Everything You Need to Know

Every freelancer goes through a multi-stage screening: a portfolio and case-study review, a written SEO test, a live technical interview with a senior SEO lead, an English fluency assessment, and a reference check with previous Western clients. Less than 5% of applicants make it into our active talent pool.

Most clients receive a curated shortlist of 3 to 5 vetted profiles within 72 hours of submitting their brief. Interviews typically take place within the next 5 to 7 days, and onboarding usually completes within 2 weeks of the initial brief.

Yes. Every shortlisted freelancer is available for a live video interview before you commit. We schedule the calls for you, share their portfolio and previous work in advance, and sit in on the first call if you would like.

We offer a no-questions-asked replacement during the first 30 days. If the fit is not right, we will source new candidates and onboard a replacement at no extra cost. Our 96% client retention rate means this is rare, but we want you to feel safe.

Yes. Beyond the 30-day initial guarantee, we replace any freelancer who underperforms or leaves during the engagement. There is no fee, no paperwork, and no gap in coverage. We hold a backup pool for every active role.

Typically 3 to 5 hand-picked candidates per role, ranked by fit. We never send mass profiles. If your role is highly specialized (for example senior technical SEO with SaaS experience), the shortlist may take a few extra days to assemble.

Our freelancers are independent professionals who choose to work with Seotal because we bring them serious Western clients. Most work primarily through us. Once you hire them, they are dedicated to your business for the agreed hours each week.

Absolutely. Many clients hire a small team, for example a senior SEO lead, a content writer, and a link builder, all coordinated under one account. We help you scope the team and manage them as a unit.

Yes. Once you select a freelancer, our talent success team handles introductions, tool access, NDA signing, kickoff scheduling, and the first 30 days of check-ins to ensure a smooth start.

A short brief covering your company, the role, required skills, expected hours per week, budget range, and any preferred timezone overlap. If you do not have this written down, our team will run a 30-minute scoping call to put it together with you.

Rates range from $8 to $40 per hour depending on seniority, country, and specialization. Monthly part-time engagements typically run $300 to $1,200 per freelancer. That is roughly 60% less than equivalent Western rates with no quality compromise.

No platform fees. No bidding wars. No 10 to 20% cuts that freelance marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr charge. You pay a transparent flat success fee, and the rest goes directly to the freelancer.

Three options: hourly billing for ad-hoc work, monthly part-time retainers (the most popular for SMBs), and fixed-price project engagements (audits, migrations, programmatic SEO builds). You can switch between models as your needs change.

You pay Seotal one consolidated invoice each month via bank transfer, credit card, or Wise. We handle the freelancer payouts, currency conversion, and any local compliance. You never have to deal with international payments or local tax forms.

We invoice in USD by default, and also support GBP, EUR, AUD, CAD, and SGD on request. Freelancers are paid in their local currency at fair market rates, with no hidden FX margin.

For dedicated part-time and full-time engagements, we ask for a 3-month minimum so the freelancer can build context and deliver real results. For hourly and project work there is no minimum commitment.

If a freelancer underperforms in the first 30 days, we replace them and credit any unused hours toward the replacement. For project work, milestones are tied to deliverables and we revise until the deliverable meets the agreed scope.

No upfront sourcing or vetting fees. You only pay once a freelancer is hired and starts working on your project. The first invoice is sent at the end of the first billing cycle.

No. The hourly rate or monthly retainer you agree on is the full cost. Tools, software licenses, and any pass-through expenses are discussed and approved in writing before they are added to your bill.

Monthly retainers are billed on the 1st of each month for the upcoming month. Hourly engagements are billed at month-end based on logged hours, with a detailed timesheet attached. Net 7 payment terms by default, longer terms available on request.

Our talent is based across India (GMT+5:30), the Philippines and Malaysia (GMT+8), Vietnam, Indonesia, and Cambodia (GMT+7), with India and Indonesia spanning multiple zones. We match freelancers to clients based on the timezone overlap you need.

For UK and EU clients, we typically arrange 4 to 6 hours of daily overlap. For US East Coast, 2 to 4 hours of morning overlap. For US West Coast, freelancers shift their schedule earlier or later by request. We negotiate the working hours during the matching stage.

Every Seotal freelancer passes a written and spoken English assessment as part of vetting. Indian and Filipino professionals are typically near-native fluent. Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Malaysian SEO talent ranges from intermediate to advanced. We share writing samples upfront so you can verify before hiring.

Common second languages include Hindi, Tagalog, Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Khmer, and Tamil. If you need multilingual SEO content for APAC markets, we can match you with freelancers who write in those languages too.

Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, Zoom, Google Meet, Notion, Asana, ClickUp, Jira, Trello, Monday, Loom, and email. Your freelancer adapts to whatever your team already uses, no extra overhead on your side.

Weekly written updates are standard, with a monthly review call. For SEO work, you also get a live Looker Studio dashboard tied to your Search Console, GA4, and Ahrefs data, so you can see performance any time.

Standard schedule is Monday to Friday with local public holidays observed. Weekend or holiday work is available on request and billed at the same rate. We share each freelancer's local holiday calendar at the start of the engagement.

Most of our freelancers have years of experience working with US, UK, EU, and Australian clients. Our onboarding includes a short orientation on Western communication norms (direct feedback, async-first, deadline ownership) so the working style feels familiar.

Yes. Live calls are part of the standard engagement. Most freelancers can join 2 to 4 daily meetings during the agreed overlap window. Recurring stand-ups, sprint planning, and review meetings are all common.

For short absences (a day or two), the freelancer simply makes up the hours. For longer leave, we provide a backup freelancer from the same talent pool to cover critical work. Annual leave is planned in advance and shared with you.

Industry standards: Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz, Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, Google Search Console, Google Analytics 4, Looker Studio, Surfer SEO, Frase, Clearscope, BrightLocal, Whitespark, Majestic, and Search Console Insights. Tool licenses are either yours or pass-through with approval.

Yes. Our team runs an AI-first workflow: ChatGPT and Claude for first drafts and outlines, Surfer SEO and Frase for on-page scoring, and human editors for fact-checking, brand voice, E-E-A-T, and accuracy. AI accelerates output without sacrificing quality.

Yes. We have specialists in technical SEO audits, log file analysis, JavaScript SEO, schema markup, Core Web Vitals optimization, hreflang for international sites, crawl budget management, and migrations. Many have engineering backgrounds.

Yes. We have built programmatic SEO systems that ship hundreds or thousands of high-quality landing pages from structured data, using Webflow CMS, Airtable, Whalesync, and custom APIs. Ideal for SaaS, marketplaces, directories, and location-based businesses.

Yes. We optimize for ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Gemini using GEO best practices: structured data, source citations, llms.txt files, entity-rich content, and direct-answer formatting. This is one of our fastest-growing service areas.

WordPress, Webflow, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, HubSpot CMS, Drupal, Magento, BigCommerce, Ghost, Sanity, Contentful, Strapi, and headless setups. If you use something custom, we will pair you with a freelancer who has comparable experience.

Yes. We build SEO workflow automations for keyword research, competitor monitoring, internal linking, content briefs, outreach, and reporting using Make, n8n, Zapier, Apps Script, and custom Python scripts. Automation is a core part of our delivery model.

Yes. We build live dashboards in Looker Studio, pipe data through BigQuery, and connect Search Console, GA4, Ahrefs, and CRM data into a single view. No more PDF reports, just live numbers you can act on.

Yes. We do digital PR, guest posting, broken link building, HARO and Connectively pitches, niche edits, and resource page outreach. All white-hat, all manual outreach. We do not use private blog networks or paid link schemes.

Many hold certifications from Google (Analytics, Ads), HubSpot, Semrush Academy, Ahrefs Academy, and Moz. Certifications are useful but our screening focuses on real portfolio work and proven results, not just credentials.

Yes. We sign mutual NDAs before sharing any project details, and every freelancer signs an individual NDA before being matched to your account. We can also sign your custom NDA if you have one.

You do. Our standard contract assigns full intellectual property rights of all deliverables (content, code, designs, strategies, audits, dashboards) to the client. Nothing the freelancer produces for you is reused elsewhere.

Freelancers access your tools through your own accounts with role-based permissions, never through shared logins. We require 2FA on all client accounts, password manager use (1Password or Bitwarden), and revoke access immediately when an engagement ends.

No. Seotal contracts the freelancer directly. You receive a single invoice from Seotal for the work, and we handle freelancer payouts, local tax compliance, and any required documentation in their country.

For dedicated full-time hires, yes. We provide EOR services in India, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Cambodia, including local employment contracts, payroll, statutory benefits, and ongoing HR compliance.

Yes. We sign GDPR-compliant Data Processing Agreements (DPAs) with EU and UK clients, and our freelancers follow your data handling policies. Personal data is only accessed when required by the scope of work and is never stored locally.

A short Master Services Agreement (MSA) covering payment terms, IP assignment, confidentiality, and liability, plus a per-engagement Statement of Work (SOW) with the scope, deliverables, hours, and rate. Both can be reviewed by your legal team.

Yes, with the appropriate role-level permissions. We recommend granting Restricted or Standard access in Google Search Console and Standard access in Google Ads, never Admin. Your freelancer is trained on least-privilege access and never asks for ownership rights.

We require all freelancers to use a password manager (1Password, Bitwarden, or your client-side equivalent) and 2FA on every account. Credentials are never shared via email or chat. Access is reviewed monthly and revoked immediately at end of engagement.

If something goes wrong, our talent success team mediates within 48 hours. For unresolved disputes, our MSA defines escalation through Seotal management, then optional independent mediation under Singapore arbitration rules. In 4+ years, we have never reached arbitration.