Tech
Top Free SEO Tools for Freelancers in 2024
Free SEO Tools for Freelancers: A freelancer must understand his or her market, competitors, and customers to consistently earn a sustainable income and maintain an edge in the race for freelance talent.
The competition is fierce, and the freelancer market is becoming saturated, making it more difficult to secure gigs and attract clients. With more than half of the U.S. workforce turning to side hustles as a primary or secondary source of income to help manage soaring living costs, there are approximately 1.57 billion freelancers worldwide.
Because of this, freelancers should have SEO tools in their toolkit to gather useful data that will assist them in making informed decisions.
Using this technology allows freelancers to identify new product or service ideas, assess search trends to identify new product or service ideas, and remain relevant in today’s conversations to keep their audience (for their brand) and customers engaged on social media and their websites daily.
Nevertheless, you decided to become a freelancer because you can barely make ends meet, and with the recent spike in mortgage prices, you are in a tough spot financially.
If you are starting and trying to launch your side hustle (or main hustle) with as little capital as possible, investing in comprehensive SEO packages such as Semrush may not be your first move.
It is good news that there are free SEO tools that can be just as effective, at least to begin with- depending on what they are being used for.
To begin with, what exactly is SEO, and why is it so important?
What Is SEO And How Does It Work?
SEO refers to ensuring your web pages and content are well-optimized for search engines, particularly the most popular ones, such as Google and Bing.
Once you learn how to use SEO effectively, you can position your brand in front of thousands, if not millions, of potential customers. Google dominates the search engine market, processing approximately 8.5 billion daily searches.
If you tap into this pool of potential leads, even if you have less than 1% of the market share, you can secure many high-paying gigs and projects as a freelancer.
Obtaining the coveted top spot in Google search results takes significant effort, but once you develop an SEO strategy and use tools to interpret the data and analytics behind it, you will see results.
These results can include:
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An increase in website traffic – more clicks and visits that may result in paying customers
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You will become more credible as a freelancer if you consistently rank well on search engines
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Leads that are pre-qualified since they are people who are already interested in your products or services
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The ability to compete with other freelancers and even companies
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In comparison with paid advertising, it is cost-effective and sustainable over the long term
To optimize your SEO strategy as a freelancer, you need to understand who your target audience is, where they hang out, and what they search for. When you understand their needs, you will be better positioned to appear in their search results on Google or Etsy, for instance.
Free SEO Tools For Freelancers
The following 10 free SEO tools will provide you with useful insights as a freelancer by providing data, research, and analytics. These tools have all been ranked highly by tech review sites such as Trustpilot, Capterra, Product Review, G2, and others, and many offer forever free plans/features, free trials, and paid upgrade options. AI-enhanced features are also available in some cases.
- Serpple
- Google Trends
- Google Search Console
- Google Analytics
- Similarweb
- Rankwatch
- EtsyHunt (for SEO research if you sell digital or physical products on Etsy)
- Moz Keyword Explorer
- Keyword Surfer (by Surfer)—free Chrome extension
- Keysearch (has a collection of free SEO research tools for Etsy, Amazon, eBay, and others)
As with any new tool you use to grow or build a business venture, it is important to evaluate the pros and cons of each, experiment, and determine which tool is most effective.
You might decide to stick with one or use a combination of tools. What is most important is to remember that, ultimately, research of the customers you are serving is essential to being a successful freelancer. You won’t stand out if you cut corners here.
