Hire SEO Freelancer.: It’s Not as Difficult as You Think
Ranking a website or web page today isn’t as easy as it was a couple of years ago. A freelance SEO professional might be just what you need to be competitive.
Not only is the competition stiffer, but the constant changes in the algorithms that determine rankings also make it harder to keep up with your SEO game.
As a business owner, you may not have time to keep up with all these changes and update your website regularly.
This is why you may need to enlist the help of a freelance SEO professional.
Before we continue, let’s quickly define what a standalone SEO is.
A freelance SEO professional is a professional who helps you gain more visibility in search engines. If you hire the right one, they can get you ranked for your top keywords, helping you drive tons of traffic to your website and business.
Where to hire freelance SEO professionals
Before hiring, you will need to consider your specific SEO needs. But first, let’s see where to find one. Some of the best places to look include (but are not limited to):
1. Job boards
Job boards are a great place to look for SEO talent. Popular forums select all freelancers in their database, which saves you a lot of time and can help you eliminate unsavory characters.
Some popular job boards for SEO freelancers include:
In fact: you have a number of freelance SEO professionals. Searching for candidates using different filters makes it easy.
Upwork – Perhaps the most popular freelance platform on the planet. It has a rigorous verification process.
ProBlogger – One of the best platforms if you are looking specifically for SEO writers.
AngelList: Trusted by many startups for a high quality talent pool. The best option if you are looking specifically for technical freelancers in SEO.
Fiverr – A great place to find affordable SEO freelancers, but you may have to sift through a lot of profiles to find the right person.
Craigslist: Another great place to find good SEO talent. Unfortunately, however, you will need to conduct your own background check of the candidate.
What if you want freelancers to come to you? To get the best freelance SEO talent, you need to know how to attract them and you can do it by creating optimized job postings.
Features of an SEO optimized freelance job posting include:
Job description focused on keywords
A killer title
Detailed but to the point
Sell the benefits of working with your company
Once you’ve put together your job posting and posted it, you’re sure to get plenty of responses from interested SEO freelancers.
2. Social networks
Social media now plays a very important role in the recruitment process, helping companies to get the best talent. If you are looking for some of the best SEO professionals, you will be sure to find them on social media platforms such as:
LinkedIn
Twitter
Reddit
Facebook
Make sure you include a relevant hashtag (such as #SEOfreelancers) when posting your need for an SEO freelancer.
3. Ask Google
Most freelance SEOs have websites to showcase their work, and if they practice what they preach, their websites should rank high on Google for their keywords (such as freelance SEO and other LSI keywords).
So, if you’re looking for freelance SEO professionals, a random Google search can help you find professionals you can trust for your SEO endeavors.
If you want one based in your location, you can simply Google “Freelance SEO + your area” to get results from the best local SEO freelancers near you.
4. Communicate with your network
If you have a large professional network, chances are someone in your circle has used a freelance SEO professional you love. Consider seeking advice from other business leaders you trust.
How A Freelance SEO Can Help Your Business
So how can a freelance SEO help your business? SEO is a huge field that affects almost every part of online marketing. These are the main services that freelance SEO professionals typically offer.
Search by keywords
One of the core principles of SEO is keyword research.
This is the practice of finding the search terms that users enter in search engines when they want to find something. Discovering the keywords used to search for your products or services is essential to boost your SEO.
This fundamental practice is one of the ways an SEO Freelancer can help your business rank well.
Content strategy
Content strategy involves planning the entire process required to create content. It includes, among other disciplines:
- keyword research
- understand user intent
- make optimized titles
- create content schemes
- determine the types of content
- choose the best platforms to publish content
- Developing a content strategy is key to helping your content rank well, especially in a space saturated with content on similar topics.
Content creation
Another integral part of SEO is content creation.
SEO content creation is a science that not many people understand.
It requires knowledge of correct keyword placement, correct structuring and formatting of content, and writing in the tone the audience prefers, among other things.
While anyone can be a good writer, not everyone can be a great SEO writer.
Again, this is one of the few ways an SEO Freelancer can help you boost your business.
By building links
In addition to content, another critical aspect of SEO is link building. This is because search engines use links to measure the authority of content and websites. The more authoritative a web page is, the higher the search engine rankings for queries related to its keywords.
A successful strategy involves building relevant links on three levels:
- Internal links: These are links between the contents of your website and must be chosen strategically.
- Outbound Links: Links to other sites are important, but if done incorrectly, they could link to competitors, low-authority sites, or even spam websites.
- Inbound links – Also called backlinks, these point to your website and are considered by search engines to be votes of trust on your website. Quality, not quantity, is the key here.
- Good SEO professionals also know the importance of monitoring your backlink profile. This is important because toxic backlinks could negatively affect your SEO.
Link building is a time consuming activity and requires knowledge of the right kinds of links to build and strategies to work.
To create links that help your website rank better, you need to hire a professional, which is a case in which a freelance SEO professional will come in handy.
Whenever you want to make an impact online (which you have no other choice on), you need to invest in SEO. This is why you should consider hiring a freelance SEO professional.
How to hire the best SEO Freelance professional
Hiring a good SEO freelancer can be a tricky business.
For one thing, most SEOs are self-taught and usually the only way to verify their knowledge or experience is through their own portfolio.
Second, the world of SEO is constantly changing, making it nearly impossible to know which freelance SEO professionals keep their knowledge and skills relevant.
So how can you improve your chances of hiring the best SEO professional?
Here are some simple tips:
Determine your SEO needs
The first step in finding the right SEO professional for you is to determine your exact SEO needs.
If you’re not sure how to do this, you may need to seek out an SEO freelancer who is experienced in conducting SEO audits. Of course, in most cases this is an additional service, so expect to pay for it separately.
However, if you want to do it yourself, check out my SEO checklist for instructions.
Determining your SEO needs makes it easy for you to know what to look for in an SEO freelancer.
Features to look for in a freelance SEO
Now that you’ve determined your SEO needs, the next step in hiring the best SEO professional is knowing what to look for in one. Here are some suggestions:
Check story
Every self-respecting SEO freelancer has a track record that demonstrates his knowledge and skills.
To deserve your consideration, they need to have results that demonstrate their effectiveness in delivering the services you want.
So how do you check their history?
ask to see a portfolio of their work
visit their website
request references from past or current clients
read reviews on your website or other platforms
Checking the background of an SEO freelancer is crucial because you want to hire someone who knows what they are doing. If not, you may be spending money on an SEO freelancer who won’t give you the results you want.
Interview your potential SEO freelancers
Once you’ve narrowed down your list of potential candidates, it’s time to find the best SEO professional for your business.
To do this, you may want to conduct an interview to get to know them better.
Fortunately, with technology like video calling software, you can conduct interviews from anywhere in the world.
Get to know them, their methodology and how they intend to help your company position itself well.
Give your potential SEO freelancer a test project
Another strategy that will help you find the best SEO professional for your business is to offer your potential candidates a (paid) trial project.
This will help you:
measure your skills
see how your working relationship will be
Your test should be based on the core businesses you are hiring your SEO Freelancer for. That way, you know exactly what to expect from them in terms of performance.
When not to hire freelance SEO professionals
Despite the benefits of SEO freelancers, there are times when you don’t want to go the freelance route.
In such cases, it is best to hire an SEO agency.
Here are some examples of these cases:
When your needs exceed the capabilities of a freelancer
Remember, SEO is a large field. No one person can handle all the SEO tasks you might need.
For example, if you want to run a full on-page SEO campaign, you might request (among others):
a content strategist
an SEO writer
a publisher
Sure, you can find an SEO freelancer who can wear all three hats, but if your content strategy is broad, you might need at least one content strategist, editor, and a couple of SEO writers.
In this case, you’d better go the agency route.
Carefully evaluate your SEO needs and determine if the scope of work is manageable by one person or better managed by an agency.
When you need different SEO services
If you need different SEO services, you’d better go the agency route.
This is because agencies have different skills in their human capital and all of your SEO needs can be met under one roof.
Create a consistent and optimized SEO campaign.
Assigning different tasks to different SEO freelancers could lead to a disjointed campaign, and in some cases, what one SEO does may conflict with what someone else has done.
When stability matters
An agency has all the resources (human and technological) necessary to execute projects quickly. For this reason, you are also assured of quality work because they have quality checks in place.
Another advantage of an agency that many people overlook is the fact that if a freelancer falls ill or passes his life, his project could be suspended indefinitely. However, with an agency, there is rarely any downtime as they can easily find a replacement.
Conclusion
With many people choosing to drop out of 9-5 and become a freelancer, you will have many options when it comes to choosing SEO freelancers for your business.
However, this coin has two sides.
In your quest to find the best SEO freelancers, you may come across some bad guys that can cost you your reputation, ranking, or resources.
That’s why you should know how to hire an SEO expert to help you achieve your business goals.
Have you worked with a freelance SEO before? If so, what was your experience with them?
