How To Get The Best SEO Job Online?
As we are exploring new job opportunities in this competitive era, the SEO profession is one of them. It’s been around us for over decades, but people have started to consider it as a real profession only a few years ago. Here, will discuss some strategies to get a coveted SEO job online.
Whether you’re an SEO freelancer, digital marketer or content writer, one of the basic questions that keep popping in your head would be ‘how to get a good freelancing opportunity or a good project online.’
So in this article, we’ll explore what SEO is in general, tips on getting an SEO job online in this field, and some top websites that offer freelancing opportunities for SEO professionals.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimization. To explain further, it means that it’s a process through which your website can be improved so that it can gain visibility when a relevant keyword is searched on a search engine platform like Google. If your page visibility is good in search results, there’s a better chance of gaining more organic traffic to your website.
Understanding SEO in depth before getting an SEO Job online
It is very important to understand what SEO entails to get a good SEO Job Online. You must be familiar with many search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, but have you ever wondered how you get all the articles when you type a keyword in the search box?
Here’s how: These search engines have a crawler that goes all around the web, from different site to site, collects all the information, and compiles them into an index. Then the search engine algorithms analyze those pages and put them in a specific ranking according to your query.
These algorithms are designed in a way that it surfaces the most relevant pages which can provide users with an efficient search experience.
Optimization is when the people who write all the content and publish it on their websites polish it up further so that the search engines can understand it and the visitors will be attracted enough to stay on their page and read further.
It could be anything from making sure that titles, meta descriptions are of the right length to keeping your content unique and fresh.
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Some basic technical terms are widely used in reference to SEO. Knowing and mastering these concepts will help you in getting the desired SEO job online.
Keyword research for SEO Job obline
The words you type in the search box of the search engines for a specific query are termed keywords. The SEO professionals know well how to plan out a keyword that would be perfect and beneficial for a specific business. For example, ‘dry cleaning services in Mumbai’ will only be suitable for customers who are looking for dry cleaning services in Mumbai but not for someone who’s located in Delhi.
Keywords are of three types,
- Short tail
- Medium tail &,
- Long-tail
Short tail keywords, for example, ‘fashion’ is very popular and hard to rank while medium tail keyword, ‘fashion products’ is not that hard to rank but still is pretty popular but a long tail keyword ‘top 10 fashion products to consider for your skin’ is very specific and have a higher chance of ranking.
Researching your keywords is a really important part to consider. If you chose the wrong keyword, you’ll waste a lot of time and won’t even get the results. Similarly, if you chose a very high competitive keyword, your site won’t get a good ranking again.
So, there should be a balance in your keywords. They shouldn’t be very competitive but still good and competitive enough.
Some of the tools/websites that can help you with keyword researching are:
- Google keyword planner
- Ubersuggest
- Google trends
- SEMrush
- Moz
2. On-page optimization
Everything that’s within your site, like page title, photos, videos, written content, site, etc. comes under on-page optimization. You can work on optimizing these factors so that your site can reach a higher rank on the search engines.
On-page optimization plays an important role in the ranking factors of search engines. Some of the factors to consider while doing an on-page optimization are,
- Title tags: title tags should not exceed 70 characters and should include your business name and main keywords.
- Meta descriptions: your meta description should be between 150-160 characters and it should also include the keywords and your brand name as well.
- Your content should be unique, plagiarism free and should not exceed the keyword density of 0.5%.
- You should know how to optimize the heading tags properly. (H1, H2, etc.)
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3. Off-page optimization
Everything that you do outside your site to promote and raise your ranking on search engines is called off-page optimization. Link building is an example of off-page optimization. It’s many times confusing as off-page optimization but goes beyond that. Some other examples include social media strategy and influencer marketing.
To understand it better, let’s consider you wrote a blog post and published it on your website. Now, a popular person of your niche reblogs/retweets that link on their post. What’s happening here is, all this is telling Google how others think about your website. It’s like voting. The more these links and comments point back to your site, the higher will be your rank as Google will assume that your website provides great quality content.
4. Competitive analysis
It is one of the important factors to consider if you’re working for very competitive companies. By doing competitive analysis, you’ll know what your competitors are doing, what keywords they are considering.
It’ll help you to figure out where you stand with your own keywords and you may even find keywords that you never imagined or considered and can start working on those keywords to get a high ranking.
Required skills for an SEO professional to get the best SEO job online
The basic skills that are required for any SEO professionals are analytical, communication, and development skills.
You should have a basic knowledge of SEO terminologies like technical SEO, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, keyword planning, keyword researching, link building, backlinks, white and black hat SEO, etc.
Having great writing skills is also an important factor as you need to constantly optimize the page titles, descriptions, headings, and content.
Once you know you have the right skill set, and you want to pursue a career in this field, you can opt for a certification course. Many websites like Skillshare, Coursera, Udemy, HubSpot, offer certification courses in SEO, so you can always have the option of skimming through these websites and choosing the best one for you.
Once you’re all set and sure that this is what you’re passionate about you can start the hunt for your first client.
SEO tools you can use to get that SEO Job online
You must know about the important SEO tools to apply for a good SEO job online. I’ve already mentioned some tools that can help you with keyword planning but there are a variety of tools that can help you to ease out the work of analyzing everything manually over google spreadsheet or excel. Entrepreneurs with multiple websites have used this method and it can become very overwhelming so here are a few tools that can be very useful in these situations.
Ahrefs: SEO keyword tool
It is one of the most popular and best analytic tools according to SEO experts. It is very useful as it highlights what all parts of your website need improvement if there’s any broken link so you can fix it and a complete overview of your page including the best-performing pages.
SEMrush
Marketing tools like SEMrush let you analyze and assess your ranking, changes in ranking, and new ranking opportunities. It helps you to easily access and monitor all the rankings and gives you recommendations on how to improve your website.
One of the best features of SEMrush is that it has domain vs. domain analysis which means it gives you a complete analysis of your competitor’s website as well so that you can have a comparison between both and know where your website is lacking.
KWFinder: SEO keyword tool
The best feature of KWFinder is that it helps you to find long-tail keywords that have low competition and even suggest many more keyword ideas. Seo experts use this tool to find great keywords and find analytical reports about the backlinks and search engine result pages (SERPs).
Answer the public
It is a free SEO tool that is great for blogging. It helps you to find great topics to write about. It is great for finding featured snippets. If you’re a brand owner who has hired a content writer for your website, all you need to do is download the list that the tool generates and send it to the writer. It barely takes five minutes.
SEOQuake
It’s a chrome extension that acts as an SEO tool as well. You can download it from the google extension store. It has a dashboard that you can toggle and keep on any side of your screen.
Some of the best features that SEOQuake offers are that it performs on-page audits, compares all the websites so you can have the idea of how you’re performing in comparison to your competitors, checks the keyword density and you can even download the data and share it with your team members.
Serpstat: all in one SEO platform
It is an affordable growth hacking tool that helps you to perform almost every SEO task, analyze your competitors and manage your team.
One of the best features of Serpstat is the missing keyword feature that analyzes and identifies the keyword that your competitors are ranking for in the topmost posts and you’re not.
Tips to get SEO Job Online
Own a website
Before you go all out and bid on different portals, you need to have a website through which you will be able to market your skills and services. Pick up a niche that you’re interested in, get a domain name that you can get free on WordPress or can buy from GoDaddy, DreamHost, wpengine, etc., and build your website.
Do good keyword research and work on your website SEO so that your website can have a good ranking and can gain good organic traffic. This will help you in the long run and get your first client or project as well.
You can start building your website as you learn about SEO and related skills. This will help you to build up your skillset and knowledge, and you will have practical knowledge about how an SEO professional works.
Having a website will help you in building not just your practical skills but will also help you in gaining all the technical aspects that go into creating good content as a professional and technical writer.
Freelance websites
You can start by making a profile on websites like freelancer.com, PeoplePerHour, Upwork, 99designs, etc. these websites are great for a new business or for people who are looking for new projects.
As a freelancer, having an unbalanced career is common. You need to have a determination if you want to be successful as a freelancer because not every project you’ll bid on needs to be accepted.
You should not stress and be patient as sometimes it takes 50-60 biddings to gain one project. Once you get your first client, the trouble of gaining more projects will subsequently vanish.
Study top freelancers
If you want to perform like an SEO professional you should go ahead and study what the top, successful, or in-demand freelancers are doing, how they are working, their professional work ethics. It will help you in gaining knowledge about how to make a better resume/cover letters, better bids, and gain great projects.
Another thing you can do is sign up and be a part of freelancing communities. It will help you in staying up to the trends of the freelancing world and you’ll be aware of any changes that are happening around you.
It will also be helpful if you come across some spammers or frauds as the community will help you in knowing what you should do in these types of situations.
Using Google AdWords or pay per click (PPC) is one of the best approaches to get some SEO projects online by having build and ad campaigns. Having a better understanding of google ads or PPC will also help you in understanding how Google works.
You can advertise your products and services using Google AdWords to the new advertisers. Every top advertiser is doing the same. They are advertising their products and services to get new projects and customers.
Strong online presence
Your website should have a good ranking in search engine result pages (SERPs). If it’s not, you cannot ensure your clients that your products/articles will help in optimizing their website.
Mostly, you should prefer long-tail keywords as it has less competition and you should keep participating in online SEO forums, it will help you in building your online presence.
Building backlinks and content marketing through blogging, article writing, press release, etc. are also important factors that can help you in having a better online presence.
If you want to gain better projects, you should write articles related to SEO and should self optimize, which includes optimizing your social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and so on, also known as social media optimization (SMO).
Keep upgrading your skills to get the best SEO Job online
Once you have started working as an SEO freelancer, all your time will be invested in working on deadlines, completing the tasks for the clients, you might miss out on the new development in your market so it is important to be up to date with what’s happening around you.
You need to make time and work on expanding your horizons by adding some new skills to your existing skillset and learning more about SEO. Who knows you’ll be confident enough to take the projects you were hesitant about earlier.
Job portals
Job portals like Naukri, indeed, shine also offer freelance SEO projects. Once you find your ideal project, you can go ahead and mail the job offering companies your resume with a good introductory cover letter.
Keeping your tone conversational, personalized, and easy to understand is advisable in the message and you can also add your current clients and work. It will leave a good impression on the companies as they’ll know your potential from the projects you’re handling.
Top Freelancing websites
Not all websites out there need to suit your style. You have opened an account on any freelancing website but that’s not it, you need to go all out, search the one that’s fit you the best, show off your best product/article, and build a great portfolio.
Below are the few websites that you can have a look at and decide for an SEO Job online that is suited to you.
Upwork
If you are looking for short and long-term projects, hourly, or per-project basis work that has different levels to choose from like entry to expert, Upwork is the place for you. It has over 1.5 million customers and offers something that is best fitting and profitable for any kind of freelancer.
Toptal
Toptal’s approach is different from Upwork. It is for seasoned, expert freelancers. There’s a screening procedure you need to go through when you create your profile and after you successfully pass it, you get unique access to some activities with customers like JPMorgan, Zendesk, and so on.
You get reasonable pay and can also join the Toptal community that conducts frequent meetups and tech events that can help you in gaining more projects.
Freelancer
In comparison to other websites, it’s different as it holds contests and lets you compete with other freelance specialists so that you can demonstrate your skills. If you’re an expert, this website is best for you to showcase your capabilities and attract more customers.
Guru
You can exhibit your existing projects and works on guru and can access and execute all your work from the guru workroom. Though it’s not a bad website, it’s efficient and beneficial mostly for the developers.
The Creative Group
If you’re looking for full-time, temporary or contract basis projects in marketing, art, photography, designing, or copywriting, this site is best for you.
99designs
This site is best for freelance designers or digital marketers who have an eye for designing as well. It lets you participate in contests and provides you with feedback that can help you in improving your skills. Clients only chose the best of the best so it is great for capable freelance designers to showcase their abilities.
Freelance Writing Gigs
This site updates new projects and jobs every day related to different industries. It is a great place for those SEOers who have good writing skills as well, and also for bloggers, writers, publishers, etc.
IFreelance
It incorporates some of the best and finest freelancing projects for writers, coders, marketers, editors, etc. one of the best features of IFreelance is that you get to keep 100% of your income.
Simply Hired
In comparison to other websites, this website offers a more extensive range and is simply best for everybody including designers to writers to developers, and marketers.
It offers a wide range of job searching opportunities in 12 different languages in 24 different countries. Plus, it has a blog that gives us information about hiring tips and has a directory and location-based search as well.
Project4hire
This website is great for coders, designers, developers, consultants, and so on. It showcases a wide range of project categories and you can search for your ideal job post which suits your abilities without scrolling through huge numbers of job posts.
Getting a good SEO Job online isn’t an easy task but it’s not that difficult either once you get the hang of all the SEO technical aspects. The best way to have practical knowledge is by having your website and using the right tools and techniques to optimize it for higher rankings in the search engines. If you make any mistakes, don’t worry. Learn from it and keep upgrading your skills.
Every profession comes with challenges and being an SEO professional requires a lot of time and dedication. You need to make sure that you’re passionate about what you want. Once you do, you can opt for a course so that you have all the knowledge in one place, then you can go out and start searching for the right gigs.
Concluding thoughts on SEO Job online
There are varieties of freelancing websites to choose from for an SEO Job Online but what is best for you is up to you. Saying that Upwork is the best doesn’t make it best for you. I’ve listed 10 websites for SEO jobs online here but there are a lot more to choose from.
It’s not only about creating a profile, it’s about how you showcase your abilities and bid yourself on these platforms. Once you get your first client and learn how these platforms work, you’ll slowly start getting your ideal projects. It’s a slow process, but if you want to become a successful SEO professional and get a good SEO job online in your hand you need to be patient and work your way up.
