5 Steps To Become An SEO Expert For Free And Get Clients In 2024

Views: 6433
Read Time:7 Minute, 46 Second

If you want to help businesses with their SEO, you need to become an SEO expert. 

Here’s the thing.

Businesses of all sizes need SEO. Whether you’re a blogger, tradesman, coach, eCommerce store, you need SEO. Without SEO, your business will struggle to be seen and heard on the Internet. 

Posting flyers door-to-door will only reach a tiny handful of people. Though with an SEO consultant in a business, potential for reaching a larger audience is limitless. That’s where you come in as the SEO expert or consultant.

As an SEO expert on LinkedIn, you can help businesses reach their full potential. Open the doors to them for a bigger audience and sales. 

Problem is, you can’t just put ‘SEO expert’ on your LinkedIn profile and expect to get clients straight away. You need to learn how to do SEO, get the certifications, build your own website, and this will establish you as an expert. Not a nobody that’s just winging it.

How Do I Become A Freelance SEO Consultant?

Become an SEO consultant by demonstrating your ability to grow a business by using the power of SEO. 

Of course, you won’t be able to immediately after getting certifications that you’re able to demonstrate this. Get a handful or people that need help with their own SEO and put that in your portfolio. This is what will position you as an SEO expert and someone to be trusted.

By not doing it at the start of your career as an SEO consultant. You’ll struggle to get clients as you won’t have anything in your portfolio. Plus all they have is a few certifications to look at. Not exactly proof of what you learned in theory, you put into practice and got the desired results.

Therefore to become an SEO consultant you need to

  • Get the certifications
  • Choose a niche
  • Get 3 – 5 businesses that you can help for a low price
  • Put the results and clients reviews into your portfolio
  • Get high paying clients on LinkedIn

Throughout this blog, you’ll learn more about each of these steps. 

You’re probably seeing ‘high paying clients’ and you’re thinking, ‘how much do they pay? and ‘what to charge SEO clients’ So let’s look into this now and what businesses are paying SEO consultants.

Does SEO Pay Well?

The average SEO professional earned $81,103 in 2018, which is up from 2017. kw SEO expert salary

Freelance SEO Jobs - does SEO pay well

Even though these statistics are a few years old, they show that there is significant growth. Growth in demand for a freelance business with SEO skills.

As the current climate shows that having an online presence is ever more needed. With the demise of bricks and mortar retail giants in 2020 who’ve struggled with generating online sales. Having an SEO expert is needed.

Companies are paying for SEO experts and a whole host of freelance SEO jobs are appearing everywhere. Just do a quick Google search for freelance SEO jobs. You’ll be inundated with a whole host of job boards posting SEO job openings.

Freelance SEO jobs can be very profitable for your freelance business. But follow these 5 steps so you start on the right note as an expert in SEO. If you’ve got a knack for SEO, check out these Fiverr gigs that are paying SEO experts $1000 per gig.

Steps To Become An SEO Expert For Free And Get Clients In 2023

4 Places To Get Certified In SEO

There are many places offering certifications in SEO. To have a profitable freelance business, you need to weigh up the options as to which is the best for your hard-earned money.

But these 4 places are the most impressive offering.

kw SEO expert course

SemRush Academy

SemRush Academy offers a wide range of free courses in each aspect of SEO. They offer courses in

  • Auditing
  • Keyword Research
  • Content Marketing
  • Amazon
  • Competitive Analysis
  • Technical SEO
  • Link Building

Plus a whole load of other online courses that you can enroll in for free. After completing the courses, you’ll get an examination, and when you pass you get a certification.

This certification you can post on your freelance profiles, website, and social media.

Google Digital Garage

Google Digital Garage is an extensive course, covering digital marketing holistically.

Browse the modules yourself in this free course offered by Google. Giving you a fair understanding of digital marketing.

After you complete this course, you will get a shiny new certificate from Google, that you can add to your LinkedIn account and your CV.

Moz Academy

The Moz Academy SEO Certification will give you the foundational knowledge you need to execute on common SEO projects.

This course consists of over 5 hours of video content, quizzes, and includes a final exam.

Upon completion, you will receive a printable certificate and a LinkedIn badge.

LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning is jam-packed with practical, actionable educational material for online learners.

The materials are applicable both for the beginning and intermediate learner and the focus is largely on job skills.

It’s a good platform for those hoping to become fluent in specific job-related software platforms.

3 Methods to Get Clients on LinkedIn In 30 Days

With over 260 million active users on LinkedIn, LinkedIn is the place to find freelance clients and get freelance SEO jobs.

You can find freelance clients in 3 different ways

  1. Be active
  2. Cold pitch
  3. LinkedIn jobs

How To Get An SEO Job Without Experience

Be active

By being active on LinkedIn you get noticed by your network and by people searching for people who have your keyword.

Aim to be active in

  • Newsfeed
  • Relevant Active Groups
  • Hashtags That Are Relevant

Be active not just commenting on posts by your first-degree connections, but also you’re second-degree connections.

Commenting on second-degree connections posts widens your network. Send a connection request after you’ve commented and start building that new relationship.

Building a new relationship by introducing yourself and asking about the new connections business.

Cold pitch

Cold pitching potential clients are similar to sending cold pitches by email.

Before your begin cold pitching a client you need to

  • Make the client aware of you by commenting on their content
  • Research the client (what are there current problems or future projects)
  • Create a plan as to how to you can help and be a natural fit

After you’ve followed these 3 steps you can then message your potential client.

Message the potential client that you noticed they’re having a problem or planning to do some project. Then show interest in this by asking further questions.

Make the potential client the center of you’re attention.

Then position your offer in a way that makes it a no-brainer to use your SEO expertise and become a client.

LinkedIn Jobs

There are millions of jobs being posted on LinkedIn. Find the right LinkedIn SEO expert jobs for you by

  • Typing In The Keywords Into The Search Bar
  • Filter The Results
  • Find Mutual Connections & Get Yourself Introduced
Source | LinkedIn

50% of LinkedIn jobs are won by users. Using mutual connections and getting those vital introductions.

Build Your Own Website

Running your own freelance business, you should have a website to land freelance SEO jobs.

Whether it is just a blog to bring in passive income. Or a portfolio website to show the work you’ve done and the clients you’ve worked with.

Building your own website, pulling in traffic, and converting that traffic is your ultimate proof that you don’t just talk the talk but can walk the walk.

If you had a website that is working at pulling in traffic and converting, that would be more impressive to a client. More impressive than just writing it on a resume.

Building a website will be a quicker way of getting freelance SEO jobs.

Tactic To Get Your Foot In The Door

To help land freelance SEO jobs, offering a small sample of your services or knowledge in helping land clients is a way of getting your foot in the door.

So what do I mean?

Let’s say you want to land a specific client you’ve spotted. Research the client’s website and do an audit. From the audit, message the client saying that you’ve noticed this problem which results in a specific disaster.

Carry on, by saying that if you do this small low priced service for them, they will get this result.

When you land the client for your freelance business with this simple strategy, you’re building their trust.

Building trust is essential in establishing a long-term relationship with them.

Conclusion

With businesses more and more having an online business, SEO is a hot career right now. Before you land freelance SEO jobs, you need to build up your knowledge, have proof of knowledge, and a strategy to land clients. After you pitch a client, use these 5 tips to smash your meeting with them and they’re signing up to your services. If you need help in brushing up your SEO skills, enroll in the SemRush Academy for free and become an SEO expert. Once you’ve got that client, create a freelance contract and make sure that you get paid.

About Post Author

Alison Wolf

Helping you to build an online business so you have an extra stream of income or quit the day job. Don't forget to follow me on social media using the handle @heyalisonwolf