Did you know that Google considers over 200 SEO uses when considering your freelance website ranking on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP)?
No worries. As a freelancer, you only have to worry about a few of them – just five actually. The others will either be irrelevant to you or have such a minor impact that you can safely ignore them.
Feel better now?
Great. Let’s look at what you really need to factor in when it comes to your freelance business.
#1 Install an SSL certificate
A Secure Sockets Layer Certificate (SSL Certificate) converts your website from “http” to “https.” It’s important to Google since it signifies that any information your visitors share with your website is safe and secure.
Chrome and Safari (two of the most popular web browsers) have begun to warn visitors when the site they’re trying to load lacks an SSL Certificate.
In Chrome, it likes like this:
In Safari, it looks like this:
The visitor warning isn’t as ominous as it once was, but it’s still not a good look. Plus, it has a negative impact on your SEO.
SSL certificates are included in the hosting packages of some website hosting providers. Others expect you to pay. If your hosting provider charges you, but you’re tech competent and want a free SSL certificate, CloudFlare is a good option.
This is an easy win that can have a huge impact, so take care of it first. It’ll give you some good momentum to tackle some of the more difficult tasks later on.
#2 Make your freelance website mobile responsive
Nearly 50% of all searches are now conducted on mobile or tablet devices around the world. This means that if your freelance website isn’t mobile-friendly, you might be losing over half of your visitors. Your website only has to be mobile responsive since bounce rate (how quickly someone leaves your site) is important for SEO.
It’s a win-win situation because having a mobile-friendly site also projects some serious professionalism. And we want that, don’t we?
You may test your website’s mobile responsiveness by loading it on different devices or using Google’s Mobile Friendly Test.
The benefit of Google’s test is that if there are any problems, you may follow their instructions for making your website mobile-friendly. They do a good job of laying it out for you.
If you have issues with your freelance website, you can use Additional Resources to get Google’s advice on how to fix them.
#3 Boost your site speed
Great news! Your recently installed SSL Certificate is most likely helping your site’s performance.
You may assess how quickly (or slowly) your website loads for free. Pingdom will assign a letter grade to your website and provide an analysis of all the components that are slowing it down.
TinyPNG and TinyJPG will compress your photos so your site pages take less time to load without sacrificing image quality. Compressed photos are critical for page load speed, especially if your freelance website contains a lot of images, like a photography or design portfolio.
Another essential thing you can do to improve your site speed is to reduce the number of redirects. If Guemmah’s mobile site redirects looked like this: “guemmah.com -> www.guemmah.com -> m.guemmah.com -> m.guemmah.com -> m.guemmah.com -> m.guemmah.com -> m.guemmah.com ->, those two extra redirects would waste time and cost you an increase in your bounce rate (people leaving your site).
#4 Understand search intent
Keep in mind who your audience is and what information they’re looking for when they type in that search query. That’s one of the most significant things you can do to help your freelance website rank on a search engine like Google.
For example, we know that if someone is having trouble setting up a new freelance website, they can find the information they need in our Complete Guide to Setting Up Your Freelance Website piece. We made certain to answer all of the questions we expected a freelancer to have about the hows and whys of a website setup.
All of the SEO techniques and tactics in the world won’t help if your website doesn’t answer your visitors’ questions, so be sure you know what information your audience is looking for when they use a given keyword. Part Four of this series will go over this in greater detail, but for now, look at each page on your site and ask yourself, “What question(s) does this page answer?” If you don’t have a clear understanding, neither will Google, and your search engine rating will suffer as a result.
#5 Make sure your on-page SEO is flawless
On a website level, elements like an SSL Certificate and Site Speed have an impact on SEO, but every page on your website is important for SEO. As a result, make sure that each page contains a few fundamental elements. Right now, the three most crucial things to remember are:
Optimize your images
In addition to compressing them, you should optimize your images. This entails identifying your keywords and using them naturally not only in your content but also in the titles and descriptions of your images.
If you haven’t been optimizing your images and are intimidated by the process, keep reading because in Part Five of this series, we’ll discuss how to SEO-optimize your images.
Structure your content and pages
What is it that both visitors and search engines like the most? Well-structured Content. Learn how to use the various sorts of header tags and bullet lists. Both your visitors and search engines will appreciate being able to rapidly skim through your site’s material for the information they’re looking for. Google will also take note of users scrolling down and engaging with material farther down the page, which will boost your results.
Now is a good time to double-check that your pages and content are correctly structured. Don’t get too worked up if they aren’t. In Part Six of this series, we’ll go through the best practices for arranging your pages and content.
Do not “Stuff Keyword”
Stop listening to anyone who tells you that you need to mention a keyword x number of times on a page in order to rank in Google. This strategy, known as keyword stuffing, is now penalized by Google, so always write as if you’re writing for a human being and expect Google to understand what you’re talking about.
Final thoughts
Now that you’ve addressed the five most important components of your website’s SEO, you’re ready to go on to Part Four of this series, which will teach you how to identify your keywords.
