real business wrote it. Click-through rate is a ranking input; boring titles cost you twice.

   A client asks you to 'add the keyword more times'

   Red flag

   Going through the page and swapping every "it" and "our beans" for "coffee beans manila" until the density hits 3%.

   Keyword density stopped being a thing over a decade ago. You will make the page worse for readers, and Google's helpful content systems specifically target this.

   Green flag

   "Density isn't a ranking factor any more — Google matches meaning, not counts. What'll actually move this page: the H1 doesn't mention Manila, there's no mention of delivery areas, and the three competitors ranking above us all have a price on the page. Can I add those instead? I'll keep the keyword in the title, H1 and first paragraph, which is all it needs."

   You said no with a reason, then immediately offered something better and more specific. Clients accept 'no' far more easily when it comes attached to a 'here's what instead'.

   Copy-paste

   Steal this

   Swap the bracketed bits and send.

   On-page optimisation checklist

   Run down this list for every page you touch. Takes 15 minutes once you know it.

   Copy template to clipboard

   PAGE: [url]
   Target: [primary keyword] | Intent: [informational/commercial/transactional]
   
   TITLE + META
   [ ] Title under 60 chars, keyword near the front, one reason to click
   [ ] Meta description 140–160 chars — it's not a ranking factor, it IS a click factor
   [ ] URL slug short, lowercase, hyphens, no dates, no stop words
   
   STRUCTURE
   [ ] Exactly one H1, contains the keyword or a close variant
   [ ] H2s answer the questions in "People also ask" for this term
   [ ] No heading levels skipped (H2 → H4 is a fail)
   [ ] First 100 words state plainly what the page is and who it's for
   
   CONTENT
   [ ] Answers the query in the first paragraph — don't make people scroll for it
   [ ] Covers the subtopics the top 3 results all cover (and one they don't)
   [ ] Specific: real numbers, prices, dates, place names
   [ ] Reads out loud without embarrassment
   
   LINKS
   [ ] 2–4 internal links OUT to relevant pages, descriptive anchor text
   [ ] At least 1 internal link IN from an existing relevant page — this is the step everyone forgets
   [ ] External links open where the client expects, and point somewhere credible
   
   MEDIA
   [ ] Images compressed (under 200kb), descriptive filenames, real alt text
   [ ] Nothing above the fold that takes over 2.5s to load
   
   TECHNICAL
   [ ] Indexable (no stray noindex), canonical points to itself
   [ ] Schema added if it fits: Article, FAQ, Product, LocalBusiness
   [ ] Mobile: tap targets not cramped, no horizontal scroll

   Do this

   Find a genuinely bad local business page. Rewrite the title, meta, H1, intro paragraph, and propose five internal links with anchor text.

   Hand in: A before-and-after doc with character counts and a one-line reason for each change.≈ 50 min

   Check before you call it done

   • Title is under 60 characters and reads like a sentence
   • Meta is 140–155 characters and contains a reason to click
   • The intro says something specific a competitor could not copy-paste
   • Anchor text is descriptive, never 'click here' or 'read more'
   • No sentence contains the primary keyword more than once

   Mark module done
4. 04

   Content briefs writers can actually use

   You can hand a writer a brief that produces the right article on the first attempt.Workflow2 templates30 min

   • A brief is a decision document. Target query, intent, audience, angle, outline, entities to cover, internal links, references, and what not to claim.
   • Include the top three ranking URLs and one line each on why they rank. This does more for a writer than any word-count target.
   • Word count is a guide from the SERP, not a target. If the top results are 800 words, a 3,000-word essay is a worse answer, not a better one.
   • List the entities: brands, places, tools, prices, people. Coverage of the real things in a topic is what separates useful content from paraphrased filler.
   • Always include a 'do not claim' section. Health, legal, income and safety claims get clients in real trouble, and the VA is the one who wrote it.
   • Add two or three FAQ questions pulled from People Also Ask. Free structure, and it often wins the snippet.

   Worked example — Brief header for 'how to store coffee beans philippines'

   QUERY — how to store coffee beans philippines · 320/mo est. (Keyword Planner, 4 Aug 2026) · low difficulty

   INTENT — Informational. Top 3 are all how-to guides with a section on humidity. Two have a comparison table.

   AUDIENCE — Home brewers in Metro Manila who just bought their first bag of beans and noticed they went stale fast.

   ANGLE — Humidity is the local problem nobody's guides address. Lead with that, not with generic 'keep away from sunlight'.

   COVER — airtight containers, one-way valve bags, freezing (and the condensation risk), humidity levels in MM, degassing, 'roasted on' vs 'best before' dates.

   LENGTH — 900–1,100 words. Top result is 1,040.

   INTERNAL LINKS — /shop/single-origin (anchor: freshly roasted single-origin beans), /blog/grind-size

   DO NOT CLAIM — any health benefit, any specific shelf life in days without a source, that freezing is always safe.

   FAQ — Can you freeze coffee beans? How long do roasted beans last? Should beans be stored in the fridge?

   A writer can start immediately from this, and you can review against it objectively instead of arguing about taste.

   Workflow

   Brief to published post

   Every article. The brief is where you control quality; editing is where you lose your evenings.

   1. 1

      Read the top 3 ranking pages properly

      Not skim. Note what they all cover (you must cover it), and what none of them cover (that's your angle).

   2. 2

      Write the brief before you commission

      Target keyword, word count, the H2s, the angle, who the reader is, and 3 sources to cite. 20 minutes here saves 2 hours of rewriting.

   3. 3

      Give the writer the one thing they can't guess

      The client's actual expertise. A quote from the founder, a real customer story, a number only this business knows. This is the only real differentiator left.

   4. 4

      Edit for accuracy first, style second

      Check every claim and number. One wrong price on a client's blog costs you more trust than ten clunky sentences.

   5. 5

      Optimise on the way in, not after

      Title, meta, slug, internal links, alt text, schema — do it as you publish. 'We'll optimise it later' means never.

   6. 6

      Add the internal link from an old page

      A new post with no inbound internal links is an orphan. Find two existing pages and link to it the same day.

   Where this breaks: Publishing and moving on. Put a 90-day reminder on every post to check its Search Console data and update it. Refreshing old posts beats writing new ones for most small sites.

   Copy-paste

   Steal these

   Swap the bracketed bits and send.

   Content brief

   One page. Hand this to any writer, including yourself. If a writer asks a question this doesn't answer, add the answer to your template permanently.

   Copy template to clipboard

   BRIEF: [working title]
   Due: [date] | Word count: [1,200–1,500] | Writer: [name] | Fee: [amount]
   
   TARGET
   Primary keyword: [keyword] (vol [n], KD [n])
   Secondary: [3–5 variants to work in naturally]
   Search intent: [informational / commercial / transactional]
   What the reader is actually trying to do: [one sentence]
   
   WHO'S READING
   [2 sentences. Their job, their problem, what they already know. "Small cafe owners in Metro Manila who currently buy from a supermarket and suspect they're overpaying."]
   
   THE ANGLE
   Top 3 results all say: [the table stakes — we must cover this too]
   None of them say: [our angle — lead with this]
   Our unfair advantage: [the client's real expertise/data/story]
   
   STRUCTURE
   H1: [title]
   Intro (100 words): answer the question immediately, then say what the piece covers
   H2: [heading]
     - [point to make]
   H2: [heading]
     - [point to make]
   H2: FAQ — [3 questions from AlsoAsked, answered in 40–60 words each]
   Close: [what the reader should do next + link to the money page]
   
   MUST INCLUDE
   • Internal links to: [url], [url]
   • Cite: [source], [source]
   • Quote from [client contact] — I'll get this, don't invent one
   • [Any specific number, price, or product name]
   
   DON'T
   • No "in today's fast-paced world" openers
   • No stats without a source and a date
   • Don't recommend competitors by name
   • Don't claim anything about health, money or legal outcomes we can't back up
   
   TONE
   [3 words] — e.g. "plain, warm, a bit opinionated". Reference: [link to a page they should sound like]

   Writer feedback that doesn't take longer than rewriting

   First draft came back wrong. Send this instead of silently fixing it, or you'll be doing it forever.

   Copy template to clipboard

   Thanks [name] — solid structure, two things to fix before I can publish.
   
   1. [The biggest problem, named plainly.]
      Example: the intro spends 3 paragraphs on background before answering the question. Cut to the answer in the first 2 sentences.
      
   2. [Second problem.]
      Example: the "how to store beans" section is generic — it could be on any site. The brief asked for [client]'s actual method. I've pasted their quote below, build the section around it.
   
   Small stuff I'll fix myself, no need to action: [typos, heading levels, links].
   
   Can you turn this around by [date]? Happy to jump on a 10-min call if the angle isn't landing.

   Do this

   Write a full brief for one of the P2 rows in your keyword map from module 2.

   Hand in: A one-page brief using all nine headings above.≈ 45 min

   Check before you call it done

   • You actually opened and summarised the top three results
   • The angle is something the current top results are missing
   • At least eight specific entities are listed
   • There is a do-not-claim section
   • Length is justified by the SERP, not picked out of the air

   Mark module done
5. 05

   Technical SEO you can safely do as a VA

   You can run a crawl, turn it into a prioritised issue log, and know exactly which fixes need someone senior to approve.WorkflowTools1 template42 min

   • Run Screaming Frog on the free 500-URL tier. Your first pass looks for four things: broken links, redirect chains, duplicate titles, and pages missing from the sitemap.
   • Status codes in plain terms. 200 is fine, 301 is a permanent move and passes value, 302 is temporary and often used by mistake, 404 is gone, 5xx is the server failing and is urgent.
   • A redirect chain is A → B → C. Fix it by pointing A straight at C. Chains waste crawl budget and lose a little value at each hop.
   • Canonicals tell Google which version of near-identical pages is the real one. Getting this wrong can deindex a whole section, so a junior finds and documents canonical problems, a senior changes them.
   • Orphan pages have no internal links pointing at them. Google may never find them. This is usually the cheapest win on a small site.
   • Core Web Vitals: LCP is how fast the main content appears, INP is how fast the page responds to a tap, CLS is how much things jump around. Report the field data from PageSpeed Insights, not the lab score.
   • Know your line. Find, evidence and recommend robots.txt, noindex and canonical changes. Never make them silently on a live site.

   Worked example — An issue log row done properly

   Before

   'There are a lot of 404s and some redirect issues on the site.'

   After

   ISSUE — 14 internal links point to /shop/kenya-aa which returns 404

   EVIDENCE — Screaming Frog crawl 4 Aug 2026, Response Codes > Client Error, tab 'Inlinks' attached

   IMPACT — Users hit dead ends from the main nav; crawl budget wasted; the page had 12% of organic entries in Jul

   FIX — 301 /shop/kenya-aa → /shop/single-origin, then update the 14 internal links to point directly at the new URL

   OWNER — Dev (redirect), me (internal link updates in WP)

   RISK IF WRONG — Low. Redirect is reversible.

   PRIORITY — P1

   Evidence, impact, owner, risk, priority. Do this and you stop being a VA who exports crawls and start being the person the agency lets talk to clients.

   Workflow

   Crawl to prioritised issue log

   Month one of any new client, then quarterly.

   1. 1

      Crawl with Screaming Frog, and let it finish

      Free tier does 500 URLs, which covers most small business sites. Export everything before you start filtering.

   2. 2

      Cross-check against Search Console coverage

      The crawl shows what exists; Search Console shows what Google actually did with it. The gap between them is where the problems live.

   3. 3

      Sort every issue into three buckets

      Blocking indexation / hurting rankings / cosmetic. Most 'SEO audit' reports are 90% cosmetic and that's why clients ignore them.

   4. 4

      Mark who can fix each one

      Me (CMS access) / dev needed / decision needed from client. Be honest — attempting a dev fix and breaking the site is career-limiting.

   5. 5

      Estimate impact and effort, then sort

      High impact + low effort first, always. A client who sees one thing fixed in week one trusts you for the other twenty.

   6. 6

      Fix the safe ones, log the rest with a ticket each

      Never hand over a PDF of problems with no owner. That's a complaint, not a deliverable.

   Where this breaks: Touching robots.txt, canonicals or redirects on a live site without a backup and written sign-off. One bad line in robots.txt can deindex an entire business. Always screenshot the before state.

   Tool comparison

   Technical SEO tools, and which ones you're allowed to break things with

   The rule: read-only tools you can use freely from day one. Write-access tools need explicit permission and a backup.

   Swipe the table sideways →

   Tool	Best for	Learning curve	Cost	Verdict
   Google Search ConsoleLearn first	Indexing status, coverage errors, Core Web Vitals, real query data.	Easy to open, months to read well	Free	Start every technical investigation here. The URL Inspection tool answers 'why isn't this page ranking' faster than anything else.
   Screaming Frog	Finding broken links, redirect chains, missing tags, thin pages at scale.	Medium — 2 evenings	Free to 500 URLs, £199/yr	Read-only, so it's safe. Learn it on your own site. Knowing this genuinely separates you from other applicants.
   PageSpeed Insights	Core Web Vitals and a prioritised list of what's slow.	Easy to run, hard to action	Free	Run it, but don't promise speed fixes. Most require a developer. Report the score, name the top 2 causes, hand it over.
   Rich Results Test	Checking your schema markup actually validates.	Instant	Free	Always test schema before you call it done. Invalid schema does nothing at best and gets a manual action at worst.
   Ahrefs Site Audit / Semrush Site Audit	Scheduled crawls with a trend line the client can see.	Easy	Bundled with the subscription	Nice-to-have. The score is arbitrary — never report the number on its own, report which issues you closed.
   Wayback Machine	Seeing what a page looked like before traffic dropped.	Instant	Free	Underused detective tool. When a client says 'it used to rank', this is how you find out what changed.

   This table has 5 columns and scrolls horizontally on small screens.

   Copy-paste

   Steal this

   Swap the bracketed bits and send.

   Technical issue log

   Replaces the 40-page audit PDF. One sheet, sorted by impact, with an owner on every line.

   Copy template to clipboard

   #	Issue	Pages affected	Bucket	Impact	Effort	Owner	Status	Evidence
   1	340 pages "crawled – currently not indexed"	340	Blocking	High	M	Me	In progress	GSC coverage, screenshot [link]
   2	Homepage H1 is an image, no text	1	Ranking	High	S	Me	Done	Frog export row 1
   3	Redirect chain /shop → /store → /products	60	Ranking	Med	S	Dev	Ticketed	Frog redirect report
   4	No LocalBusiness schema anywhere	site	Ranking	Med	S	Me	To do	Rich Results Test
   5	12 broken outbound links in old posts	12	Cosmetic	Low	S	Me	To do	Frog 404 report

   RULES
   • Bucket: Blocking (Google can't see it) > Ranking (Google sees it, doesn't like it) > Cosmetic
   • Effort: S = under 1hr, M = under a day, L = needs a dev sprint
   • Never more than 3 "High" items open at once — fix them, then promote the next three
   • Every row needs Evidence. "Trust me" is not an audit.
   
   ⚠ NEEDS WRITTEN SIGN-OFF BEFORE I TOUCH IT
   • robots.txt changes
   • Canonical tag changes
   • Any redirect on a page that currently gets traffic
   • Anything that deletes a URL

   Do this

   Crawl any small public site with Screaming Frog free. Produce an issue log of the top eight problems using the seven fields above.

   Hand in: An eight-row prioritised issue log with the crawl export attached.≈ 80 min

   Check before you call it done

   • Every row cites specific evidence with a date, not a general impression
   • Priorities are P1/P2/P3 with a stated reason
   • You marked which fixes need senior or client approval
   • No row says 'fix SEO' or anything else unactionable
   • You noted at least one thing that looks broken but is actually fine

   Mark module done
6. 06

   Off-page and local, without buying spam

   You can prospect real links and set up local presence properly, and turn down the schemes that get clients penalised.Red/green flags2 templates30 min

   • One relevant link from a site whose audience overlaps with the client beats a hundred directory links. Relevance and traffic, not just a DR number.
   • Link gap analysis is the most useful prospecting method: find sites linking to two competitors but not to your client. Those sites already cover the topic.
   • Personalise outreach or do not send it. Name the specific page, say what you would add, and keep it under 120 words.
   • Local SEO is mostly consistency. Name, address and phone identical everywhere, correct categories in the Google Business Profile, real photos, and replies to reviews.
   • Citation cleanup is boring, unglamorous, billable work that genuinely moves the map pack for small businesses. Good beginner offer.
   • Refuse paid link schemes, PBNs, link exchanges at scale, and fake reviews. Fake reviews are also illegal in several markets, not just against policy.
   • When a client says 'our competitor does it', the honest answer is: they might be getting away with it now, and you will still be the one holding the site when it stops working.

   Worked example — Outreach email that occasionally works

   Before

   Subject: Link exchange opportunity

   Hi, I came across your website and I think we could benefit from a mutual link exchange. Let me know if interested. We have high DA sites available.

   After

   Subject: your Benguet coffee guide — missing the roast date thing

   Hi Marla — your guide to Philippine coffee regions is the one I keep sending people. One gap: you mention buying local but not how to read a roast date, which is the thing that actually ruins most people's first bag.

   We published a short piece on it last week with humidity data for Metro Manila. If it's useful as a link under your 'buying tips' section, here it is: [url]. If not, no worries, genuinely.

   — Liza, Baler Coffee Roasters

   The second one gets a reply maybe one time in fifteen, which is a good rate. The first one gets you filtered forever.

   Red flag / green flag

   Spot the difference

   Same situation, two ways it can go.

   A vendor emails offering links

   Red flag

   "DA 60+ guest post placements, permanent do-follow, $45 each. Bulk discount available. 500 sites in our network, instant approval, casino/CBD niches accepted."

   A private blog network. "Instant approval", "our network" and a niche list that includes casino are the tells. These links work briefly and then take the client's site down with them. You will be blamed.

   Green flag

   "Hi — I run [client], a coffee roaster in Manila. I read your piece on [specific article] and noticed you link to a bean storage guide that's 404ing now. We published one last month that covers the same ground plus humidity, which matters here. Happy for you to use it or not — either way, the broken link is at paragraph 6."

   You gave them something useful before asking, referenced a real page, and made it easy to say no. Hit rate is maybe 5%, but the links are real and permanent.

   Setting up a Google Business Profile

   Red flag

   Stuffing the business name field: "Manila Coffee Beans - Best Coffee Roaster Delivery Philippines"

   Direct violation of Google's guidelines and the single easiest thing for a competitor to report. Suspension takes minutes; reinstatement takes weeks and sometimes never happens.

   Green flag

   Name exactly as it appears on the shopfront and receipts: "Baler Coffee Co." Then win by filling in everything else: every service, real hours including holidays, 20+ genuine photos, products with prices, weekly posts, and replying to every review within 48 hours.

   The name field is a trap. The completeness of everything else is what actually ranks you in the map pack, and it's entirely within your control.

   Copy-paste

   Steal these

   Swap the bracketed bits and send.

   Broken link outreach

   The highest hit-rate outreach there is, because you're doing them a favour first. Send 20, expect 1–2.

   Copy template to clipboard

   Subject: broken link on [page title]
   
   Hi [first name],
   
   Small thing — the link to [old resource] in your [article name] piece is dead. It's in the [section/paragraph] section, points to [dead url].
   
   I only noticed because I was researching the same topic. We published [our resource] recently which covers [what it covers] — you're welcome to use it as the replacement, or not, no pressure either way. The broken link's worth fixing regardless.
   
   [Your name]
   [Client business], [city]

   Local SEO setup checklist

   Any client with a physical location or a service area. Do all of it in week one — it's the fastest measurable win in SEO.

   Copy template to clipboard

   GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE
   [ ] Claimed and verified
   [ ] Name matches signage EXACTLY — no keywords, no city, no tagline
   [ ] Primary category is the most specific one that fits (this matters more than anything else)
   [ ] 2–4 secondary categories
   [ ] Full address, or service area set if there's no walk-in
   [ ] Hours, plus special hours for every PH holiday
   [ ] Phone number that a human answers
   [ ] Website link with UTM tracking so you can prove the traffic
   [ ] Description: 750 chars, natural, mentions the city once
   [ ] 20+ photos: exterior, interior, team, products, at different times of day
   [ ] Products/services listed with real prices
   [ ] Q&A section seeded with 5 real questions the business gets asked
   [ ] Weekly Post (offer, update, event)
   
   NAP CONSISTENCY — name, address, phone identical everywhere
   [ ] Website footer and contact page
   [ ] Facebook page
   [ ] Any directory they're already on
   [ ] Apple Maps / Waze
   Search the phone number in quotes to find listings you didn't know existed.
   
   ON-SITE
   [ ] LocalBusiness schema with address, hours, geo coordinates
   [ ] A real page per location or service area — not a doorway page, actual content
   [ ] Embedded map on the contact page
   [ ] City mentioned naturally in title, H1 and body of the main service page
   
   REVIEWS
   [ ] A short link saved for requesting reviews
   [ ] A process: who asks, when, how (in person beats email)
   [ ] Reply to every review within 48 hrs, including the bad ones, especially the bad ones
   [ ] Never buy reviews. It is trivially detectable and it is unrecoverable.

   Do this

   Pick two competitors in your chosen niche. Find five sites that link to both of them but not to your client. Write one outreach email to the best target.

   Hand in: A five-row prospect sheet with a relevance note per row, plus one outreach email under 120 words.≈ 60 min

   Check before you call it done

   • Each prospect has a named contact or a real contact route
   • You wrote why their audience overlaps, in one sentence per row
   • The email names a specific page and a specific gap
   • Nothing in the email offers money or a reciprocal link
   • You rejected at least one prospect and said why

   Mark module done
7. 07

   Reporting that survives a sceptical client

   You can pull the data, compare it honestly, and write three recommendations instead of forty charts.Red/green flags2 templates32 min

   • Compare like with like. Month over month is contaminated by seasonality and different day counts. Year over year and 28-day-versus-previous-28 are safer.
   • Separate traffic from outcomes. Impressions up with clicks flat means you are ranking for the wrong things, and saying that out loud builds more trust than a green arrow.
   • Always explain anomalies before the client asks. A holiday, an algorithm update, a site outage, a tracking change. Unexplained spikes make clients suspicious of everything else.
   • The report opens with a three-line summary: what happened, why, what we do next. The charts go underneath for the people who want them.
   • Never report rank alone. Position 4 on a term nobody searches is worth less than position 11 on a term that converts.
   • Build it once in Looker Studio, connect GSC and GA4, and it refreshes itself. That is a real hour-saving that lets you take more clients.

   Worked example — The top of a monthly report

   WHAT HAPPENED — Organic clicks 1,840, up 22% vs the same 28 days last year. Non-brand clicks up 31%. Conversions from organic 44, flat.

   WHY — The three P1 pages published in June are now ranking 8–14 for their primary terms. Conversion is flat because /wholesale still has no enquiry form above the fold.

   CAUTION — Impressions spiked 9–11 July from a single term, 'coffee', which sent almost no clicks. Excluded from the trend line so it does not flatter the numbers.

   NEXT — 1) Add an enquiry form to /wholesale. 2) Internal links from the two strongest blog posts into /shop/single-origin. 3) Fix the 14 broken links from the crawl.

   The caution line is the one that earns the renewal. Clients have all been burned by an agency reporting a fake spike as a win.

   Red flag / green flag

   Spot the difference

   Same situation, two ways it can go.

   The monthly report you send

   Red flag

   A 34-slide deck of every chart the tool exports. Impressions, clicks, CTR, position, bounce rate, sessions by device, top 100 keywords, backlink count, domain authority score — all with no commentary.

   Nobody reads it. The client concludes you're padding to look busy, and when they cancel they'll say "we never really understood what you were doing". Volume of charts is inversely correlated with retention.

   Green flag

   A one-page email: the three numbers that matter, what changed and why, what you're doing next month, and one thing you need from them. Full data in a linked appendix for anyone who wants it.

   Founders skim on their phone. Write for that. The appendix means you're not hiding anything — you're just respecting their time.

   A month where the numbers went down

   Red flag

   Leading with the good metric you can find, burying the drop on slide 19, or quietly not sending the report at all.

   They have Analytics too. Getting caught spinning a bad month costs the relationship permanently, and bad months are normal in SEO.

   Green flag

   "Clicks down 14% this month. Two reasons: [competitor] published a better version of our top page, and the seasonal dip we saw last February repeated. Neither is a surprise and here's the plan: I'm rewriting that page this week with the pricing table they don't have, and I've queued two posts for the terms that hold up year-round."

   Named the drop first, gave real causes, distinguished the controllable from the seasonal, and moved straight to action. Clients forgive bad months. They don't forgive being managed.

   Copy-paste

   Steal these

   Swap the bracketed bits and send.

   Monthly SEO report

   Paste into the email body. Not an attachment — attachments don't get opened.

   Copy template to clipboard

   [Client] SEO — [Month]
   
   THE THREE NUMBERS
   Clicks: [n] ([+/-n%] vs last month, [+/-n%] vs same month last year)
   Impressions: [n] ([+/-n%])
   Conversions/enquiries from organic: [n] ([+/-n%])
   
   WHAT CHANGED AND WHY
   [2–4 sentences. Cause, not just effect. If something dropped, say so first.]
   
   BIGGEST WIN
   [One specific thing. "The bean storage guide went from position 14 to 4 and now brings 180 clicks/month — that's more than the homepage."]
   
   WHAT I DID
   • [Thing] — [result or status]
   • [Thing] — [result or status]
   • [Thing] — [result or status]
   
   NEXT MONTH
   1. [Specific action, with the reason]
   2. [Specific action, with the reason]
   3. [Specific action, with the reason]
   
   WHAT I NEED FROM YOU
   [One thing. A quote, a decision, dev time, a photo. Only ever ask for one.]
   
   Full data: [link to the appendix sheet]
   
   YEAR-ON-YEAR NOTE
   SEO compounds and it's seasonal. Month-to-month is noise; the line that matters is [current month] vs [same month last year], which is [+/-n%].

   The 'is it working?' answer

   Month 3 or 4, when the client gets nervous. Have this ready before they ask.

   Copy template to clipboard

   Fair question, and here's my honest read.
   
   Leading indicators (these move first, in months 1–4):
   • Indexed pages: [n] → [n]
   • Impressions: [n] → [n] — Google is showing us more often
   • Keywords ranking in the top 20: [n] → [n]
   • Average position for our target set: [n] → [n]
   
   Lagging indicators (these move in months 4–9):
   • Clicks: [n] → [n]
   • Enquiries from organic: [n] → [n]
   
   Where we are: [honest sentence. "Impressions are up 60% but clicks are flat, which means we're appearing and not being clicked — that's a titles and meta problem, and it's a fixable one."]
   
   What would make me tell you to stop: [name it. "If impressions were flat too, I'd say the strategy is wrong and we should talk."]
   
   Realistic timeline from here: [specific]. If [metric] hasn't moved by [month], we should reassess together.

   Do this

   Use any GSC property you can access, including a personal site or one you set up for practice, and write a full monthly report from its real data.

   Hand in: A one-page report with the four headings above and a simple Looker Studio dashboard link.≈ 70 min

   Check before you call it done

   • The comparison period is stated and defensible
   • Non-brand traffic is separated from brand traffic
   • At least one anomaly is explained without being asked
   • There are exactly three recommendations, each with a named owner
   • No metric appears without context or a comparison

   Mark module done
8. 08

   Capstone: the Baler Coffee audit

   You have a full client-ready SEO deliverable pack built on real data from a real site you have permission to touch.WorkflowRates1 template120 min

   • Do this on a real site: your own, a friend's, a barangay group, a small non-profit. Real GSC data beats invented numbers every time and you will learn ten things you cannot learn from a mock.
   • Attribution is not optional. Label everything as personal project, simulated, or permissioned client work. Presenting someone else's results as yours is the fastest way to get blacklisted in a small industry.
   • Include the QA checklist and change log in the pack. It shows you work in a way an agency can insure.
   • Do not promise an outcome in the pack. Promise a process, then show the evidence of the process working.
   • One Reddit beginner did exactly this, took a sandbox site's PageSpeed from 40 to 90, cleaned the on-page and technical issues, then emailed 20 local businesses and got zero replies. The site was not the problem. Cold email at volume is. Warm routes work better: agencies who need implementation help, friends of friends, and non-profits with a defined project.

   Worked example — The eight files in the pack

   1. Audit summary, one page, three priorities

   2. Keyword map, 20+ rows with intent and priority

   3. Content brief for the top-priority page

   4. On-page before/after for one page with character counts

   5. Technical issue log with the crawl export

   6. Local citation audit, if the client is local

   7. One outreach email plus a five-row prospect sheet

   8. Monthly report and a Looker Studio dashboard link

   Plus: a QA checklist and a dated change log covering everything you touched

   This pack is more evidence than most junior SEO applicants have after a year of employment. It is also the thing that lets you skip the ₱15,000 bootcamp.

   Workflow

   Turning the audit into a portfolio piece and a pitch

   The day you finish the Baler Coffee capstone.

   1. 1

      Anonymise if you need to, but keep the numbers

      "A 40-page coffee retailer" is fine. "Improved SEO" is not. Numbers are the entire value of a case study.

   2. 2

      Lead with the diagnosis, not the deliverables

      "340 pages were invisible to Google because of one line in robots.txt" is a story. "I did a technical audit" is a task.

   3. 3

      Show one real artefact in full

      The issue log or the keyword map. Clients want to see the actual quality of your thinking, not a summary of it.

   4. 4

      Include what you'd do next and what it'd cost

      End the case study with the pitch. A portfolio that doesn't ask for the work is a diary.

   5. 5

      Record a 3-minute Loom walking through Search Console

      Screen-share your reasoning. This is what convinces a client you can actually do it rather than having read about it.

   Where this breaks: Presenting practice work as a paid client engagement. Say it's a practice audit. Clients respect it, and getting caught inventing clients ends the conversation permanently.

   What this pays

   What the capstone pack is worth as a paid engagement

   Once you've built this once for practice, you can sell the same thing. These are realistic first-client prices, not agency prices.

   Swipe the table sideways →

   Experience	Hourly (USD)	Monthly (USD)	What changes it
   Technical audit + issue log	6–10 hrs	$150–400 one-off	The easiest thing to sell cold. Low risk for them, fast for you.
   Keyword map + 3-month content plan	8–12 hrs	$250–600 one-off	Often turns into the retainer, because they need someone to execute it.
   Local SEO setup (GBP + citations + schema)	5–8 hrs	$200–450 one-off	Fastest visible result in all of SEO. Great first project.
   Ongoing retainer — 10 hrs/wk	$8–14 effective	$400–900/mo	4 posts + on-page + reporting. Ask for a 3-month minimum; SEO can't prove itself in one.
   Ongoing retainer — 20 hrs/wk	$10–16 effective	$900–1,800/mo	Adds technical, outreach and strategy. This is the target within 18 months.

   This table has 4 columns and scrolls horizontally on small screens.

   Sell the audit first. It's a low-commitment yes, it proves you're competent, and roughly half of them convert into a retainer.

   Copy-paste

   Steal this

   Swap the bracketed bits and send.

   Cold audit pitch

   Send to a small business whose site you've actually looked at for 10 minutes. Specificity is the whole thing.

   Copy template to clipboard

   Subject: 3 things costing you search traffic at [business name]
   
   Hi [name],
   
   I had a look at [site] this morning — I'm an SEO specialist and I do this to a few local businesses a week. Three things stood out:
   
   1. [Specific, verifiable problem.] e.g. "Your homepage title is just 'Home' — Google is showing that in search results instead of your business name."
   2. [Specific problem.] e.g. "You rank #7 for 'coffee beans manila' but the page it's ranking is a blog post from 2021, not your shop page."
   3. [Specific problem.] e.g. "Your Google Business Profile has no products listed, and the two competitors above you in the map both do."
   
   All three are fixable in under a week. I'm not going to pretend that transforms your business, but they're free traffic you're currently leaving on the table.
   
   If it's useful, I'll do a full audit — every issue, prioritised, with what to fix first — for [$X]. If you'd rather just take the three above and do them yourself, genuinely, go ahead. They're yours.
   
   [Your name]
   [portfolio link]

   Do this

   Assemble the full pack for a real site you have permission to work on. Publish it as a case study page with an honest attribution note.

   Hand in: A shareable case study link with all eight artefacts and a change log.≈ 120 min

   Check before you call it done

   • Every claim in the case study is backed by a screenshot with a date
   • The attribution note says clearly whose site it is and what your role was
   • The change log lists every edit with dates so results can be traced to causes
   • There is no guaranteed outcome anywhere in the document
   • A stranger can understand what you did in under four minutes

   Mark module done

Six situations that come up in real work. Pick an answer for each, then check. Nothing is recorded.

1. 01A client wants a page removed from Google. What is the correct move?

   ABlock it in robots.txtBAdd a noindex tag and let Google crawl the pageCDelete it and let the 404 handle itDAdd a canonical to the homepage

2. 02Impressions are up 40% but clicks are flat. What does that most likely mean?

   AThe site is being penalisedBYou are ranking for terms that do not match what searchers want, or ranking too low to be clickedCGA4 is brokenDThe content is too short

3. 03You find that /services and /our-services have near-identical content and both rank around position 20.

   AAdd more keywords to bothBDelete one immediatelyCDocument the duplication, recommend consolidating into one URL with a 301, and flag it for approvalDSet both to noindex

4. 04The client says their competitor buys links, so you should too.

   ABuy them, the client accepted the riskBExplain the penalty risk in writing, offer a real link plan, and decline the paid linksCBuy cheaper ones so it is less obviousDAgree and quietly do nothing

5. 05You are picking a page target for the query 'espresso machine repair quezon city'.

   AA 2,000-word blog post about espresso machine maintenanceBA local service page, plus getting the Google Business Profile rightCThe homepageDA product category page

6. 06Which of these belongs in a technical issue log row?

   A'Site speed is bad'B'LCP is 4.8s on mobile for /shop (PSI field data, 4 Aug), driven by an unoptimised 2.1MB hero image. Fix: compress and serve WebP. Owner: dev. P2.'C'Need to improve Core Web Vitals'D'Google says the site is slow'

Walk away when you see these

Not every one of these is a scam. Some are just clients who will cost you more than they pay you, which ends the same way.

• Guaranteed #1 rankings promised to the end client

  Nobody can promise this. If the agency sells it, you will be blamed when it does not happen.

• Buy 5,000 backlinks / PBN packages

  Cheap link schemes get sites penalised. You cannot un-ring that bell for a small business.

• Write fake reviews or incentivised reviews

  Against platform policy, illegal in some markets, and a reputational risk to you personally.

• Spun or plagiarised content

  It will be found, and your name is on the upload log.

• Hide changes from the site owner

  If a client asks you to conceal work from the person who owns the site, leave.

• Access with no backup or staging

  One bad plugin update and you are the person who broke a live business at 3am.

• Blames you for every ranking fluctuation

  Rankings move daily. A client who does not accept that will never be satisfied.

• Full strategy, content, links and reporting at a general-VA rate

  That is four jobs. Quote them separately or decline.