When you partner with North Star Design Studio, you’re not just getting a website—you’re investing in tools and training that keep your business running smoothly long after launch. One of the most valuable (and often overlooked) parts of that experience? SOPs.
SOPs, or Standard Operating Procedures, aren’t just for big corporations and manufacturing floors. For today’s digital businesses, they’re the secret weapon for consistency, security, and sanity. Especially when they’re customized, recorded, and tailored specifically to your systems and platforms.
At North Star Design Studio, we’ve made it a priority to create SOPs for our web clients that make running a website—and managing the surrounding digital ecosystem—feel less like a mystery and more like a well-oiled machine.
What Is a Digital SOP and Why Do You Need One?
A digital SOP is a step-by-step guide—often in video format—showing how to complete specific tasks related to your business’s website, social media accounts, analytics platforms, and other tools.
When created correctly, SOPs:
- Reduce training time for new staff
- Protect your brand from inconsistency or mistakes
- Help maintain access control and security
- Increase confidence across your team
In short, SOPs help your team stay efficient, professional, and in control—no matter who’s in the seat.
Website Editing SOPs: Empowering Your Team
One of the most requested SOP types we provide is how to make basic edits to a client’s website. These SOPs are incredibly valuable for day-to-day marketing updates, whether you’re changing a seasonal offer or adding a new team member.
Our SOP videos often include:
How to publish a blog post, format content, and assign categories/tags
- Updating staff bios or contact details
- Adjusting pricing and service descriptions
- Swapping out homepage or banner text
- Adding/Editing Events
We walk through each process in a screen-recorded video, using your actual website dashboard, not a generic demo. This makes it easy for your team to follow along with real context and confidence.
Want to capture SOPs like a pro? Don’t miss our guide:
👉 Entrepreneur’s Playbook: Capture SOPs without Breaking a Sweat
SOPs for Account Access: Who Gets In and How?
Security is a big deal—especially when it comes to access to your online platforms. That’s why we also create SOPs designed for business administrators and office managers who need to manage access.
These SOPs walk you through…
How to add and remove users from:
- WordPress
- Hosting and Domain Registrar Accounts
- Google Business Profile
- Google Analytics & Google Tag Manager
- Facebook, Instagram, and other SM platforms
- Understanding permission levels (Editor vs. Admin vs. Viewer, etc.)
- Recommended best practices for when staff transitions happen
Having these SOPs on file means you’ll never have to scramble when someone joins or leaves your team. And, you’ll be protecting sensitive data by making sure the right people have the right level of access.
Blog Structuring SOPs: Content That Works for You
Posting a blog is one thing. Posting a blog that supports SEO, accessibility, and your brand goals? That’s another.
We offer SOPs that teach your team how to properly structure a blog post, including:
- Choosing and sizing images
- Adding alt tags for accessibility and SEO
- Inserting hyperlinks for internal and external linking
- Setting authorship correctly
- Scheduling posts for future publishing
- Understanding and applying silo linking techniques
By equipping your team with this knowledge, your blog becomes more than a marketing tool—it becomes a valuable part of your long-term growth strategy.
Review Request SOPs: Making It Easy to Ask (and Get) Feedback
Your online reviews are gold—but asking for them the wrong way can feel awkward or even spammy. We’ve helped clients create SOPs that show their teams how to confidently request reviews and build trust in the process.
These SOPs often include:
- How to create short, easy-to-share URLs using tools like TinyURL
- Best practices for requesting reviews via Google and social media
- Guidance on timing (e.g., after service delivery, project completion, etc.)
- Rules of thumb for how many requests to send and when
We even include messaging templates or suggestions to keep things professional and friendly without feeling pushy.
Why Custom Video SOPs Work Best
Anyone can Google how to post a blog or add a user to Facebook, but custom SOPs take it a step further. We don’t just tell you how—we show you exactly how to do it on your platforms, in your environment.
With video SOPs:
- You reduce the chance of user error
- Staff can pause, rewind, and follow at their own pace
- You create a repeatable training asset that can be used again and again
Don’t Set It and Forget It: When to Review Your SOPs
SOPs are most valuable when they stay current. We recommend reviewing your digital SOPs—and any other internal documentation—at least once a year. That’s your baseline. But there are a few key moments when a review should happen sooner:
- 🆕 You launch a new service or product
- 🖥️ You adopt new technology (like switching to a different CRM, booking system, or email platform)
- 🔁 You update how your service is delivered (for example, switching from in-person to virtual consultations)
- 👥 You onboard new team members who bring up questions or gaps in the current process
It’s also a smart move to ask for feedback from anyone who runs through an SOP—whether it’s a new admin, a marketing assistant, or your summer intern. Sometimes the best insights come from fresh eyes.
By keeping your SOPs current and responsive to real-world feedback, you’ll ensure your team has exactly what they need to work efficiently and stay aligned with your brand—no matter how your business evolves.
What Doesn’t Belong in a Good SOP
While SOPs are meant to be helpful, not every piece of information belongs in one—especially when it comes to managing your website and online accounts. A solid SOP should guide the user without creating security risks or locking you into outdated processes.
Here’s what we recommend leaving out of your SOPs:
🔐 Sensitive Credentials
SOPs should never include passwords, security question answers, or direct links to private login screens that aren’t protected by password managers. Instead, use a secure password-sharing tool (like LastPass or 1Password) and reference where credentials are stored—not what they are.
⚠️ Out-of-Scope Financial Info
Access to bank accounts, merchant processing systems, or internal accounting platforms should be documented separately, under stricter controls. Including them in website or marketing SOPs can expose your business to unnecessary risk.
🌀 Rapidly Changing Platforms
Instructions tied to tools that update frequently—like Meta Business Suite, Instagram Reels, or even some AI tools—may become outdated quickly. While SOPs can still reference these tools, we recommend including links to official help documentation and focusing your SOP on your business’s specific workflow, not the step-by-step click path.
🧩 Custom or Evolving Workflows
If your process is still being finalized or changes often (like how you assign blog authors or rotate homepage banners), don’t cement it in a permanent SOP just yet. These workflows are better suited for a shared internal doc that can be updated weekly—until the process stabilizes.
🚫 One-Off Exceptions
Your SOP library should reflect repeatable, scalable actions—not one-time fixes. If you had to call hosting support and jump through hoops to fix a weird plugin conflict, that doesn’t need its own SOP. Instead, document the root cause and how it was resolved in a troubleshooting log for internal use.
SOPs = Peace of Mind
Digital SOPs may not be flashy, but they’re one of the most underrated tools in a business owner’s toolkit. Whether you’re scaling your team, refining your processes, or just trying to cut down on the 11 PM “how do I…” texts—SOPs have your back.
If you’re already a North Star client, reach out and ask about adding custom SOPs to your next support or training session. And if you’re not (yet), we’d love to show you how easy it can be to get started.
Ready to Build a Smarter System?
Let’s create a website and SOPs that give you and your team more time, less stress, and better results.
📩 Contact us today to request your custom SOP package.
