Would you hire a Freelance SEO Consultant?

[Ginger Egg]

Hello all,

Would you hire a freelance SEO consultant or would you instead prefer to work with an agency?

In most circumstances, a freelancer will cost less than an agency and deliver similar results. However, I often come across resistance and apprehension when it comes to hiring a freelance SEO.

Is this a trust issue? is it a belief that agencies provide a better service? Is cheaper a sign of poor quality?

I just thought I would put this up for discussion.

Thanks,

Danny

 

[fisicx]

I’d not use either. Only ever found one Seo practitioner who actually knows how to do the job properly.

Everyone else seems to think SEO = Linkbuilding.

 

[Ginger Egg]

Fair point. Once upon a time, it used to be. Links are still important but its quality and relevance over quantity!

 

[Ian J]

Everyone else seems to think SEO = Linkbuilding.

Mainly forum signature links

 

[WhizzPeople]

A freelance consultant (with limited experience and knowledge) might a good solution for a short-term gain. However, if you are planning for a sustainable business, you need an experienced SEO consultant or an agency who can plan and execute "SEO things" - in the same way, you are planning for your business.

 

[EmployMe]

Cheap doesn't mean poor quality. As well as agency doesn't mean top quality. I think that we should make a decision based on our needs. If I need just a research I will hire a freelancer (short-term gain). If I want research + marketing campaign + PPC I'd better hire an agency. I would prefer to have one team who knows me and my project instead of explaining everything to a freelancer from the very beginning.

 

[Marketgarden85]

Being honest, I think they are so many useful SEO tools available at the moment to help SMB's that hiring someone is somewhat redundant. Don't get me wrong, I think it really depends on what you are comfortable with for your business needs....

 

[dotcomdude]

I think most successful business owners will know that they are better spending their time working in or on their own business, rather than trying to learn how to use SEO tools and interpreting the results.

SEO agencies are bloated. They need to bring high-paying and long-lasting contracts on board. You don't necessarily get this with a freelancer.

I'm probably biased. I've tried to help several of my clients to find a good agency, but they've never passed the due diligence...

 

[justinaldridge]

I used to be a freelancer in the sense that I did everything myself for clients, all the SEO, all the writing, all link building, invoicing, contracts...everything! For me it was always a sideline as I had my own websites and other business which were my main earners.

I never had problems getting clients. The key for me was to show that I'd done SEO for my own websites and my own businesses. I wasn't just doing SEO for others, I was doing it for myself to generate my main income.

When it got too much it evolved into an agency and we are now 30 people!

We take on SEO's that do SEO for themselves. We like to see that they use their skills to make money for themselves and not just our clients.

As a freelancer I always felt it was important to get across that I practiced what I preached, I could show clients that my techniques worked as I used them on my sites. Some businesses prefer freelancers as the relationship does tend to be more personal.

We find now as an agency that we have to offer additional services such as web development, PPC, social media, video production, etc. As a freelancer you can be much more focused on your core offering.

 

[Scott Jackson]

I don't think there is a set answer for this, some freelance SEO's will be able to do more work than an agency or vice versa. Some agencies I've known just route jobs internally for one person to deal with so it's the same scope yet you are probably paying Agency overheads in the price.

 

[The Byre]

Question 1. No.

Question 2. No.

Question 3. No.

Question 4. No.

 

[pmwpaul]

"Everyone else seems to think SEO = Linkbuilding."

Off-page SEO is just link building

On-page is all about the content and structure of you pages

Get the on-page right and link building will take you were you want to be

 

[ukbf0001]

pmw paul - yep - offsite seo is just link building. Linkbuilding in the sense of ... I was going to explain what I do then thought, why bother. I just spent the afternoon with a new client, she has a mid sized budget, Ive given her a plan that we will start to execute next week. This is based on lots of real hand experience, using techniques and tools built up over a number of years that help to convert views into conversions.
When I gave her a report that showed she had 400+ dofollow quality links - she was very happy, she wasnt so happy after I showed her, her main competitor on page1 has over 20,000 quality dofollow and indexed links. We are going after the low hanging easy fruit keywords first, to get some quick wins. A lovely mum and daughter run business , that are doing great offline, but thanks to brexit 'fears' her european distributors and online sales are being hit quite badly.

To the OP - it all depends on you and who you trust. If someone details your problems, identifies solutions and a plan on how to fix - then people tend to trust you. And if you do it in an agile way with regular communication / updates etc and the option for the client to pull out when they want , then everyone is happy. Good luck in your endevours

 

[Marketgarden85]

I think it really depends on your individual needs, some businesses may do better, using agency while others should probably focus on using the services of a freelancer. You have to weigh up the goals that you wish to achieve and go from there.

 

[Rob @ Love2night uk]

As a very small business id hazard a guess an agency may be too pricey for me. I have never felt the need to go find an SEO guru just about everything you need is online if you have the time.

That said, through word of mouth I’ve found a local SEO freelancer, met him, looked at his work, he did a lovely audit and never promised the earth. But and there is a but, im coming to the conclusion hes not what I was hoping. Getting someone who isn’t up to it can wreck your business.

End of day happy to hire a freelancer but one who can guarantee he or she knows what they are doing and can help improve what you have with long term fixes....... Unfortunately finding one is somewhat difficult, you have to trust someone at the end of the day you don’t know and anyone can talk a good game..... Confused that’s me! Plenty of good SEO people around but finding one that’s another question.

 

[Alison K Snelling]

As a freelancer, I advise for you to look at several and choose who is a best fit for you to work with and completely understands your business and what you are looking to achieve with SEO

 

[quikshop]

As someone who might be hiring a freelancer or agency in a few months time (no unsolicited PMs please) they'll need to evidence previous success.

And by that a verifiable improvement in SERPs attributable to actions they've taken or advised the site owner to do. A former or current client willing to discuss their experience would put the freelancer / agency right to the top of the list.

I used to know enough about this to see through snake oil speak... how much can it have changed

 

[Arjen]

I have hired about dozens of SEOs so far both freelancers and agencies. 90% of them was just an awful experience. I had more or less positive experience with independent freelancers and not the agencies.

 

[SEO Lady]

End of day happy to hire a freelancer but one who can guarantee he or she knows what they are doing and can help improve what you have with long term fixes....... Unfortunately finding one is somewhat difficult, you have to trust someone at the end of the day you don’t know and anyone can talk a good game..... Confused that’s me! Plenty of good SEO people around but finding one that’s another question.

Rob, there's no SEO on the planet that can guarantee ANYTHING, Google cannot be manipulated or tricked (well black hats can so I hear, not so sure in 2018) so how on earth can anyone guarantee anything as we don't control Google?

Nobody can predict how long it will take for your website to get to Google page 1, so your first SEO lesson is to understand I cannot answer this question. I can’t even say X weeks or X months or even promise results in X years. Even if you gave me £10,000 the answer will still be the same – I can’t answer and won't entertain an answer.

Ask for case studies and links to external reviews.
Ask your Freelancer whether you can contact current / past clients.

It's not our job to work at low cost or offer a free trial to gain trust and confidence, it's down to you to do your research and take time to judge whether the investment you have in mind will be well placed.

You did the right thing finding a local SEO freelancer, I recommend anyone reading this to Google "SEO Freelancer [town/city]" and stalk their references. Visit their website, read their blog, is it up to date? Do they publish research? Is there a testimonials page? Visit their social media, was it updated 3 months ago? A year ago? Yesterday? A few weeks ago?

If I was looking to spend money with you, what would you advise me to do to research your trust and confidence?

 

[Ian J]

End of day happy to hire a freelancer but one who can guarantee he or she knows what they are doing and can help improve what you have with long term fixes....... Unfortunately finding one is somewhat difficult, you have to trust someone at the end of the day you don’t know and anyone can talk a good game..... Confused that’s me! Plenty of good SEO people around but finding one that’s another question.

I have been reading the SEO forums here for years and in that time I have managed to sort out those that know what they are talking about from those that just open their mouths and make noise but unfortunately there are far more in the latter category.

 

[iDigLocal]

Unfortunately there is no guarantee that either an SEO consultant or a large agency will be an effective investment.

We have experience of our clients hiring both, some with supposed high reputations in SEO, merely to waste their money and see their rankings drop.

We had one client with a large SEO company, we took them over and discovered that their whole front page was full of hidden lorem ipsum text. The company was very good at their own SEO but not their clients. i.e the SEO company ranked high for "SEO" in google.

We have always found that it works very well if the client buys into us and our knowledge i.e. checking with us first before they do some hair brain idea that is going to have a major impact on their rankings.

In general an seo consultant will audit the site and carry out a competitor analysis and from this suggest areas that have room for improvement. The solutions are arrived at from a discussion with the client on their goals and what they want to pay for and what they will do in-house.

But generally, this is about content. Although, dare we say it, decent backlinks can also help.

 

[sabian1982]

The industry has changed a lot in the last 10-15 years; i remember that long ago i had a "freelance seo" website (and it was honestly crap) offering my services and i used to get a couple of client enquiries every week (and that was without putting much if any marketing effort in). Oh how times have changed!

Your post @Ginger Egg is an interesting one as i've been contemplating returning to offering web/conversion/seo/marketing/business input for "regional" clients as a way of diversifying my revenue streams into 2019 but its needless to say a bit of a mine field especially where competitors and the freelance vs agency aspect are concerned.

From a personal view point I think agencies have become more mainstream (they are thousands of them in each region) and are viewed as potentially more expensive and less personable (you see a brand through their website, not a person). That said most business that have a national reach or larger investment in SEO generally review their SEO results every 12 months and move agencies rather regularly.

In terms of price... £50-£200 per hour (according to general information online) although that is obviously influenced by a variety of factors - i'd be rather interested to know if this is a true reflection of UK pricing (I'm guessing a lot charge less than that?) whilst i do disagree with your below statement on the premise that every agency/freelancer has different knowledge, different pricing and a different approach to clients and their retention:

a freelancer will cost less than an agency and deliver similar results

On a side note, is the "resistance and apprehension" that you experience potentially as a result something negative on your website being seen by a potential client that you've approached? For example in your "results that speak for themselves" section you state a number of ranking positions relating to seo that are a) not actually accurate any more so could put potential clients off and b) actually have no real bearing on real world clients - why would a potential client care if you can rank for a seo term... they want to see some existing client rankings to see how you've added value to businesses that use Surge SEO.

Just my 25 pence!

 

[OhhEnnEmm]

It's obviously case by case.

Not all agencies will be good, some will be amazing.

Not all freelancers will be good, some will be amazing.

You can't just group and assume, especially in the digital marketing industry.

 

[Cash Cow]

I frequently pick up freelance SEO jobs and work with some pretty cash heavy SMEs, who could easily go down the agency route.

I think if you know your stuff, get results and are transparent with the people you work with it snowballs by itself.

So, yes, I'd say use freelancers if you trust them. Maybe try and get recommendations from colleagues, clients or suppliers.

 

[Silky]

The first thing I would do before choosing either, is to acquaint myself with SEO via blogs such as Moz Blog and to sign onto the Fresh Bananas SEO course (truly unbeatable ). At least then I'd be able to sort out the wheat from the chaff.

Initially when looking at SEO a number of years ago, I employed a much hyped agency. Although you're lured in by convincing sales people or their top bods, you're soon assigned an account manager who often have little idea of SEO and just as little interest in your business unless you're spending thousands each month. They were truly awful and common sense told me that links on Chinese sites really wouldn't help my holiday business. Fortunately I sacked them in time before Google sacked us for spammy links. I did our own SEO for many years in between with some great successes, but am now working with two freelancers who really know their stuff. One wrote the course above and is a veteran of this forum and is one of the best I've come across.

Personally I would choose a good freelancer over an agency as they're more likely to open to different ways of working (ie if I wanted to cover some tasks myself) and you can also dip in and out more easily on a consultancy type basis. That said, whichever you choose, do your homework and make sure you check carefully the work they do each month. If they ignore on site SEO and immediately start talking about backlinks, I'd steer clear....


P.S. Having just read another thread about buying links, I would definitely avoid all of those SEO "experts" who favour this approach, particularly those suggesting Fiverr!

 

[AnupSEO]

As a freelancer, I advise for you to look at several and choose who is a best fit for you to work with and completely understands your business and what you are looking to achieve with SEO

I agree with Alison K Snelling.
Ask for your requirement to freelancer as well agency. Who is better understand and reply back to your business and you have to choose one from them.

 

[Viraj Shah]

Hiring is an important process. Many a times I found that freelancers are more skillful compared to agency. A freelancer is an expert in particular work. An agency has to cater all type of services since it has to maintain its dignity. I have came across many agencies who do not have team dedicated to a particular department like SEO or PPC. These types of agencies hire expert freelancers to get the work done.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

With years of experience in choosing the wrong freelancers and agencies who all spoke the great story but did not get the results they promissed, it would be hard to reccommend anyone

If I was to start again , I would be inclined to take on a very bright school leaver, direct them to google help pages and get them started in learning and producing a plan of action on what to change on the site to meet current seo requirements, as a aprentice but with a higher pay than the standard rate it would be a long term process investing in the future rather than a short term gain and not include PPC for say the first year

Look after someone and grow them with the company, let them freelance as the grow to other people may be out of favour these days,

There is so much a new to seo can learn from Google itself and Youtube these days with a good deal of guidence

 

[AnupSEO]

Hiring is an important process. Many a times I found that freelancers are more skillful compared to agency. A freelancer is an expert in particular work. An agency has to cater all type of services since it has to maintain its dignity. I have came across many agencies who do not have team dedicated to a particular department like SEO or PPC. These types of agencies hire expert freelancers to get the work done.

I am agree with Viraj Shah. I am also doing freelancing for SEO. As per my information few company have seo team but they very poor knowledge. Companies are looking for low budget employee and assure to client high quality work. I will say, who are looking for good seo work please check their work status. It may be freelancer or company.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

One of the biggest problems of hiring a agency or freelancer is that they dont understand your business or products. they may be able to read the specs but not the reason people use or buy them, but they do have great experience in seo

 

[cmorales]

Based on my experience, most of SEO Freelance consultant are really know nothing in SEO. They are good seller but they really don't know the little details of SEO. Even the off-page optimization, they really don't know. They are just selling and use sugar coated word to avail their services.

 

[ITBadger]

Probably more likely to get security in standard of work with an agency (providing you pick a good one) however you're gonna get a cheaper service with a freelancer.

 

[aleksandrkop]

I would work with a freelancer for a period of at least 3 months (less than 3 months is a non sense for SEO). And I would look for this freelancer in networks like Twitter, where you can search for direct mentions about his previous work, see his/her discussions with other professionals, etc.

I would never go for sites like worakana & company.

 

[hikebranding]

It is totally depends on the person to which you will hire. You can take an interview of the person which looks suitable for the task. If he/she shows their talent and know how to plan and implement the things then you can hire him/her. It totally depends on their experience and knowledge. I've seen many companies which can not provide the desired results to client and client's need to move to other SEO persons.

 

[DRDR]

I've spoken to alot of agencies and freelancers and the main difference is agency has a min 6 months contract and usually cost 1-2k/month. That alone makes them too expensive to most startups and SME. And they won't be able to give you projected ROI so £12k to £24k a year is not a small amount to experiment with. Also keep in mind the person that sells the proposal to you is not the person that will be doing your SEO. They will likely have an intern or junior hire that will do your SEO at an agency because its just boring work really and they didn't promise you any results anyways so there is no need to give your their Head of SEO to do the same work.

I tend to avoid any company that uses 5 star Trustpilot reviews or perfect rating FB or Google reviews and etc in their sales pitch. Try to ask for their clients that are in your niche and if they say they can't give it due to confidentiality, stay away from them since its just an excuse that they don't have the experience.

I've received many proposals from agencies and freelancers and its still an ongoing search for me to get someone trustworthy to over SEO so I can focus on other parts of the business. Along the years, I have made mistakes choosing the wrong agencies and freelancers and each time, I ended up taken it over and learning more. But in doing so, I'm neglecting other parts of the business that needs attention.

I actually came into this thread from trying to find recommendation of a good freelance SEO person. The risk is lower since you usually don't have to sign a long term contract but the skillset varies alot for freelancers. I'd always insist on asking who their current client is and researching on them to see if they are doing good work for their client. That will be the most accurate feedback you can get. And no, I still haven't found someone but hope you have a better idea of deciding who you choose.

 

[Ukdude858]

I would love to try Freelance. I would say i am pretty good at Seo.
Although I dont have the confidence to approach big businesses

 

[Happy Koala SEO Agency]

I would say there is a middle ground which is SEO freelancers that rank for the search term SEO freelancer on Google.

This basically means they are competing for that keyword which means they are automatically qualified if they are on the first page or second page.

As they are advertising themselves as an SEO freelancer instead of an SEO agency then their prices should be lower than an agency.

It will probably be higher than say an Upwork hire but thats ok, you don't want to nickle and dime too much with SEO because good SEO costs resources to do well.

But to me i would say the best value are these guys as a halfway inbetween.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

A good manager will understand the whole workings of their department or company if the owner. They do not need to be a expert in any area but to understand what its doing and how and why

Most companies hire a accountant or book keeper so the owner does not need to understand the finer points of that profession, but they do need to understand the basics including making a budget, Cashflow, Profit and loss and able to read and understand a Balance sheet

If they run a online company they also need to understand search engine requirements as freely published by the search engine companies, they need to understand PPC how to read the results, compare how they are doing against the competitors and with their knowledge be able to understand the consequences of what the "expert" they hired to do seo, is actually doing

You know your customer profile and market far better than any outsider, and its up to you to stop things going off at a tangent

You are running the show so you need to take responsibility and make sure you understand what is going on at all times, The outside assistance may not be there tomorrow