Many business owners have attempted to outsource their SEO-related tasks or entire SEO campaigns to freelancers on Upwork, Fiverr, PeoplePerHour, Freelancer.com, and other freelancing websites. There are some reputable SEO freelancers on those sites, but there are also scammers and unskilled SEO professionals.
So, can so-called SEO Experts on Upwork, Fiverr and other freelancing get you results? While some of the freelancers can get the job done, most freelancers on Upwork, Fiverr and other freelancing websites can not get you the results that you desire for your online business.
Why is this the case? Most of the freelancers provide SEO services that only improve one part of an SEO campaign. For example, a Fiverr seller that sells meta data optimization services can not do enough to make an SEO campaign successful.
An SEO campaign requires on-page SEO (meta data optimization and more), off-page SEO (backlinking), content creation (blogging and YouTube video creation), and technical SEO.
Only a freelancer or an agency that can provide services for all of the previously mentioned areas can generate the results that you desire.
The caveat would be a really good content marketer that create so much great content that the website that they work on naturally gains backlinks and does not require large amount of on-page or technical SEO.
SEO can be very perplexing especially to those who have skills that are more suited to traditional marketing strategies. It’s no surprise that people decide to outsource their SEO-related work or entire campaigns to a freelancer or agency like EcomDynamiX.
A good businessperson knows when to outsourcing or delegate. Making sure that you hire SEO professionals who are up to date with SEO is very difficult which is why I have written this post.
In this post, I will explain why agencies can get your website organic traffic results that exceed anything that an SEO freelancer or in-house SEO professional can do for the same budget or price.
Then, I am going to go through freelance sites Fiverr, Upwork, and PeoplePerHour and I will go through scams to watch out for.
Why You Should or Should Not Hire an Agency To Do SEO
Below, I will thoroughly go over the pros and cons of SEO agencies.
Benefits of Hiring an SEO Agency
SEO agencies have far more benefits and have much more to offer than freelancers and in-house specialists. Below, I will thoroughly explain why.
SEO agencies hire the top SEO specialists and constantly provide training for them so that they learn the newest techniques and can develop skills. The more SEO professionals working in an SEO agency, the better the odds of generating massive success for clients.
Even smaller and newer agencies tend to have several contractors or employees that can organize the SEO-related tasks more efficiently and effectively. Customer support specialists, project managers, content writers, and backlink specialists are examples of employees and contractors that work at an SEO agency.
The SEO strategists will collaborate with an SEO manager to develop a specific strategy for each and every website/client. They have the most experience in an SEO agency as well as a better understanding of deadlines and timeframes.
When complex tasks must be completed, teamwork is critical. SEO strategists will go over the data gathered by auditing softwares and analytics platforms like Google Analytics.
Analytics and reporting for SEO campaigns are essential because without properly measuring your rankings, you will not have a decent understanding of your results. Every online business is unique which means that the requirements, needs, and goals need to be different for each client/website.
Make sure you choose an agency that specializes in a niche or industry. At EcomDynamix, we specialize in SEO for online stores, for example.
SEO for an online store is typically much more complex than SEO for a small, local business because their websites are usually smaller. Also, ranking for local keywords is typically easier than ranking for product based keywords.
The top digital marketing agencies that specialize in SEO for online stores knows that useful and high quality content combined with cutting-edge SEO tactics will increase sales, increase customer retention rates, and most importantly they will generate a positive return on investment (ROI). With such a high number of agencies you can definitely find a good one within your budget.
Disadvantages of Hiring an SEO Agency
SEO agencies are more selective about who they want to work with and will charge more than most freelancers and in-house SEO professionals. They also might ask you to join a waitlist as they can only take in a limited number of clients per month or per year.
Why You Should or Should Not Hire an SEO Freelancer or In-House SEO Professional To Do SEO
Firstly, the main difference between an SEO freelancer and an in-house SEO professionals is that a freelancer is self-employed. Both run entire SEO campaigns themselves and will occasionally collaborate with a writer or content marketer for help with blogging. SEO agencies are much more compartmentalized.
Below, I will thoroughly go over the pros and cons of SEO freelancers and in-house SEO professionals.
Benefits of Hiring an SEO Freelancer and In-House SEO Professional
SEO freelancers have increased in numbers during the last decade as the SEO industry grows. SEO freelancers typically charge a lot less than SEO agencies especially since they have less expenses.
Plus, most SEO freelancers can ensure that their schedule will match your desires and needs. Their flexibility ensures that they are usually ready to start a brand new project.
In-House SEO professionals who are employed full-time are much more controllable and loyal than freelancers. They will not deny a request for a meeting by management, for example.
Also, they can be a part of a company’s culture. As far as confidentiality, they will ensure that your top secret company information remains confidential. They will spend 40 hours a week on a single website attempting to increase organic traffic.
Disadvantages of Hiring an SEO Freelancer and In-House SEO Professional
As previously stated, most of the freelancers on freelancer websites only provide SEO services that improve a single part of an SEO campaign. Some freelancers can handle all four parts of a campaign (off-page SEO, on-page SEO, content creation, and technical SEO).
The exception would be a skilled content marketer (blogger or YouTuber) that can create large amounts of high quality content that a website organically gains backlinks.
SEO Scams To Watch Out For
I went through freelance sites Fiverr, Upwork, and PeoplePerHour and other freelancer sites to find different types of scams to watch out for.
And before I go through them, understand that as it becomes more and more critical to do SEO, many low quality SEO freelancers and agencies have started selling SEO services. Some of these companies are incompetent and some are completely fraudulent.
SEO Free Trial Scam
Although many SEO companies offer discounts to clients, some of them offer completely free SEO services. Some of these companies that offer free trials will make it a requirement to give them your access to your hosting account or FTP login information. They might load your website with trojan viruses after and destroy your website.
Very Low Priced SEO Sevices
Business owners want to keep their expenses low naturally, but they should note that the reputable companies will typically charge the market price in order to remain profitable. SEO agencies and freelancers with super low rates are probably cutting a wide variety of corners to keep low rates or a complete scam.
100% Guaranteed Organic Traffic or Rankings
A lot of SEO agencies and freelancers say that they can get you in the top 10 keyword rankings guaranteed. Google has come out with a statement that says that no one can guarantee a number one search engine ranking on Google.
Typically agencies and freelancers that make these guarantees will usually have fine print in a contract that you need to read. No SEO agency or freelancer has a special relationship with Google for ranking services.
You should also stay away from agencies and freelancers that say that they have a priority submit deal with Google. Also, Google’s employed, loyal workers would never gamble their jobs by dealing with scammers.
Secret/Undisclosed SEO Strategies
An ethical SEO agency or freelancer will explain SEO strategies (which will be ethical ones). In the majority of cases, these types of scammers will use Black Hat tactics (unethical strategies that Google disapproves of). These strategies are dangerous because they could to penalization by Google.
Website Content Ownership Scam
SEO agencies or freelancers might tell you to sign an agreement that says that you do not own the content that they will add to your website. Make sure to read the fine print thoroughly when going through a contract.
Linkedin SEO Scammers
Foreign, so-called SEO experts on Linkedin might try to sell you guest post services. Usually they are frauds. They won’t actually post your post or they will instead post your post then remove it in a week or so. Also, understand that the truth is that many guest posts don’t even get indexed by Google.
They will overcharge you and are foreign usually so they won’t be held accountable by the law. Make sure you go with a guest posting service that is reputable and has a refund policy as well as a permanent post guarantee.
Below is a screenshot of a person who sent me a message about guest post services from an Indian company.
Final Words on SEO Freelancer Websites
The truth is that if you do not have a great knowledge of SEO, then you stay away from freelance websites for SEO services. Firstly, you will be paying so-called SEO experts to do SEO-related tasks rather than implement an SEO strategy.
You need an experienced SEO expert to create a strategy for your website. They need to be able to lead a team as well.
Secondly, you can not properly evaluate the work that an SEO freelancer is doing if you do not fully understand SEO. Also, you need tracking set up to know if an SEO freelancer is benefitting your website or not. Reputable SEO agencies will provide tracking for you.