When it comes to SEO, it’s natural to think first about ranking the website. But, one thing that agencies – especially the ones starting out – often leave out of the equation is managing their SEO projects efficiently.
The outcome? SEO projects started piling up into a hot mess. It’s the type of chaos you don’t want to experience if you have one deadline after another.
There’s much more than the technical expertise to make a website perform on search results. Before you get to the result, you need to think about the journey. This calls for efficient SEO project management.
Just like you have tools for SEO, project management tools for SEO agencies are also available to organize your tasks, delegate the right people for the work, and set deadlines to avoid bottlenecks.
Our team has tried and tested different SEO project management tools (some of which we’re still using until today).
What are the best project management tools for SEO agencies? Let’s start with these 10 tools:
1. Basecamp
Basecamp works best for high-level SEO projects that you can further split into smaller projects. This makes it easier to:
- Get the specifics for every SEO task.
- See the deadline and the person responsible for the work.
- Attach the necessary documents for related tasks.
Basecamp also has additional features that are highly useful. You can integrate Clockify integration for tracking the hours spent on specific tasks. This project management tool also allows you to message contributors with its real-time group chats, so communication remains smooth within your SEO team.
Why Use It for Your SEO Agency
One of the features we found helpful with using Basecamp is you can go as granular as you want with your list of to-do while containing them in one SEO project. This can help agencies monitor the progress of their projects and stay on top of their deliverables.
2. Asana
Our marketing team’s processes became extra efficient when we were using Asana as our project management tool. The great thing about this tool is it allows you to schedules tasks on repeat so your team members get a reminder for their deliverables. With this tool, you can:
- Create line items for assigned tasks.
- Manage SEO workflows within deadlines.
- Collaborate with contributors.
Asana has a new feature that allows you to set rules for automating tasks, so you don’t have to manually input them every time. You can also create a template for projects, which makes it easier to replicate tasks and subtasks every time you’re starting a new SEO project.
Why Use It for Your SEO Agency
For one, it’s free.
If you’re starting a new SEO business and don’t have the budget to spend on premium SEO project management tools, Asana can provide you with the basic functions to stay organized. You can provide access for up to 15 people with no limits on tasks and projects. It’s easy to use and comes with integrations, such as Google Drive and other file sharing platforms.
3. Trello
As one of the favorite SEO project management tools by agencies, Trello earns a spot on this list. With its Trello Cards and Trello Boards, you can easily visualize the workflow for different SEO projects. This allows you to:
- Arrange tasks based on priorities.
- Create line items for your to-do in the Trello cards.
- Avoid bottlenecks by seeing the progression of projects – Done, Doing, To Do.
Think of this SEO project management tool as a digital bulletin board where you can manage tasks on the fly. This SEO project management tool gives you a better way of prioritizing tasks and organizing SEO roadmaps for different campaigns.
Why Use It for Your SEO Agency
If you’re a Kanban-type of person, Trello is the best fit for your work. This is highly useful if you’re developing a content marketing strategy. You can delegate content creation, keyword research, and other tasks in the Trello cards with a checklist of what needs to be done. If you’re a small team, you can stick with the free version. But if you want to unlock more features, you only need to pay $9.99 per month for every user.
4. Workamajig
Agencies, production houses, and creative teams use Workamajig as their project management platform because it provides them with everything they need in one platform. If you’re an SEO agency that prefers to keep it simple, this tool is for you. With Workamajig, it’s easier to:
- See what’s in the sales pipeline to forecast deliverables for your team.
- Provide contributors with their dashboards to see what they’re working on.
- Schedule tasks at scale and improve your team’s efficiency.
What makes Workamajig a great SEO project management tool for agencies is you can use this to prove business value and track profitability for every work accomplished. It creates better transparency between your agency and clients when you’re sending them SEO reports and invoices.
Why Use It for Your SEO Agency
Don’t want to jump from one tool to another? Workamajig’s all-in-one platform helps you keep tabs on internal processes without the fuss. This allows you to streamline your workflows and have more visibility over your SEO projects.
5. Teamwork
When it comes to long-term SEO strategies, Teamwork serves as the ideal project management platform for agencies. More than that, many agencies use this tool to manage their in-house and remote teams. Its features allow you to:
- Maintain a central hub for your SEO projects.
- Monitor the progress of tasks and see where you can improve in your processes.
- Get updates on high priority tasks to ensure smooth deliverability.
Teamwork brings about better accountability among contributors. By having more visibility of what you need to do and what has been done, you can better forecast what your agency can deliver and set expectations for clients.
Why Use It for Your SEO Agency
Our marketing team had the chance to dive into Teamwork before. What we loved the most about this is you can create tasks and set them on repeat—we used this for our content calendar scheduling. Another thing to love about Teamwork is you can use project templates to maintain consistency at scale.
6. Monday
What makes a top choice among agencies as their SEO project management tool is the ability to provide a high-level view of projects while allowing you to dive into specifics. You can maximize its features to:
- Prioritize tasks to align with deadlines for SEO projects.
- Monitor deliverables at every stage.
- See who is working on what at a specific time or day.
Its highly visual dashboard is what makes Monday a reliable project management tool for SEO agencies. It allows you to create boards with different visibility settings: main boards that everyone can access, private boards that you or anyone you grant access to can view, and shared boards for those outside your agencies such as clients or external contributors.
Why Use It for Your Agency
If you’re working remotely and need to collaborate with your team members, Monday won’t disappoint you. This allows you to integrate weekly schedules for your team so you know who’s working in a specific time slot. It also comes with multiple integrations, such as Zoom, Slack, and Dropbox so your team can work more efficiently.
7. Zoho Projects
When it comes to running large SEO projects, Zoho Projects make a good fit. We used this project management tool before and what we loved about this is how you can see milestones for every project. This makes it easy to see how things are progressing, what needs to be done, and what other tasks to put in the pipeline. Other features you’ll love with Zoho Projects are:
- Use the Gantt charts to map dependencies and plan SEO projects more efficiently.
- Log the number of hours team members dedicated to specific tasks for better delegation and billing to clients.
- Break down larger tasks into subtasks and assign them to different employees.
One awesome feature of Zoho Projects is the Project Stream that shows the latest activities on a project. This makes it easier to see what everyone in your team is currently working on.
Why Use It for Your SEO Agency
Divide and conquer – this is how Zoho Projects can help SEO agencies when it comes to project management.
One thing we love about this is we get as granular as we need with the tasks and set the recurring ones automatically. It allows you to create milestones and set the due dates for each, which is ideal if you’re handling a large SEO campaign.
8. Plutio
If you’re looking for a simple way to delegate tasks, Plutio can be the project management tool for your SEO agency. Create the task and assign it to the right individual—it’s that quick and easy. This agency project management software helps you maximize productivity in different aspects:
- Track the number of hours contributors dedicated to their tasks.
- Keep team members in the loop with the real-time messaging feature.
- Create automated workflows – a rinse and repeat process that will help you in the long run.
Plutio also has other features that go beyond project management. You can use this to create and send invoices to clients, making every transaction smoother.
Why Use It for Your SEO Agency
Simplicity is what makes Plutio an efficient agency project management software. It also has a downloadable app that allows you to manage and track tasks on the go – a great feature to maximize remote working for your team.
Plus, its time tracking feature offers greater transparency when showing clients the work you’ve done for them.
9. Podio
Keeping teams in sync is one of the best qualities of Podio, and it’s one of the reasons agencies use this as their SEO project management software. Podio is packed with features that help your team stick to tight deadlines and deliver consistent results for clients. With this project management tool, you can:
- Structure your workflows based on the goals of your SEO projects.
- Keep conversations and file sharing in one place.
- Get a bird’s eye view of tasks, but also dive into the minute details.
Podio includes integrations for file sharing features, as well as extensions that take SEO project management up a notch.
Why Use It for Your SEO Agency
The work of an SEO agency can get pretty chaotic. It doesn’t have to be, though. With all the deadlines and the need for efficient collaboration, you need to keep everything structured. That’s what Podio can offer. This project management tool can help startup agencies define responsibilities from the get-go while helping different teams and contributors stay connected.
10. Freedcamp
Freedcamp deserves a mention on this list because of its intuitive features similar to those of Zoho Projects. What’s even better is Freedcamp offers all the essentials to help you complete SEO projects:
- Get an overview of all due dates and upcoming tasks with the calendar feature.
- Organize tasks into milestones.
- Keep discussions in a centralized platform to minimize back-and-forths with emails.
- Track the hours you’ve spent on tasks for productivity and client billing.
Its user-friendliness wins many agencies over. As it’s easy to navigate, teams are able to collaborate better on their tasks and deliver consistently for clients.
Why Use It for Your SEO Agency
If you’re a new SEO agency, you can use Freedcamp and maximize its core features to get things done. The best thing about this? You can use it for free. This is the perfect starter platform to keep tasks moving as you grow your SEO business. But if you want to scale productivity even more, you can upgrade to a paid plan and get more access to Freedcamp’s features.
What SEO Project Management Tool are You Using?
We’ve listed 10 project management tools for SEO agencies here, but which should you choose?
It depends on the following:
- Your team’s structure
- The complexity of your SEO projects
- The ease of using the tool
Don’t fall into the trap of using a mix of SEO project management tools—you’ll complicate things more than making it easier for your team.
Choose a tool that will complement how your team works so you can maximize its capabilities while helping your contributors get things done on time.