A freelance SEO consultant is the most coveted profession in this digital content era. Businesses that hire SEO experts stay a step ahead of the competitors who do not. Additionally, an experienced freelance SEO specialist can provide you a blueprint for the overall improvement of your website.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the secret of every top-ranking website on the search engines. If you are thinking to hire an SEO expert but have some questions on your mind, this post helps you understand everything about SEO freelancer services.
Why do businesses need to hire SEO experts?
As per a study done by MarketingTechNews, SEO freelancer is one of the top 10 freelancer roles in demand across the globe. This demand for a freelance SEO consultant explains how businesses are keen on leveraging SEO and why businesses need to hire an SEO freelancer.
1. Hire SEO freelancer to attract more users and conversions
According to an estimate of WebsiteSetup.org, every day around 576,000 new websites come up. Turning your website into a top-scoring one amidst this stiff competition is not a cakewalk.
Websites that lag in the search engines fail to attract users and thus miss out on potential conversions and business. Studies reveal that only 25 percent of online users tend to check the second-page search engine results. It indicates that if your website is not visible on the first page results, the probability of losing customers and traffic is immense.
2. A freelance SEO consultant takes care of the dynamic nature of search engines
Search engine rules are dynamic. They keep changing periodically. An expert freelance SEO consultant can help your website to stay immune to these dynamic changes.
Thus, when you hire SEO expert, they use the latest SEO best practices to retain the website visibility and ranking despite dynamic changes of search engines.
3. A freelancer SEO expert can be a time savior
SEO on its own is a very vast subject. As a business owner, it is a good practice for you to understand a couple of things to work well with your freelance SEO consultant. However, taking SEO into your hands and trying to work on it yourself solely may backfire.
SEO contains many to-dos and to-avoid practices. If not done correctly, SEO can waste your time, effort and harm your business. It explains why you need to hire freelancer who can work and guide you with their SEO expertise.
4. A freelance SEO consultant is an affordable option
SEO agencies can be a great start to visualize your SEO strategy. However, they can be tardily expensive. For budding businesses, startups and individual entrepreneurs, the fees for SEO agencies can consume a large chunk of the budget. Besides, SEO agencies work with multiple clients at the same time, resulting in lesser personalized attention on individual projects.
A freelance SEO expert can be a savior to cut down your SEO costs. If you are skeptical about the performance and delivery of an SEO freelancer, choosing a freelance SEO consultant with intensive SEO agency experience can be an unbeatable idea.
This is a win-win approach that assures you peace of mind and gets quality freelancer SEO services at a very affordable budget.
What services does a freelance SEO consultant offer?
To put it precisely, SEO is a subject that touches most aspects of online marketing. Thus, a freelance SEO expert you hire should possess comprehensive SEO knowledge related to all online content channels.
A freelance SEO expert should possess an excellent understanding of ranking your services and products across:
- Search Engines
- Mobile Apps
- Search Engine Ads
- Social Media
Besides, an expert SEO freelancer holds a strong knowledge of coding for website design, development, and maintenance.
Furthermore, a freelance SEO consultant will offer excellent services in the following aspects:
1. Website SEO Audit:
Most often, businesses tend to start right away with SEO for their services. But only a freelance SEO specialist can guide you the right way to do it by starting from your website SEO audit.
When you hire SEO expert with strong knowledge in coding and hailing from a software background will be able to identify where to start your SEO journey.
2. Keyword Research:
Keywords are what on which businesses thrive. They are the search terms your targeted users use to find answers to their problems. If you want to bring your website to the first page of Search engine results, you must choose keywords that help you rank.
When you hire SEO expert and detail your business requirements, they will offer you customized keyword research services. It is an essential step in bringing your website to the top by beating your competitors.
3. Content Strategy:
Once your keywords are ready, it is time to put them to use by developing relevant content. A freelance SEO expert will provide you with the content strategy.
A content strategy comprises understanding and implementing various aspects around designing content around the chosen keywords in such a way that:
- It aligns with user intent.
- It is effectively formatted and optimized.
- It is published on the right platforms and on the right schedules.
- It is in line with effective off-page and on-page SEO practices.
4. Content Creation:
Content is the fuel for your website to rank. A freelance SEO consultant will offer SEO content services that accomplish your website ranking.
Often, SEO freelancers have intense working experience with content strategists and content writers. Thus, they will be able to render SEO content services that your website deserves.
5. Link Building:
Once your website has enough quality SEO content, the next immediate step is to start link building. If you are confused about what link building is, and why your website needs link building, you can clarify all your doubts with your SEO freelancer.
Link building essentially builds the foundation of your website to increase its authority. There exist various types of links in link building: Internal, External, and Inbound.
The more the number of quality links, the higher is the reputation and authority of your website. That said, link building should be a careful approach. Only a freelance SEO expert will know the best practices in carefully performing link building.
When you hire a freelancer for SEO, ensure that they follow SEO link-building best practices. A freelance SEO expert knows:
- The importance of links in ranking your website
- Good practices versus malicious practices of link building
- SEO tools that serve your SEO needs
- The difference between links along with how to leverage them.
- Beginner to advanced SEO techniques
- The tact of differentiating quality content versus thin content
Where can you hire an SEO freelancer?
To hire freelancer for SEO, here are some best places to look into:
Freelance portals:
They are the most-referred sites that one should not miss exploring when hoping to hire an SEO expert. Websites like Freelancer, Upwork, Pay Per Hour can be a good start for this purpose. Each of these freelancer portals has its features.
All these freelance portals offer thousands of profiles for you to hire freelancer for SEO. Though this is a great approach to hire freelancer, this may be a time-consuming one.
Social Media:
Recruiters of today are leveraging social media better than before. You can find many SEO freelancer profiles on social media sites like Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter.
Quora is also one place that helps you to hire SEO expert. Alternatively, check with your connections to hire freelancer.
Portfolio websites:
The portfolio websites of an SEO freelancer will help you understand their industry experience.
But when you want to hire freelancer for SEO, how do you land on the portfolio website of a freelance SEO specialist? Google is the ultimate answer!
To find an SEO freelancer, kickstart your search with Google. Search with related keywords like “best freelancer seo”, “seo freelancer in india”, “quality freelance seo services”, etc. If you want to hire SEO expert in a location, you can narrow down the search results by “seo freelancer in delhi”, or “freelance seo consultant near me”, etc.
Thus, the caliber of a freelance SEO expert becomes visible from the ranking of their portfolio website itself. Their portfolio websites rank top in the search results effortlessly. Thus, your task to hire freelancer who can help your SEO needs becomes simpler!
Questions to ask before you hire an SEO Consultant
Working with an SEO expert may often be a long-term association. Hence, always pose them some questions before beginning the contract. It helps both parties to stay on the same page for fruitful collaboration.
Here are ten questions you can pose to your freelance SEO expert are as follows:
- About the current performance of your website: Request their opinion on the website performance. Some freelancers do it for free, while some may charge. However, this step will help you understand the current position and performance of your website.
- The practices they adopt for SEO: Some SEO experts might be notorious for implementing black hat SEO techniques. Though they seem to provide faster results, they cost you heftily in the long run. Such black hat techniques can irrevocably impact both your business reputation and website ranking. Thus, gain a basic understanding of how your freelancer would proceed with your website SEO.
- Their areas of work experience: SEO efforts and results may vary with the industry. It can help if your freelancer has the proven working experience in your niche. Even if they are new to your niche, prior work experience with ranking on high-difficulty keywords will suffice to understand their work caliber.
- Duration of contract: SEO often is long-term work. SEO experts suggest the efforts can show results only after 6-9 months. Thus, check with your SEO freelancer about the probable duration of the contract and when you may start seeing visible results.
- Communication channel: If your SEO consultant is offshore, you may need to gain clarity on this. Check with the consultant about their preferred timings and mode of communication.
- SEO Package: SEO services come in varied packages. For instance, the charges for Local SEO, Global SEO can differ. Similarly, the number of keywords and the links built may vary. Thus, make sure you understand what comes along with your package.
- Measurements and metrics: How will your SEO freelancer showcase the success of the efforts? What metrics should you vouch on to understand the improvement in your website ranking? Clarify your doubts related to the metrics involved.
- Billing: Does your consultant need a per hour pay or they charge per project or month? Each freelancer has their preference. Check if their billing aligns with your expectations and budget.
- Check testimonials and past results: Take a peek at their past clients’ mentions about the work experience with your freelancer.
- Termination/end of the project: At the end of the contract, your SEO freelancer should provide you all the details of the work done to date. They should also assure that there shall not be any modifications in the work done so far from their side. Like in any business contract, make sure to have a Confidentiality Agreement.
Wrapping it up
Thus, here is the complete picture of why you should hire a freelancer SEO and how to choose the best SEO consultant for your business. Now take the leap of faith and start a fruitful collaboration with a freelance SEO Consultant in boosting your business visibility.
How do I hire an SEO freelancer?
How much does it cost to hire an SEO expert?
How do I hire an SEO consultant?
Is SEO worth the money?
