SEO is very crucial for any digital marketing campaign. Hiring a freelance SEO expert can be a challenge as well. SEO is a long term engagement, you might have to work with your selected candidate for years to come. So, it’s worth spending some time to find your best match.
In this article you will find some tips and a list of important questions to ask from your SEO expert.
How to find freelance SEO expert?
The biggest challenge to find a freelance SEO expert is to figure out their capabilities. Remember, there is a lot of spam going on. We need to figure out who is fake and who is real. Let’s start the process with this step by step guide.
Prepare your Questionnaire
Before we jump into finding SEO experts, You need to answer some questions
- What is your budget?
- Do you know your major keywords?
If so than prepare the list of your important keywords - Which CMS your website uses?
Like WordPress, Shopify, etc. - Do you have someone to make changes on my website, designer/ developer?
- What is your Goal?
Remember traffic is not your goal. You should target to sell your products / services by defining a contact form submission or registration form or checkout, etc. - Will you prepare new content for your website like on a blog or it will be prepared by SEO expert?
- Do you have list of your competitors?
Prepare the list of Freelance SEO Experts
Well, this might be the easiest part of your quest. There are many ways you can create a big list of freelancers who may suit your needs.
1. Job Boards
These job boards offer a lot of freelancers with reasonable prices. Job board platforms protect both buyers and sellers with set rules. These platforms have some disadvantages as well. For example freelancers cannot share their personal contact details like emails and phone numbers with you.
- Upwork
- Fiverr
- Freelancer
- Guru
- PeoplePerHour
2. Social Media
You may find good SEO experts on social media as well. The benefit of social media includes direct access to freelancers. Major social media platforms includes:
3. Personal Network
If you have a strong professional network, seek for their help. They might recommend you someone suitable with your budget & industry.
You may find hundreds of freelance SEO experts there. Follow the next steps to figure out their capabilities.
Communicate with SEO experts
Communication is the key. You need to spend some time speaking with all these SEO experts in your list. Check their response time by email or over a phone call.
Start the discussion with your SEO needs and see the way they try to reply. What is their intention? Do they try to sell their services or are more focused on your project?
Check their knowledge about SEO
You might not be that much technical about SEO terms but you should ask as per your knowledge. You may start with very simple questions like
1. How will you improve my search engine rankings?
It is very important to know the strategy. Listen carefully and think if it make sense. If the expert refuse to share his/her SEO strategy. Remove him/her from your list.
2. What are search engines’ webmaster guidelines?
Check what they say. If they are able to explain these guidelines easily or not. Ask them if they can bring some short cut to overrule the search engines’ guidelines. If they show a single sign that they can break the guidelines. It’s a Big No. Remove them from list as well.
3. What is the guarantee that my website will rank on 1st position on search engines?
Well in SEO industry we all try to bring websites in higher rankings in search engines. But the fact is there is no guarantee to rank website on 1st position. If anyone promise guarantee then he/she is not the right SEO expert.
4. Will you manage complete on-page and off-page SEO?
You need an expert who is going to take a complete responsibility of your website. It should include complete keyword research, technical SEO, on-page and off-page SEO. Do not get tricked by people who claim to be expert only in one of these sections.
5. What changes will you make to my website and will you share?
Yes, we need an expert who is willing to be open with us. As we cannot trust him/her in beginning. We do not know whether we will continue with them or not. If not we need to keep a track on our website changes that we can share with next expert, to be safe side.
6. What will be our communication medium and how often?
As I mentioned earlier, communication is the key. You should be clear that when the SEO expert will be available for you. Can you contact him/her in off days or off timings? The best choice is if he/she can be accessed by a phone call.
7. What are your payment terms?
The charges of a SEO project vary on many factors, mostly depends on the complexity of the project. Make sure that you do not have to pay anything other than fixed amount. Ask if, do you need to pay anything extra for tools/guest posts, etc? How will you pay him/her?
Either you agree to pay on 30, 60 or 90 days or hourly bases. There are a few studies in SEO industry that have checked the price range for small business is $250 to $500. Larger projects cost $2500 to $5000. The hourly rates ranged from $76 to $200.
8. What happens if we plan to depart?
Technically you should own all the work which has be done and you already paid. Make sure that the freelancer agrees with that. Check for any contract, either you can quit anytime or you must have to pay certain time period.
Things you should avoid while hiring SEO expert
We already discussed the things that are import for SEO expert hunt. But there could be some red flags along the way. Beware of the following points.
Communication Issues
If SEO expert is not able to communicate properly. How can we work with him/her? Communication should be the most important thing in all the process. Never order any SEO expert’s services as long as you are not able to talk with them. The best choice is if the expert is available to communicate over phone or whatsapp, where he/she can be accessed immediately if needed.
Understanding
There is an expert who is extremely talented but he/she is too rigid. We know that we need to work with this person for many years to come. Do you think that you may carry with this attitude? You should feel easy with that person, where he/she can understand you very well.
Buying Backlinks/email lists etc.
There are a lot of black hat SEO tricks, which are all against SEO guidelines. They may give some instant kicks to your projects but will never be sustainable. These tricks may lead to blacklist your website as well. Make sure your selected candidate is against all these tactics.
Immediate Results
Anyone who offers you quick results solutions or give you promises for instant boosts. This is a big NO. In SEO industry, we all know that SEO is all about building authority of your website and it takes time.
SEO Consultants
There are some experts who call them SEO consultants, where they will offer you their advice only. You need to find SEO experts and team by your own. It will increase your cost, avoid it.
Partial SEO
You may come across many people offering different SEO services at very low costs. But all these are partial services like “Create 100 backlinks for $20” or “Onsite SEO at $50 only”. These titles are very enticing but not worth it at all. Choose someone who take full responsibility of your SEO project.
Check my services as well.
I am also working in SEO industry. My job is to help small businesses to grow their business through SEO. You may check my SEO packages.
Feel free to connect with me or reach me at call/whatsapp +1 631 515 4818.
I offer custom SEO strategy for each project. My services includes but not limited to complete SEO essentials, Keyword Research, Technical SEO, on-page and off-page SEO. I follow strict search engine guidelines policy with most affordable prices in market.
Conclusion
- Prepare your questionnaire
- Create list of freelancer SEO experts
- Start Communication
- Ask questions and analyze which suits you
- Make sure he/she is available to communicate
Feel free to comment below about what things you would like to know from your SEO expert.