Question

How do I find affordable web devs who also know SEO? Your source? (hint. it’s not Toptal. )

Answer 1

You don't. They are 2 very separate specialist skills.  

Comments

@vanda nope I’d say I’m nearing the end of my wick at a hundred or so by now lol. Just gotta keep. going.  

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@vanda But more than half of technical SEO skills and tasks require web development or knowledge of it lol

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@hokeypokey300 ok lol. Whatever you say Mr Big man. I'm glad you're the only expert on the planet and I've been graced by your presence today.  

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@repudiation here here  

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@repudiation well said.  

Answer 2

Define affordable . It's very subjective.  

Answer 3

Define developer? A lot of people I see talking of being web developers are not developers at all, they are web designers. I'm a web designer myself (that does SEO) and would never refer to myself as being a developer but so many do. SO, if it truly is a developer you need make sure they truly are a developer and not biting off more than they can chew ;)

Comments

@temptation excellent point: I think the root of my definition / struggle is finding someone who understands combo of proper on page + website architecture + some design so it looks comprehensive. And then to follow up on @earlap518 question - I’m defining affordable like outsourced pricing, because part of me feels it shouldn’t be this hard - I’ve been having to constantly fix stuff all myself and I’m not a developer nor a pro designer but I continue to find myself having to adjust things personally (id consider myself a WordPress plug-in aficionado but that’s about it)

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So a follow up question - how much should that role be paid?  

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@temptation develosigner? Specializing in seoconversionperclick?  

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@temptation riiiiite. I’m quite happy to say I’m a web designer - not dev. I know my strengths - and my limits!  

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You want four to seven specialists in one, , person you want to pay the cheapest "affordable" price, , , and let me guess you want it done as fast as possible, You sir, are the perfect client.  

Answer 4

Our company offers WordPress websites that have the technical SEO work done during construction. We can also provide that service for other platforms as well. I PM you our information if you'd like.  

Answer 5

Yeah but what is affordable to many may not be affordable to you and it all depends on so many factors such as how many pages, content given or needing help with that too, what features and functions you want and so on. It's a 'how long is a piece of string? ' question I'm afraid.  

Comments

@temptation sure. Ok while we’re at it - how bout local business site (room for regional expansion) with: homepage, service page, contact, landing page for ppc, and then proper interlinking if create more location pages at regional or multi state level. For some reason over the years this has been incredibly hard for many developers/designers/optimizers I’ve hired

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@temptation that’s pretty basic right? Or am I taking crazy pills on my expectations for looking to upwork and lower budget offshore agencies?  

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For location pages it's lazy to just use the same content for each and just change the place names. I like to make all location pages real unique by using them to not only give a generic description of the service(s) written differently for each page but work done in those areas with client testimonials from the areas etc. I would also give each location page geo circle schema to show the service area as a set of coordinates and radius from them given in meters (or km) along with the service schema / local business schema

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@vershen43670 it’s surprisingly not basic for most developers. They pay zero attention to seo and especially local seo. We’ve pounded on this problem for years with a few teams. It takes real processes and checklists and we’ve even made out own location page plugin. So not easy.  

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@erkan355 thanks for confirming. Done much of the same. I have an SOP for archiving processes at this point lol

Answer 6

I'm a web designer myself and have taken a lot of time and continuously do so to improve the website's I create from an SEO standpoint of things. Anything from trying to have the best user experience, fast load time's, adding optimized images (keyword in file name + geotagged) to simple things, like adding a sitemap, having the robots. txt properly set up and adding a SSL Certificate. Then all website's I create I submit to GSC and Bing Webmaster Tools. I include creating a GMB and Bing Places for Business listing for all clients I take on for a website. If they already have one then I optimize it to get the best possible results. A lot of web designers and developers from the looks of it feel like it's not their job to "SEO" a website from my findings. Which is somewhat understandable but I just can't put out a website that doesn't even have the basics done at least.  

Comments

@endure awesome! That’s a very comprehensive checklist. From my experience the pain points were really finding someone who could build proper interlinking architecture for larger sites but also have an eye for design while understanding the on page dynamics - it’s just been a bit hard to fully hand-off projects in full faith; I’m sure you notice that in other web professionals.  

Answer 7

We've been offering that for over 10 years now. The ultimate offer has been a full website rebuild with all SEO boxes checked. Rebuilt few dozen large websites, totaling over 100k pages that generate over a million visits per month. Average traffic increase of 20% after launch, drastic speed improvements, airtight security setup, etc. We're launching one rebuild tomorrow. 800 pages, client wanted expedited delivery so we did this project in 8 days.  

Comments

@sangraal right on! Might give u a holler here

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@vershen43670 sure thing!  

Answer 8

Ive got an honors degree in web development but spent 4 years after that doing websites and 12 years doing SEO so despite having a web development degree i class myself as an SEO  **edit** i dont have time for a new client but want to show that web developers who know SEO exist!  

Comments

@hokeypokey300 lol I just wrote the same msg

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@sawyor640  

Answer 9

Sometimes you get lucky and find a Senior Software Engineer who turned into an SEO-er  

Comments

@vibrio3  

Answer 10

Thats like looking for a doctor who is also a dentist. both very different

Answer 11

Hint: Pay good money and hire different people for both the different roles.  

Answer 12

Or you could read my article series understanding what it is and how to do it. SEO is best completed during build as you go.   
https://www.ladylex.com.au/blog/wha...s-seo

Answer 13

It's me! Honors in web development and many certifications in SEO. Not really looking for work, but if you have a cool project let me know.  

Answer 14

So you want 1 person to do 2 person job?  

Comments

Doesn't everyone?!  

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@sawyor640 corporates does that all the time

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@rhone yup

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@rhone yes. In 2020 absolutely. Especially considering the advance of near push button websites with page builders like Elementor.  

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@vershen43670 I agree but it's better to hire 2 different person or agency to take care your stuff so you can deliver better quality. if you hire them offshore country i. e India  , Philippines , Bangladesh  , you can still earn large amount of money.  

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@vershen43670 Elementor is good, there is no question about, but it will be never better than custom design PSD→HTML, a real Website Design

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@rhone are you kidding? You can convert any PSD design into a nice WordPress website using Elementor, Divi, Avada or any other Wordpress theme and page builder. I think you haven’t seen the depths of WordPress yet!  

Answer 15

I’ve been doing web development for at least 6 years now and in the beginning I was just focused on development and getting the job done. In my early years I realised that people don’t get what they need just by developing a website so I started learning SEO and every website that I create now is already SEO optimised (On-Page only). Before development I spend some time talking to the customer to understand their business and when I have enough information I categorise their content based on the keywords. So my first task before developing the actual website is getting a proper link structure. After that I focus on development and while developing I make sure that everything is setup properly i. e. H1 Tags, Meta Descriptions, Focus Keywords, Image Alt Tags, Internal Linking, Site structure (which comes really pretty as I had spent time in creating the link structure). While development I always use Coming Soon mode and once everything is finalised and double checked I publish it and submit it to GSC, Bing, Data Highlighter etc. I’ve seen a great improvement in my sales as not all web developers are offering these which they should actually. Now I’m working in a US based company as a web developer and handle all the development and On Page SEO related stuff. I would suggest every web developer out there to at-least spend some time and learn the basics of SEO which actually benefits both the employer and you as well.  

Comments

@diver2 oh really? you doing web development since 6 years? then way your LinkedIn profile showing you graduated in 2017? you are doing web development and coding since you were in school?  

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Yes, I started when I was in 10th standard :)

Answer 16

You simply ask.  

Comments

@didynamous this work is below your pay grade