The One Thing You Can't Systematize in SEO #seo #seostrategy #criticalthinking #agencylife #podcast

18 Mar 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:18

In this segment of a podcast on SEO strategy, two speakers discuss how agencies can scale their SEO work by systematizing most processes—deliverables, audits, templates, and client communications—through standard operating procedures (SOPs). They argue that critical thinking and soft‑skill interactions are the only elements that resist formalization. While predictability is valuable, they acknowledge that SEO tactics often need to be pivoted when they underperform, especially in niche industries where standard approaches may fail. The conversation highlights the tension between creating repeatable workflows and preserving the strategic, analytical mindset required for successful SEO outcomes.

So how do you manage that to scale to like educate your team? Because I'm sure you have one or two people in a team that are the, the strategy and the thought leaders and okay, this is what we're going to do. But you have to have someone on the team that just follows those instructions, right?
Yeah, I mean, that's the only thing you can't really have an SOP for is the critical thinking. Everything else, like all of our other processes, our deliverables, our audits, our templates, when it comes to just even communicating with third parties, clients, you can have, but you can't— that and like soft skills are just 2 things that you can't necessarily put into an SOP.
Mm-hmm.
But everything else, for the most part, when it comes to SEO as a service provider, you should be able to make everything as predictable as possible. If you pivot frequently, then yeah, it probably makes things a little bit harder. You nailed it. SEO, sometimes you do things and you're like, this is going to kick ass, this is going to work so well. And then months later you're like, It didn't, it didn't work at all.
And it does for 80% of the industries. And then you find that one industry where you're like, it's just not taking it. Yeah. Right.
Yeah, exactly. And then you do need to be swift. You need to pivot certain strategies. You need to come up with new ideas or else, I mean, at the end of the day, what value then are you providing to the client?