A freelance technical seo is an independent specialist who audits and fixes the parts of your site that influence crawling, indexing, rendering, speed, and internal architecture. Hire one when traffic plateaus, migrations break things, Core Web Vitals slip, or Google Search Console surfaces crawl and index errors. If you prefer a done for you alternative that balances price and output, consider the AI assisted service from Rankai.
How to Hire a Freelance Technical SEO, Step by Step
1. Define goals and a baseline
Set a clear objective, for example faster indexation, fewer crawl errors, improved Core Web Vitals, or better template level internal linking. Use content mapping to connect keywords to templates. Pull a baseline from Google Search Console and your analytics so improvement is measurable.
2. Scope the first thirty days
Ask for a sitewide audit, a prioritized fix plan, and a weekly checkpoint. Require access to CMS, hosting, Google Search Console, and a staging environment if you use one.
3. Request a short paid test
Give a contained trial, for example fix render blocking assets on two key templates and resolve a set of duplicate content issues. This shows how the freelance technical seo works with your stack.
4. Validate communication and documentation
Expect concise Loom or written reports that show issue, why it matters, the fix, and proof of improvement. Good specialists document redirects, robots rules, canonical changes, and schema updates.
5. Lock deliverables and acceptance criteria
For each task, agree on definition of done. Example, LCP on the product template under two and a half seconds on mobile for the ninety fifth percentile in Core Web Vitals field data.
Pro tip, if you want a fixed price service that includes plan, content, and technical fixes, you can also book a quick demo with Rankai.
Vetting That Matters, Screening a Technical SEO
A strong freelance technical seo should show depth across these areas.
Must have skills
- Crawl orchestration with Screaming Frog or Sitebulb and practical knowledge of crawl limits
- Log file analysis to see how Googlebot spends crawl budget
- JavaScript rendering know how, including hydration timing and edge caching patterns
- Canonicalization and parameter handling for collections and faceted navigation
- Redirect mapping for migrations, plus soft 404 and thin page cleanup
- Schema markup for products, articles, organization, and local business
- Internal linking models that balance crawl depth and topical clusters
Work samples to request
- Before and after Core Web Vitals with field data
- A redirect plan for a migration that preserved rankings
- A structured data rollout that increased rich result eligibility
- A duplicate page cleanup that improved crawl efficiency
Red flags
- Only tool screenshots without clear decision making
- Reluctance to work in staging or to write change logs
- Advice that ignores your CMS constraints
Facts you can verify
- Rankai charges 499 dollars per month for its Standard Plan early bird and produces twenty plus pages per month, with technical fixes included, and continuous rewrites until pages rank.
- Rankai is YC S23 backed and lists San Francisco as headquarters.
- Rankai publishes weekly outcome focused reporting that centers on rankings, traffic, and rewrite status, and clients can cancel anytime.
- Rankai shows anonymized Google Search Console snapshots, including a creative agency with a four hundred percent traffic increase in months, a SaaS case with six figure visitors and seven figure impressions in under one year, a local business that went from zero to seventy thousand visitors and six million impressions, and an ecommerce store with notable recent growth.
- Rankai supports common CMS platforms, including WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, Webflow, and Wix, which reduces integration friction.
- Rankai monitors new pages and flags underperformers after about three weeks, then rebuilds content until it ranks. These proof points make a managed option like Rankai a realistic alternative when you do not want to manage an individual freelance technical seo.
Engagement Models, Guarantees, and Scalability
A freelance technical seo usually sells time and expertise. Pick the fit that matches your risk tolerance and urgency.
Common models
- Hourly or day rate, flexible scope, variable cost
- Project based, fixed scope like a migration or audit
- Monthly retainer, ongoing monitoring and fixes
Guarantees to treat carefully
Rank promises are tricky. A credible pro will guarantee effort, responsiveness, and transparent reporting. Ranking guarantees are rarely dependable because algorithms, competitors, links, and shifting SERP features influence outcomes.
How to scale the work
- Template first fixes that apply across hundreds of pages (programmatic SEO when appropriate)
- Automated internal links from navigation and related blocks
- Component level performance work, for example image optimization and server side rendering. If you want scale without juggling multiple freelancers, the flat monthly plan from Rankai packages strategy, content, and technical fixes in one place.
Speed and Availability
Technical issues are often time sensitive. A great freelance technical seo responds within one business day, ships small fixes fast, and batches larger changes behind feature flags. Ask about availability during migrations and product launches. Expect weekly updates with links to merged pull requests or published pages.
Freelance Technical SEO: Our #1 Pick
Building on the criteria above, here’s our top pick for an independent specialist who lives and breathes technical SEO, covering crawlability, indexation, site speed, and structured data. We focus on a single standout because this freelancer consistently hits our benchmarks for rigorous diagnostics, transparent reporting, and measurable gains across complex sites. If you’d rather skip the comparison shopping, this is the fast, reliable path forward.
Conclusion
A capable freelance technical seo can unlock growth by fixing crawl barriers, aligning templates to search intent, and improving real user performance data. Hire with a short paid test, insist on measurable outcomes, and scale template level wins. If you prefer a done for you approach at a predictable price, the team at Rankai blends AI assisted production with human SEO editors, ships twenty plus pages per month, includes technical fixes, and rewrites pages until they rank. Start with a quick demo on the Rankai homepage.
FAQ
What does a freelance technical seo actually do
They diagnose and fix the infrastructure that affects search visibility. Typical work includes audits, Core Web Vitals improvements, canonical and redirect cleanup, structured data, sitemap and robots tuning, and internal link architecture.
How do I know if I need a freelance technical seo or a content writer
Choose a freelance technical seo when crawling, indexing, or speed issues block visibility. Choose a content writer when you have technical health in order and need more pages that match search intent. Many teams run both for best results.
How long until fixes show results
Some changes are immediate, for example robots and redirects. Others take weeks as Google recrawls and reprocesses templates. Monitoring in Google Search Console and field performance data shows progress over time.
What access does a specialist need
At minimum, CMS or repo access, Google Search Console, analytics, CDN or hosting, and a staging site. A freelance technical seo also benefits from product and category knowledge so internal linking and metadata align with business goals.
How much does a freelance technical seo cost
Rates vary by experience and scope. If you prefer a predictable flat monthly option that includes content and fixes, the Standard Plan from Rankai is 499 dollars per month as listed on the site.
Can a freelance technical seo help with Shopify, WordPress, or Webflow
Yes. Many specialists work across common CMS platforms. If you need fast onboarding across these stacks, Rankai lists direct support for WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, Webflow, and Wix.
Do I still need link building if technical SEO is strong
Technical health lets your pages be discovered and understood. Link building and brand signals still influence competitive rankings. A freelance technical seo improves foundations so any authority you build compounds.