If you are unsure of exactly what SEO means, it stands for search engine optimization. In short, it is the process of optimizing your website so that it ranks as highly as possible in search engine results (mainly Google). Strong, high-quality SEO-optimized content helps you appear on the first page of search results, generating traffic and revenue.
If you want to become an SEO freelancer, there are several core things that you should know. Keyword research, on-site analysis, competitor analysis, and link building are all part of the basic building blocks to becoming an SEO expert. There are plenty of online guides for those who need help getting started, such as this one from Moz, or the Search Engine Land Guide to SEO.
Learning the skills to become an SEO freelancer is only the first step. Once you know what you are doing in a competitive field, the challenge is finding a way to brand yourself and get clients. In this post, we will focus on branding tips for SEO freelancers looking to maximize their opportunities.
It almost goes without saying that you need to show prospective clients who you are and what you do. Creating a website or portfolio is the best way to start growing your brand. For example, SEO expert Matt Tutt has a dedicated website to showcase everything he can do.
The website includes a blog to display quality content and several client testimonials for added value. A freelance site should center on how you are going to solve common client problems. It is not a place to describe everything that you do, but somewhere where you can tell people everything you can do for them.
An excellent first impression can make or break your freelance prospects. Studies from the Missouri University of Science show that it takes a visitor less than two-tenths of a second to form an opinion about a website. There are various ways to create a professional-looking site that will engage your visitors.
Your website or blog should highlight the essential content and grab the attention of a visitor. Indeed, beautiful design does not always equate to top-quality content, and you need to put due focus on both areas.
Source: https://biz30.timedoctor.com/freelance-graphic-design-websites/
As its core, your website should prioritize the following five elements to account for both design and content.
- Case studies and testimonials
- Video content
- Graphics and imagery (not stock photos)
- Previous work and projects
- Templates
The website should do everything possible to inspire people to work with you. There are plenty of tools to help optimize your content.
Using original photos that relate to an area of interest is the best way to encourage engagement. Stock photos don’t tell visitors about you and can have an adverse effect if you use too many of them. The example above shows how to use a video, coupled with an intriguing headline to attract visitors.
Any image that you use should have descriptive tags attached to them. Images and videos tend to be shared on social media, meaning if you have tags, web crawlers can index them and incorporate that information in search results. Every image should include a relevant file name, alt tag, title tag, and caption.
A minimalistic theme works best when it comes to portfolios. For example, if you are a web designer, people will be most interested in examples of your work, rather than lots of text content. Maximize the use of whitespace and stick to regular, readable fonts to ensure accessibility. The example below is a great portfolio without clutter, showing what the freelancer is capable of.
Source: https://themetrust.com/most-important-features-for-portfolio-sites/
Naturally, there needs to be a limit to how much of your portfolio that you put on show. You will be proud of everything you do, but limit on-site content to the most recent and best projects, visible at the front and center of your website.
A website for an enterprise with lots of products may focus on promotions and details of the company. However, for a freelancer, clients will be curious about your professional story, ways of working, and experience. It is OK to break away and talk about your personal life: when done the right way, this can help to humanize you.
Include a photo of yourself and give visitors a sense of who you are as an individual. Finding a balance is challenging and may involve some trial and error when designing your website.
There are many social media platforms out there, and you should take the time to set up and link your accounts. Audiences can be found in several places, and you need to ensure that you can be located, no matter what social platform your target market prefers. Your website should include as many ways as possible for people to get in touch.
When promoting social media, ensure that accounts are kept up-to-date. Frequent Tweets, Instagram and Facebook posts, YouTube tutorials, or TikTok videos will help gain followers across a variety of platforms.
When first launching a website, you will probably want to try different social media channels to find out which work the best. It shouldn’t take long to determine which platforms create engagement and which don’t. For example, if your target market enjoys video tutorials, you are better off spending time on top-quality YouTube and TikTok media, rather than Tweets or Facebook posts.
It will never be the case that you appeal to everyone. With that in mind, you should break down your audience and figure out:
1. The social media sites you should be most active on
2. A posting schedule to keep the content relevant
3. The type of content that you need to publish
4. What the voice of your brand sounds like e.g., formal, casual, professional
5. The information that should be included in your profile
SEO freelancers fail when they don’t speak in a way that their target audience expects. Try some content, map the engagement, and figure out who the audience is and how they like to consume content.
Being part of a social media platform is a chance to create brand authority. The best freelancers will participate in social communities where they can give expert examples, presenting themselves as industry leaders.
Social feeds can also integrate with your website to let everyone see your activity. Cross-promotions help to grow your audience faster.
Source: https://blog.walls.io/socialmedia/social-media-feed-on-website-examples/
It is worth noting the best times to post on social media to generate engagement. Each platform tends to have quite a distinct pattern of activity that you can base your schedule around.
Source: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/best-times-to-post-on-social-media/
At these times, post topical content that will force your followers to stop and read. Once you have a defined target audience, it will become a lot easier to understand what this might look like.
Whenever you post content, it should be consistent with the brand voice you are creating. That means positioning yourself as an easily identifiable source within your area of expertise. In short, the vocabulary you use, designs, and any other content should flow regardless of the channel and match anything else that you have done previously.
To create a brand voice, we recommend that you come up with three words to describe your personality. The best way to start is to review your content and see what the common themes are across the pieces. Think about how you would describe your brand to someone if it were a person. A brand voice chart helps with the brainstorming process.
Source: https://coschedule.com/marketing-strategy/brand-voice/
Whatever traits you pick, you need a clear strategy to put them into action. For example, there is little value in being “quirky” if that doesn’t hit the mark with your content. Come up with a realistic brand personality rather than one that you aspire towards.
The colors you use for your brand can trigger different emotions. The color theorist, Faber Birren, wrote extensively on the link between colors and human emotional states. You’ll never see a Coca Cola can that isn’t red or a Twitter logo that isn’t blue. Color becomes part of a brand and you will need to think seriously about how you apply them. It is worth researching how colors can impact your identity.
As a brand, it is critical to put across your core beliefs. Customers are happy to pay for perceived value and trust partners whose values align with theirs. Some examples of core beliefs include advocating for fair trade and putting the environment first. Brand values are a differentiator in a competitive marketplace: learn what your audience believes in, then identify the intersection between their beliefs and your own.
Many SEO techniques can help a business perform better in the short-term, but some can backfire. Known as “black hat” SEO techniques, these approaches are frowned upon by search engines. They tend to incorporate spamming methods and keyword stuffing, amongst issues. These strategies don’t resonate with consumers as they don’t promote high-quality content: it’s just your brand trying to get traffic.
The best SEO freelancers use open and transparent tactics to get results, including:
- Improving written content
- Building domain authority
- Optimizing images and video
- Mobile optimization
- Improving the website architecture and speed
- Updating meta information
SEO freelancers should be open about the things to do. This can build trust by clarifying that they don’t engage in black hat tactics.
We are not going to go into massive detail about keywords here, but many SEO professionals will refuse to write content for clients who request keyword stuffing. It lessens the quality of the piece and can look bad in a portfolio. And with search engine AI catching up, keyword-stuffed content might not even rank that well. It is essential to be specific about the keyword research that you undertake and how you will use that within the content. Target keywords that are relevant to the client’s audience and use them naturally. When writing authoritative, focused content, you’ll often discover that the keywords position themselves in the right places, no stuffing required.
If you are working with a new client, we recommend that you present them with a strategy from day one around approaching SEO. As well as being transparent, this also ensures they understand that SEO is a long-term venture and not something that will get results overnight.
Within that strategy, you can include how you plan to build links, examples of monthly reports to show progress, an offer of regular meetings to make it clear that the client needs to be involved, and SEO analysis examples.
The final tip here is key. The best way to build your brand is to deliver results. You can spend all day telling clients how brilliant you are, but if nothing gets delivered, they won’t care about your words.
According to Daniel Bliley, Marketing Director for Passport, “branding today is as much about consistently delivering on your promise as it is about differentiation. You have to position yourself in unique ways in order to stand out from the others. You have to meet all of the subconscious expectations and go beyond the mundane to truly impress.”
Testimonials from other clients go a long way to showing that you deliver on promises. Whenever you work on a project, ask the client to provide a testimonial or a case study that you can use on your website.
Source: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-proof-examples
Discuss the reality of SEO with your clients from the outset. Freelancers who “guarantee rankings and traffic” are the ones to avoid: more often than not, these promises are too good to be true. Sadly, these kinds of SEO ads pop up on search engines all the time, tainting the industry on the whole. Having a transparent strategy will help you explain to clients how SEO works and the results they can get.
In theory, anyone can rank first in Google search results. We could find a keyword with low competition and low volume, start using that in content, and quickly rise to the top. However, you should explain that such tactics will have zero value to a client. Focus your results on quality and value rather than rankings. Explain to clients how your SEO strategy can integrate with their overall marketing pipeline to enable quantifiable growth.
For every client, establish an SEO timeline with set measures at each phase of the journey.
Source: https://www.gobluemedia.com/blog/seo-project-management-timelines/
Web crawlers take time to understand the relevance of your site to searchers they cater to, whether the information is trustworthy, and what the backlinks look like. These points should resonate within the SEO timeline. Perhaps educate your clients on more technical strategies like Google authority stacking and how these impact SEO.
Set out clear objectives from the very beginning to ensure you always deliver on your promises. If you can do that, you will soon become a formidable SEO brand.
