Whether it’s a new year, new team or the same year, same team, it’s important to set yourself up for success. Every team has their own unique challenges when it comes to productivity and standardizing processes, but there are definitely a few steps you can take to mitigate them.

Before launching into a new project, new year, or new process, be sure everyone on your team has the tool access they need and is ready to tackle any task that comes their way. To that end, here are seven steps to get your team ready for a productive year using the Moz suite of tools!

1. Verify who manages your account (and subscription)

When it comes to ensuring things go smoothly, a critical step is knowing who manages, or owns, your Moz account. Account owners are able to manage subscriptions, add seated users, access invoices, update payment methods, and more.

So why is this step one on our list? When it comes to team success, it’s imperative to know who to reach out to when there’s an issue. For example, if you need to upgrade your subscription level or purchase add-ons, you will need to know who on your team is able to take care of those changes. Or, if you have a new team member who needs to be onboarded with the Moz tools, the account owner will need to add them as a seated user on your account.

Touch base with your team and verify who has owner access to your Moz subscription. If you’re not sure if you have owner access or not, log into your Moz account and head to Account and Billing. If you are the subscription owner, you’ll see your Moz Pro subscription, along with pricing and renewal date, listed under Moz Pro.

From the Account & Billing section of your account, if you do not see the price and renewal date for the subscription and you see Shared Subscriptions as a view option, this indicates you are a seated user on the account and do not have access to subscription management or seated user management.

2. Add seats to your account

Ensuring your team has access to the tools they need is imperative when it comes to setting them up for success. Adding seated users to your subscription allows them to customize the types of emails they receive, which Campaigns they follow, interact in the Q&A forum, and sign up for Moz Academy courses. All around, it’s a great idea for each person to have their own login and tool access.

Once you know who is managing your Moz Pro subscription, be sure to add your teammates as seated users. Only the owner of the account can add seated users, so if you’re not in charge of your subscription, be sure to reach out to the owner to get those teammates added. Additionally, if you don’t already have one in place, this would be a great time to define a process for requesting the addition and removal of seated users from your account.

You can add seated users to your subscription at any time via the Manage Seats section of Account & Billing.

3. Check your subscription limits

It’s a good idea to get in the habit of regularly checking your subscription limits. Are you close to maxing out your tracked keywords limit? Are you making more Link Explorer queries? Or maybe you’re nearing the top end of your Campaign limit? By keeping an eye on your subscription limits and how you’re using them, you can stay on top of your team’s needs throughout the year. That way, when it’s time to onboard a new client or do a deep dive into competitive research, you’re not scrambling to make changes to your subscription.

A quick reminder here: only the owner of the account can upgrade and/or purchase add-ons for your subscription. Just like with adding seats, this would be the perfect time to outline a procedure for requesting and implementing subscription changes that accounts for necessary budget approval timelines.

To check your subscription limits for your Moz Pro Campaigns, head to the Manage Your Campaigns screen. Your limits (also known as allowances), and how much you’re using of each, will be noted at the top of the page.

4. Follow (or unfollow) campaigns

Sharing a subscription with multiple team members may mean having multiple Campaigns. And Campaigns may be set up for different clients, markets, or tasks based on your team’s responsibilities and projects. When it comes to staying productive and keeping on task, you may opt to adjust which Campaigns you get emails for each week. Your current project may not require you to stay up to speed with your colleague’s client rankings, or you may be jumping in to help out with site audits of a high-value client while a teammate is out of the office. Regardless of the situation, be sure you and your team are taking advantage of the ability to customize which Campaigns you follow and, as a result, receive emails for.

In Moz Pro, following a Campaign means you will receive insight and update emails from the tool on a regular basis. You can follow and unfollow Campaigns from either the Manage Your Campaigns screen or from your Campaign Settings. From the Manage Your Campaigns screen, use the checkbox in the last column titled Following to change your settings. Or from within Campaign Settings, use the checkbox under General > Site Basics.

You can update your follow status at any time, which can allow for flexibility around projects and clients. Additionally, follow status is login specific which means each seated user can pick and choose which Campaigns to follow based on their needs.

5. Automate reporting

Whether you regularly send updates to clients, need to keep key stakeholders informed, or you just want to stay on top of important initiatives, you likely send reports regularly. Rather than taking the time to manually generate a new report every week or month, why not automate the process? Using Moz Pro’s Custom Reports feature can help you to streamline your reporting and send updates to whoever you choose on the regular.

Depending on your team’s needs and the projects you’re working on, you may opt to set up team-specific or task-specific reports:

• Team-specific reports may include overviews of various aspects of a Campaign such as the Dashboard view, Site Crawl Overview, and Rankings Overview to give a birds-eye view of the overall health of a client’s site. You can then set this up to send directly to your client, other members of your team, or your boss so they can stay up to speed.

• Task-specific reports take a deeper dive into a particular area of your Campaign. For example, you may be focused on improving a client’s crawlability or improving their rankings for a subset of keywords and decide to set up reports specific to those areas.

Regardless of the type of report you need to send, the Custom Report builder in Moz Pro will tell you how to get it set up and scheduled for regular delivery, right to the inboxes of the interested parties. You can choose a report template or build a report from scratch to make sure your report includes everything you need. You can even check out our Daily SEO Fix series for additional ideas, just in case you’re looking for a little extra guidance.

6. Enroll team members in free Moz Academy courses

Have new team members who aren’t familiar with the Moz tools? Or do you need a reminder about the metrics and functionalities of the tools? We’ve got you covered. Moz Academy offers two free tool-specific courses to help you get off on the right foot (or regain your footing if you just need a quick refresh).

The first is How to Use Moz Pro which is an in-depth overview of all the primary tools included in your Moz Pro subscription. Learn all about how to use Moz tools so you can hit the ground running. It includes detailed information about each aspect of the tools along with the metrics included and lessons to practice what you’ve learned.

The second is The Insider’s Guide to Moz Pro: Your 4-Week SEO Game Plan which combines videos, tasks, and additional resources to help you implement an SEO strategy with the Moz Pro tools.

Both of these courses are fully on-demand, instructor-led, and self-paced. You can refer back to these lessons over and over in case you have a “how do I do that again?” moment, and they both offer additional learning resources throughout.

7. Get Certified!

Nothing can help a team be more productive and successful quite like being on the same page regarding processes and task management. And being up to speed on best practices, tips and tricks, and practical application is a critical component of that. It’s almost like the table of contents to the book of strategy — it gets you all to the right place where you can get down to business!

Moz Academy offers five different certifications, which can help get your team acquainted with various aspects of SEO strategy and implementation. We offer certifications in SEO Essentials, Technical SEO, Keyword Research, Competitive Analysis, and Local SEO. If you have the budget for team development, these courses can help make sure everyone on your team is ready to tackle any task. Once a certification is completed, you also receive a downloadable certificate and the opportunity to add a badge to your LinkedIn profile to show off your newly acquired skills.

Conclusion

Ensuring you and your team have the access and knowledge they need to be productive will help minimize hiccups throughout the year. By performing these steps up front, you’ll be able to onboard clients, perform research, and accomplish more in less time. After all, success is when preparation meets opportunity.

And with that, you’re ready to hit the ground running with your Moz account for any and all SEO projects you have coming up. If you’re looking to learn even more, don’t forget to keep an eye on the Moz Tools category of the Moz Blog for future Next Level posts as well as the Daily SEO Fix series.