Episode
What Does an SEO Actually Do Every Day? New vs. Ranking vs. Established Sites
- Podcast
- The Edward Show
- Published
- Jul 31, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 894
- Processing state
not_requested
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Summary
E1122: What does an SEO actually do every day? The answer depends on the stage of the website. The work required for a brand-new site is very different from the work required for a site that already ranks, generates revenue, or has an established presence in its market. I break down the day-to-day responsibilities of an SEO across three stages: - A brand-new website - A website that is already ranking - A large, established website For a new site, an SEO often has to handle nearly everything. That includes planning the site structure, researching keywords, creating pages, building links, checking technical issues, and making sure the website is designed to grow. For a ranking site, the focus begins to change. You have real search data, existing authority, and pages that can be improved. Your work becomes more focused on expanding rankings, fixing keyword cannibalization, improving declining pages, and using internal links to support more competitive keywords. For an established site, SEO becomes a combination of strategy, prioritization, management, and quality control. You may be working with thousands of keywords, multiple departments, outside agencies, technical teams, content marketers, and public relations teams. You will learn: - How to plan the information architecture of a new website - How keyword research should influence subfolders and site structure - Why every important page should be connected through internal links - How to avoid creating orphan pages - How to study competitors without copying their mistakes - Why branding, trust, user experience, and SEO are connected - How poor pop-ups and usability problems can hurt search performance - Why new websites should start with less competitive keywords - How top-of-funnel pages can support more valuable com…