SEO agencies are typically the first thing that comes to mind when companies consider their SEO support needs; however, behind the scenes, virtual assistants (VAs) perform some of the most important and detail-oriented SEO tasks, often more quickly and at a lower cost than the larger SEO agencies.

This article outlines several hidden/secondary SEO tasks (tasks that virtual assistants consistently out-perform agencies on) and highlights specific areas of strength for both VAs and SEO agencies, particularly when it comes to supporting growing and mid-sized companies.

What Are Hidden SEO Tasks?

Hidden/secondary SEO tasks are not usually flashy or exciting in terms of how they directly impact your organic rankings; many of these tasks will not provide you with the same level of immediate ranking increases, but they are necessary to build the long-term authority and trust needed to support your ongoing growth.

Typically, these hidden/secondary SEO tasks require:

• PRECISION
• REPETITION
• ONGOING MONITORING

The very things that make VAs some of the most efficient and effective providers of virtual support services are the exact qualities that make virtual assistants some of the best sources for completing these hidden/secondary SEO tasks.

Virtual Assistants vs SEO Agencies: A Quick Comparison

Factor	Virtual Assistants	SEO Agencies
Task Focus	Dedicated & granular	Broad & multi-client
Turnaround Time	Fast	Slower
Cost Efficiency	High	Expensive
Attention to Detail	Very high	Often limited
Customization	Flexible	Template-based

Execution wins rankings – agencies manage strategy Virtual Assistants (VAs) – manage execution

1. Backlink Prospecting and Vetting

Finding the appropriate website(s) to request backlinks can take significant time and requires a precise attention to detail.

Virtual Assistants perform this task better than agencies by performing…

• Manual quality checks
• Domain relevance analysis
• Spam score analysis
• Acknowledging niche alignment

Agencies tend to take an automated approach for finding backlink prospects, while VAs will take the time to manual audit each prospect prior to requesting a backlink.

2. Finding Accurate Outreach Lists (Not Spam)

Accurate outreach faces many challenges before the outreach e-mails can be sent.

Virtual Assistants provide for a more successful outreach by…

• Finding unique editors and contributors
• Validating outreach contacts
• Avoiding generic inboxes
• Segmenting outreach contacts by a specific niche

Resulting in an increased response rates and reduced amount of unanswered e-mails.

3. Anchor Text Monitoring and Distribution

Overly optimized anchor tags pose a significant risk to a page's ranking.

By assisting with…

• Manually keeping track of anchors used
• Maintaining a natural ratio of anchors
• Identifying over-optimized anchors as early as possible
• Ensuring a balance between branded and generic anchors

Agencies frequently overlook anchor text monitoring once a campaign scales.

4.Unlinked Brand Mentions Tracking

When you don't track unlinked brand mentions, they become wasted opportunities for backlink building.

A Few Of The Things That VA's Are Good At:

• Monitoring for mentions of your brand
• Identifying where your brand has been cited, but they don't have any link attribution
• Reaching out and asking for link attribution
• Keeping track of all this information

Tracking unlinked citations builds your authority without having to create any new content.

5.Cleaning Up, and Maintaining, Local Citations

In order to have a successful local SEO strategy, you must have accurate information published about your business.

What VA's Can Handle:

• NAP auditing
• Removing duplicate business listings
• Manually updating directories when needed
• Creating citations for your business in the industry directories

Many agencies outsource these tasks to VAs – incurring additional costs to their businesses.

6.Building Profiles and Stacking Authority

Off-page SEO is not only about building backlinks but also by building business profiles, author bios, web 2.0 profiles, and brand entity signals, etc.

VA's can help you build these types of assets, which can be used in your entity-based SEO (the type of SEO Google is increasingly recognizing). Many growing companies now choose the Virtual SEO Assistant professionals to manage these repetitive SEO tasks efficiently and affordably.

7. Blog Commenting & Community Engagement

Build relevance instead of just spam by doing this correctly.

Why VAs are Good At This:

• Creating contextually relevant and value-added comments
• Engaging with people authentically (not via automation)
• Using relevant platforms within your niche
• Brand exposure is done in a natural way

Agencies typically stay away from this because of scale limitations.

8. Link Indexing & Tracking

Don't expect many of your backlinks will be indexed.

Responsibilities of VAs:

• Track all live vs lost links
• Submit your backlinks for indexing
• Monitor and track link velocity
• Report any changes

Again, this ensures the SEO benefits are actually passed onto your site.

9. Content Distribution & Syndication

The only way to build authority with content is to make sure it gets visibility.

Distribution of Content By VAs:

• Article submission sites
• Niche communities
• Social Bookmarking
• Document Sharing Sites

Agencies work with very few well-known options to accomplish this as part of their standard packages.

10. Tasks In SEO: Ongoing Hygiene

These types of tasks can be overlooked but still play a huge part in maintaining an effective online presence.

Examples include:

• Checking for broken backlinks
• Monitoring URL redirects
• Checking citation accuracy
• Updating social profiles

VAs can help keep track of SEO health on a consistent basis.

Why Agencies Are Set Up To Fail On These Tasks

Agencies are designed for:

• Strategizing
• Reporting
• Large campaigns

They are not set up well to accomplish micro-tasks.

Hidden SEO tasks as a result will:

• Be automated
• Be pushed back
• Be ignored

Virtual assistants are an ideal solution for executing these hidden tasks.

The Best Model For Successful SEO: VA + Agency

The smartest companies know that they do not want to choose between an agency or virtual assistant. They want to leverage both.

How this will work:

• The agency does all the strategic planning
• The virtual assistant does the day to day execution of SEO
• The business owner maintains visibility and control over everything

By utilizing both an agency and a VA, we can reduce costs and increase the results obtained from SEO.

Final Thoughts  About The Hidden Value Of SEO

Virtual Assistants are not replacements for SEO agencies.

Instead they are execution specialists and will perform the hidden SEO tasks that keep your rankings.

If your SEO seems stuck, the issue may not be in your current strategy, but rather issues with execution.

The execution of hidden tasks by your VA can create the largest impact to your SEO.