Hi Everyone:
I have recently taken up freelance writing with an
SEO bent. As I get into it, I realize that I have much more
SEO skill than I was previously giving myself credit for. I have only done a few websites, but the one website that I worked with was extensive. I have also been around since 1996, and I know what works, what doesn't, what gets you banned, etc.
I do not have a Google engineer on speed dial (I actually heard on a podcast that if you don't have this on your phone you weren't possibly a good
SEO expert - which seemed mildly insane to me but you can confirm or deny), I do not have excellent relationships with quality websites that will just drop links on their
PR 5 sites at my beck and call, and I don't have a background in computer science - just practical experience.
My main question is at what point can I honestly, 100%, sell my services as an
SEO partner? Currently I feel that I can do a good job just looking over a sites structure & content, do redos where necessary, or better yet build a site from the ground up with sound
SEO principles in mind. However, there are some people (quite a few on this forum) who are absolutely scary good and I would think much better than I am at this.
I have tested in the top 20% on Odesk for their
SEO optimization test, but I have a feeling a monkey pushing a button may be able to do the same. I also conducted constant
SEO for 10 years for the main, larger site I worked on that is still propelling it into the top 10 in Google despite a serious lack of updating and maintenance for the two years it has been since I left that company.
Is there a valid, bona fide way I can test my current skills before live-testing on someone else's site, that would be considered a good place to do so by all of you scary good people on here?
Thanks!