Digital marketing
Hire an SEO virtual assistant for research, fixes and reporting
An SEO virtual assistant works on how your site appears in search: keyword and competitor research, on-page and technical fixes, and a monthly report you can read. Rates start from about £6.50 an hour at the beginner level, rising with experience. We find the candidate and run four screening steps.
- Four screening steps before you meet a candidate
- Hours tracked
- Earliest start within 48 to 72 hours of choosing a candidate
What an SEO assistant works on
SEO work splits into finding the opportunity, fixing the site and showing progress. The assistant covers all three.
Research
- Keyword and competitor research. Listing the searches your customers use and which rival pages answer them.
- Content gap analysis. Spotting the questions your site does not yet answer.
- Search intent mapping. Matching each target search to the kind of page that suits it, so you do not write the wrong page for the right phrase.
On-page and technical
- Titles, descriptions and headings. Rewriting the text that appears in search results and structures each page.
- Site audits and fixes. Running a crawl, sorting the issues by importance and fixing the ones that matter.
- Internal linking. Adding links between your own pages so visitors, and search engines, reach what matters.
Reporting
- Rankings and traffic reports. Where your pages appear and how many visits they earn, set out on a schedule you agree.
- Search Console monitoring. Watching Google Search Console for errors, drops and new queries.
- Monthly recommendations. A short list of what to do next month, with the reason for each item.
Where the assistant stops
An SEO assistant works on your pages and your reports. They do not write a full content programme unless you hire for it, and they do not promise a ranking. Search takes time, and no one can promise a ranking.
Tools
Search Console monitoring is part of the work, so the assistant works in your Google Search Console and your website. Name any other tools you use on the call and we match the candidate to them.
What an SEO virtual assistant costs
This role is priced per hour by experience, in pounds. A beginner level assistant starts from about £6.50 an hour, and the rate rises with experience. The pricing page lists the published roles, and the cost calculator lets you try your own hours.
A call to talk through the site
Is an SEO assistant right for you?
An SEO assistant suits you if
- You have a website that should bring in enquiries from search and does not yet.
- You can give access to the site and to Search Console, so fixes can be made.
- You want a regular report and a short list of next steps, not a one off audit.
Another role may suit you better if
- You want paid search results this month: a Google Ads virtual assistant.
- Your customers find you mainly through social posts: a social media marketing virtual assistant.
- You need dashboards and data cleaning across your business: a virtual assistant data analyst.
What useful SEO work produces
General guidance, not a promise about any one assistant. Expect four written things. A keyword and intent map lists each page, the search it targets and what the searcher wants. A prioritised issue list sorts audit findings by importance. A change log records each edit with its date and reason. A monthly report links the changes to what Search Console showed. Without the change log, nobody can tell which edit moved which figure.
A brief you can copy
- The goal. Enquiries or sales from search, not “rankings”.
- The pages that earn money. Name them.
- The places and customers. Where they are and what they search for.
- The access. Your website, Search Console and analytics.
- The protected parts. Page addresses and pages that must not change.
- The approver. Who says yes to edits on key pages.
How SEO is measured
Search Console reports impressions, clicks and average position. Google defines an impression as a link to your site that a user saw or could have seen. A click is counted when someone leaves Google and lands on your page. Average position records the highest place your link held for each query, then averages those. Look at them with conversions from your analytics, over the same period each month. Google’s SEO starter guide says changes can take hours to months to show, and suggests waiting a few weeks before judging.
Common mistakes
- Judging by rankings instead of enquiries.
- Stuffing keywords. Google’s guide names it as a breach of its spam policies.
- Changing page addresses with no redirect.
Worked example: one change log entry
Example only. The page and site are invented. No client or result is described.
| Field | Entry |
|---|---|
| Page | A service page on an imaginary plumbing site |
| Finding | Two pages share the same title, so searchers cannot tell them apart |
| Change | Rewrite the title to describe this page only, and keep it short |
| How we will judge | Impressions, clicks and click through rate for this page’s queries over the following weeks |
Questions to ask any SEO provider
- Do you promise rankings? (A cautious answer is a good sign.)
- Will you log every change and its date?
- What access do you need, and who owns the accounts?
- What would you refuse to do, such as buying links?
What is included
The hourly rate covers the whole service: finding the candidate, the four screening steps below, setting up the platforms and tools your assistant needs for your site and Search Console, hours tracked with tools such as Time Doctor, and our management of recruitment, payroll management and quality management. There is no separate recruitment fee.
How hiring works
We start with a free call about the work and the hours you have in mind. We shortlist candidates who have passed our screening, you interview them and you choose. The earliest start is within 48 to 72 hours of choosing a candidate.
Four screening steps before you meet anyone
- CV screening.
- A first interview on personality and the general benchmark criteria.
- A technical interview.
- A practical task, to test the candidate in the field.
Notice, replacement and fees are set out on how it works.
Questions about hiring an SEO assistant
How can I use a virtual assistant for SEO tasks?
Hand over the repeatable work: keyword research, rewriting titles and descriptions, running site audits, adding internal links and producing the monthly report. Keep the decisions about strategy and priorities with you. The task list above shows the split.
How long until I see results?
SEO takes time, and results depend on your site, your market and how much has changed. No one can promise a ranking, and we do not.
Do they need access to my website?
For fixes, yes. The assistant needs access to your website and to Google Search Console. Read about data protection for how access is handled.
What does the monthly SEO report cover?
Where your pages appear and how many visits they earn, what Google Search Console showed, and a short list of what to do next month with the reason for each item.
Should I judge SEO by rankings?
No. Judge it by enquiries and sales that come from search. Rankings move for reasons outside your control and differ by searcher and place. Use impressions, clicks and average position in Search Console as signs of progress, and conversions in your analytics as the result.
What do impressions, clicks and average position mean?
An impression is a link to your site that a user saw or could have seen. A click is counted when someone leaves Google and lands on your page. Average position is the highest place your link held for each query, averaged across the queries where it appeared. These are Google's own definitions.
Should an SEO assistant change my page addresses?
Rarely. Google's guide advises one address for each piece of content, with redirects or canonical tags where addresses must change. Moving pages with no redirect risks losing the visitors and links they already earn. If an address must change, ask for the redirect plan first.
How much does an SEO virtual assistant cost?
Hourly rates start from about £6.50 at the beginner level and rise with experience. The pricing page lists the published roles, and the cost calculator lets you try your own hours.
Related roles
SEO sits in the digital marketing virtual assistant family. Pair it with the social media marketing virtual assistant if you also publish regularly. For handing work over well, read how to delegate to a virtual assistant.
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