How to Become an SEO Freelancer? An In-Depth Guide

An SEO freelancer is one of the most financially rewarding career choices in the pandemic and you must follow this guide on How to Become an SEO Freelancer. The ensuing lockdown two years ago has driven home the necessity for businesses to maintain an online presence.

Those with no websites scrambled to build one at short notice. They also called upon SEO experts to help them optimize and market their new site online.

How to Become an SEO Freelancer?

SEO experts earn anywhere between $40,000 and $60,000 per year according to statistics. Highly experienced SEO freelancers can even earn nearly $100,000 annually. You’ll get to that point, of course. The important part is putting one foot forward and starting your journey to being a freelance SEO specialist.

Why Freelance?

Freelancing is the ideal choice for surviving the ongoing pandemic. The first reason is that there is no earnings cap when you’re self-employed. You can take on as many clients as you want. It’s all about time management, and your desire to earn. You also have the freedom to decline offers if you find that your plate is already full.

The second reason why people are signing up for accounts in applications for freelancers is work-life balance. You can take a vacation any time you want. You can employ a small team of link builders and content writers to handle clients while you’re away. You can check on them for a few minutes or an hour a day while on the beach just to let them know that you care.

Last but not least, you get to earn an income that’s equivalent to the amount of workload you take on. When you work for an employer, you receive a fixed amount that might or might not compensate you enough for the work you’re responsible for. On the other hand, working directly for clients takes away the middleman and raises the potential revenues for you.

How to Transition to a Full-Time Freelance SEO Career

This article assumes that you already have a background in search engine optimization and that you know your way around the task. All you need to learn at this point is how you can build your career from scratch after leaving your full-time employer. Here are a few tips that experts highly recommend:

• Build a network of SEO professionals and clients

It would seem counter-intuitive to network with people who are ultimately your competition. However, there’s value in networking with other SEO professionals. This is how you get your referrals. They could pass on some of their clients to you if their workload becomes overwhelming, for instance. So, the next time you hear of a trade convention for SEO experts, make sure you find the time to attend.

• Build your own website

Your website is your own identity. It is here that you showcase your portfolio to potential clients. It is also through your website that your existing and future clients will interface with you. You should have one ready to go even before your last day at work as a full-time employee.

• Hire an accountant

Being self-employed means that you do your own bookkeeping and file your own taxes. This record-keeping needs to be accurate if you want to avoid being chased by the Internal Revenue Service. Seek out an accountant before you begin freelancing; this expert will help you work out the kinks of taxes and other similar concerns.

• Build a good lead generation campaign

You should start thinking early about how you can generate leads. You need to obtain potential customers’ email addresses and other contact details. You can create free content that they can download or participate in. For example, you can create a weekly newsletter that they can subscribe to. They’ll need to input their email addresses to receive the newsletter. You can then add that email to your database and include them in your sales funnel.

• Be active in social media and communities

Do you have a LinkedIn account? Leverage that website’s networking capability to your advantage. Millions of professionals maintain accounts on LinkedIn because it helps them connect to potential customers and clients. You could also reach out to your community through forums like Reddit. You could also contribute articles and build your authority and expertise.

• Invest in the necessary tools

Search engine optimization is a very technical endeavour. Analytics play a central role, which means that you have to invest in SEO tools. There are many tools available online to help you analyze your website’s rankings, your competitor’s ranks, and how many backlinks your website has. This information is valuable in assessing how much work you have to do for your clients to enjoy positive results on the search engine results pages.

• Learn the art of presentations

Last but not least, you must learn how to present your services before your clients. Presenting is an art form. You’re taking your potential clients through a journey that has to end in a sale. Thus, you have to learn how to control that journey through your PowerPoint presentations. They have to be interesting and engaging, and must not have any dull moments at all.

Consider how you would want to address each of these concerns as early as now. It’s best to have these taken care of before you terminate your employment. It will make the transition faster and smoother.

It is not that difficult to transition to a full-time freelancing career as an SEO expert. You already have the skills acquired. All you need to do is make a few preparations that will help you shift smoothly from being a full-time employer to a full-time self-employed SEO.

There are plenty of rewards to be had as a self-employed SEO specialist. Start your journey now and be one more step closer to living that dream life.