Before you hire an SEO freelancer: what to check and prepare

1. Decide what success means

Traffic alone is not a goal. Decide what you want visitors to do, such as request a quote, buy a product or book a call, and which pages or services matter most. A local plumber, an online store and a software company need very different SEO work. If your business serves a specific area, local SEO may matter more than national rankings. If you sell online, product and category pages are the focus; see our e-commerce SEO guide.

2. Set up measurement first

Make sure your site has analytics and that you have access to the search engine's webmaster tools, such as Google Search Console. These show which searches already bring visitors, which pages appear in results and whether there are technical errors. If they are not set up, have them installed before hiring or as the first task. Without data, neither you nor the freelancer can measure progress. Give access through separate user accounts, not your own password.

3. Know your site's current state

Note the platform your site runs on, who can make changes, and any known problems such as slow pages, broken links or a recent redesign. SEO often requires technical fixes, new pages or content changes, so find out in advance who will implement them. Some freelancers only advise; others make changes directly. If nobody can edit the site, recommendations will sit unused.

4. Think about content

Most lasting SEO results come from useful pages that answer what people search for. Decide whether you will write content yourself, have the SEO freelancer write it, or hire a separate writer. List your expertise, common customer questions and topics you can speak about with authority. These are often the best starting points.

5. List competitors

Name three to five businesses that appear in search results for the services you offer. A freelancer can study what their pages do well and where there are gaps you can fill. This also makes proposals more concrete, because the freelancer can show where you stand compared with real competitors.

6. Budget and working style

SEO is usually sold either as a one-time project, such as an audit or a set of page improvements, or as a monthly retainer for ongoing work. A one-time audit is a sensible first step if you are unsure what your site needs; it gives you a prioritized list that you can act on yourself or with a freelancer. A retainer suits businesses that want steady content and improvements over many months. Whichever you choose, ask what exactly will be delivered each month, how progress will be reported, and what happens to the content and accounts if you stop working together.

What good SEO work looks like

• An audit with clear priorities, not a long list of every possible issue.
• Keyword research tied to your services and customers.
• Technical fixes explained in plain language.
• Content plans and on-page improvements for key pages.
• Regular reports showing search visibility, traffic and conversions.

Red flags

• Guaranteed rankings or a guaranteed position in a fixed time.
• Large packages of backlinks for a low price, or paid links on unrelated sites.
• Secret methods the freelancer will not explain.
• Reports full of numbers without links to your actual business goals.
• Requests for full admin access when limited access would do.

Pre-hire checklist

• Goals, priority pages and target areas decided.
• Analytics and search console set up, with access ready to share.
• Platform, editing access and implementation plan known.
• Content approach decided.
• Competitors listed.
• Realistic timeline of several months agreed.

Our SEO guide explains how to compare freelancers, and our SEO vs SEM article helps if you are deciding between organic search and paid ads.