5 SEO Tips for Freelancers to Get Higher Rank On Google Search

Intro

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is anything that can boost your rank in Google searches. Even a small daily improvement in your Google Ranking can help your website reach #1 in the long run.

If you end up going down the rabbit hole and running into information that goes way over your head, we're here to help you break it down and increase your website traffic and organic search ranking.

Using the Right Freelance Website

When you use websites that you don’t own, like Medium, your portfolio won’t rank as highly as it would if you were to use your own website. When you use websites like Blogspot or WordPress, you can use your own domain (which is very affordable at around $10 a year).

There are tons of tutorials online if you’re new to WordPress or Blogspot to help you create your personalized site. WordPress seems to be the more popular option with so many opportunities to customize and easily add content to your site.

WordPress offers tons of options for layouts, add-ons, and so much more to make your website the best it can be. WordPress is one the most popular site-building platforms, it’s free to use, and can be customized to suit your needs.

It’s also easier than its major competitors, Joomla and Drupal, for beginners with little to no technical know-how when it comes to coding or programming.

The variety of plugins that are available for WordPress span the gamut. From image compression to adding a storefront to your site or contact forms, there’s a plugin for just about anything you could think of! Every plugin can be disabled or removed in just a few clicks, too, again proving its ease of use and functionality.

WordPress sites are also mobile-friendly. The mobile responsiveness can also affect how your site ranks in a Google search – just another box that WordPress checks!

Make Sure Your URLs are SEO-friendly

Keeping your URLs short and to the point is key. A short 4 to 6-word, keyword-heavy URL is more likely to have a better rank in Google search than one that doesn’t tell the user anything about the link or lacks keywords.

Also, if it’s short and to the point, a search engine will rank higher than if it wasn’t. Leave out words such as a, the, of, and for. These are usually filtered out of a Google search query and only hinder your website’s SEO.

Examples of Good URLs:

• www.example.com/seo-guide-beginner-freelancers
• www.awesome.com/large-breed-puppy-toys

These URLs tell the reader what the link is about, are kept short at only 4 words, and contain keywords that readers are likely to search for on Google.

Examples of Bad URLs:

• www.crazy.com/things-that-can-change-your-life-forever-in-a-split-second
• www.grandmas.com/?p=111

The first URL is too long and contains words that will be filtered out by Google or aren’t necessary to describe the post (“in a split second”). The second URL doesn’t tell the reader, or Google, what your link will take site visitors to.

Mention Your Targeted Keywords Naturally

If you have a blog or post about dog toys, you’ll want to mention the phrase ‘dog toys’ in the first 100 words of your blog or page.

The sooner you can get those keywords in there, the better you’ll rank in a Google search. You also want to mention your keywords and topics as much as you can. The more instances of a keyword, the better for your Google Ranking.

Visitors to your site will be able to tell when the keywords are organic as opposed to when they aren’t. Stuffing keywords where they don’t belong will automatically look forced and make your post choppy to read. Make it flow and appear like it was planned.

Use Outbound and Internal Links

Outbound links are exactly what they sound like, a link that goes to other websites that may have greater authority than yours on the subject you’re writing about. For instance, if you’re talking about a certain product, you may want to link to Amazon or a big box store that may sell or even specialize in the type of product you’re mentioning.

Internal links (example shown in are links to other posts or pages on your own site. If you have a post about the differences in two different breeds of dogs, add a link to a breed-specific article from your website within the new article.

This keeps people on your website and naturally increases your organic traffic, and in turn, your Google Ranking. Having a page on your site that doesn’t include another internal link is like having a room without a door. Without a door, you’re trapped in the room (page).

Ideally, it should only take a visitor 3 clicks to go from the homepage of your website to any article or page on your website.

Check Your Site Speed

If it takes a site longer than a few seconds to load, the majority of users won’t return. Consider it a first impression on a blind date. There are free tools to check the speed of your site like GTMetrix or PageSpeed Insights.

The speed of your site is so important that Google has made it a factor in its ranking process.

Some ways you can improve your site speed are:

• Image compression
• Reduce server response time
• Choosing the right hosting option for your site
• Enable browser caching
• Reduce image sizes

Many of the ways you can improve the site speed can be done using add-ons if you’re using WordPress. There are many options out there for image compression.

Choosing the right hosting site is another big factor. Maybe a shared hosting package will do the job. Others may require a dedicated server though to get the fastest loading times.

Shared hosting can run as little as $5 a month, but you’ll share a server with other sites which means that spikes from other sites that you’re sharing with may affect the speed of your site. A dedicated server would eliminate some complications but will require much more work and a technical setup. It’s also more costly.

In the end, deciding which one is right for you can make or break your site when it comes to achieving the website traffic you’re looking for.

Conclusion

All it takes is a bit of work and you’ll be on the first page of Google before you know it! These are just 5 simple SEO tips to help you improve your rank in Google search.