Hiring an SEO freelancer: the brief, the questions, the deliverables

Buy judgement on what to do and skilled time to do it. For a small product, SEO is a loop: pick searches, build the right pages, earn mentions, read the figures, adjust. You can buy parts of that loop or all of it for a quarter.

• Strategy once a year, read monthly: the searches to win, the pages to build, the ways to earn links and mentions.
• A quarterly plan: which pages to write now, which to refresh, technical debts to clear, who does what and in what order.
• Execution: research, briefs, writing or editing, internal links, fixes, outreach for links, and the ship list.
• Measurement: one KPI you read weekly and the diagnostic metrics you read when the KPI moves. A one page monthly report.

Example: yourproduct.com ships a “/compare/competitor-a” page, refreshes “/pricing”, fixes CLS on “/blog/how-it-works”, and pitches a small data study for mentions. The KPI is clicks from non brand search per week. The diagnostics are impressions, average position, indexed pages, Core Web Vitals and referring domains.

Your brief should let a freelancer start on day one. Keep it to one page. Attach access only after you sign.

1. 1

   The searches you want

   List categories and best of lists, alternatives and comparisons, the jobs your product does, integrations you support, and your brand. Example queries: “best uptime monitoring tools”, “Pingdom alternatives”, “status page for startups”, “Stripe integration status alerts”, “yourproduct”. Flag which are revenue pages and which are content.

2. 2

   The pages to answer them

   Map one topic to one page. Example: “/best/[category]” for category lists, “/alternatives/[brand]” for alternatives, “/compare/[brand]” for head to heads, “/use-cases/[job]” for jobs to be done, “/integrations/[brand]” for integrations, “/guides/[topic]” for education. Add existing URLs, gaps, and conflicts like two posts trying to rank for the same query.

3. 3

   The state of the site

   Say what is broken or slow. Example: mobile LCP on “/pricing” is at 3.2 seconds, INP spikes on “/app” after login, 120 orphan posts in the blog, 60 pages shown but never clicked in the last 28 days. Note what your CMS can and cannot do.

4. 4

   Your current figures and goal

   Share last 28 days of Search Console: clicks, impressions, average position. Add GA4 signups from organic if you track them. Set one goal as a figure and a date, like “two hundred clicks a week from non brand searches by March”.

5. 5

   Constraints and help

   Budget style, not the number yet: hourly, daily or per project. What you will do in house: writing drafts, publishing, dev time per week. Tools you already pay for. Launches or listings planned.

A good brief reads like this: “We want alternatives, comparisons and two integration pages first. We can draft pages if you give content briefs. We can ship two dev fixes a sprint. Aim for two hundred non brand clicks a week by March.”

Interview with concrete questions. You want to hear a process tied to your site and your pages, not vague claims. Take notes. Ask for examples with URLs.

• How do you choose which searches we should target first, and why. Good answer: ties searches to pages that can win and revenue, not to volume charts.
• What does your content map look like. Good answer: one topic per page, avoids cannibalisation, names “/alternatives/[brand]”, “/compare/[brand]”, “/use-cases/[job]”.
• How do you measure progress weekly and monthly. Good answer: one KPI for the founder, diagnostics when it moves, Search Console or Looker Studio dashboard, one page monthly report.
• What do your briefs to writers look like. Good answer: search intent, page outline, title up to about 60 characters, internal links in and out, primary and secondary queries.
• How do you earn links and mentions for a small site. Good answer: launches, listings, tools, data, and targeted outreach. No link buying.
• How do you handle technical SEO here. Good answer: fix Core Web Vitals, indexation issues, clean internal links, not a 60 page generic audit.
• What do you ship in the first 30, 60 and 90 days. Good answer: fast wins, core pages live, issues cleared, then repeatable cadence.
• Show a before and after from a site like ours. Good answer: names pages shipped and the change in clicks, not a promise of positions.

Ask for one small paid test. Example: a content brief and edit for “/alternatives/competitor-a”, plus a plan for internal links to it from five posts. Ship it in a week and read results in Search Console after it is indexed.

Be clear on outputs before work starts. Tie each to your goal and the next ship date. This avoids slide decks that never touch your site.

• One page strategy, refreshed yearly, read monthly: searches, pages, links and mentions. No fluff, just decisions.
• A quarterly plan and a simple roadmap: what ships this quarter, what refreshes, which technical debts clear, who does what and when.
• Content map: a list of target topics and the single URL each will live on. Flags overlaps and orphans.
• 3 to 6 content briefs in the first month: each with search intent, outline, title options, internal links, and examples that rank.
• Edits on core pages: “/pricing”, “/features/[feature]”, “/use-cases/[job]”, “/integrations/[brand]”. Titles and meta descriptions written to length, internal links added.
• Technical task list: Core Web Vitals targets, indexation fixes, structured data to add, and the two or three changes that will move LCP, CLS or INP on key URLs.
• Link and mention plan: launches, listings, tools or data you can ship, with a list of targets and angles.
• One page monthly report: what changed in KPIs and why, what shipped, what next month does, figures as a table. Fits on one page.

A fixed page looks like this after editing: “/compare/competitor-a” has a clear H1, a short summary, a table of differences, FAQs, internal links from “/alternatives/competitor-a” and three posts, and a title under about 60 characters that mentions the competitor and your product.

Freelancers bill hourly, daily or per project. Agencies bill monthly retainers. Tools bill monthly subscriptions. Published price ranges vary by country, by scope and by the seller, so any “average” you read is somebody’s marketing. Size a budget by the work and by the value of a search click to your business, not by internet averages as of 2026.

• Pages: how many new pages and how many refreshes. Count alternatives, comparisons, use cases, integrations, guides.
• Technical fixes: which Core Web Vitals to hit on which URLs, indexation fixes, internal link pass, schema to add.
• Links and mentions: how many pitches you can make, how much data or tools you can publish, what launches or listings you can do.
• Management: the reporting and planning time to keep the loop moving.

Pick the seller by what you need. A consultant sells judgement, like an audit, a strategy or a review of the work. An agency sells execution. An in house hire sells continuity. A one off report sells the judgement once. Porteur is one report bought once, 99 € or 199 € with product analytics, if you want a second opinion before you brief a freelancer.

You will not “win SEO” in 90 days. You can judge the work and the ship pace. Read one KPI each week and the diagnostics when it moves. Read the monthly report. Look at the site and the search results yourself.

• KPI: clicks from non brand search per week. Expect a clear trend and a story that ties to shipped pages, refreshed pages and links earned.
• Diagnostics: impressions and average position for target pages, indexed pages count, Core Web Vitals on key URLs, referring domains and mentions.
• Ship list: the pages live, the refreshes done, the fixes merged, the pitches sent. It should match the plan.
• Search snippets: titles and meta descriptions within length, readable and clicked. No duplicates. Internal links to new pages from old posts.
• Attribution: GA4 shows signups from organic landings on “/compare/*”, “/alternatives/*”, “/use-cases/*”. You will not always see revenue in 90 days, but you should see visits and early conversions if your funnel works.

Open Search Console. In Performance, filter queries that exclude your brand. Check clicks over the last 28 days versus the previous 28. Open Pages, sort by clicks, and check the new URLs. Do the same for impressions. If impressions rise without clicks, fix titles and meta descriptions and check intent on the page. If clicks rise and signups do not, fix the page offer before you chase more traffic.

For a technical pass, open Core Web Vitals. Your targets are about 2.5 seconds for LCP, 0.1 for CLS and 200 ms for INP. Check the URLs that make money first: “/pricing”, “/signup”, “/compare/*”. If new pages are not indexed, use URL Inspection and check your sitemaps. Fix blocks in robots.txt and stray noindex tags if present.

SEM is the paid results and sometimes both paid and organic together. PPC is the paid model, with a CPC in Google Ads. Organic results come from ranking. Paid stops when the budget stops. Organic keeps sending clicks after the work. A new product often runs both: paid to learn which queries convert, organic to hold them.

Use paid early to test “/compare/competitor-a” and “/alternatives/competitor-a” offers. Keep the winning copy in your organic pages. Kill paid once organic holds those queries. Keep tracking signups from search so you do not optimise only for clicks.

• Guaranteed rankings or a promise of first position on a keyword.
• Secret techniques and private networks. If they cannot explain it, do not buy it.
• Links for sale. Buying links that pass ranking violates spam policies.
• Scaled content abuse: churning many pages to manipulate rankings instead of helping people, whatever writes them.
• Site reputation abuse: third party content hosted on a strong site to exploit its ranking.
• Expired domain abuse: buying old domains to pass signals to new content.

A safe page family earns when each page has data or an answer of its own. Example: “/alternatives/competitor-a” with a measured feature table and screenshots, not spun text. Avoid flooding your blog with near duplicates that only swap a keyword. Keep one topic to one page and link to it from related posts.

DIY SEO is realistic with free tools and one hour a week. You can use Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, PageSpeed Insights, the results page, and a crawler’s free tier. What you cannot do alone is write forty good pages a month or earn links without a product worth linking. Hire when the work exceeds your hours or skills.

If budget is tight, buy a strategy and the first six briefs, then draft in house. If time is tight, buy a quarter of execution with a fixed ship list. If the marketing team is new, buy a monthly review and report to course-correct the plan against figures.

Find candidates through referrals and public work. Ask for two examples with URLs and the ship list. Skip screenshots of rank trackers that do not tie to pages and clicks.

1. 1

   Shortlist by fit

   Pick those who have shipped comparison and alternatives pages, or your site type. For local sites, look for local SEO experience on service pages and Google Business Profiles.

2. 2

   Paid test

   Commission one content brief and a page edit for “/alternatives/competitor-a”. Include internal links to add from five posts. Pay a fair day rate. Ship in a week.

3. 3

   Scope and terms

   Agree the ship list for the first month, the plan for the quarter, the owner of each task, and when reports land. Access to Search Console and GA4 after signing.

4. 4

   Kickoff

   Start with the content map, two briefs, one edit, and one technical fix that moves a Core Web Vital on “/pricing” or “/signup”. Ship something in week one.

Stay close. Read titles and meta descriptions. Click through to your pages from the results. If you would not click your snippet, ship a better one. If a page is not earning clicks after impressions rise, fix the offer on the page or the intent mismatch, not just the wording.