How much should I charge to write SEO-friendly content?
Every week I browse many sites for job openings that I can post on my freelance writing blog. This is very useful because you can learn about freelance writing trends, which jobs pay more or less and what other services you can offer (such as social media consulting) to attract clients.
Why does all this matter and how does it relate to the title of this article? Well, the rates for writing search engine optimized (SEO) content are definitely going up, so here are some “new” rules on how much I think you should at least charge for this kind of writing.
The price of writing SEO articles
Google’s algorithm updates in recent years (such as Penguin and Panda in 2011, 2012 and 2013) have made it clear what search engines are looking for. One of them is length. Search engines look for longer texts and give them more weight. prove?
In a QuickSprout post titled “How Content Length Affects Rankings and Conversions,” internet marketing expert Neil Patel wrote:
The top 10 Google results for each keyword have an average of at least 2000 words of content on the page. The higher you are on the search results page, the more information there is on each web page.
I think this is one of the reasons why the pay for writing SEO content has increased. When I started in 2007, customers were asking for 400-500 word articles, but now they want about 500-750 word articles.
How much does an SEO article cost? I’ve seen articles of this length in job postings ranging from as little as $20 to as much as $100 or more. Note: I don’t look for crazy rates like $5 for 500 words.
SEO Blog Rates
The rates have also been increased for shorter content, such as blog posts. It used to be not uncommon for people to bid $5 or $10 for 300 to 400 words. Now it’s not uncommon to see blogging percentages between $15 and $50 for content this length.
How much should I charge to write a blog post with SEO? If you have experience in a specific field and can demonstrate your understanding of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) writing, you should be able to get $25 to $50 per article easily as a new online writer.
Finally
I don’t like telling freelance writers how much to charge. It’s always been such a “loaded” (sorry, irresistible) theme. My point has always been that nobody has to pay the bill when it’s due, except you. So set your price based on what you think is reasonable for you and your financial situation. But do it if you have some facts to back you up.
Check out jobs titled SEO Writer, SEO Copywriter, Content Marketer, Online Writer, and more to see what you can find. Also check out what 10 or 20 other freelance web writers in your field are asking.
If you do both things, you should have enough information to calculate how much to charge.
4 things every freelancer should know to attract clients
The rules have changed since I started writing content for search engine optimization (SEO) in 2022. This is one of the things that makes this kind of technical writing fun and frustrating.
Here are four things you need to know as a freelance SEO writer before 2022 to attract clients, maintain a good relationship with Google, and get rewarded in search results.
1. Become a master storyteller: In the past, writing online content was all about keywords and how often they were used. You do your research, put the keywords in the right places, like the article title, subtitle, and body, and submit it (if you do it often).
I know. I used to find a lot of keywords related to the niche of the products and services I was selling at the top of the first few pages of Google.
It is no longer as simple as it used to be. In February 2011, Google’s Panda update pretty much got rid of this way to get high rankings. Today it’s all about quality content, and a “master storyteller” is what content marketers want.
They want content that keeps customers interested and prompts them to take the next step in the sales process, be it purchasing an item or downloading a free report (thus obtaining an email address so they can pitch to potential customers).
If you can learn to tell a good story as a freelance SEO writer, the only thing that will limit your income is how well you can market yourself.
How do you tell a good story in an article?
FYI, how to write good SEO-friendly articles about Outbrain, 1 and 2012 made quality the most important ranking factor.
What does this have to do with completing tasks? Because it’s hard to get to the top of search results by writing articles with keywords in the right place, customers use different metrics to measure results.
While search engine rankings still matter, when you write for your clients, they look at useful metrics like the number of clicks you get, how often you share it on social media, how many people send it to their blog, etc. . .
It all comes down to being a great storyteller and knowing how to share information well, which brings me to my next point.
3. Understand social media. Today, social media is an important part of SEO content writing. The two go together. Why? Because you can write the best piece of content since Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, but there’s no point if no one reads it!
That’s why it’s important to keep things separate.
Knowing who uses the biggest social media sites and how they use them can help you get the content you write for your clients to the right people. This can also give you an additional income stream (social media account management) that is easy to sell to clients who already work with you.
Learn how to write good headlines. This is important because the title is the first part of what people see when they visit your website. No matter how good your other content is, if the headline doesn’t appeal to people, they won’t read, share, buy from you, or contact you.
Think about this…
Five times as many people read the title as the rest of the text. By the time you’ve written your headline, you’ll have used up 80% of your budget. ~David Ogilvy
David Ogilvy is a man who works in advertising. He is known by many as the “father of advertising”. He founded Ogilvy & Mather, now one of the largest advertising agencies in the world.
See why it’s so important for SEO writers to learn how to write headlines?
Finally
Many people don’t think much about their writing skills until they need them. This allows good SEO writers to earn a lot of money if they follow the tips in this article. Businesses need what you have to offer because content marketing is growing and they are willing to pay a lot for those who can get results.
