If you thought getting a freelancing job in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was easier than working for a company or boss, you’re dead wrong.

Sure, you could stop working from nine to five.

However, since you’re on your own, you’ll have to do everything yourself—from marketing the benefits of SEO for businesses and how your services can help to handling invoices and payments.

Without the right strategy or tools, you can find yourself way over your head and achieve little to no success.

To help ensure your SEO freelancing career doesn’t crash and burn before it can take off, learn from these five tips to set yourself up for success.

1. Establish an online presence

Build an online presence first before you start promoting your services in full force.  

After all, it can be hard to succeed if no one knows you, even if you’re an expert at SEO or offer one of the most strategic SEO keyword research techniques.

Leverage marketing channels at your fingertips, such as social media platforms.

For instance, share compelling content on LinkedIn to help draw attention to your profile and build a presence.

You can also start engaging and forming communities on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter by sharing trending posts or topics your target audiences are interested in.

Building an online presence helps you set the scene, making it easier to talk to your prospects and ultimately close them as clients.

2. Reach out to experienced freelancers

One way to help advance your freelancing career is to learn from experienced freelancers.

It can help you learn from their years of experience and gain invaluable insights, including tips and tricks to succeed.

You’ll also save time figuring things out from scratch and give your efforts to launch your SEO freelancing work more focus. 

Follow these quick tips to help you reach out and learn from experienced freelancers.

  • Try to build relationships. Instead of simply sending DMs with your list of questions or a “please help me” message, try to build relationships.

People are more likely to offer help when you establish a good rapport or brew a good relationship with them. 

  • Discern what advice or insights work best for you. While you are getting advice from SEO-savvy people or experts, what might have worked for them might not work well for you.

Do your research and combine it with your learnings from experienced freelancers to determine the strategies that work best for you.

  • Ask specific questions. Ask the right questions to get the answers you want. It can save you and the person you reach out to time and effort since you can get to the point and get your desired information quickly.

For instance, if you want to learn to develop a content tracking strategy, ask questions such as “What are your top three tips when assessing problematic web pages?”

3. Price your services appropriately

Freelancing means working as your own salesperson, marketer, account manager, accountant, and legal department (to an extent).

Consider all these when pricing your services and setting your service fees. Doing so helps ensure you cover all your expenses while making a profit.

Don’t sell yourself short by considering these quick tips.

  • Avoid working for free. Depending on your offer, consider doing additional services free of charge on top of what the client pays for.

For instance, you can throw in free backlinks when your clients purchase SEO articles in bulk from you. 

  • Consider project-based pricing instead of hourly billing. This way, you can set your price based on the job’s complexity, scope, etc., instead of the number of hours you put into the project.
  • Adjust your prices accordingly. Check crucial factors impacting your pricing to ensure you’re covering expenses and making a profit. Look at trends and other freelancers’ current service fees. Also, modify your pricing as you offer more services. 

4. Learn to sell your services

It’s not enough to be an SEO expert to get clients.

You’ll also need to sell what you offer to convince potential clients to choose your freelancing SEO services over your competitors. 

Develop a solid sales strategy to win clients and earn a profit with these tips.

  • Highlight the benefits instead of the features. Clients ultimately want to pay for the benefits of your services. As such, you need to highlight how you can solve their problems instead of listing what you can do.  
  • Know your client’s needs. No two client needs are the same, which makes it crucial to determine each client’s goals and the SEO strategies they want to implement (among others). 

Learn about your clients’ businesses and ask insightful questions to understand their objectives and unique needs. Doing so helps you determine the best approach to deliver what your clients want, which can inform and shape your value proposition.  

  • Share positive reviews from satisfied clients. Share glowing feedback from your previous customers. It can help you build trust with your prospects while boosting your credibility.

Ask clients to share their experience working with you and display these on your website, social media pages, and other channels.

5. Develop proper processes

Setting proper systems and processes in place is critical to streamlining your workflows.

For instance, develop a specific process for conducting SEO audits and other repeatable tasks.

Implement systems that can make your SEO freelancing business more efficient and profitable.

Having a solid process for doing things can also help you delegate tasks seamlessly when you start hiring someone else to help you. It makes it easier to get someone on board and distribute jobs.

Start simple, such as creating a checklist you can easily expand and improve over time.  

Start a successful freelancing business

While beginning a freelancing career offering SEO services is no walk in the park, you can improve your chances of succeeding by following best practices.

Build an online presence, talk to experienced freelancers, set the right price, sell your services, and develop systems to streamline workflows. Becoming a successful SEO freelancer might not happen overnight, but adopting the best strategies and using reliable tools can help propel and amplify your efforts.

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