5 SEO & Web Development Freelancing Tips… How to Crush Your Gigs

Every interactive agency has their core internal team (ours is small but also happens to be the best in the universe), but agencies can’t thrive unless they have a few solid external freelancers that they can bring into a project on-demand. You might get called because you have a specific skillset or area of expertise, because the agency temporarily needs additional bandwidth, or simply because it makes economic sense.

But here’s something to keep in mind – no matter how good your skills, no matter how brilliant you are, an agency owner (or account manager or project manager) is going to judge your success – and whether you stay in the rolodex – by two basic factors:

• Did you contribute to the success of the project (execution)?
• Did you make my life easier (character)?

Here are the most important things I look for in a web development, web design, or SEO freelancer:

In no particular order…

Be excellent.

Obviously, you’ve gotta execute and perform up to the agency’s standards. An aspiring copywriter, for example, needs to check previous written material from the agency and had better make sure that what they produce is at the same level. A freelance copywriter will instantly blow his or her chance if the agency has to make a lot of edits to raise the quality of the work up to their standard – especially because at that point, you haven’t only submitted below-par work – you’ve also wasted the agency’s time.

Be faithful & proactive.

Particularly in the context of recurring engagements – SEO freelancing, for example – it’s crucial that a freelancer faithfully performs their tasks without needing to be reminded or “letting it slide.” An agency does NOT farm out work because they love holding someone’s hand & nagging them. An agency usually pulls in a freelancer at least partly due to an issue with their bandwidth. Freelancer, your agency contact does not want to play babysitter. Chances are they don’t have enough minutes in the day to spend any checking up on you and keeping you on-task — especially if your workload is part of a recurring schedule. The agency needs to trust that their outsourced work is getting done, without having to ask.

Be a problem solver.

Think independently! Take the bull by the horns! Be resourceful! I begin to get grumpy the moment a freelancer asks a question they should be able to answer themselves. An entire website, “Let Me Google That For You” exists to give voice to this frustrating situation. Nothing will irk your agency contact more than if you ask him or her a question that could have been answered within around 15 seconds with an intelligent Google search. Be resourceful and demonstrate that you have the mental wherewithal to accomplish your tasks and overcome reasonable obstacles on your own. This isn’t intended to stifle good, meaningful, reasonable questions. Just the stupid ones. Despite what everyone’s K-12 teachers said, stupid questions sure as heck exist (and teachers know it better than anyone!).

The rule of thumb is: don’t waste time. Don’t waste your agency contact’s time with trivial questions – and don’t waste your own time or the agency’s by failing to ask important questions promptly. Efficiency is king.

One more comment on this topic, also related to efficiency. A freelancer who who stops all facets of their work because they’re waiting on an answer from their agency contact on one facet of the work, will find themselves out of work. Doing a freelance web design and need an image from the agency? Not a problem. Pausing all progress on the rest of the design elements while you wait? Huge problem. And inexplicably, a common one. A freelancer needs a strong sense of internal motivation & must exercise great judgment, or else the agency will justifiably label you as lazy & remove you from the roster.

Be Reliable

Let your “yes” be yes. A reasonable agency contact will understand if there are times when you decline work because you don’t feel that you can turn work around within the desired timeline. If it is habitual, you might eventually find yourself in the dark… but it is far better to decline work than to over-promise and under-deliver. Once you agree to the work, your agency contact absolutely must be able to depend on you to turn work around by the time you estimated. Once a freelancer says they can make a deadline, the agency must have absolute confidence that it will be made, without room for excuses. Once you agree – make it happen, no matter what, with no excuses. Whether the power goes out, the cat had to go to the vet, a friend stopped by for dinner or whatever – get the job done and done well. The agency your working with is often staking its own reputation – and bottom line – on your ability to deliver on your promises. So make your promises reasonable (never agree to an insane timeline!), and then do whatever it takes to get the job done.

Be Reasonable

Let’s face it – the money has to work. And we’ll be honest –there is a plague in our industry of individuals over-evaluating their worth. A freelancer needs to charge an appropriate and reasonable rate that the agency can maintain a strong profit margin on… and a rate that is commensurate with an objective assessment of their skills. We have thrown out countless resumes of individuals seeking maximum wages – with minimum-wage skills!

You might be able to charge a premium rate to your direct clients, and if so, more power to you. But remember – a competent agency knows better. They know industry averages for reasonable compensation, know what their budget requires to be profitable — and know whether you’re any good. Be honest with yourself, seek the type of roles and opportunities that your skill level is appropriate for, and accept the compensation that is reasonable for those roles. The agency will usually be too polite to tell you if you’re delusional – they just won’t give you the gig. So if you feel you’re missing out on opportunities that should be a good fit, consider that your demands may be a key factor in your rejection. And if you want to earn top-shelf compensation, you’d better be very sure that your portfolio reflects top-shelf capabilities.

Successful Digital Technology Freelancing: 80% Character, 20% Capability

Reviewing these mission-critical deal-breakers, it’s striking that 4 of the 5 factors we look for in a freelancer are unrelated to the individual’s actual capability to perform the task at hand. They’re related to the character of the freelancer. Integrity, critical thinking skills, reliability, & self-motivation are more about who you are than what you do. And in many cases – SEO & WordPress web development are prime examples – strong character is far more difficult to find than a Google Analytics certification or a programming degree. As an interactive agency, we are continually amazed at just how much of our business fundamentally rises and falls on the strength of our interpersonal relationships. The zeroes and ones, CMS systems, & programming languages all fade into the background, and the most important questions we can ask are: Can we trust you? Can we rely on you? Are you helpful? Will you do whatever it takes? Make sure those answers are always yes, and your phone will be blowing up with freelance work.