What if we told you that there is a way to double your website traffic, leads, and sales? And, that too without breaking the bank on agencies or companies. Yes, you heard that right! Statistics state the number one result in Google gets almost 32% of all clicks. That’s way ahead of doubling up your current figures. But, how could you rank your website in the top results of a search? Search Engine Optimization.
Simply saying, SEO is the process of improving your website to make it more visible and relevant to people who search for topics related to your business on search engines. However, many companies may find it difficult to invest a lot for a full-time office staff or an agency for that. That’s where you need a virtual assistant for SEO. Read on to understand all you need to know about hiring an SEO virtual assistant in 2024.
What is an SEO Virtual Assistant?
An SEO Virtual Assistant is a professional who works remotely to help you rank higher on search engines. They use various strategies to make your website more user-friendly, relevant, and visible to the target audience. Now, let’s have a look at what exactly they do.
What can an SEO Virtual Assistant do?
Well, an SEO virtual assistant will do everything that a normal agency would, at a cheaper cost. That’s the main reason for the rising popularity of SEO virtual assistants. Have a look at what you can expect from them:
1. Keyword Research
SEO virtual assistant will use advanced tools to find keywords and sort them based on density, ranking, competition, value, etc. Finally, they choose the best keywords that match your content strategy and fine-tune it to the web pages.
2. On-Page SEO
SEO virtual assistant will ensure the website’s efficiency and detect any errors that affect User Experience(UX). If needed, they will optimize the meta title tags, content, alt text, etc.
3. Backlink Building
SEO VA takes care of the off-page SEO or backlink-building process to increase the domain authority of your website. They identify guest post opportunities in your niche and use them to build quality backlinks that create website credibility.
4. Local SEO Optimization
Another way that an SEO VA can help you is local search engine positioning. They specifically research high-performing keywords in your area to reach the visibility of the local community. In addition, virtual assistants optimize your Google My Business(GMB) listing by regularly updating details like work hours, photos, etc.
5. Competitor Analysis
Normally, SEO virtual assistants will start with the traffic estimation of your competitor websites. They will analyze the traffic source, keyword list, content strategy, and all other things that have worked for the competitors. Then, VAs try to incorporate such strategies into your business, too.
5 Best Websites to Hire An SEO Virtual Assistant
Since SEO is a never-ending process, you should look for a reliable platform to find and manage a virtual assistant. Even though there are many virtual assistant websites, not all of them are equally trustworthy. That’s why we curated a list of the best websites to hire a virtual assistant for SEO to save you time. Here they are,
1. Wing Assistant
Wing Assistant is a San Francisco-based company that offers fully managed virtual assistants to your company. You can choose from 3 different pricing plans based on the work hours per week, starting at $599 per month.
How it Works?
Schedule a call and discuss your expectations about the virtual Assistant to their official team. Wing Assistant matches you with the top talents that fit in with your requirements. Upon matching, the team allocates a dedicated account manager to you who is responsible for maintaining the work quality. Then, you are good to go with managing the tasks.
Key Features
- Dedicated Assistants: Wing Assistant provides dedicated virtual assistants who take up only your work for a better focus. You are free to choose the work hours based on your time zone.
- Top Talents: The official website of Wing Assistant states that they just hire 0.5% of the top talents.
- Quality Control: The platform provides you with a dedicated account manager to implement strict quality control methods to ensure that the work meets your standards.
- Software integration: Virtual assistants from Wing Assistant can work with and manage various software, including ClickUp, Zoom, Shopify, Freshdesk, Intercom, Asana, Slack, and HubSpot.
2. GetFriday
GetFriday is yet another popular choice for hiring a virtual assistant. With an experience of over 18 years, they serve clients round-the-world in A-Z jobs, including SEO. You can get started with just $65 per month.
How it Works?
GetFriday is known for a simple and straightforward hiring process which is most suitable if you are struggling with time. Once you sign up for the membership, you are ready to get started. You can send the tasks to the platform and their CRM will automatically push the task to your virtual assistant.
Key Features
- Backup Assistant: even if your dedicated virtual assistant is on leave for a particular day, your task will be taken up by a backup assistant to ensure a smooth workflow.
- Safety: The client’s information is known only to the dedicated virtual assistant and that too only on a need-to-know basis.
- Preferred Time Zone: You can choose the preferred time slot of the Virtual Assistant from 4 options: Far East Shift, European Shift, EST Shift, and PST Shift.
- 24×7 coverage: If you need assistance during weekdays, you can contact our dedicated virtual assistant to get the job done according to your package. However, if you have any urgent pending tasks during weekends, GetFriday can still help you but at an additional charge.
3. Fiverr
Fiverr is another mainstream virtual assistant hiring platform. If you are running a business struggling with funds to hire a VA, then Fiverr is the right fit as you can get started with an amount as low as $5 per month. You can buy the services or ‘gigs’ from various ranges of subcategories in SEO that you need to focus such as on-page SEO, backlinking, etc.
How it Works?
You can use the advanced filtering system of the platform to find the most active VAs. Shortlist the candidates based on the rates, ratings, reviews, and portfolio of the profiles. You can consider giving sample tasks or interviews outside the platform. Once you have found the right candidate, place an order with the terms and conditions to get started.
Beyond the payment to Virtual Assistant, Fiverr also charges a fee. There is a service fee of $2 for orders up to $40 and 5% for orders above $40.
Key Features
- Rating system: You can analyze the ratings and portfolio of the candidate before choosing them for the job.
- Global Talent Pool: you can choose from almost 3 million freelancers from around the world.
- Customization: Fiverr allows you to customize your order at the later stages of the project. You can add extras like faster delivery, source files, etc. at an additional charge.
- Secure payments: The platform holds your payment in escrow until the freelancer delivers the service. The payment is released only after you approve the work.
4. Upwork
Upwork is one of the largest virtual hiring platforms with over 12 million freelancers. The platform is free to join and you need to pay only for the services you hired plus a fee.
How it Works?
Upwork works similar to that of Fiverr. The only difference is that you need to post a job description along with your specific job preferences. Then, you will probably receive tonnes of proposals. You can sort out the profiles with the help of the reviews and job success rate to schedule an interview. Alternatively, you can avoid all these steps and use the filtering features of the platform to invite the right candidate directly.
In both cases, you have to pay a one-time fee of up to $4.95 to Upwork for signing up the contract. Then, the platform charges a 5% Client Marketplace Fee on all payments that you make to the Virtual Assistants.
Key Features
- Personalization: Upwork uses AI technology to recommend to you the best profiles based on ratings and previous jobs.
- Easy-to-use: Upwork has a user-friendly interface that even a beginner can access easily to view job contracts, ongoing milestones, etc.
- Communication Facilities: The platforms provide you with collaborative features like video calls, file sharing, and so on for managing the work easily.
- Secure payments: Upwork offers a secure payment system, where you pay only when you are satisfied with the service.
5. Tawk
Tawk is a popular software that offers virtual assistant services to handle your SEO. The best part about Tawk is that you can get a dedicated virtual assistant without getting locked into contracts.
How it Works?
You need to choose a Tawk plan to get started. Contact their official team to let them know your job description and specific preferences. They will match your requirements with the right candidate and allocate a case manager for you to ensure work quality. It’s as simple as that.
Key Features
- Dedicated Assistant: The virtual assistant is not a shared resource and is 100% dedicated to your business. So, the assistant will have more focus on your job.
- Quick Hiring: You need not spend hours sorting out the resumes. The official team of Tawk will match you with the right candidate within days.
- Quality Assurance: Tawk ensures the services of a dedicated account manager who oversees the work with strict quality control procedures.
- Free Replacement: If you are not satisfied with the performance of the virtual assistant, you can request a free replacement at any stage.
Benefits of Hiring an SEO Virtual Assistant
Well, there are many options for doing SEO. You can hire a full-time SEO analyst. Otherwise, you can outsource it to an agency or a Virtual Assistant. While the choice depends upon the interests of a company, hiring a Virtual Assistant for SEO is currently emerging as a popular choice among companies. Here are some reasons for that:
1. Cost-Effective
Cost would be a major concern especially if you are a small business. Marketing agencies require regular monthly payments which would be much higher as the reputation goes up. Similarly, you may need to provide additional perks such as health insurance, paid leaves, retirement benefits, and all to an in-house staff.
Virtual Assistants work only for an agreed sum of money for productive work hours only. No paid holiday. No special charges for tools. Sounds too good to be true, isn’t it? Well, it is. Many companies prefer to save that amount and invest it in paid ads for better reach.
2. Control Over the Process
Marketing agencies know what exactly they do and have professionals to monitor the services. On the other hand, you can work directly with a Virtual Assistant. You can keep a close eye on the strategies of the assistant to make sure that the work stays on track. You can even suggest and implement changes for better results.
3. Better Focus
Marketing agencies may have plenty of clients waiting for their service. However, Virtual Assistants tend to take up only as much work as they can handle because they know the importance of work-life balance. Moreover, several websites offer dedicated Virtual Assistants(VA) who will work on only your case. They will have a better focus on your case and work.
4. Long-Term Relationship
Agencies tend to have professional communication with the client through a dedicated middleman. They pass the client requirements through a scalar chain to the SEO analyst. This is how an SEO agency works. But the problem over here is that the scalar communication chain often gets disrupted leading to miscommunication.
Virtual assistants are more likely to have casual communication with you. As a result, you can easily build trust with them to maintain a long-term relationship.
5. Top Talents
One of the main advantages of hiring an SEO virtual assistant is that you get access to top talents around the globe. You can handpick them based on their experience, skillset, and portfolio. You are not restricted by geography.
Skills Required for an SEO Virtual Assistant
Now that you have a basic idea of the best virtual hiring websites, it’s time to hire one. Like any other job, a candidate must have certain sets of skills to qualify for an SEO virtual assistant. So, what skills should you look for? Here are some of them:
1. Content Optimization
Content Writers usually write content for humans while an SEO analyst must make it attractive for search engines. It means that before posting content an SEO virtual assistant must have the required editing skills to go through the content and fine-tune relevant keywords into it wherever possible.
2. Social Media Management
The SEO analyst must have a comprehensive knowledge of the SEO principles in social media such as Facebook, YouTube, etc. Moreover, he must know how to generate traffic to the website through social media.
3. Basic Coding Knowledge
Many SEO tasks involve working with website elements and making on-page optimizations. So, the SEO VA must have a basic understanding of how to use HTML, CSS, and WordPress to make your website more user-friendly.
4. Familiarity with Tools
The SEO Virtual Assistant must have in-depth knowledge in utilizing advanced tools for website analysis and keyword research. He must stay updated with the latest SEO trends and practices.
5. Problem-Solving Skills
The SEO assistant is required to have the necessary problem-solving skills to identify problems in the current strategy and implement solutions for them.
Final Words
Search Engine Optimization(SEO) is a gradual process with constant monitoring and update of trending keywords. Even though you are ready to invest time in it, you may not have the technical knowledge to deal with the SEO tools and strategies. And, that’s why you need an extra hand. Previously, we have a crafted 7 websites to hire an SEO virtual assistants, which is another guide you need to check on.
Analyze each of the above-mentioned websites carefully. Don’t make a rush! Keep in mind that you need to use it for a long duration. So, go for the one that offers the best collaborative features and the least fee. Last but not least, do not hesitate to reach out to us to let us know which one has worked out for you.
