People often look at me like I am nuts when I say I am exhausted and say things like “You just work on a computer all day!!!”  It is true that I do work on a computer, but there are many other things I do that require great mental effort. Some of the basics include:

• Monitoring the web for changes – algorithmic changes, PPC changes, functional changes….the list goes on.
• Tracking client ranking changes
• Digesting many analytics accounts to determine what is working, what isn’t working, what needs to be addressed, what is being ignored, what the search engines are not picking up…this list goes on and on as well
• Conversions – are our sites and our clients’ sites converting? Lots of time. How so or why not?
• Writing and research for writing for my sites.
• Constant planning or thinking about planning or researching to plan a website, marketing strategy, SEO strategy, PPC campaign and/or a combination of all of these for each client. It is like an all day thing…

What Drains the Remaining Life Out of Many of Us

Well, the above takes a large mental toll, because it is all data and analysis, but then we have much more.

Clients

The brain is tired after looking at so much and analyzing so much, but then we get to deal with difficult clients. I will tell you what we are doing to avoid these issues when I am done with the following list:

 
• Difficult clients include those that couldn’t find a way to get us content or photos for their new website for 4-5 months (despite all of our best efforts), but then turn around and blame us for a site not being completed.
• Or clients that read an article or talk to a friend and automatically question all the hard work we have done, even though it has led to success.
• Clients that hire a marketing person (for non-online marketing) that really doesn’t know marketing, but immediately questions everything we do.
• Clients that don’t appreciate the fact that we work our butts off for people.

Some of our strategies for avoiding this have been helpful.

• If I feel like someone is going to be difficult to work with we just don’t work with them period. Sorry. If you offend me before we even speak I won’t work with you and I don’t care how much money you have.
• Clients are now given dates by which we must receive photos and/or content depending on the development time of their site. This keeps the client on track and our schedule clean.
• We are glad to listen to whatever clients have heard or read about SEO, online marketing, websites etc., but thankfully by keeping ourselves educated we can let them know what is wrong and what is right.
• Saying goodbye to clients that make our lives miserable. Life is too short to be irritated and ticked off.

Working Late

I know many people that feed their families, get their kids to bed and then work late into the night. The brain never really gets a chance to recover or relax and despite sleep it is still drained the next day. This can go on for months…so we are tired 🙂

Social Media

In addition to all of the other responsibilities many of us in the industry must also keep up with Social Media for a variety of reasons. The two most important reasons for me are keeping up with industry related articles and having the support of others in this industry. I have built up a relationship with people that give me a little more strength and support for my day and I cherish that. However, it is yet another large task that requires time, mental energy, research and much more.

So….

If you know someone in this industry or love someone in this industry and you wanted to know why they are tired mentally and physically I hope I gave you a small hint of why. I say give them a hug, make them laugh, surprise them with Chinese food…whatever, but please understand that just because they work “on a computer” doesn’t mean they are not just as tired as everyone else. I think they are most likely more tired than most.

Melissa Fach – One Tired SEO