Overcoming the Obstacles of SEO Freelancing

On some level, most people would really love to be their own boss. Working from anywhere, answering only to yourself – that’s kind of the American dream, isn’t it? That’s probably why so many search engine optimization specialists are turning away from the traditional 9-5 corporate grind and embracing life as a freelancer. 

But before you storm into your boss’ office and turn in your resignation, you need to be aware that the world of SEO freelancing is not all sunshine and unicorns. There are real challenges that you’ll have to overcome if you want to succeed. 

But never fear – we’re here to help. Let’s take a closer look at what it means to be a search engine optimization freelancer and what you need to either get started in the field or take your existing business to the next level.

What is an SEO Freelancer?

SEO freelancers are independent contractors hired by companies to help them improve their rankings in search engine results. Like all SEO work, it consists of three main areas:

1. On-page SEO – This requires finding the right keywords, adding schema markup and ensuring all the content, images, meta descriptions, etc. are optimized for the best possible results. 
2. Off-page SEO – This is the process of building backlinks, increasing social engagement and promoting branded searches. 
3. Technical SEO – This consists of ensuring everything on the backend of a website meets or exceeds the technical requirements of search engines as they crawl, index and rank content.

Why do Businesses Hire SEO Freelancers?

 Search engine optimization is complicated. Even performing it at the most basic level requires a solid understanding of the principles behind search algorithms and an understanding of how websites operate. 

For many small- and mid-sized businesses, they simply don’t have the bandwidth to tackle this on their own – thus they hire a freelancer. 

Similarly, a larger corporation may need someone to temporarily oversee their SEO and hiring a freelancer allows them to avoid the hassle of hiring and then firing a full-time employee. Or maybe they just need someone to help supplement their existing efforts and perform tasks like keyword research, competitive analysis or link building. 

What are the Biggest Hurdles to SEO Freelancers?

Because every business should be using SEO, there’s a lot of opportunity out there for hustlers who want to work on their own. But that’s not to say SEO freelancing isn’t without its challenges. 

Here are some of the more common issues:

1. Limited Resources 

There are a vast number of tools on the marketplace designed to facilitate search engine optimization, from link analyzers to keyword research tools – many of them free-to-use. But this can be one of those cases where you get what you paid for.

Freelancers usually don’t have the budgets to match larger agencies, which often means they have to rely on a variety of tools that may or may not interface with one another. This can lead to overlooked opportunities as well as making processes more labor-intensive. 

2. Constantly Shifting Landscapes

SEO is not a set-it-and-forget it field. Even if a website manages to crawl their way to Google’s very first position, the competition is constantly seeking ways to claim that place. 

Now throw in the fact that search engines regularly make changes to their search algorithms in a never-ending effort to provide users with better, more accurate search results. 

And on top of all that, new strategies and techniques are constantly emerging, which requires a significant time investment to learn about and evaluate.  

3. SEO-Ignorant Clients

If you’re lucky, all your freelance clients will have some basic level of understanding of how the SEO process works and what they can expect. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case.

For every client who understands SEO is a marathon, not a sprint, there’s another who wants to know why they haven’t become the first Google search result overnight. 

Educating clients on what you’re doing to help them and tempering their expectations to understand that results take time to take effect can require lots of back-and-forth communication, which in turn, sucks up even more of your valuable time.

4. A Lack of Time

Between project management, marketing, client acquisition and communications, not to mention actually doing SEO work, many freelancers are extremely pressed for time. 

The most successful SEO freelancers often find themselves stretched to their absolute limit in terms of how many clients they can handle. As such, they may find themselves in the position of having to turn down potential work.

While this sounds like a good problem to have, it’s also a missed opportunity to earn more money. 

A Better Way to Perform SEO

At the end of the day, all four of the challenges mentioned above have one thing in common: your bandwidth is finite. No matter how much you may want to take on a new project, if you don’t have the time, you don’t have the time.

Luckily, there’s a better way. Evisio is designed to streamline the entire SEO process, from site evaluation through optimization planning. Intuitive and easy to use, it takes just minutes to set up and provides personalized recommendations for improving the search ranking of any website.

And because it automates both analysis and reporting, Evisio gives freelancers back the time they would otherwise have spent on these tedious tasks. And that means more time for finding new clients or expanding your services to existing ones, which puts more money in your pocket.

Whether you’re a grizzled veteran or an absolute novice, Evisio can help make search engine optimization quicker, easier and more effective. See it for yourself. Get your free trial today. 

Image source: Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

If you’re looking for SEO project management software to better manage your workflow, clients, and business – evisio.co is your solution. Try evisio.co for free here!