How to Become a Freelance SEO Consultant?

Introduction:

Search Engine Optimization helps your website to get more visibility on the search engine. It has emerged as an important industry in recent years due to an increasing power that search engines like Google wield. As companies try to raise rankings on Search Engine Results Page (SERP), they are turning to a specialized marketing professional to accomplish the goal, the freelance SEO consultant.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization which is basically the process of getting traffic from search results on search engines. When it comes to SEO we are talking about organic traffic not paid nor from social media so it’s basically how a website or a single piece of content can be discovered online by people looking for that particular topic. It can be described as giving potential to the website to get more visibility in the search engine. Every search engine displays the most relevant results to your query and SEO helps that visibility.

What does SEO do?

• Quality – Attracting visitors relevant to your website, not the general population who just come and go without the purpose of their query solved and your purpose is also not fulfilled. SEO helps in directing quality visitors who are specifically looking for the products that are offered on your website.
• Quantity – Once you get the right visitors, there will be an increase in the amount of traffic. The more the traffic, the better it is.
• Organic traffic – These are the unpaid ads that show up on the SERP’s. It is that traffics which involve no payment on your side.

Who is an SEO professional?

SEO professional is a person who declutters and organizes your website in a way that it attracts more traffic with the help of keywords or key phrases. They need to be current trend and update the client’s website according to the current search parameters. It is not only tweaking the website but also ensuring the optimization. SEO professionals can do freelance SEO or work as an employee in a company.

What are the Responsibilities of SEO Professional?

• Website analysis – It is the process of measuring and analyzing the website and isolating the areas that are in need of a change or a tune-up. It also gives out the information of a total number of visitors, how much traffic has gone through the site and on what rank is the website on search engine parameters.
• Keyword Optimization –  Keywords optimization can said as speaking the same lingo like the potential visitor of your website. A freelance SEO expert will find the most suitable keyword for the website and optimize the page according to it.
• Content generation – This information is written by the freelance SEO expert about your website or your products with the emphasis on keywords or phrases with an intent to attract visitors.
• Search engine parameters –  Search parameters are the certain filters laid by the search engines for the display of search results. If a website tweaked by an SEO freelancer India has the requisite keywords to pass through that filter, then the website stands a higher chance of visibility in the search results.
• Information technology skills – This refers to technical skills needed for freelance SEO like website creation or designing, tweaking the HTML code etc. These skills are offered by the freelance SEO expert as part of SEO freelancing services.
• Client management – A freelance SEO expert manages their client by paying attention to their needs, establishing some mutual ground rules and by giving results.
• Analytical processing – This tool is used in freelance SEO for constant analysis of the data stored or processed by the website for maximum optimization.

There are also secondary jobs that can be done in freelance SEO like;

• Content writing – In this the SEO freelancer in India offers to write in detail about any topic assigned to them and it will be posted on the client’s website as their requirement.
• Web researcher – They are responsible for researching new information about the given topic and update the client about it.
• Link builder – This job entails linking of external sites to client’s website and of generating links that connect to the client’s website.

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What Education does it need to become a Freelance SEO Specialist?

There is no formal education for the field of SEO. But there are certain basic qualifications like

• A bachelor’s degree in marketing, information technology or communications.
• A few years of experience in digital marketing area
• Knowledge of technical know how in HTML, CSS and other programming languages.

The SEO industry is developing at a rapid rate and there is a new branch of digital marketing branching out, so the question of the structured syllabus and formalized way of study is not possible as there is a lot of creativity involved and on the spot, decisions are involved. The search engines like google, yahoo constantly update their search parameters so the area of freelance SEO has to be in the constant updating of these parameters. So the SEO freelancer India has to offer SEO freelancing services with having these conditions in mind.

There are very few universities or colleges offering formal education in the field of freelance SEO. But there are also a lot of online platforms offering courses on freelance SEO and provide a certification of completion, even then there lies the question of the reputation of that platform. There are some platforms that offer courses by joining hands with reputed academic institutions and they offer it in the online or campus mode. Some these platforms that offer a professional certificate are:

• Seopros.org
• Expertrating.com
• Bruce clay. Inc.
• Digitalvidya.com

Also, the downside of this profession is that there no central governing body that monitors and regulates this SEO profession. SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professionals) org is the closest to a governing body and they have also stopped offering their online course. There have been suggestions in the academic world to create a central governing body, but SEO is treated as an art rather than a profession, so the seriousness of this question is questionable. But there are certain ways in which an SEO freelancer can gain knowledge;

Blogs:

There are a lot of blogs that have a lot of information regarding SEO practice. This method has more information than any other method. But the downside of this method is that it is a huge number of blogs available on this topic which makes it difficult to pick one.

Webinars and training videos:

A whole lot of videos and webinars are available or streamed online and they can be used to gain knowledge. But they might a little outdated as this technique is a constant change and it is time-consuming.

Conference and workshops:

When there is one to one interactions available, one can gain knowledge firsthand by discussing with the experts. As there is constant change in this field of freelance SEO, it is better to ask the experts who are knowledgeable in this field.

In India, there has been a steady rise of freelance SEO field and there are numerous job categories like:

• Becoming a freelance SEO consultant,
• Offering SEO freelancing services,
• Work sites to hire SEO freelancer,
• Freelance SEO writing jobs.

There are a many freelance SEO experts who do SEO freelancing projects. There are also a lot of online freelance SEO consultants in India who even offer courses on how to become SEO freelancer.

Skills every Professional Freelance SEO Consultant should have?

In freelance SEO, there are certain skills that a freelance SEO expert should possess which helps in doing the best optimization and directing the search engine traffic. It will help on the aspect of how to become SEO freelancer.

An analytical and creative mind:

In freelance SEO, the expert should possess an analytical and creative mind that analyses each every step in directing the traffic and in improving the ranking of the website. It should not all be about technical aspects but also the other areas that matter like understanding the context or framing the concept as well as solving problems.

Link building:

Google does link analysis to produce the most relevant result for the search query. If the SEO freelancer has a good knowledge in developing links based on the analysis tool, then he will be able to direct original traffic through the website.

Knowledge of HTML:

HTML coding is one of the basic skills in freelance SEO jobs. Even though there a whole of website builders available the basic coding would be in HTML and the SEO freelancer should be able to understand the language and the syntax connected with it.

Knowledge of Excel programming:

In the freelance SEO business when commenced in the long run it is important to have knowledge of Microsoft Excel as it helps in the preparation of budgets, strategies and even in isolating certain information and presenting it in the form of tables, pie chart etc.

Programming skill set:

This skill is not a prerequisite but it strengthens your background in freelance SEO and makes way for the double the opportunity because you will be able to provide the services of SEO freelancer and a programmer.

Knowledge of search parameters:

Search engines like google, yahoo, bing and others update their search parameters regularly to provide the visitor the most relevant result. The SEO freelancer has to stay in touch with these parameters and draft the content or keyword within those parameters.

How to find freelance SEO jobs?

There are many sites that host a requirement for varied number of freelance SEO jobs. The beauty of this profession is that it is in online meaning anyone can work from anywhere. Say for example if you are in need of SEO freelance in Delhi and you are based in another place. You will be able to find SEO freelance in Delhi with help of these sites. Not all the freelance SEO JOBS are paid, some are paid and some are free. Even in some cases, you have to filter the jobs available as per your capability. Let us have a look at some of the best website offering freelance marketing jobs.

Worknhire- This is an Indian website which is offering the both work and hire option. You can also post yourself as freelance SEO consultant from India and source jobs from and outside India.

Taskr.in- This is another Indian website that offers to post your requirements and it helps you source SEO freelancers suitable to your needs. This website has the option of hiring freelancers or hiring project freelancers.

Upwork- This is one of the most famous websites for searching freelance SEO professional or posting your SEO need. But it is also priced very low for job seekers. It is a good start for freshers and there is a payment guarantee for the job done.

Craigslist-  In this website, you can seek out high paying jobs in the United States and post your requirements to cater to that demographic.

Toptal – Toptal is for experienced SEO freelancers. If you pass their screening process, you will be able to source work from high paying clients. The even organize workshops and meetings.

Freelancer-  While most websites operate on bids, the freelancer provides a competitive edge. The freelancers have to compete against other freelancers to get offers.

Freelance writing gigs- It doesn’t matter whether you are in freelance SEO, freelance SEO consultant or you are looking for freelance SEO writing jobs. The freelance writing gigs have all the options for a freelance SEO expert in any form.

These are some the websites where you can hire SEO freelancer in India or offer SEO freelancing services. You can work or hire worldwide without the constraints of borders. There are a lot of opportunities for SEO freelancer in India. As India has a pool of talents hidden, more and more international companies are seeking out to hire SEO freelancers in India.

Photo credits:

Wpbeginner, Wvco, Seo.com, Optron