Skills an SEO freelancer must have beyond just SEO

As a full-time freelance SEO, you are now much more than an SEO who does some freelance work on the side. You are a business owner of your one-person agency.

We have already talked about your SEO skillset, but what about all the skills you will need to have and learn beyond SEO to ensure your SEO freelancing business is a successful one and you achieve your ‘why’.

I know I keep mentioning you being a one-person agency. This is to get you into the mindset of being a business owner as well as an SEO.

Just like with any one-person business, you will very quickly need to learn a variety of skills and boost your knowledge. Things like…

> Lead generation – You need to know ‘how’ to generate leads. If you don’t get any leads (people interested in purchasing your services) then you cannot sell to them and basically you don’t have a business as you won’t have any work.
> Sales – How to sell yourself as an SEO.
> Marketing – How to market yourself in the right way.
> Personal branding – You name is key to your brand, so ensuring you have a positive personal brand presence online is vital.
> Bookkeeping and accounting – Even if you outsource all your bookkeeping and accounting to an accountancy firm, it is vital that you still understand all your legal financial obligations as a business owner. You also need to understand about local tax laws, tax percentages when it comes to tax. All this will enable you to make ‘informed’ decisions within your business.
> Business plans – Having a solid business plan will not only give you focus, but it will justify that you have the potential of running a successful business as the business plan will make you justify your business choices and decisions.
> Being an educator – It is important that every client you work with understands the ‘why’ you are doing what you are doing. Explaining this in a non-technical way that each client can fully relate to is a skill of teaching which you will learn.
> Presentation skills – Being able to present information (your sales pitch) in a certain way so it fully demonstrates the value you will add to their business is one skill many SEOs fear the most, but it is also one skill that will help you to dramatically boost your one-person agency forward.
> Cashflow management – Making sure all your bills are paid on time and making sure you have the available money to pay them.
> Invoice chasing – This has got to be one of the most frustrating aspects of running a freelance SEO business. Making sure your invoices are paid on time is VITAL to the success of your business. Understanding all your available options when your clients don’t pay on time.
> Perception – One skill that many SEO freelancers fail to understand is… What is the perception of me as a freelance SEO? Often, what you think people think about you is not the same as what they actually think about you.
> Communication skills – The way you explain something in the order you say it, really does make a huge difference when you are communicating with your clients.

I’m going to expand on some of the above further on in this SEO freelancer guide, but first I want to talk about…