With the recent events the world has experienced, like the pandemic outbreak, businesses and corporations worldwide have been forced to ditch their cubicles and work from home.
While remote working isn’t a new concept, especially with freelancers’ rise, it was drastic for many workers because the whole world had to work from home.
Even as things slowly adjust to the new normal, remote work becomes the norm as 99% of people would like to work from home.
Many activities are carried out; it is a busy industry that makes it hard to get things done in the physical space and talk more remotely. There are several free SEO tools that companies prefer to use to boost their digital presence. However, when it comes to SEO team management, tools are not generally opted for. Not opting for an SEO team management tool can impact your marketing and sales teams’ overall productivity.
The SEO team can get overwhelmed with the idea of working remotely, challenges like effective communication, finishing up tasks together, applying eCommerce growth strategies, and making constant changes to keep up with search engine algorithms.
This can take a toll on teammates and drain their energy if they don’t use the right tools to make workflows as effortless as possible.
Therefore for eCommerce SEO teams to successfully work remotely, they will need the best of the best tools out there to get through all their daily obstacles and work hitch-free.
Below are the ten best remote working tools for SEO teams in eCommerce brands:
1- Trello
Executing SEO tasks in an eCommerce business means dealing with several projects from time to time. And Trello has proved to be one of the best project management tools out there with its impressive features.
Trello helps your SEO team stay organized with their projects through its boards, lists, and cards in a flexible manner.
With Trello, you don’t have to stay glued to one device to use it as it syncs across all your devices.
Trello gives you a detailed overview of your projects with added comments, due dates, and more.
There’s also an automation feature called Butler; it’s a bot that takes care of mundane and hectic tasks to boost your team’s productivity. Butler takes care of your tasks with:
- Rule-Based Triggers
- Custom Card & Board Buttons
- Calendar Commands
- Due Date Commands
Trello has a playbook that provides valuable resources like the boards and tools needed to succeed specifically designed for your team.
You can also integrate apps you usually use into Trello to power up your Trello boards and cater to your SEO team’s needs.
Trello is highly customizable as you can play with different cards that are best for your projects. In addition, teammates can so get tagged to notify them of specific tasks or updates.
It also simplifies seemingly difficult tasks with its array of features.
2- Dropbox
For storage and file-sharing purposes, Dropbox is a great tool to use in your teamwork. It is a cloud-based file storage and sharing tool that organizes all your work and keeps it in sync with your teammates.
Dropbox safely secures your company’s distributed content and data. You can easily access important information on the go with Dropbox from all devices.
3- Zoom
This is the most popular video conferencing tool in the world for a good reason too. As an eCommerce SEO team, it means there will be a need for regular and effective communication to get everyone on board with business events.
Zoom is powerful as you can host:
- User Conferences
- Executive briefing
- Customer and prospect events
- Webinars and training sessions
- Online meetings
Zoom also has powerful integrations that your SEO team can use to power up scheduling, access files, and eat es leads.
You can also learn how to use Zoom easily with Zoom Academy.
4 – Hubstaff
Keeping track of your eCommerce team’s progress can be challenging. What are they working on? Which projects are taking up the most time?
Hubstaff automates the process of tracking work, which means that you don’t have to waste time manually checking up on your team.
Hubstaff allows you to monitor your team’s productivity so you can help them make the most of their time. It includes several time-saving functionalities such as:
- Time tracking
- App and URL tracking
- Activity rate monitoring
- Online timesheets
- Project budgeting and expense tracking
- Automated payroll
- Online invoicing
- Detailed reporting
Hubstaff also integrates with over 30 popular apps like Zapier and Slack, making it easy to implement in your existing workflow.
Managing a remote team can also mean working with different time zones, especially if you have a team spread out worldwide.
So how do you communicate effectively when some of your teammates are asleep and you are awake?
You need to know who’s closer to get on board in the light of emergencies; with Every Time Zone, you can get insights on who is available to talk.
Additionally, getting specific and profound knowledge of your teammate’s time zones will help you set up meetings at appropriate timings.
Plus, you don’t have to do the maths yourself; every Time Zone will help you select the best time to hold a meeting.
You will also prevent your team from sharing events at inappropriate timings; Every Time Zone helps you share events in a time-friendly manner for each teammate.
6- Asana
Asana is a veteran tool in the remote working space that has been trusted by many businesses to manage their work virtually effectively.
Your SEO team can use Asana to create, delegate, organize, and manage tasks for all your projects. In addition, teammates can easily communicate under particular tasks to neatly segregate projects and avoid any form of clash or confusion.
Asana also lets you export your files to either Google Drive or Dropbox to protect your work safely.
Asana boosts your team’s productivity as they can:
- Create to-do lists
- Set reminders
- Easily search for their work.
- Have their work tracked
- Set priorities and deadlines
- Share details and assign tasks.
- Plan and structure their work
Additionally, team members can add comments to Asana’s posts and follow through with projects at every stage.
Asana allows you to create visual project plans to view how every step maps out over time and keep your team on track with their goals.
7 – Zendesk
An eCommerce project involves a lot of communication from both the team and customers. If you can maintain a perfect balance between them, you can ensure customer satisfaction, critical to a successful business.
A comprehensive tool like Zendesk can help handle the external people like customers and the internal ones like the project teams.
Zendesk is a helpdesk software for building customer relationships. But, it works far beyond customer relationships.
This is a web-based help desk solution. Therefore, your SEO team can collaborate, share information, raise queries, and leave a note using private comments. You can also get real-time updates about people viewing a ticket at any particular time.
Moreover, you can combine Zendesk with a customizable help center, knowledge base, online community, and customer portal. This way, you will be able to help your customers get improved self-service. At the same time, agents can observe improvement in efficiency and faster resolution.
It also offers reporting and analytics tools. Using these tools, you can overview your team’s performance and your customer’s satisfaction level.
8 – Slack
Slack is a staple for most businesses today; your SEO team can also benefit from using Slack because of its seamless collaboration usage and effortless teamwork.
With the Slack channels feature your eCommerce SEO team, you can easily carry on conversations and project updates, keeping them organized instead of messy discords. Additionally, you can effortlessly communicate with different clients on slack connect.
Slack also has a messaging, video, and voice call feature to make communication as sleek as possible.
An eCommerce SEO team’s favorite feature will help the Workflow Builder; carrying out SEO tasks can begin to feel redundant and repetitive.
However, with the workflow builder, you can create workflows that automate routine actions and communication in a short period.
9 – Basecamp
This is one of the top-notch comprehensive remote working tools that serve diverse purposes.
Basecamp can be used for
- Work arrangements
- Scheduling tasks
- Project documentation
- Complete work tracking
- Project management
- Assignment tracking
- Meetings
All these activities can be done directly from Basecamp; it also has a cloud version.
Furthermore, Basecamp lets your team break up their work into separate projects, and each of these projects is filled with tasks, persons, and details related to them.
Your SEO team also has access to all the tools needed to work on each of these projects, such as:
- Message boards
- To-dos
- Schedules
- Docs
- File storage
- Real-time group chat and
- Automatic check-in questions.
Additionally, you even get to rename them, deactivate the ones you don’t need, and integrate them with your usual tools to match them and in progress.
Basecamp is a collaboration tool to work on projects without encountering any obstacles together. It has a sandbox-style that gives room for freeform discussion, which
Basecamp also has a special feature called Hill Charts that helps track the progress of your projects extensively. It works hand in hand with your to-dos to give you an exact view of a project’s status.
Hill Charts goes beyond the regular checked-off tasks on your to-do list and shows you the missing context that lets you spot problems to rectify before blowing deadlines.
Your team gets to see if their projects are going uphill or downhill.
10 – G Suite
G Suite is a tool filled with Google tools that helps with different tasks to manage remote work. Tools such as Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, etc., are accessed from the cloud and connected in Google Drive.
Your SEO team can create, organize, and effectively manage their projects seamlessly and utilize the various tools.
With G Suite, you can enjoy the following applications:
- Gmail: Manage and host your team’s business emails. Your SEO team can also chat, make voice or video calls, and stay on top of project work with shared files and tasks — all right in Gmail.
- Google Meet: Host video conferences and meetings securely connected with the enterprise-grade video. You can easily set up appointments; all you have to do is share a link with the rest of the team and join directly.
- Google chat: Easily collaborate with teammates through direct messages and group conversations. Google Chat allows teams to share discussions, files, and tasks.
- Google Calendar: Share plans, event dates, deadlines, and necessary appointments for teammates to keep up with each other.
- Google Drive: Securely store all your data and file in the cloud with Google Drive. It is easily accessible from any device, plus it uses Google AI to predict and surface what’s important for your team in real-time.
- Google Docs: Create and edit text documents right in your browser with your teammates with no software installation required. All changes are saved automatically and track those changes.
- Google Sites: Create beautifully designed and functional sites with no programming knowledge required for your teamwork.
As you can see, using G Suite means accessing the complete package because there are various tools designed for successful remote work.
11 – 1Password
Working digitally also means you must be extra careful because you must use these tools every day. Imagine having to type in a different password for all your devices and tools before gaining access; that would be daunting.
However, with 1Password, all you need is simply one password to securely log into sites and protect your data from falling into the wrong hands.
1Password allows your SEO remote team to secure access to logins and essential resources from anywhere in the world.
12 – Time Doctor
Productivity is the core of successful work, especially in a remote setting. To ensure your SEO team is getting their tasks done, then Time Doctor is your tool.
Time Doctor is a time tracking software that helps your team eliminate distractions and make the best use of their time.
They can create their tasks and overview when and how long they work on a project.
Time Doctor offers you the following features:
- Attendance Tracking: This helps you track your team’s presence and get alerts for late ones.
- Track Breaks: You can track breaks and time spent away from the computer by teammates.
- Time Tracking: Time Doctor helps track each teammate’s time spent working and identifies tasks that occupy your team’s time.
- Screenshots: To keep teammates grounded and accountable, screenshots of their work activities can be taken at specified time intervals.
- Powerful Reports: You can get detailed and insightful reports on how time was spent in a day or a week.
- Time use Alerts: Teammates get notified if they have strayed away from work for too long and remind them to stay off time-wasters.
- Off Track Reminders: Time Doctor helps you stay on track by reminding you to visit non-work-related sites.
- Integration: For easy usage, Time Doctor lets you sync its functions with other project management tools.
- Web and App usage: Which app or site is taking a teammate’s time? You can get the answer on Time Doctor.
Conclusion
Working remotely doesn’t have to feel distant and complicated, especially in an eCommerce business; you can effortlessly collaborate and communicate with the right tools.
These tools make teamwork feel seamless and connected, invest in these tools and witness a remarkable difference in your SEO team’s work.
They will manage and organize all the demanding tasks to accomplish SEO success in their eCommerce business.
About The Author
Joydeep Bhattacharya is a digital marketing evangelist and author of the SEO Sandwich Blog. You can connect with him on LinkedIn.
Best Remote Working Tools For Your eCommerce SEO Team
PM Workshops