We’ve all seen those job posts about “Freelance SEO Writing Needed”, “Need SEO Freelancer Writer”, “Search Engine Optimized Freelancer to Write Copy ”. Let’s dig a little more deep about what is SEO Freelance Writing.
WHAT IS SEO FREELANCE WRITING?
SEO freelance writing is a person that is hired as a freelancer to work on Search Engine Optimization. They can be paid by project or by an hourly rate. Either way you must have an understanding of SEO.
WHY IS A SEO FREELANCER SO IMPORTANT?
SEO experts are just that, they are experts in their field and you can help your clients rank higher on SERPs(Search Engine Results Page). It’s like the ancient old proverb that says, “you do not pay a plumber to bang on the pipes, you pay them to know where to bang.” and that’s where you come in.
WHY WOULD SOMEONE NEED A SEO FREELANCE COPYWRITER?
You do not just write for your clients or prospective clients, you write for the search engines. It doesn’t involve coding but it does involve an understanding of what search engines like Google is looking for to drive traffic to your clients website. If you get more traffic to your clients website you can turn them into paying customers. And they will be more than happy to pay you for your time and efforts.
HOW SEO WORKS?
Search engines like Google and others like Bing or Yahoo uses bots to crawl your content then these search engines have an algorithm that decides how relevant or how good the content is and spits it out on their SERPs.
FREELANCE SEO:BEST PRACTICES
TARGET KEYWORDS IN THE URL
This is where the word you are targeting is in the URL of the page. Using those target keywords there is the first thing that search engines see and that’s the first thing their bots crawl. So the first thing to do is keep those keywords in the top of the page starting with the URL and continue on to the title and other headings.
FINDING THE TARGET KEYWORD
Using a keyword research tool like AHREFS or Keyword Everywhere to help you find those target keywords to help you rank will definitely help you when it’s time to write your articles for your clients blog or website.
USE KEYWORDS AND PHRASES
Using phrases also help you with your Search Engine Optimization goals for your clients will help you grab those keywords that are a little more difficult to rank for. Those longer phrases in SEO will bring in some traffic and could be worthwhile to include as you are starting out because those longer phrases will definitely help bring in more fine tuned clients ready for a purchase. Be sure to include that keyword phrase into the following areas.
- Page URL
- Page title
- Meta Description
- Headings
- Images and Alt Text
CHECK YOAST: A GREAT PLUGIN FOR WORDPRESS
If you are using WordPress, then you must install Yoast which is an awesome plugin for your site. It is the gold standard of SEO. All you have to do is download the plugin and input your clients targeted keyword and follow the suggestions that it gives to help you with your SEO copywriting.
HOW TO FIND SEO FREELANCE GIGS?
- Clients that need SEO freelance copywriters post their needs to numerous of sites like Elance.com, Guru.com, and Upworks.com and the let writers bid for the projects. Clients almost always tells you how many articles they need, the word length, the topic, and keywords.
- SEO copywriting has become a popular type of writing because there are so many SEO Copywriting Companies out there that the freelancing gigs for the service is now in demand. So if you’d like to write SEO copy and don’t want to bid on projects then you can contact the person in charge for a freelance position.
- You can also search google news for press releases announcing new websites. Visit the website and contact the person in charge These new websites always need SEO freelance copywriters.
- You can also contact graphic designers and see if you can pair up with their skills and create a killer combo.
- You can also advertise your skills as a SEO copywriter on Fiver or create your own website.