SEO for Freelance Writers: How to Rank Fast Without Backlinks
This post may have affiliate links, which means I may receive commissions if you purchase through links I provide. Read the full disclosure.
As freelance writers, we don’t have the benefit of having a brick-and-mortar business where customers can just walk in and order what they want. Our online presence is our business. We have to be active, engage, and promote ourselves online as much as possible in order to find new clients. And the first place to start is to have a website – that is our place of business.
But how do you get your freelance writing or editing business noticed when just starting out? It’s not likely that you have a bunch of outside links pointing people to your website (called backlinks), so you’ll need to get your content noticed organically. Luckily, there are plenty of SEO tips for freelance writers to rank higher in a Google search without relying on backlinks.
We’ll go over some great tips for building an optimized writer’s portfolio that will bring in new work. And, of course, we’ll talk about how you can optimize your client’s website to boost their ranking in the SERPs (search engine results pages) as well.
If you’re looking to increase your blog’s traffic, it pays to be smart about what content you put out there. The best way is through high-quality SEO copywriting. If search engine optimization sounds complicated, don’t worry: it’s actually pretty straightforward if you remember that writing for people and not computers should always be the top priority.
Using On-Page SEO to Rank Higher Faster
SEO, or search engine optimization, is a process of optimizing your website content, so it ranks as high as possible in Google and other search engines for a strategic set of keywords. The search engine results page consists entirely of organic and ad listings, the highest-ranking being at the top with those that rank naturally appearing below them on this list.
So, how do you make people want to buy your product or service? You need more than just good content. You need to solve a problem and appeal to the audience at the same time to make your content compelling.
There are many ways to create content that meets your goals. You can write in a friendly, professional tone, or you could use an informative voice with some humor mixed into it. But what if the goal is for people to understand and buy from you?
That’s where SEO copywriting comes in! We will walk you through four key points as discussed in the following video by SEO link builder Julian Goldie. The video covers these key points comprehensively to help you rank higher faster without relying on backlinks:
1. SEO Audit
To succeed in the competitive world of SEO as a freelance writer, you need to think like your readers and clients. Understanding their intent is a significant factor for success because it allows you to reverse engineer problems that they are having and provide them with helpful content tailored specifically towards solving those issues.
In today’s modern digital age, SEO audits should consider search intent as the first step to getting people to your site. What is it that people are really searching for? What exactly do they need?
You should check out the current high-ranking content on Google by simply typing in the question or keyword. Next, you have to plan how to outperform them in giving users a better experience solving their problems. Your content can be made more engaging by adding relevant graphics and videos.
CopyPress explains that an SEO audit is “the process of identifying issues that prevent your website from ranking well on search engines like Google.” Described as the process of modifying and strengthening the online relevance of the content on a website to appear higher in search engine results pages, an SEO audit will typically evaluate necessary components such as:
- Google Adwords and Analytics configuration
- Keyword density and analysis
- Content-related issues
- Social media engagement
- Backlink and indexing analysis
Business owners can conduct SEO audits to evaluate a website’s performance in search engine results. Such an audit evaluates the technical infrastructure, off-page essentials, and on-page elements of your site for greater visibility with search engines and conversion rates as well as usability.
SEO Audit Tools
Here are some tools that may be helpful:
- Google Analytics
- Google Search Console
- PageSpeed Insights
- Experte Page Speed Test (a bulk tester for those tired of having to check one page at a time; capable of checking hundreds of URLs at once and gives you all the data you get from PageSpeed Insights)
- Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool
- Copyscape
- SERP Simulator
- Web Page Word Counter
2. User Engagement
User engagement is any way in which a visitor takes action on your website. For example, signing up for your newsletter, downloading an eBook or PDF you’re offering, or making a purchase through checkout are all user engagements.
A key to getting visitors engaged with your site instead of just browsing passively and then leaving immediately afterward starts by ensuring they have found what they’re looking for quickly and efficiently. This means that users can meet their needs without missing out on anything good from you!
The keywords that are most likely to show up in a search result are the keywords with an above-average CTR (clickthrough rate).
Take a look at Verblio, for example. As a general content writing service, it still manages to rank in the top three search results when you type in “technical writing services USA” on Google. That’s because they’ve niched down for that landing page to offer technical writing services specifically. They’ve catered to people with that exact need.
To see how a page is doing, check your Google Search Console account. It tracks impressions instead of clicks which can be essential when trying out new strategies or testing different pages on your website!
3. Meta Tags
Meta tags are snippets of text that describe the content on a web page. They usually appear as small, invisible labels at the top of an internet browser or search engine result when there is not enough information to categorize it. Using this information, search engines can more efficiently index and rank a website by showing only the pages marked with relevant keywords found on other sites with similar content.
Note: Meta tags don’t affect what you see on your screen; instead, these bits inform how Google indexes and ranks your site so people can get exactly what they want without sifting through irrelevant results first.
Meta tags are one of the most overlooked aspects of web marketing. They provide information about your website that site visitors can see when browsing it. This includes how many pages there are and who created it, so search engines have more info on where this page came from later if someone searches for something related to content found within these pages – which means increased exposure and traffic! Not all types of meta tags will be as effective anymore because Google continually updates its algorithms. But even then, some strategies may work best depending on whether or not you focus primarily on local customers vs. regional clients.
4. Competition
An online business owner must always ensure their content is fresh, engaging, and optimized for search engines.
Suppose you offer a guide on successful SEO strategies for freelance writers going into 2021. There will be a constant need to outperform your competitors. You’ll need to write an article that is better written and provides more valuable information than the rest – something that doesn’t just regurgitate the same tips you’ll find in every other article out there. What’s your personal experience? How will that help your readers?
Note: You may create content similar to the existing high-ranking competition but make sure you deliver more significant outcomes. This will make you a more appropriate choice, and Google will recognize you.
Look at the following example. Instead of just writing an article about the best plagiarism checkers, which would have tanked against the competition, I wrote the article specifically for freelance writers. The article speaks directly to that audience, touching on their pain points and offering useful tips and real-life examples. It is the top-ranking result for that search.
How Freelance Writers Can Use Organic, On-Page SEO Tactics to Get Their Website Seen
Your website’s success depends a lot on your content. If you write great content, you’ll have a better chance of ranking higher in SERPs. And as your traffic grows and more people visit your site, your rankings will go up even more too.
The first step is to know what type of content will rank best for your industry. And an SEO audit is an easy way to find out! It gives a complete overview of all the types of content visitors view on your site – words, videos, or images. With this knowledge, you can quickly develop a solid content strategy for each page of your website or blog so that people who visit see high-quality information tailored specifically to them.
This is the best way to build up organic traffic without relying on backlinks from other sites. You need to build up your reputation first before outside sources will start recommending you. But once you have well-written, highly-optimized content on your freelance writing website, you’ll start seeing an increase in backlinks.
