SEO freelancing 10 things: Introduction
SEO freelancing 10 things! you should know to be successful then Learn how to level up your freelance SEO game and reap the prerequisite of
knowing how to future-proof your SEO freelancing career.
Freelancing is often romanticized and seen as freedom from an annoying boss
who doesn’t value you?
But often, when people start working for themselves, they quickly understand
that they ‘quit 9-5 to work 24/7’.
This can have adverse effects on your self-worth and mental health, but it
doesn’t mean freelancing is not well worth it.
It can be fulfilling expertise if you get to it with the right mindset.
In this column, you’ll learn SEO freelancing advice that will help you find more
(and better) clients, build a sustainable business and truly love what you do.
But initially, let’s take a look at why so many people adopt to go freelance.
Table of Contents
SEO freelancing 10 things: Benefits Of a Freelance Career
I mentioned a few limitations of starting an SEO freelancing business above. So
now it’s time to balance it out with the advantages of this journey.
When you are a freelancer…
You have more administration over your time and life.
You don’t need to ask for the acknowledgment to go to the dentist during the
working day. You can even take a full weekday holiday if your projects allow it.
Your timetable is your own.
Your salary can increase quickly.
Search Engine Journal research displays that 60% of SEO professionals earn the
same or more compared to the U.S. median while working full-time.
But expansion is often limited by the years of experience one has plus it’s hard to
substantially boost your salary within one company. You would often need to
change jobs to get a bigger improvement.
But when you’re an SEO freelancer, you don’t need to interval for a ‘3% yearly
increase’ in your salary. You can make it faster.
I made my previous full-time job income within the first year of freelancing, and
more than that in the next year.
That’s not a unique result, there are many other achievement stories from fellow
SEOs who decided to start their freelancing careers.
Moreover, there’s no limit to how much you can earn since you can improve
your freelancing business into an agency or something else.
Working with clients directly
It was one of the most important benefits for me as I wanted to have a bigger
impact on my clients’ success.
You understand your clients better.
Being a business owner, you understand your client’s superiority as you now
know more about prioritization and estimating effort vs impact.
It helps you concentrate on the most meaningful guidance instead of trying to fix
all SEO issues.
I started my agency two years ago without any business or freelancing
experience, so I had to learn everything quickly.
Here are my 10 most antique tips that I hope will help you get your SEO
freelancing business up to speed (and keep you prudent while doing it).
SEO freelancing 10 things
given below are the things you should know well about SEO freelancing 10 things:
- Talk to Other Freelancers
No matter where you are, some people have formerly been there. They have
experience and insights you can advantage of.
Getting tips from such people can defend you after months of figuring things out.
I’m personally really thankful to Aleyda Solis, Luke Carthy, Andrew Optmisey,
Kirsty Hulse, and Troy Fawkes, who was open with me and advised me with
their valuable advice.
A few tips on reaching out to people to ask for guidance…
Be respectful of their time.
Don’t just DM your list of questions or something ambiguous like ‘please help
me.’ If you constitute relationships instead, people will be happy to help you.
Ask specific questions.
The answers you get to gamble on the questions you ask. So make sure you ask
clear-cut questions that would move the needle for you.
You’re responsible for your decisions.
You ask people to get help, not to put the liability for your business on them. So
use common sensibility and see what’s working for you and what’s not.
- Build Your Online Presence
You can be the leading SEO ever. But if nobody knows about it, it’ll be tough to
succeed.
We live in the world of so many voices on social media platforms and your voice
should also be heard.
You can use LinkedIn to build your existence. You can use Twitter, commence a
newsletter, or do everything at once. The adoption is yours.
But trust me, it’s much simple to talk to prospects if you have a great digital
footprint.
I commenced building my LinkedIn and Twitter presence two months before I
quit my job. It did help me get my first customers and first students into my SEO
course.
- Treat Yourself as A Business
When you start your agency, you are now an accountant, a salesperson, an
account manager, and a legal department.
And you also pay your taxes (yes, that’s frightening at the initial step).
You need to detail this when pricing your services. It’s not enough to just
determine the hourly rate you had at a day job. You’ll need a few times extra to
cover all other expenses.
- Learn to Price Your Services
Now you know that you’re a business, even if you’re presently the only person
working in it.
The fundamental aim of any business is to make earnings. So, the next important
the point is to embrace it and stop underselling yourself (it might be effortless when
you see your first tax bill).
A few tips here:
Don’t work for free of cost.
Use project-based pricing through hourly billing.
Constantly improve and boost your prices accordingly.
- Learn How to Sell
When I initiated, I heard people saying “you’re not in the business if you can’t
sell.” It would make me stoop every time.
I did not want to sell, genuinely, I was afraid to do it.
Also, there’s a common misunderstanding that if you’re better at your craft (in
SEO in our case), you’ll automatically have many clients covering up to work with
you.
That’s not correct. In reality, selling and SEO are completely divergent skills.
Everything changed for me when I confirmed this truth. I started schooling to
sell.
I’m not talking about door-to-door sales or sending irritating messages to your
contacts on LinkedIn. It’s much lighter.
Whenever you jump on a call with potential clients, you’re selling.
Even when you’re just talking or splitting your past wins, you’re selling.
You’re transferring ideas, results, yourself as a professional, and your agency.
Any debate with a prospect is a sale.
The earlier you understand it, the better.
- Create Processes and Systems
I hear so many people saying that they still don’t have clear ways they follow for
an SEO audit or similar repeatable tasks.
It’s okay if you don’t have procedures or systems right now. But it’s time to begin
building them.
Creating processes will help make your freelancing business more adequate and
improve margins. Processes are also valuable for the conveyance at later stages if
you decide to hire someone else to help you.
You don’t need to build anything fancy. A process can initiate in the form of a
a simple checklist that you can enlarge over time.
- Build Assets
When I started my freelancing business, I together commence building a course.
While I would not suggest everyone does something big like that (as it’s
exhausting), it’s still valuable to start building some assets (for example,
an eBook or a paid membership).
I truly believe that selling products in extension to services makes you a much
better SEO as you learn a lot of marketing skills.
You start seeing audience research separately, from copywriting and understand
your SEO clients much better.
Moreover, assets bring you unflappable income and they also keep you busy
when there’s not a lot of client work. They can also expand into something bigger
in the future – who knows?
- Set Yourself Up for A dream Journey
commencing a freelancing journey is not easy. You’ll need to figure out many
things immediately. It can also be isolated.
All this can lead to steady overworking and issues with mental health.
In fact, according to this poll I did on Twitter, work/life balance is one of the 3
toughest things in freelancing:
So it’s good to take care of yourself and your work/life balance before it’s too
hard to recognize who you are in life outside of your business.
Here are some tips:
Have a support group that would encourage you (your spouse, friends,
and fellow freelancers).
Have a hobby that is not linked to your work (and ideally doesn’t involve a
computer, too).
Schedule your relaxation time.
Set a clear edge with yourself; don’t work 12 hours a day in your pajamas.
All these small things will secure you’re running a marathon, not a sprint (yes, it’s
an allusion to SEO).
- Know Your ‘Laws’ and Strictly follow Them
You can’t work on every kind of SEO project out there. You can’t work with all
kinds of clients who come to you.
Trying to help everybody will only burn you out.
Instead, you need to have accuracy in what you do (your strengths), how you
help (your services), and who you help (the kinds of clients you work with).
You will find it tough to say ‘no’ to potential projects at first. But it will pay off in
a long time.
- Help People Throughout the Way
You’re expensive. No matter where you are in your freelancing journey, you can
help someone who is a few steps back from you in something.
You can help in any way that suits you: script a blog post, tweet your tip, answer
someone’s question in a Slack group, etc.
Just know that your knowledge matters and one day (very soon) you’ll be the
one helping someone who’s just starting.
SEO freelancing 10 things: Final Bricks
Life is too compressed to stay at a job you don’t like or work on projects you
don’t enjoy.
When you open a freelancing journey for yourself, you’ll have no boundaries.
I trust in you.