In this guide, you will learn where and how to hire an SEO expert to help increase your organic search presence.
SEO should indeed be an integral part of any business that could benefit from an online presence. And, every business owner should know the SEO basics.
But it takes time and a lot of hands-on experience to become an SEO expert. Your time is best spent developing overall marketing strategies and finding the right people to help you develop your campaigns.
You also want someone who has experience outside of your brand. When you're too close to your business, you miss opportunities that an outside SEO expert could see.
You get so much more by working with a good SEO consultant who understands your business, your audience, and the digital marketing space. That's why your next step is to find someone who is a good fit for your company's marketing goals.
Table of Contents
{tocify} $title={Custom Titles}
What is an SEO Expert?
An SEO consultant (or specialist) (or expert) is someone who uses digital marketing strategies to make sure your website is ranked near the top possible on search engines like Google and Bing.
A search engine optimization or SEO consultant analyzes, tests, and modifies a website to optimize it for search engines, and the website then ranks higher in the search results of popular search engines.
An SEO expert optimizes the pages of a website to ensure that the search results are relevant and to create a positive user experience, thereby increasing website traffic, lead volume, and brand awareness. In other words, an SEO consultant is no different than any other digital or traditional marketing professional:
- They are ultimately looking to generate more sales for the company they work for.
- They use their knowledge of search engine optimization techniques to create and execute a strategy that will increase your website visibility on search engines.
- They strategically use keywords and long-tail keywords to make your website appear higher in search results and gain natural search engine traffic, which translates into increased revenue for your business.
By conducting keyword research and using SEO tools, such as Google Analytics, an SEO consultant can increase a website's visibility on Google, which has major benefits for any business. Some may also work closely with other members of a marketing team to develop new initiatives or better manage social media accounts to boost user engagement and traffic.
How Much Does it Cost to Hire an SEO Expert?
Some SEO experts charge per project or per hour, while others are paid on a salary basis, which depends on the scope of the project you hire them for.
On the most popular sites, SEO experts charge between $10 and $150 per hour, with the average rate being $48 per hour (This figure was generated from an exploration of the profiles of popular SEO consultants on several platforms and sites).
Can you Hire an SEO Consultant Remotely?
If you open the doors to a remote SEO agency or consultant, you give yourself a lot more choices and the opportunity to save money. This can be essential if you are a startup company. Imagine that your startup is located in one of the many major cities in the world, for example, New York, London, Singapore, or San Francisco. You can expect an SEO consultant or agency to be very expensive.
Open your recruitment net much wider, and you can find an experienced SEO expert anywhere in the world. There are highly qualified, passionate, and experienced people in Bulgaria, Poland, Ukraine, Serbia, Thailand, India, and China, for example. SEO specialists in these countries will be much cheaper and just as good, if not better.
What Skills Do you Need in Your SEO Specialist?
SEO professionals can be hired from a variety of different backgrounds. They could be programmers, digital marketing agencies, professional SEO services, and even entrepreneurs. They may also come from an experienced SEO company.
Regardless of the background, there are specific skills you should look for when hiring an SEO expert. The list of skills is not exhaustive, and it is likely that some SEO specialists only have a few of these skills.
However, it's good to have some basis for your decision, especially if you've never needed to hire such an expert before.
Drive: SEO and digital marketing, in general, are not the kind of jobs you can leave at the office every night. Therefore, they need motivation that forces them to keep learning because, in the world of SEO, there is always something new to learn.
Motivation: At the top of your list of potential candidates, be sure to include those who have their own side project websites or have created their own tools to solve their problems.
Vision: An SEO expert must have a clear vision of what to achieve and how best to reach the goals.
Risk-taker: Search engine optimization is a very competitive industry, so your SEO expert must be willing to take risks and put himself at risk to achieve his goals.
Takes Action: Rather than just talking about what needs to be done, he or she is willing to get their hands dirty, be proactive and risk their neck for what they believe is right.
Strategy Thinker: A strategy thinker is someone who can be there at the beginning of a process and see it through to the end. They don't need to be told what to do because they can make their own decisions.
Analyst: An SEO consultant must have an analytical mind capable of differentiating between correlation and causation. They must be able to look at data and understand the "3 things": What happened, why it happened, and what can be done about it.
Responsibility: An SEO professional is willing to take responsibility for the choices he or she makes, whether they turn out to be right or wrong.
Research-minded: An SEO expert must be able to research the competition and determine what is working and what is not working with a company's main rivals. Keyword research plays a crucial role as well. There is unfortunately no standard formula for SEO, regardless of what Google tries to tell you.
Flexibility: Flexibility or adaptability is also an essential skill, as the industry is constantly changing and different companies have specific needs. There is also no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to search engine optimization.
Prioritization: This skill is essential for a successful local and organic SEO campaign. An SEO expert must understand the steps that need to be taken and prioritize them based on importance and difficulty.
Management: An SEO consultant may have to work with a team of people, so he or she must manage them successfully and make sure everyone is on the same page and moving toward the same goals.
Hiring Skills: A senior SEO expert may need to hire other SEO specialists such as content marketing writers, link builders, and technical SEO specialists to help with the SEO campaign. He will need to know what to look for when hiring new SEO team members.
Where to Hire an SEO Freelancer
If you want your startup or business to be more competitive, you need the services of an SEO freelancer, but where should you look for something so valuable to your business?
Here are some of the best places to look for a potential SEO freelancer:
Job Boards
Job boards can be a great source of SEO freelancers. Searching on these sites saves you a lot of time and effort as the most popular boards screen all the freelancers in their database.
The following are a couple of the most popular job boards:
- Fiverr
- Indeed
- Pro Blogger
- AngelList
- Craigslist
Social media and other marketing communities
Social media today plays a vital role in the recruitment process. For many companies, it's a great way to find top talent. Be sure to look at social media platforms such as:
- LinkedIn
- Twitter
- Reddit
- Facebook
When you post your needs, be sure to use a relevant hashtag such as #SEOfreelancers.
There are also other communities such as:
- B2B blogger's Facebook group
- Traffic think slack tank group
Bloggers
Some very competent and quality SEO experts have their own blogs. Make some searches to see if you can find someone you like.
Freelancing Platforms
Freelancing platforms such as Upwork, Freelancer, Guru, and People Per Hour are freelance marketplaces for professionals. The only difficulty with these platforms is that you might find yourself sifting through hundreds of profiles before you find the right one.
Some of the other best websites to hire an SEO expert:
1. Fiverr
2. GrowTal
3. MarketerHire
4. Mayple
How to Hire an SEO Expert
Here's a good step-by-step process that is helpful when hiring an SEO consultant:
Identify your needs - Do you need someone to do a quick redesign of your site to include more SEO keywords? Do you want to hire an SEO expert for ongoing testing and maintenance?
Create goals - Set quantifiable goals that you want to achieve within a certain time frame. Goals such as increasing organic traffic by a certain percentage, optimizing your page speed, or maximizing the number of time visitors spend on your page are all good examples of SEO-related goals.
Set your budget - Analyze what your finances can handle and plan an exact amount to pay your SEO consultant (this amount will also change depending on the length of your relationship with him).
Explore the best websites for SEO experts - Check out reviews on Upwork and Fiverr to see how successful other clients have been before hiring an SEO expert.
Create test or pilot projects to see if they fit your culture - Test their understanding and capabilities by asking them to do SEO for a video or showing you how they approach keyword research.
Hire an SEO Expert - Summary
This was an overview of where and how to hire an SEO expert to help increase your organic search presence.
In your search for the best SEO freelancers, you may run into a few bad ones that can cost you your reputation, rankings, or resources.
That's why you need to know how to hire an SEO consultant who will help you achieve your business goals.
