Curious what a real, day-to-day SEO workflow looks like inside an agency?
You’re in the right place.
We’ll walk you through the exact tools and steps we use to research keywords, track rankings for both websites and Google Business Profiles, run technical audits, and deliver client-ready reports. No fluff, just the practical, repeatable process our team follows to keep campaigns moving and results growing.
By the end, you’ll see how each piece fits together into a smooth system you can apply to your own projects or team.
Our Daily SEO Toolkit at a Glance
- All-in-one SEO platform for:
- Project setup (domain + Google Search Console)
Keyword tracking (national & local)Site Explorer: backlinks, referring domains, organic/paid traffic, top pages, competitors
Site Audit (technical issues & health score)
Keyword & Content Explorer (finding topics worth writing)
- Local rank trackers for maps:
- Localo (fast, client-friendly visuals)
- Local Dominator (heatmaps, scheduled scans, location-level detail)
We use all of these daily, so our clients don’t need five different subscriptions just to get answers.
Step 1: Set Up the Project (the Right Way)
When a new client comes in, we create a project immediately. Two options:
- Add the domain manually and name the project (e.g., brand + market).
- Connect Google Search Console (if access is available) so the tool can retrieve verified data more efficiently.
Pro move: Decide scan frequency upfront. We prefer weekly audits, often enough to catch issues early without creating noise. Monthly is fine for stable sites, and daily is overkill for most.
Step 2: Add Keywords With Location Precision
Next, we load the keywords to track. You can paste your list or start with the tool’s suggestions (it often finds phrases you’re already ranking for).
The most important setting here is location. Rankings for “plumber” in the USA vs the Philippines can be wildly different. Even within a single country, “near me” behavior varies by city.
- Track by country for national visibility.
- Track by city or neighborhood for local intent (and especially for GBP/GMB).
- Keep the list lean, start with core money terms and category pages; expand as your content grows.
Step 3: Establish a Baseline (So Wins Are Obvious Later)
We always screenshot and save a Day 0 Baseline so progress is visible:
- Organic keywords by position buckets (1–3, 4–10, 11–20, 21–50, 51+)
- Traffic trend (last 6–12 months)
- Top pages (by traffic & keywords)
- Backlink profile (referring domains, new/lost)
- Paid keywords/traffic (if they run ads)
This “before” picture makes future gains obvious and keeps everyone aligned on growth, not guesses.
Tip for client reporting: add one clean chart for traffic and one table for keyword buckets. Keep it scannable. Screenshots are fine; consistency matters more than fancy dashboards.
Step 4: Site Explorer—See What Others Can’t
This is where we live most of the time. A good Site Explorer view lets us see the entire competitive landscape:
- AI/overview panel: fast snapshot of health and growth.
- Backlink profile & referring domains: who’s linking, what’s new/lost, DR distribution.
- Organic keywords & top pages: what’s driving traffic today; what to defend and expand.
- Paid traffic/keywords: if competitors are buying a term, ask why and consider SEO content for it.
- Outgoing anchors & link domains: how the site links out (can hint at partnerships or spam).
- Competitors tab: find sites you must benchmark against for your category.
Anchor Text Hygiene (Quietly Powerful)
- Identify over-optimized anchors (e.g., exact-match money terms repeated too often).
- Diversify with branded, URL, and topical variants.
- Keep an eye on the nofollow/dofollow mix and broken backlinks you can reclaim.
Quick Wins We Look For
- Top pages hovering at positions 4–10 → target for internal links, refresh, or supporting content.
- New referring domains spikes → investigate what content is attracting links (and replicate the play).
- Lost links from 30–90 days → outreach to reclaim if the page still exists and is relevant.
Step 5: Keyword & Content Explorer—Choose Battles You Can Win
Our editorial roadmap comes from reality, not “gut feel”:
- Search intent fit: transactional, informational, and navigational. We match page types accordingly.
- Difficulty vs potential: We like topics with achievable difficulty and compounding internal link value.
- Content clustering: build pillar pages + supporting articles; use internal links to pass relevance.
- Periodic refresh cadence: review and update winners every 90–120 days.
We often find we “rank by accident” for terms where we only posted consistently. The lesson? Keep shipping useful content.
Step 6: Site Audit—Make Technical a Habit
Weekly audits catch what humans miss:
- Crawl errors (4xx/5xx), canonical issues, redirect chains
- Title/meta/heading gaps or duplicates
- Slow pages & Core Web Vitals concerns
- Thin/duplicate content
- Orphan pages and weak internal link coverage
We fix what truly affects discoverability and UX—then move on. Tech debt is managed, not worshiped.
Step 7: Local SEO Tracking (Maps/GBP/GMB)
For local clients, we use Localo and Local Dominator to track map pack visibility:
- Set scheduled scans (weekly is good).
- Track by business name, Maps URL, or CID.
- Generate heatmap reports that clients understand at a glance.
- Compare average positions month over month across the service area.
We sometimes run both tools (redundancy helps), but you can pick one. What matters is consistent scanning and clear actions based on the scans.
Real-world snapshot: One client started with map positions largely beyond the top 20. After implementing our plan, the average map position improved by ~1.5 points across priority grids—those that are visible, measurable, and revenue-linked.
How We Report Progress (Without Drowning People in Data)
- Baseline vs Current: one slide for keywords, one for traffic.
- Wins: 3–5 bullets (new top-3 terms, a page that broke into the top 10, reclaimed links).
- Work Done: content shipped, internal links added, technical fixes applied.
- What’s Next: short, focused plan (1–2 sprints).
- Local Heatmap (if applicable): before/after tiles for priority neighborhoods.
Keep it visual. Keep it honest. Keep it moving.
Why This Stack Works for Us (and Our Clients)
- Speed to insight: one platform shows backlinks, keywords, traffic, top pages, and competitors.
- Local clarity: maps and heatmaps let non-SEOs “see” progress.
- Repeatable process: weekly audits, monthly reports, quarterly refresh.
- Fewer tools, fewer headaches: focus more on decisions, less on dashboards.
And yes—we still love good spreadsheets. But spreadsheets are outputs, not the product. The product is growing.
Common Scenarios We Handle Daily
- “We didn’t do active SEO, but traffic is rising.”
→ Great—double down on the pages accidentally ranking. Turn them into intent-matched assets. - “Backlinks look messy.”
→ Audit anchors, chase genuine mentions, reclaim broken links, and stop using unsafe anchors. - “Local rankings vary by city.”
→ That’s normal. Track per location, expand content and citations by service area, and build local internal links.
“What should we prioritize this month?”
→ Pages on the edge of top-3 or top-10, one strong content cluster, and 5–10 high-quality internal links to money pages.
Conclusion
The reason we love this stack is simple: it makes action obvious. From project setup and keyword tracking to audits, backlinks, and local heatmaps, you get everything you need to decide what to do next.
If you’d like us to review your site, map rankings, and content, and provide you with a focused plan, visit Kherk Roldan Advanced Digital Solutions. Let’s find what’s holding you back and fix it.
FAQs
Q: What makes your SEO workflow different from other agencies?
We run a repeatable, data-driven process: project setup → keyword tracking → baseline snapshot → competitive analysis → content priorities → weekly technical audits → local maps tracking → clear monthly reporting. Fewer tools, faster decisions, better focus on outcomes.
Q: Which tools do you use every day?
One all-in-one SEO platform (for projects, rank tracking, Site Explorer, Site Audit, and content research) plus two local rank trackers—Localo and Local Dominator—for Google Maps heatmaps and location-level visibility.
Q: Do I need to buy these tools myself?
No. We handle it. Our stack replaces multiple subscriptions on your end.
Q: How soon will we see movement?
Timelines vary by competition and site condition. Generally, technical fixes show early lifts; content and links compound over weeks to months. We show progress against a Day-0 baseline so gains are visible.
