Search engine optimization does not require an obligatory presence on the working place. If you know what to do and how to do it, and have an experience in promotion of various websites, then you can safely work from home or some local café.
With the development of modern means of communication you can live in China and your customer in Great Britain, or vice versa – it all depends on your reputation and credibility.
Working as a SEO freelancer has its advantages (possibility wake up when you wish, work outside for as long a your laptop battery is allowing you, or even in transport) and disadvantages (difficult to concentrate on work) – everything diverts – from phone calls to broadcast games of your favorite team, moreover, working outside the team is not a good option for everyone.
But for me the hardest challenge while working as a freelancer is to plan the day and strictly follow the schedule. In-house SEO often has many advantages such as availability of the necessary software paid by the company, opportunity to attend seminars and conferences, solid budgets that are allocated for the promotion, availability of content managers and so on. Therefore, for successful freelance you should consider the methods of work and determine the rules that will help to obtain the desired result.
So, here are my tips on how to work on the website promotion being a freelancer:
- Organize your database to store information. I prefer Google Docs – online service from the “corporation of good.” First of all it’s free (this should be enough to finish), secondly it has significant advantages – speed and ease of interface, the ability to share documents with other people, which is very handy when you need to submit progress reports to the client.
- Get access to the lists of Private Proxy Servers. SEO work is often one step close to Spamming (and sometimes far ahead – who are we going to cheat?), If you do not want search engines to ban your home IP and put it into lists to spammers – operate from different locations – for example in collecting data through different programs. This list can be bought at a relatively low price – specialized forums have more than enough ads on this matter.
- Make a thorough preparatory work. I mean, create lists of all the best sites and article directories (free and paid), social bookmarking services, blogs for commenting (do and no follow, moderated and auto approved), forums by subject for profile and signature links, web 2.0 properties that allow you to create content and add links to that content, list of trusted link sellers if you choose to invest in paid links. This will greatly save you time and systematize the process of working on the project. Of course, from time to time you’ll have to update the list – include new resources, and delete obsolete or unsuitable.
- Consider the question of resources for website content. Links from a well-written and relevant to the article subject website bring great results – especially after the famous Panda Update from Google. It may be that you are a professional writer and can write on any cool topic, but this is a rare situation. I do not recommend the option of using someone else’s content – search engines can easily identify the stolen content and give it less priority or not index it at all. Moreover, webmasters are clever enough to check the suggested texts for plagiarism (ex. through Copyscape) and refuse to publish them to the blog or even make a complaint wherever it’s possible.
- So better ask your girlfriend to spend less time on the Facebook page and write posts for you, or you’ll have to search for the authors and pay them for work. Whatever you select, these investments are worth it.
- Decide how much time you spend on each task and see if it’s possible to optimize it. I personally decided to simplify the process of publishing social bookmarks by using a Bookmarking Demon. If you successfully configure it, the work is done without your intervention and you only need to analyze the results.Now almost every kind of SEO process can be optimized with special software, you only need to carefully analyze what is available. I usually read reviews for the service that interested me most, then choose 1-2 types and test free versions. Only after that I decide if to buy or not.
- Do not forget about training. SEO is a very dynamic area of activity where you want to constantly be aware of the news. Personally, I spend 1-2 hours per day on reading various sources, authoritative in the eyes of many optimizers. Here are few of them: SEO Moz blog, Seobook, Warrior Forum and many more.
- Do not hesitate to act. If you have doubts – make an experiment on your own website and check the result. By doing so, you will be less likely to damage the site of the customer.
- Last and most important – don’t be lazy. Make a clear time schedule and tirelessly follow it. Do not look on the refrigerator with your favorite beer (well, not more than 2 times), sit at the table – thinking is impossible if you lie on the sofa. I even fell asleep a couple times.
The best thing for me to work as a freelancer – is that nobody says what you need to do. You are fully responsible for what you do and for all the successes and failures. No stress – just do not step on your laptop in the morning and everything will be ok. Thousands of people around the world become successful as freelancers,
Why not become one of them?
I love how you said one of the biggest disadvantages of becoming a SEO Freelancer is being able to focus. Bull’s eye! The perks of making your own schedule are great though I bet.
This is an awesome guide to developing your skills. I love using Google Reader to track my favorite sites. It is especially helpful when organizing different topics.
Thanks for the good words, Preston. As for Google Reader – yep, it’s a great tool, and it can help finding a link building opportunities and following the latest news in a niche.