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70+ accounts to manage by myself
Posted by on May 27, 2026 at 10:59 pmI’m the only SEO at an agency in the UK – my day to day is content tweaks, optimising meta tags, researching and writing blogs, site audits, etc all the bread and butter SEO stuff. Our agency mainly focuses on web design, but with every new site we sell SEO is included.
That means I’m managing around 70 accounts that pay for SEO and that number is rising so I’m obviously stretched wayyy too thin, leaving only 1/2hrs per week for clients at MOST with the majority only getting 1hr PER MONTH of work on their account. Abysmal in terms of quality output in that time.
I told my manager I needed help but he went so far out of his way to create a complex spreadsheet calculating the time I spend on all accounts as well as my other duties to see how much free time I have left per week (it’s around 12 hrs) so he said I’m ‘not at full capacity yet’. He wants me to do as much content as I can, which I agree with, but it’s impossible for the quality of it to be anywhere near the required standard if I’m only allocated an hour here and there.
To add to it all, I was on minimum wage until this month (2 years 8 months on the job so far and first career/SEO job since getting my degree) until I asked for a pay rise.
This seriously pisses me off and also stresses me out so much, but I want to know how other people feel about this. Are you shocked or even disgusted?
I feel so bad for the clients as they’re paying for a service they could be getting way better value for elsewhere.
I’m actively looking for other roles as you can imagine so hopefully I won’t be stuck there much longer.
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1 Reply
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Hey u/Automatic-Load4850 – oh wow, this sounds like a nightmare!
Thanks for sharing – I’m sure there’ll be many people in a similar position or have gotten out of it. If there’s anything any of us can do – let us know – coaching, help, advice, shoulder to lean on! We also have a discord.
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Fortunately SEO is not a life or death thing because if it were, this is malpractice level 😕
Sorry OP, any org that doesn’t view this as a fire is not an org worth staying at
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Well, do they pay for Claude?
You need to start automating part of your work.
Once you do, the step out and start selling your entire Claude setup. Lot’s of people would pay for it.
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If I was a client I’d fire your company immediately if I found that out.
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Look for a better job.
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Shocked,
I feel sad for the clients, and for you too.
When you look back on your career journey, you won’t have any projects to be proud of. -
Automate. That’s the only way. Is not about filling up your schedule until there’s nothing left. That’s exploitation. It’s about using your time wisely to finish your work and give customers value. And the schedule they have you doing is giving no value to anyone.
I’d suggest building out something that can link your gsc information into an AI layer that provides suggestions based on the data and over time it can run autonomously after it passes certain benchmarks. I built that for myself but your company sounds like they’d let you go if you had something like that in an effort to save more money. But that’s how I’d manage the accounts.
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Lol do you work for acorn or jellyfish?
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70 accounts for one person is not an SEO operation, it’s a content mill with SEO branding. One hour a month per client isn’t SEO, it’s the appearance of SEO. Your instinct that clients would get better value elsewhere is correct and your manager knows it too, that spreadsheet was designed to justify not hiring rather than to actually measure capacity. Get out.
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Your manager’s spreadsheet is proving the wrong thing. The issue isn’t whether your minutes are “accounted for,” it’s that the client promise is impossible at that ratio.
I’d make the risk visible in plain English: with 70 accounts, most clients get maintenance only, not growth work. Then show what 1 hour/month actually covers versus what proper SEO would require. If they still don’t care, that tells you a lot about the agency.
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Hey friend. I’ve been here before. I dubbed this “lunchbox SEO” long long ago.
For context so you understand where I am coming from, I spent 5 years in agencies. 3 agencies. In each I had:
120 accounts
93 accounts
50 accounts to start, which ballooned to 75ish.Its not fair. Its incredibally hard to do any true quality work. Your agency is expecting you to do shit like… A meta title pass on all accounts in a given month. We all know here that this is a really tiny modifier and not real SEO that drives meaningful results, but these agencies are built around pulling the wool over the eyes of the clients and appeasing them with “deliverables” thst justify the rate they charge.
I used to get written up for advising clients on true best practices, because I insisted on doing the right thing. You have a good head on your shoulders and a sense of morality. The best advice I can give you is to look for alternative employment while trying to help these clients as best as possible.
I ended up making a map of efficient changes I could make, of if only I had Claude back then! I could have done more meaningful work at scale. : / Sadly you will end up doing small burst of work for each client, and putting out fires to prevent cancelations. Id you can map out basic edits that will help though, its the best way to survive until you can run for the hills.
Is this dental SEO by chance? If so, feel free to ping me. I’ve dealt with this shit for eons. Finally got out 3 years back after trying in-house and dealing with dipshit CEO’s instead (one had me de-index their products to “prevent keyword cannabilization from blogs” then fired me for standing my ground and refusing to burn the companies bottom line the ground).
If anything I can at lwast commiserate with you and if need be, I can be a reference for you. I will sing your praises to gods and men alike.
Stay strong, keep your head low in the trench, amd above all else? Assume your manager is worthless and play the game board accordingly. May the odds be ever in your favor.
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