Let’s first talk about freelancing. One of the primary reasons why I love it and I am promoting it is the low requirement. There is honestly no educational requirement required, and a lot of foreign clients are willing to employ those who don’t have experience – it’s just a matter of compatibility and eagerness to learn.
Freelancing is a vast industry, there are many job positions and job descriptions available. One of the specializations would be SEO or Search Engine Optimization. SEO is very important to the digital industry because primarily, this helps business get better discoverability which directly and easily translates into sales.
SEO Specialist – researches and analyzes the trends and best practices online to develop and implement strategies that improve search results ranking of client. You work on making sure your client is more easily discoverable online. This position will get more in demand as we advance because of the pandemic, business are forced to create an online platform and presence. Almost all services are booked and searched online now.
SEO Salary
Aside from the lifestyle perks of becoming an SEO Specialist, it’s a no-brainer to think about the salary benefits we’ll get if we switch to an SEO-oriented career.
So, SEO Specialist salaries: are they worth the career change? Will you make money as an SEO Specialist?
And the answer to that is yes, yes you will. BUT while exploring this field, whether the general area of freelancing or being an SEO specialist, do it while maintaining your full time job.
Financial security is very important and do not let go of your full time job without building a proper foundation on freelancing first.
So let’s take a look at the average salary of SEO specialists in the Philippines.
The average salary of SEO specialists ranges from 25,142.17 pesos per month to 40,000 pesos per month. This is based on several salary comparison websites, like Pay Scale, Salary Expert, Indeed, and Talent.
One thing to note here is that these are most likely the salary range you’ll get if you work for a local agency or a BPO company. Salaries will most likely be higher if you work for a foreign SEO agency or if you work directly with the businesses that need the SEO service.
Now let’s take a look at the salary gap compared to virtual assistants.
SEO Specialists earn between 5,355.67 to 12,926 pesos per month more than Virtual Assistants.
You can see that on average, Virtual Assistants earn less than SEO Specialists. I’m not saying that this is the case every time because there are certainly high earning Virtual Assistants.
However, if you look at the available data from these salary comparison websites, this is the story that they tell.
As you can see, VA salary ranges between 19,700 pesos to around 29,600 pesos, while SEO Specialists earn around 25,400 to 42,600 pesos.
Now let’s take a look at the salary ceilings between VAs and SEO Specialists.
As a quick note, the salary ceiling is the maximum earning a VA and SEO Specialist can earn, based on the dataset we have on PayScale and Indeed. This is not a hard rule, just what the available data tells us.
SEO Specialists in the Philippines can earn up to 366,000 pesos per year more than VAs.
As you can see, SEO specialists can earn up to 749,000 pesos per year while VAs only earn around 383,000 pesos per year.
So why am I comparing VAs to SEO Specialists?
This is because specialization is a crucial factor in increasing your income.
Virtual Assistants are more likely to do different tasks to assist their employer. They will work on social media management for a few hours, then switch to email and calendar management after, and then work on blog commenting later. This means that while most VAs are capable of doing anything, they are not particularly specialized in one thing.
While being a generalist has its perks, being specialized in one job can skyrocket your income.
How can you maximize your earning potential as an SEO specialist?
First off, work directly with the clients. Work directly with the business that needs the SEO service. This way, you will avoid any middle-man fees. A good example here is like working through Upwork, where they get a certain cut from your rate. This tip might be a bit difficult to do, but the rewards are worth it.
Next is to specialize. If you are currently a general Virtual Assistant, it might help you boost your income if you focus on one thing and be really good at it. For example, if you feel like your communications skills are above average, maybe copywriting is a good niche for you. If you’re extra analytical, maybe the role of an SEO Specialists will suit you perfectly.
Achieving this is more or less up to your desire and motivation to specialize. There are many available online courses to help you specialize, but if budget is a concern, YouTube and Google are your friends.
And third, is to find foreign clients in the US, UK, or the Oceania region so your earnings are in US dollars.
Want to see what we have in store for you?
If you’re inspired to take SEO seriously and want to move on to the next level, I recommend taking Square One: The Free SEO Starter Course. It’s a free course that we offer students so they get to learn about SEO for free! See you inside the free course!
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