Is writing your thing? Maybe you’re already a freelance writer, or maybe you create content for your own online biz (which is a kickass marketing strategy btw!)…
In either case, you’ll definitely want to read this review of Laura Briggs’ course, Advanced SEO for Freelance Writers.
I (Gina) met Laura early on in her freelance career, and I had the privilege of being her business coach back in 2015. We both live in Minnesota and even had the chance to meet for the first time in person last fall!
Laura’s story is pretty amazing – with no formal training whatsoever, she took her freelance writing income to six figures in about 18 months!
In this post we’ll hear from another Laura (Nicholls) about her take on Advanced SEO for Freelance Writers.
Ready? Take it away Laura!
You know what’s funny? I’ve been writing for a while now – as a part of my “previous life” in the 9-5 world, followed by getting my feet wet online and starting a blog in 2013 and then officially putting myself out there as a freelance writer in 2017.
As a writer, you kind of have to be living under a rock to have not heard of SEO or even have some basic understanding of it. And, as a writer, I’ve had “enough” understanding of it to get by.
But even with the success I’ve had as a freelance writer, up until recently when the topic of SEO would come up I’d still catch myself feeling kind of… uneasy. And I’ve even written on the topic!
Suffice it to say, it’s pretty important to know some things about SEO when you’re a writer. My experience has been that clients love you a ton more when you can save them time (and money!) by giving them content that’s already optimized to be found in searches.
And, since I also understand how valuable it is to create content – that will actually get found – for marketing purposes, I was eager to find out more about how to level up my own business by revamping my blog (it’s on the list ????).
SEO writing is also a super high-demand skill. You’ve probably even spotted those positions on job boards if you’ve hung out there at all looking for writing gigs.
So when I had the opportunity to take Laura Briggs’ Advanced SEO for Freelance Writers I was pretty stoked. I was hoping the outcome would be that I would no longer feel like a major impostor when it came to the topic of SEO, and I wasn’t disappointed. At all.
I had heard of Laura Briggs, and I knew she was a big deal. I was also curious about how she knocked it out of the park with her freelance writing career in such a massive way.
Laura’s Story
Laura was a stressed, burned out junior high teacher working 14-hour days, and like many of us freelancers – her dissatisfaction with her circumstances pushed her to make a change back in 2012.
With a 100+ page thesis for her master’s degree under her belt and a love for teaching others how to write, Laura decided that she could teach herself how to do this whole freelance writing thing. So, she started digging into different types of online writing – copywriting, technical writing, email newsletters…
She ran into two things, though – a seemingly huge and almost impossible learning curve for breaking into these writing specialties, and a fear that she’d be constantly hustling for work once projects were done.
I totally get that.
Fortunately for Laura, she figured out that all websites need optimized, consistent content. And, since the majority of businesses have websites and are marketing online in some fashion, the opportunity as an SEO writer is a massive one.
She started helping her existing clients get their content ranked and the rest is, as they say history. She’s been working with her clients for years, she’s even been on retainer with one for seven years in fact.
Over the course of eight years, Laura tried every SEO tool out there and developed a proven system for writing high quality SEO content for clients. She’s compiled her system into a course that’s about four hours of mostly video content, and shares her end-to-end process.
What’s included in the Advanced SEO Writing Course
This course digs in right away with a great introduction to blogging and why it’s relevant for SEO. Someone brand new to blogging could literally step into this course and have a firm foundation for moving forward with the specialized content in the following lessons.
The course then moves into a run-through of SEO writing, and in about 20 minutes Laura breaks down the essential “need-to-knows” of optimizing content in a clear, concise way that’s easy to digest.
The core components of SEO are followed by a lesson on cornerstone content, with an SEO-focused walkthrough of a piece of content that puts the concepts just learned into a “real life” lens.
Laura then gets into her favorite keyword tool (spoiler alert – I’m not going to share it here ????) and how to actually use it in a way that’s easy to understand and practice with right away.
The main portion of the course is wrapped up with a lesson I loved – how to level up from an SEO writer to a content strategist. This lesson was very robust and a pleasant surprise that left me feeling inspired and super motivated!
Bonuses
This course also has a very thorough Bonuses section, which I was pretty excited about. The first bonus is a golden resource that I will be using over and over. I might even have it tatooed on my forearm. Kidding!
It’s an SEO checklist, and Laura includes a video on how to actually implement it (although it’s pretty straightforward). Even though the concepts are taught in a very clear, easy-to-understand manner, it’s really helpful to have a resource like this that enables you to literally run all of your work through a checklist…
It takes the guesswork out of whether or not you’re “doing it right.”
The next bonus is worth the cost of the course, and more, in my opinion. I’m a huge believer in coaching, and I almost couldn’t believe that Laura is offering personalized reviews of writing samples for her students, as well as of the revisions she suggests.
Laura shares how to go about getting your samples in front of her in a short video, so it’s a pretty seamless process.
The other bonuses (there are several!) include…
- How to choose great blog titles
- Ideas for writing samples
- A runthrough of WordPress, Yoast and SEO image info
- How Laura outlines articles before she writes them
- How to “sell” blogging to clients when you’re pitching, including super helpful stats to share
- Info on setting rates for SEO writing
What I loved about this course
What hit me first about this course is that it immediately gets down with the nitty gritty, nuts and bolts of what can otherwise be a super complex topic. The information is broken down into very bite-sized pieces, and at the same time takes you into a deeper understanding of the concepts.
I also appreciated that not only are technical concepts being taught in a very easy-to-understand-and-apply way, but that Laura does a great job of tying in the bigger picture and why any of this even matters.
Laura gives an excellent ‘full picture’ of the moving parts of SEO without being confusing or overwhelming. There aren’t just one or two things to focus on (like keywords) but rather it’s a symphony of components working together for full optimization, and she does a great job of presenting this.
When you’re writing for businesses, it’s just not enough to be a great writer in the competetive online world. Laura focuses on the bottom line for businesses, which is not just the content itself, but its marektability.
One of my fave takeaways from the course is that great writing is only great if someone actually reads it. And, from a client’s perspective, with a good SEO writer they won’t need to source someone else to optimize your content.
As a result, you can become a more robust, “full stack” writer and not only charge more but get clients that want to come to you over and over. That’s a great outcome!
I also appreciated that this course identifies that good SEO doesn’t just mean running through a checklist, but delivering thoughtful, quality content that provides a good reader experience.
Laura takes a topic that could be focused primarily on the tech side of things and personalizes it in the context of the integrity that all of us writers should ideally maintain while serving clients who have trusted us with their businesses.
Finally, I really loved that this course approaches SEO writing from the perspective of offering this as a service. This included…
- Establishing that it’s a super marketable skill and in high demand
- Assurance that you can market yourself as an SEO writer without needing to be a super techie expert
- That part of good SEO is consistent content, which means consistent work
- How to educate clients and answer questions confidently
- How to understand what a client needs and how to be the “best option” out there
- An epic way to upsell your services from SEO writer to content strategist
Was there anything else I’d like to see in the course?
The only thing that I would’ve like to have seen in the course (that wasn’t there) was more of Laura herself. The videos are presented really well, with powerpoint style slides and Laura presenting the content.
I found her to be very easy to listen to (and I’ve taken courses where this was not the case – at all), and having the visual presentation combined with the auditory learning worked well for me.
So, maybe I’m being a bit of a baby here, but I would have liked to have seen some of Laura herself in the videos (is that weird?).
Don’t get me wrong – it would have been pretty strange to watch almost four hours of her talking and perhaps writing everything out on a white board (I think I did that and it was called college), but it would be nice to see her a bit in some of the video content. Plus she has a nice smile. ????
Would I recommend this course?
Definitely. Honestly, I wish I’d come across this gem in the beginning of my writing career. It would have completely changed how I put myself out there as a writer as well as the trajectory of my own business aspirations with my website and blog.
I’m a pretty good writer (or so I’m told), and as I’ve said, being a good writer just isn’t enough any more. Attention spans are shorter than ever and getting someone to read your stuff can be competitive and challenging.
Any writer can benefit from knowing how to write in a strategic way that will ALSO be found online. Basically it’s get found first, get read second.
The course gave me the tools I’d need to present myself more confidently, improve my writing and even look ahead at leveling up my writing business. Advanced SEO for Freelance Writers is designed to help writers go from beginner to expert…fast. Like carve-out-a-weekend-and-complete-a-course fast.
And, while I’m not a beginner anymore, I defintely walked away with the knowledge I was hoping to gain, and more.
Having said that, it’s quite possible that if you’re reading this you may not have jumped into buidling a freelance writing business yet, and you may not be ready to specialize something that you haven’t even started!
I totally get that too.
While I knew I was pretty good at writing (did I say that already?) when I was starting out, I also knew that I didn’t have all the facts – or any of them really – when it came to building a freelance writing business and writing online.
If that’s you, then I highly recommend that you get started with The #FullyBookedVA System and build from there. It’ll give you everything you need to know to start, build and scale a freelance business offering writing services from the ground up.
It’s an adventure you won’t regret jumping into, and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
And if you’re ready to get down with some SEO writing and either market yourself as a specialized writer or build your own following/brand with your blog – or both – then definitely sign up for Laura Briggs’ Advanced SEO for Freelance Writers. It’s absolutely worth the price, and more, and in about four hours you can seriously level up your freelance writing career. That’s time and money well spent!
Want to dip your toe in the world of SEO? Laura also has this free course so you can check out whether this whole thing is for you or not!
