How SEO Can Help You Land a Freelance Job
When it comes to freelancing, you need a key… as in Keywords. You may have heard of SEO or Search Engine Optimization and you might feel the word is too techie for you to dabble in. People are using the search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing to find what they’re looking for and if they cannot find you, how can they hire you? Try a simple exercise like typing your name in Google and see what the search will come up with.
Using SEO to Hunt for Your Next Freelance Gig
Hiring managers are guilty of ‘googling’ their candidates all the time in their quest to get to know them more. This is why it is important to build your online presence and personal brand so you can have your own digital footprint for clients to follow. Here’s how:
1. Get a Website
It may take a lot to build a website from scratch, but having a site of your own to showcase your work is a major plus when applying for a job. Not a coder? There are plenty of services that offer free customizable templates that come with your own domain name – for a small fee.
2. Own a Domain Name
Your domain name uniquely identifies you as the owner of a web site or a blog on the Web. You may use popular services like GoDaddy.com to register your site or your blog.
3. Write a Blog
I hate to bring this news to you, but you really need to write even once a week on your blog for people to find you on the Web. If you are a writer, this is a perfect way to show how good you are in what you do. If not, you can choose to write topics that are related to your skills.
4. Research for Keywords
Imagine you are an employer and you are searching for experts in your field. What would you type? This is where you need to research keywords that are relevant to what you offer. For example, if you are a graphics designer, you may want try keywords such as design, graphics design, or creative design. A nice place to start searching for keywords is Google Adwords.
5. Maximize Your Keywords
As a rule, don’t use too much of a good thing and never hide these keywords from plain sight – or you run the risk of getting banned from the search engines. For titles, you can use at least one keyword that is not longer than 60 characters ( spaces included ). For descriptions, 1-2 sentences with 2-4 keywords are fine, so long as it doesn’t exceed 150 characters ( spaces included ). If you are a member of any freelancing site, try to use keywords in your title and add descriptive words like savvy, smart, creative, innovative, etc.
SEO can be more technical than that and if you are interested in learning great tips, you can visit this blog. When freelancing is the future of work, you need to be web-savvy and use all channels available to you. Connect with people in social networking sites, submit your website to online directories, or you may simply build your profile on a quality freelancing site.
Do you have other SEO tips to share? Please feel free to add your suggestions below.
What is SEO?
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