Online visibility for freelancers is like water for fish. It helps to land new customers, surpass competitors, and build a loyal audience. One of the most effective ways to establish a solid online presence is search engine optimization. SEO involves different measures that boost your ranking in search engine listing, so people discover your portfolio, blog, or website faster.

In this guide, we want to discuss the following five strategies that will help you become an SEO freelancer and establish a thriving online business:

Tip 1: Creating High-Quality Content based on Keyword Research

Tip 2: Building High-Quality Backlinks

Tip 3: On-Page Optimization

Tip 4: Mobile and CWV Optimization

Tip 5: Brand SERP

Even a 1% daily improvement will lead to outstanding results.

Tip 1: Creating High-Quality Content based on Keyword Research

Content is king and its importance is difficult to overestimate. High-quality content, whether it is text, audio, or video, not only entertains and informs the readers but motivates them to take action. eCommerce SEO tips can be invaluable for online businesses, helping them to improve their visibility, attract more traffic, and ultimately increase sales.It builds credibility, attracts organic traffic, and improves search engine rankings even when you are busy with other tasks.

When creating high-quality content, the lion’s share of attention should be dedicated to keyword research. First, make a list of topics you are going to focus on. For example, blogging, tutoring, cooking, or social media marketing. Then, compare their monthly search values and pick one or two topics to deepen and refine your research.

At this stage, freelancers should consider buyer personas and user intent. The first one depicts your ideal customer with their background, age, preferences, and paint points. The second one describes the purpose of their online search: to find information, buy a product, and so on. Based on this data, freelancers can narrow down their topics and come up with more specific keywords. Here are a few ways to create memorable content that both users and search engines will like:

• To increase discoverability, target long-tail keywords instead of short-tail ones. Their search volume might be lower but they are less competitive and increase your chances of being discovered.
• Use keyword research tools to speed up the process and boost your creativity. For example, Google Keyword Planner or SE Ranking.
• Conduct competitors’ research. This may give valuable insights into what keywords should be used more often and which of them can sink into oblivion.
• Format your content for better readability. It should consist of small paragraphs, headings, subheadings, and visual elements. 
• Use keywords organically. They shouldn’t be stuffed where they don’t belong because this makes the text heavy and difficult to read. Which, in turn, impacts your search engine listing. 

Tip 2: Building High-Quality Backlinks

Backlinks play a massive part in any SEO strategy. These are links that lead from one website to another through an anchor. Search engines consider backlinks a kind of vote for relevance and credibility. Backlinks from authoritative websites send Google signals that your website can be trusted and, consequently, its ranks increase. These links can be obtained from guest posts, industry forums, social media platforms, and other online sources. In order to further enhance your backlink strategy and improve your website’s SEO, considering a professional SEO backlinks service can be beneficial. By leveraging such services, you can efficiently monitor and analyze your backlinks’ quality and quantity, ultimately leading to more effective SEO strategies and better visibility for your website.

A strong backlink strategy includes the following:

• Backlinks should come from an authoritative and credible website. They are hard to get but the time spent is totally worth it because Google pays much attention to domain authority;
• Anchor texts include main keywords relevant to the topic and website. But don’t overdo with keywords as Google Penguin may consider exact match keywords a black hat link-building strategy;
• The two websites are topically or logically related. Let’s say you run a blog about smartphones. Google will put more weight on links from tech and science websites than from culinary ones;
• Backlinks with a ‘dofollow’ tag. Search engine algorithms don’t take ‘nofollow’ links into account, so they can’t help your visibility;
• The link is from a new domain. Links from the same website have lower returns than from the new ones.

There is a large number of SEO freelancer tools that help with monitoring and analyzing the quality and quantity of backlinks to a website. Backlink Checker by SE Ranking allows viewing a full list of backlinks and referring domains with key metrics, measuring backlink profile health, and building effective SEO strategies that can be implemented straight away. 

Tip 3: On-Page Optimization

On-page optimization involves all the things you can do directly on the website to improve its search engine ranking. This strategy engages multiple steps and strategies, so below we will touch only on the most common ones.

Optimized URLs

SEO-friendly URLs meet the needs of users and search engines. They are short, logical, and include main keywords. To write optimized URLs, remove unnecessary words, use HTTPS, and insert a maximum of two keywords. We also recommend using hyphens between words and keeping the link short.

Titles and Descriptions

Titles indicate what visitors will find on the page. They should be under 60 characters and contain only relevant information. Avoid keyword stuffing and try to add a brand name for better discoverability.

Meta description is a short page explanation that appears in the search results. Although this tag is not an official ranking criterion, it can still attract or repel users. Your meta description should be around 150 – 180 characters long, include the entire keyword or phrase, and consist of 1-2 sentences.

ALT tags

Alt texts tell search engines what the images on your website are about. There are as many image-based search results as text-based ones, so optimizing alt tags is crucial for your SEO. When adding this tag to the image, make sure it is clear and descriptive, and doesn’t exceed 125 characters. Use keywords and make sure that the caption is relevant to the overall page content.

Website’s loading speed

Another important element of on-page optimization is site speed. Google places user experience first, so if the website is slow, the chances of ranking high are quite poor. You can check the loading speed online to make sure it doesn’t exceed two seconds. The easiest way to optimize it is to enable compression, resize images, reduce redirects, and increase server response time.

Schema markup

It is the language or semantic vocabulary that search engines use to read and digest the content you publish. If you help Google understand your website better, it may reward you with a higher ranking. Searchers can also see extra details about the page which may reduce the bounce rate. Luckily, you don’t need to be a programmer to use schema markup. Use Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper to tag any kind of data and add markup codes in WordPress.

Tip 4: Mobile and CWV Optimization

When going through freelance SEO strategies, users often come across mobile optimization and it is not surprising. As of 2022, mobile devices had 55% of the market, while desktop ones – 42%. Moreover, Google uses mobile-first indexing. When ranking content, it prioritizes mobile versions over desktop ones. Of course, if the content is appropriate. 

The best mobile optimization strategies include:

• Responsive design which lets your website change depending on the used device. Texts, infographics, and videos will adjust to the screen and make the overall UX better;
• Simple navigation. It should be easy to surf the website and find the necessary information on a smartphone or tablet. A hamburger menu with three horizontal lines and a drop-down list of pages is a win-win situation.
• Mobile-friendly content. Paragraphs must be short with white spaces for better comprehension. You should also try and reduce the number of pop-ups to the minimum.
• Compress and optimize images to improve loading speed. 

In 2021, Google introduced an update to the Core Web Vitals (CWV) for checking loading speed, page interactivity, and visual stability. These elements should always be on top of your mind when optimizing your website for different devices and screens.

Tip 5: Brand SERP

Brand SERP is what people see on Google when searching for your brand name. 66% of users conduct online research before making a purchase or ordering a service online, so the information they see must be based on three pillars:

• Correct, truthful, and updated data about you and your business;
• Professionalism and authority, so that people would want to cooperate with you;
• Positivity to show that cooperation will be pleasant and fruitful.

In the online world, brand SERP equals reputation, so you should always monitor and correct it to engage new customers and show that you can solve their problems. Here are a few more reasons that make brand SERP so important:

• It gives a quick and comprehensive overview of your marketing strategy and shows the pros and cons visible to the customers;
• Is a foundation of reputation management. If search results are positive and firm, a few negative comments won’t impact the overall impression;
• Timely response to bad reviews and feedback. You can immediately contact the customer and offer a solution to show that you care and want to make up for the problem;
• Great for understanding your audience. Brand SERP is a free analytical tool that gives instant results. 

Conclusion

SEO is one of the most effective freelance marketing strategies that even beginners can use. Conduct thorough keyword research and create valuable content, work on your backlinks, make your pages fast and user-friendly, and keep mobile users in mind. Check what your audience sees when googling your brand’s name and make sure the listing looks professional and credible. 

These strategies are only the tip of the iceberg but they can improve your website’s visibility, attract visitors, and build brand awareness without much investment. Go ahead and put them into practice to boost your online presence and revenues. Good luck!