Maybe you are a new grad exploring the best way to build a business to skip the 9-to-5 route altogether. Or maybe you have been working at a 9-to-5 for years and have just had it with the corporate grind. Or maybe you are currently a side-hustle freelancer looking to turn it into a full-time gig.
No matter which category you fall under, there’s a freelance skill that is both easy to learn and highly sought after — meaning you can charge a premium price for your new skill — giving you a quicker way into a self-sufficient freelance business.
Let’s talk about what it is and how to learn it.
The Most Worthwhile Freelancing Skill
If you’ve done even just 5 minutes of online searching (which, since you’re here, I’m confident you have), you’ll quickly realize how competitive many freelancing skills are.
You’re competing with:
- Full-scale agencies
- Solopreneurs
- Freelance platforms (like Fiverr and Upwork)
- AI
- And more.
But a crowded space doesn’t mean the opportunities are gone.
It’s not too late to succeed with freelancing — you’ll just have to do it differently than everyone else did.
And I’m here to let you in on our secret.
There’s one skill we have learned at Lavendai Creative that has by far earned us more than any other. It’s low competition and it has earned us more clients and revenue than any other, (and we’ve tried a dozen). That skill is SEO.
Some great things about proficiency in SEO:
- Everyone thinks it’s technical (in some ways it is, but in most ways it’s not).
- No one wants to learn it in any detail (not your clients or competitors, giving you an edge over the market and premium pricing opportunities).
- It’s the bedrock of success for most marketing (SEO skills make you better at everything — you can use it as a launching point for upselling your services in even the most crowded freelancing skill).
- People already know they need it (making it very easy to sell).
As you may have noticed, it’s by far our most profitable and easiest-to-sell service. So if you’re going to invest time and/or money learning a skill, you may as well invest in something worthwhile.
SEO is the skill that still ticks all the boxes.
What is SEO? The Best Freelancing Skill to Learn
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.
It’s exactly what it sounds like. You’re trying to optimize a website for better results (known as a higher rank) on a search engine (like Google or Bing).
You’re already familiar with it whether you know it or not. Let me explain…
When you open a new internet browser window or tab, it probably defaults to Google’s homepage.
Into Google, you type a query. Something like: “Can dogs eat blueberries?” “How to get a wine stain out of carpet” “Best face wash for dry skin” “Valentine’s Day date ideas” or “Chinese restaurant near me.”
Google then pulls up a few options to satisfy your query. You probably look at the first one or two results and click away happy, or refine your search query. until you see the results you’re looking for.
Now imagine these exact same searches from a business perspective.
The search query offers insight to the searcher that businesses can leverage to sell a product or service:
“Can dogs eat blueberries?”
The person searching this query very likely has a dog. A dog they care a lot about (enough to search before giving them scraps).
As such, this is an ideal query for someone whose products or services are designed for dog owners. That could be a pet food company, pet treat company, pet supply company, or local (to the searcher’s) veterinarian’s office, to give a few examples.
“How to get a wine stain out of carpet.”
The person searching this query probably has a stain on their carpet right now (new or old) and is within a household that contains a wine drinker.
As such, this is an ideal query for someone who sells products or services related to stains or carpet repair/replacement, for example. This person may be looking for one shortly after this query — a warm lead if you can get them to remember you.
It’s also potentially a useful query for companies who have a wine-drinker audience (subscription box services, meal kit delivery services, charcuterie companies, winemakers, etc.) — a slightly colder, but absolutely relevant lead for them.
“Best face wash for dry skin.”
Not only do you know this person is actively in the market for a new face wash. You also know their skin type.
I’ll let you think through the types of businesses that could use this query to their advantage.
“Valentine’s Day date ideas.”
Local restaurants, movie theatres, craft stores, coffee shops, recipe bloggers, wineries, city tourism boards, jewelers, boogie picnic companies, companies that sell gift baskets, and so many more would love to show up as the top result for this query.
Why? Because they offer a Valentine’s Day-appropriate date idea, and this searcher is looking for just that — they’re a potential warm lead for any of these businesses.
“Chinese restaurant near me.”
The searcher is hungry, wants Chinese food, and probably wants it now (or in the very near future). They’re going to check out the top 5, maybe 10 results, and pick the one with the best reviews.
If a local Chinese restaurant doesn’t make the top few results, they’re probably SOL for snagging that customer.
Where you come in
As a freelancer selling SEO services, you help businesses find these opportunities and optimize their website for them. You improve their rank over competitors, appease the algorithm (part of the skill you’ll learn), and get them more opportunities to be placed in front of potential customers.
It’s the equivalent of having a souvenir gift shop near the bean (Millennium Park) in Chicago vs. Streator Illinois.
If they aren’t ranking, their competitors are. And they’re missing out on a lot of sales because of it.
Your goal: find and increase targeted traffic to improve their email list, fans, and sales.
Put them on Main Street.
How to Learn SEO and Build A Business
There are a lot of resources out there you can use to learn SEO, but we find a lot of them try to make SEO sound complicated to sell their services to businesses. It truly doesn’t have to be so complicated, and we’re here to help you.
Here are some great places to go:
- Google has a lot of free courses that help you learn about their algorithm.
- Youtube has some excellent videos on specific topics like “keyword research,” for example.
- I have a lot of articles to help with some of the basics (including tools you can use to help). Like this one about writing good SEO content:
A 10-Step Guide to Freelance Writing for SEO-Optimized Articles + Free PDF
If you want to write for your business or business clients, here’s your comprehensive guide.
Or this one about improving SEO on a slightly deeper level:
8 Ways to Improve Your Blog SEO: A Quick and Dirty Guide
The things (beyond the text) you can do to optimize for SEO.
4. Or you can join our workshop waitlist where we’ll give you our exact business model (instruction, templates, practice, & tools included). In it, you’ll learn the skills you need and the exact product we sell (i.e., an SEO audit) to upsell and secure long-term clients.
