Are you considering becoming a freelance SEO? If so one of the most important questions swirling around your head will be how much do freelance SEOs make?
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Experience and hours worked factor:
Well, in all honesty, it can differ? The answer is akin to asking how long a piece of string is. However, to give you a rough idea, SEO prices range from around £20 per hour and up to £250 per hour.
So, when considering how much a freelancer makes it is going to depend largely on your experience, and what you are offering, as search engine optimisation is a wide subject.
A side earner or full-time job:
You can go into freelance SEO part-time to make a bit of money on the side or you can make it a full-time job. Search engine optimization is a crucial factor of digital marketing today and as such, there is a huge need for experts.
Anyone and everyone who has a website with the aim of selling products or services need SEO assistance to help get the website noticed in search engines and drive traffic to the website.
With this in mind, you can make a great living, but of course, you do need the skills required.
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SEO aspects:
Before going into how much freelance SEOs can earn let’s determine what you have to know and do to work in search engine optimisation. The subject is vast and there are numerous technical aspects involved, and this is going to determine how much you might charge and earn. Some of the aspects of SEO include:
- Completing a website audit;
- Doing keyword research;
- Optimising the content of a website;
- Writing SEO content for a website;
- SEO Analysing and reporting;
- On-page SEO;
- Off-page SEO;
- Outreaching;
- Proofreading;
- Creation of high-quality backlinks.
How much you might make as freelance SEOs:
According to UK.talent the average annual salary for an SEO consultant in the UK is around £32,500. This equates to £16.75 per hour. When starting in SEO services the average salary is £27.500 and the more experienced SEO freelancers can make up to as much as £45.000 per year.
Of course, it depends on the number of hours you put in per week or month and the higher salaries are obtained by those who offer a full range of SEO services, some of which we have listed above. If you are only offering some of the aspects, such as proofreading, website auditing etc., you can expect a lot lower salary than someone offering a full service and packages including everything related to search engine optimisation.
If you decide to offer freelance SEO services on one of the freelance websites in the UK the average cost for a starter SEO package is around £100. This usually includes things such as a basic SEO audit, providing entries in directories/citations and obtaining high authority backlinks. Again, the amount you could make from offering a basic search engine optimization service would depend on the hours you are willing to put in.
Pricing models for freelance SEOs:
As mentioned before the amount of money you can make being an SEO freelancer is going to depend on the services you offer.
Deciding how much to ask for your services can be difficult. Some experts state prices as an hourly rate. This is the number of hours you work on a project. For example, you could state £15 per hour. If you worked for 8 hours a day you could make £120 per day.
You might state a monthly contract and depending on what you offer this could be anything from £200 to £5,000 and beyond. Another pricing model is paid on performance. This relates to prices on a pre-determined level of results. For instance, you could change X amount of money to guarantee to get a website into the top 10 on search engines.
Hourly rates:
Hourly rates are the most common when starting out in freelance SEO. By charging by the hour you can be flexible in your work and it works great for both small and large businesses alike.
The fixed retainer or monthly contract:
Again, this is a pricing model suited to freelance SEOs. You choose a set amount to work on a project for a month or agreed contract length. Generally, packages start from around £200 to £500 per month, again depending on what you are offering in the package.
Once you are established in SEO services and become “professional”, you may be able to make over £10,000 per month when working on larger projects. Again, this is dependent on your expertise and the services or packages you offer.
Getting started as a freelance SEO:
While how much do freelance SEOs make is an important question, the first thing you have to consider is how to get started.
We are assuming that you already have the knowledge and skills required for offering SEO services. If not, you have a lot of work to do before going into the business.
One of the most popular ways is to offer your services on a freelance website. You can set out a range of services for a fixed price or hourly price and state what is included in that package. This is a great way to build up clients and get plenty of experience.
You can then branch out through your own website. As you will have expertise in SEO you should have little trouble getting your site into the search engines and start bringing in clients.
Freelance SEOs are preferred by smaller companies and individuals selling online who are on a tight budget. Freelancers starting out can usually expect to make around £15 per hour.
To summarise:
It is not easy to answer the question of how much do freelance SEOs make? This is because there are many factors of search engine optimisation. You might concentrate on offering smaller starter packages when first starting out and with little experience behind you; you can’t expect to command huge fees. Start small, earn a reputation and gain clients, expand and the sky is your limit.
