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Module 11 · Lesson 11.3 · Managing multiple clients · 3 min

Managing multiple AEO clients: calendar, change log and access

Lesson 11.3 of the free AEO and GEO course, for freelancers and agencies: how to manage multiple clients with a system that holds up with 5 clients or with 20. The same folder for every client, a fixed calendar for audits and reports, the change log, access and personal data (in the EU, GDPR article 28; elsewhere, check your own country's rules), and how to decide who to look at first. This is not legal advice.

The video for this lesson is coming soon to YouTube. Meanwhile, the full transcript is right here.

Transcript

0:00Introduction

Lesson 11.3: managing multiple clients.

0:05One system for everyone

With one client, you remember everything. With five, you start forgetting. With twenty and no system, things slip. The system is simple: every client is handled the same way. Same folder, same calendar, same report.

0:21One folder per client

One folder per client, always with the same structure. Inside: the course worksheet, one per client. The audits, with the date in the file name. The reports you've sent. And the documents: the signed proposal, the access you've received, and written consent, if you ever want it as a case study.

0:41A fixed calendar

Then a fixed calendar. Each client has their own day for the monthly audit. Spread clients across the month: not all on the first Monday. And the report always goes out a few days after the audit. The client knows when it's coming; you know when to prepare it.

0:58The change log

The most useful tool of all is the change log. One row for every change: the date, the page, what you changed, and why. You need it in the report, to tell the facts in the order they happened, as in Lesson 9.4. And you need it when a number drops: you look at what changed, on the site or off it, and you don't guess.

1:21Access and data

Next, access. Every login in your own name, kept in a password manager, never in a spreadsheet. When the contract ends, ask the client to remove it. And every so often, check together who has access in Search Console: Google warns that an owner you don't recognize may mean the site has been hacked. And personal data. If you handle form leads for the client, as in Lesson 9.3, in the EU the GDPR requires a contract between you: article 28. Elsewhere, check your own country's rules, with an expert.

1:57Who to look at first

With lots of clients, ask yourself every week: who needs me first? First, the drops: a client losing citations on important questions. Then technical problems. A site update can change the robots.txt and shut the door on the bots. Check it every month. Then overdue audits. And only after that, new work.

2:20Your task for today

Your task for today: fill in the Clients tab of the course worksheet, even if you only have one client today. With each client's audit day. And open the Change log: from today, every change gets its own row.

2:50Next lesson

In the next lesson: what changes from one industry to another. Hotels, dentists, lawyers, furniture, food and cosmetics. See you there.

Your task

Fill in the Clients tab of the course worksheet, even if you only have one client today. With each client's audit day. And open the Change log: from today, every change gets its own row.

Track it in the course worksheet.

Sources

Checked 19 October 2026.

  • Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR), art. 28, paragraph 3: processing by a processor is governed by a contract or other legal act (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/679/oj). An EU rule. General information, not legal advice.
  • Search Console Help, «Manage users, owners, and permissions» (https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7687615): only an owner adds and removes users; «If you've found an owner that you don't recognize, you might have been hacked.»
  • Method: the change log and a report that claims no causes you can't prove (Lesson 9.4); leads tracked from forms (Lesson 9.3); robots.txt (Module 3); case studies only with the client's written consent.
  • The «Clients» and «Change log» tabs of the course worksheet.
  • CiteProof: Agency plan, portfolio sorted by «Needs attention», read-only client report, white-label, Viewer limited to one client (Agency: clients, reports and white-label, Team and roles).