Minneapolis, MN – January 20, 2026 — Nick LeRoy, founder of SEOJobs.com and author of the #SEOForLunch newsletter, has launched a new initiative offering SEO and AI strategy consulting in exchange for charitable donations to Minnesota-based nonprofits supporting individuals and families impacted by ICE activity.

Through the program, participants can donate $300 via GiveMN to a qualifying Minnesota nonprofit. In return, LeRoy provides a one-hour consultation to help organizations and businesses improve their SEO and AI-driven digital visibility strategies. Smaller donations of $50 are also accepted in exchange for a website link placement in the upcoming #SEOForLunch newsletter edition.

“I felt frustrated watching what’s happening in my community and not knowing how to help,” said LeRoy. “Then I realized I could use my professional skillset to drive donations to organizations doing real work on the ground.”

The initiative aims to blend community support with practical digital marketing guidance, allowing donors to contribute to local causes while receiving strategic value in return.

More details and donation links will be shared in this week’s edition of #SEOForLunch.

Contact:
Nick LeRoy
nick@nickleroy.com
www.seoforlunch.com

When I started the #SEOForLunch, very few newsletters were published. Most notably, Jill Whalen’s High Ranking newsletter and Rae Hoffman’s Saturday email. Neither exists today.

Since then, many great newsletters have been created, including Aleyda’s SEOFomo, Steve’s SEO notebook, Mark’s Core Updates, Kevin’s Growth Memo, Eli’s product-led newsletter, and many more!

In 2024, we are fortunate enough to have many great newsletters and communities that help us stay updated with all the search updates. However, standing out is now a bit more difficult, and this includes the #SEOForLunch.

As we celebrate the 400th issue of #SEOForLunch, it’s time for a new chapter. I’m excited to announce some key additions that will provide even more value to you.

Achieve More, Earn More Money, and Drive More SEO Results

Introducing: Weekly Consulting Tips. From now on, alongside search updates, industry reads and job listings, #SEOForLunch will include a dedicated section focused on one of the biggest ‘misses’ in SEO: influencing others to say YES and driving more SEO results.

Whether you are an in-house, agency, or freelance SEO, we are all consultants. Our jobs are not only to build tactical strategies but to get buy-in and influence others to take action.  This is the skillset that truly sets apart the best SEOs from the rest of the pack.

From now on, I’ll share one consulting tip with subscribers each week. These actionable tips are based on my 15 years of SEO consulting with some of the internet’s largest brands. My goal? To help you secure more promotions, earn more, and drive better SEO results by mastering the skills that set the best SEOs apart—communication, buy-in, and execution.

These tips are designed to help you achieve more success—leading to promotions, higher earnings, and, ultimately, better SEO results.

Curious about the first tip? Here’s a sneak peek, which you’ll find in this week’s special 400th issue, going live on 9/12!

Ready to level up? Sign up now for weekly consulting tips straight to your inbox.

I consider myself extremely lucky that I love the career that I am in.  It’s not too often people get the opportunity to mix their job with their hobby. I’ve been doing this (SEO) for nearly 15 years now and looking back I wish there were a few things that I was given a heads up on.  Do you agree/disagree? Jump into the LinkedIn conversation and let me know!

1.  Imposter Syndrome Never Goes Away

I remember thinking that when I hit “one-year” I would feel more comfortable proclaiming my experience to clients.  Then it was 3 years… and 5 years and even 10 years.  I now embrace the imposter syndrome. It forces all of us to continue to push ourselves to a new level!

2.  Test Your Own Theories

There are very vocal individuals on the internet. They will speak in absolutes about what WILL and WILL NOT work when it comes to SEO.  Ignore them. Identify your own hypothesis and test them. I can almost guarantee that you’ll find success with something someone else told you absolutely will fail.

3.  People Skills > SEO skills

I very quickly picked up on SEO and was fortunate to find early success. With this success I took pride in being able to work in the background and did everything I could to avoid client interaction. The reality is that anyone can learn SEO but developing “soft skills” is what will truly set you apart from all the other great SEOs in this industry.

4. Get ALL Of The Experiences

I spent 10 years on the agency side of the SEO industry. I wish someone had encouraged me to give in-house SEO a shot. While I’ve been fortunate to work directly with large brands, the experience as a consultant is different than being a full-time employee. Sprinking in freelancing will give any SEO the best of all worlds.

5.  Loyalty Goes Two Ways

This isn’t a “quit your job” note. However, I spent many years in roles simply because I was too comfortable. I quickly realized that I was underpaid and wasn’t familiar with the going rates for my skillset. Very few companies are going to promote and or give you a raise out of the kindness in their hearts. Understand your worth and have the tough conversations with leadership. I can nearly guarantee it will fast-track your career in both pay and responsibilities – whether it be at your existing or a new company.

TL;DR (Takeaway)

Don’t blindly follow others.  Own your own career. Always be learning and always advocate for yourself.  Measure everything that you do and keep track of the praise and successes you have. Do all of this and you’ll quickly grow both in role/title as well as your earnings.

This week’s post is for all my people managers!

I spent 10+ years working agency side in my SEO career. I’ve had some amazing people report to me and a few that were a little more difficult to work with than I like to admit.

I found out early on that it’s easy to be a manager when your team members work hard and actively build upon their skills. Not so much when they aren’t.

I considered myself a pretty good people manager, willing and eager to help each individual grow, and would do pretty much anything to see them succeed. I wasn’t afraid to say “atta girl/boy” when good work was being done.  Where I struggled was calling folks out when work wasn’t up to par.

I found out quickly that by not giving quick and honest feedback you’re actually causing more harm than good. Sometimes you have to be the “bad guy” as a people manager — but individuals will grow to be stronger because of it. 

Hypothetical Scenario:

Andrea has tasked Nick with creating an end-of-month performance report. It should articulate KPIs, a performance narrative, and clear action items.

Fast forward 24 hours and Nick forwards a word document with a screenshot from Google Analytics.

Example of Non-Effective SEO Feedback.

This deliverable was OK, I’ve made some changes and sent it to the client. You try to recreate it this way for the future. I know you’ll get this soon!

How Nick interpreted this: 

This deliverable was OK but Andrea prefers to have it done her way and this can be incorporated into next months report.

Example of Effective SEO Feedback.

This deliverable didn’t meet my expectations. It’s clear you found the KPIs within GA but to someone who may not be as technical as you, what should they think when they see this? A few lines sharing the performance of the site will help immensely. I also don’t see any recommendations as to how the client can take action on their SEO campaign based on what is found here.

 

Please take a look at this again and let me know if you have any questions. 

How Nick interpreted this: 

I cannot continue to produce this level of deliverable. By learning and adding these new components, it will not only meet Andrea’s expectations but it will provide much more actionable info for our client. Andrea is also available for questions if I continue to struggle.

Feedback Differences

Notice the key difference between the two interactions.  The top interaction is grounded on being nice and attempting to provide feedback in a positive way. Unfortunately, the feedback is unclear and won’t likely result in significant changes that are needed for future deliverables.

The second set of feedback is more direct but clearly states that the mark was missed and that making SPECIFIC changes it would add more value. She didn’t do the work for him but gave him direction and has made herself available for questions.

TL;DR (Takeaway)

People management can be very difficult. My best advice is to be very intentional with your words (which was never my strong suit).  Be direct and say what you mean. Don’t intentionally be a jerk but focus on getting the message across as your first priority vs avoiding being “the bad guy”.

This week’s lunch conversation comes from Tyler Nalbach who messaged me on LinkedIn.

I love this question. Truth time — I owe 99% of my freelance success to my network. My best clients come from referrals which come from various industry groups/platforms.

I’m going to break industry opportunities into two parts — online and offline.  

Online

Interacting with the broader SEO industry online can be done in a few ways. Social media as well as Slack groups.

I’m active both on Twitter/”X” as well as Linkedin.  Over the years the SEO industry has been exceptionally involved on Twitter. I recommend you follow some of your favorite folks (you can check out who i follow here) and your timeline will start flooding with SEO insights/articles and conversation.  I recommend jumping into conversations, asking questions, and continuing to follow folks that pique your interest.  LinkedIn works very similarly and while I’m not involved, there are active groups on Facebook and Reddit too!

Slack communities are also a great source of knowledge share.  The SEO Community is an upcoming free Slack channel. Women in Tech SEO is more than a Slack community but is another phenomenal (and safe) space for women to join. Traffic Think Tank is a paid Slack community that you may enjoy as well.

Regardless of the platform you use, each allows you to get your face and name in front of other like-minded people. This can be especially valuable if you have an opportunity to meet folks in real life.  

Offline

Again, I’m going to break out offline networking into two parts — local and national.

Local Events – Through your online communities, see if you have any local events that occur. Here in Minnesota, I’m a part of MNSearch which has a monthly get-together as well as an annual conference. Even if you don’t have an “official” group in your location, meeting up with a few locals to talk shop and enjoy a beer has been some of my favorite time spent networking.  

National Events –  Have a little budget and time to get out of town? SEO conferences such as Mozcon, Pubcon, BrightonSEO, SMX and WTSFest are just a few fantastic opportunities to level up your skills and meet people.

Even if you are not a drinker, I highly encourage you to join the happy hours. I have learned more and made more connections with these happy hours and meals than any other effort.  Don’t be shy, our industry is awesome. Say “HI” and start talking shop. Whether you are in your first year of digital marketing or have 20 years of experience, we all enjoy dorking out with one another.  

PRO TIPS!

Pro Tip 1 – Social Hacking Going to an upcoming conference? post on social/slack and find out which of your online connections are also going. Set up times to grab a meal, coffee or even plan to sit next to each other during the conference’s lunch break. Meeting folks in real life and getting beyond the “avatar” is very exciting.  

Pro Tip 2 – “UnConferencing” Not in a position to drop thousands on conference tickets but maybe an event is nearby? Hang around town.  Find out from your social circles who is flying into town and offer to buy them a coffee/beer.  You may not choose/afford to participate in the conference sessions but you can absolutely maximize the fact that all the amazing minds are in town.

Trust me, I get it. I don’t like confrontation either. We’ve all stayed silent or didn’t take action because of an uncomfortable situation or had hope that it might just go away.

In my 14 years of providing SEO services I have learned that avoiding difficult conversations turns into the first sign of an SEO engagement failing.

Let me walk you through a real life example:

I was hired to support the Director of SEO in an advisory role for an up and coming company that now does nearly half a billion in sales annually.

The Director of SEO was smart. He knew what he was doing but brought me in to help him get more internal buy-in.

This company is well siloed and often requires multiple buy-ins from leaders across each silo to get even the most basic SEO tasks accomplished.

Fast forward a year and the Director of SEO left the company. The inaction and de-prioritization of SEO had gotten to him. The process was painfully slow.

I had to step up and have a very difficult conversation

Here I am talking to the CMO. He wants to know why SEO performance isn’t close to matching projections that were made earlier in the year.

I told him that the company was at fault.

As I sat there chewing on my tongue (and waiting for confirmation that my contract wouldn’t be renewed…) This CMO responded:

“Tell me more..”

At this point I shared examples where and how various SEO initiatives were blocked and by what team.

The focus was NOT on individuals but where the system was broken and how the organic channel would see value with buy-in from the right individuals.

The CMO agreed!

Over the next quarter a few organization changes were made and SEO was assigned a new owner.  This didn’t solve for ALL issues but performance has increased significantly since.

All of this because of an extremely difficult conversation…

Action Items or Takeaways

1. Track where your SEO efforts are failing and why.
2. Document the potential impact of SEO efforts not taking place.
3. Provide a solution.*
4. Identify the change maker
5. Schedule time for conversation.

*Note that number 3 is CRITICAL.  Without a potential solution, having a difficult conversation is no different than whining or complaining.

Good leaders think in the form of issue – impact – solution.  If you can’t talk to them in this manner, you won’t get results.

Top Contributions To This Conversation

#SEOForLunch “lunch conversations” happen on Linkedin every week. If you would like to participate in the conversation please follow me on Linkedin. 

Tyler Nalbach

I couldn’t agree more. This isn’t talked about nearly as much as all the SEO successes.

I was working with an ecommerce brand where they had a lot of similar products that were really hard to differentiate when it came to keyword targeting. I came up with our keyword strategy, optimized the content and was focusing on adding more content and getting backlinks.

 

A few months in I noticed that we were starting to rank for one of our target keywords, BUT it was on the wrong page (not the page we intended to).

 

I had a conversation with the brand owner to adjust what we were doing to lean into the page that was ranking for that keyword. So we had to switch up a lot of our keyword targeting and content so that we weren’t trying to rank for the same keywords on multiple pages.

 

I was a little concerned they would lose trust in my process or that I would lose credibility, but I knew it was essential for their campaign to make this shift. He agreed and appreciated the pivot and honesty on it, which was great.

You have to do what’s best for the future of the campaign even if it’s uncomfortable at the current moment.

David Colgate

I totally agree, but I’ve not come across much in the way of training which could help support individuals gain confidence in doing these. One way I help my team is by having ‘mock meetings’. I play an upset client and we model a challenging conversation. I then debrief them and we discuss how that person may have gone about it a different way or how another approach may have been beneficial.

I nearly quit this newsletter and podcast in July.

In fact, here’s a screenshot of a message I sent to one of my buddies, Rob Wormley.

Rob is also a freelancer and if you need a strategic messaging consultant he’s your guy! Rob and I regularly connect online and in person to talk about freelance life and our families… we might partake in a beer or two as well.

So… with 1,500+ email subscribers and 3K+ downloads for the first five podcast episodes, why would I consider quitting something that is obviously working?

1. I was losing focus.
2. I was frustrated.
3. I was burned out.

The good news is that I’m not quitting.

I think mental health is super important. Since this newsletter already tackles a lot of other “taboo” topics like talking about money or the illusion of job security a 9-5 job provides I couldn’t shy away from burnout and how it plays a role in mental health.

Everyone gets burned out regardless if they are freelance or full-time employees. Good employers will monitor PTO usage and even encourage staff to take their time off. As a freelancer, it’s not uncommon to feel that you can’t take time off without repercussions.

I’m here to play the role of “employer” and encourage you to take care of your mental health too! If this post helps just one person it will be 100% worth it!

If you are struggling with burnout, depression and or anxiety please seek help. I highly recommend folks lean on their support system and take advantave of any professional help available to you as well. It’s OK to not be OK. Check out helpguide.org for free resources.

It’s OK to Lose Focus (or not hit your goals)

I’m blessed that business has been good since I went out on my own back in 2020. However, I haven’t been as focused and successful as I thought I wanted or needed to be for the past few months.

If we’ve talked in person you’ve likely heard me explain my first three years of freelancing as such:

• Year 1 was about SURVIVING (check)
• Year 2 was about THRIVING (heck-ya! check)
• Year 3 is about OPTIMIZING (today)

Like most people, I set the absolute highest standards for myself. I haven’t been hitting all my own goals which contributed to working more and eventually hitting massive burnout.

It’s OK to be Frustrated

I have a “pipeline” spreadsheet that outlines the revenue generated from my SEO clients and non-client projects. This same pipeline also accounts for client contracts that are signed through the rest of the year (and into 2023). This spreadsheet helps me better understand my capacity as well as total revenue earned before taxes/expenses etc.

It also has this graph that I have a love/hate relationship with.

The above graph accounts for year-over-year revenue trending back to when I started freelancing full-time in 2020. Total revenue updates every time I add a dollar value to this years month by month section of the spreadsheet.

The grey line in the middle accounts for yearly revenue through revenue collected to date as well as contracted work through the end of the ‘22 year.

The grey line has been below the orange line (2021) since the beginning of the year. It’s been frustrating the &*#$ out of me.

Last year, I worked a lot and rarely said no when I felt the project/money was good. This year I’ve been much more intentional taking on less client work and investing in my personal portfolio of projects that will hopefully pay much higher dividends in future years.

The only problem is that I was spreading myself thin. I was getting burned out.

It’s OK to be burned out

In addition to my freelance SEO clients, I write the weekly #SEOForLunch newsletter, co-own (and manage) SEOjobs.com, The SEO Freelancer newsletter (and its podcast), and I also have another site outside of the SEO space that earns me a few extra hundred bucks a month.

I’m also a husband, father to three children, and at times a decent friend too.

I love my family and I’ll also admit that I love my job too! I consider myself lucky to not dread my job each Sunday night like many. I really enjoy SEO and the clients/people that I work with on any given week.

However, with so many balls in the air, it is easy to get burned out. When business/projects don’t go as expected it’s natural to get frustrated. When I’m frustrated I’m not always the best husband and father. Rinse and repeat until the burnout turns into wheels spinning without any more rubber left.

Are you aware of your burnout?

Queue up the message I sent to Rob about retiring The SEO Freelancer. I was convinced that something needed to go. “This was the only option,” I told myself and later Rob. The SEO Freelancer doesn’t earn me money and is a passion project of mine. If anything had to go, this was it. Right? Wrong.

I’m no stranger to burnout. Historically I would work myself to the bone and only when I become unbearable to be around would I take it as a sign that I needed to take a break.

Nowadays I’m fairly aware of my burnout signs. Tasks that normally take 1 hour are regularly taking 2+ hours. I also tend to take less interest in my non-client-related work. As I mentioned earlier, I’m also inclined to be a bit short-tempered which definitely doesn’t make it any fun for family/friends to be around me.

That leads to taking action. For me, I often solve my burnout through travel.

How do you solve burnout?

I’m privileged to be able to go on one to two vacations per year. This is a time when I’m not physically at home (which also includes my office). I need to be physically detached from my stressors leading to my burnout.

I was lucky that I recently had a vacation planned – we rented a houseboat in International Falls, Minnesota on Rainy Lake (a transboundary lake with Canada.)

This vacation came a little later than what was ideal. I hit max burnout a few weeks prior but was able to power through and even get clients set up in a good position to account for my week-long absence.

What are your short-term escapes?

I’d love to say that every time I get burned out (or frustrated) I hop on a plane and sit on a beach for a week with my wife and kids. It’s simply not reality though I know it’s my most effective solution.

Going back to the top of this post. My friends play a big role in my backup solution. Whether you’re having a rough day, a difficult project, or simply feeling unmotivated? I ping select folks to chat – online or in person.

Being a freelancer can sometimes feel lonely so if you can build a network of people to have ad-hoc chats – it really helps. You’d be amazed when you’re frustrated or burned out how helpful chatting with like-minded people provides.

Another short-term escape for me is driving. I love cars and enjoy putting the windows down, cranking tunes, and simply going for a drive. It allows me to physically be removed from my home/office and I end up doing some of my best thinking. Yes, $4.00+/gallon gas sucks but the value I get from it is worth so much more.

My point of all the above? Invest in hobbies and take breaks from the daily grind. If you are anything like me you need it to ensure you’re recharged for what awaits you the next day!

P.S. Next week I’ll be publishing a new podcast episode of The SEO Freelancer featuring Kristina Azarenko!

Freelancing can be an amazing experience for many. I’ve talked with Eli Schwartz, Ronell Smith, and Derek Jacobson (podcast) who each shared their six-figure plus victories transitioning to the freelancing life.

I also wrote about four heartbreaking reasons that freelancers fail. What I didn’t include was a fifth reason that can cause some of the most successful freelancers to fail, diversification in revenue.

Diversification of Revenue is Key

Many freelancers take their business on a month-to-month basis meaning they focus on the work in front of them and pay the bills with the revenue generated that month. This can sometimes mean they rely on limited revenue streams leaving themselves at significant (future) risk.

When you rely on one or even two sources of revenue you put yourself in a very risky financial situation. When I first started out I had one 10K SEO retainer that made up a large chunk of my monthly revenue. I knew in the back of my mind that if I were to lose this client that it would have a significant impact on my monthly earnings. I quickly pushed to diversify my revenue across a few different retainers which saved my ass when the 10K retainer did eventually come to an end.

Scale is (often) Not a Freelancer’s Friend

A lot of agencies have a goal of having no client make up more than 10% of their revenue stream. They are able to accomplish this as their team can scale across 10+ clients if not more. As a freelancer, your time can only be spread so far while maintaining high-quality work. This, however, doesn’t preclude you from making every effort to diversify your revenue sources. My recommendation is to avoid one client or revenue source making up more than 25% of your monthly revenue.

My Personal Diversification Strategy

As of 2022, I have figured out a diversification strategy that works well for me. This may not be a perfect solution for you but you’ll notice that I put myself in a situation where if one source of revenue disappears overnight it doesn’t completely screw up my finances. My current diversification strategy looks like this:

• 3-4 monthly retainers.
• 1-2 rotating projects (such as SEO audits or site migrations).
• 2-3 SEO advisory positions.
• #SEOForLunch newsletter sponsorships.
• Owned assets that generate revenue through sponsorship, ads, and affiliate partnerships.

You’ll see in the image below that retainers make up 64% of my revenue, one-time projects 15%, my advisor roles 12%, the #SEOForLunch newsletter advertising 5%, and then a few personal projects that generate revenue make up the final 4%.

This chart was built off of real revenue percentages from January to April of 2022. These retainers include 4 clients adding up to 100% of the 64% of the revenue I generate from SEO retainers:

• Client Retainer 1 (35%)
• Client Retainer 2 (33%)
• Client Retainer 3 (29%)
• Client Retainer 4* (3%)

*You are not reading the last bullet incorrectly. I have one retainer that is very minimal effort/pay as a favor to a personal friend. For the sake of transparency, I added it but let’s focus on the 3 clients.

Pricing Yourself Into Diversity

I have very intentionally turned down work that could make up two or even all three of the retainers listed above. Why? Because I can handle losing one retainer at any given time when it only accounts for ~30% of my retainer revenue. Is it possible that I lose 2 of the 3 retainers, sure! However, the odds of losing all 3 retainers overnight are unlikely. I feel confident I (and all of you) can replace one or two retainers in time.

I know freelance SEO consultants that take on 5-10+ clients. Sometimes it’s because each is on a smaller retainer and necessary to hit revenue goals but in other instances, these consultants are simply making bank.

Personally, I like to further broaden my revenue through multiple sources. I also believe I provide my clients with even more value when I limit myself to just 3-4 retainers vs stretching myself thin.

Keep an eye out on your portfolio of clients’ performance as you continue to scale. You may be someone who can easily handle 5-10 clients or you may quickly find that you are like me and a smaller portfolio is ideal.

Let’s Discuss Owned Assets

From the graph above you’ll see that ~10% of my revenue is tied to what I refer to as “owned assets”. By now you likely know about my weekly #SEOForLunch newsletter which I monetize through sponsorships. I also own a small hobby site that generates a modest ~$500 per month fairly passively.

More recently, I partnered with Peter Askew and I am now co-owner of SEOjobs.com (you can read my announcement here). The goal here is to not only fill a gap in the SEO industry (filtering jobs on LinkedIn/Indeed is a pain in the butt) but also to double down in my efforts to further diversify my revenue.

What’s The Ideal Diversification Number?

This is a number you have to be comfortable with on your own. Many freelancers can thrive off a single revenue stream (consulting) and focus on diversifying through the number of clients/projects they have. Others, such as myself want to further diversify by adding multiple revenue streams and continue to diversify each of those as well.

There is no perfect strategy for diversifying your revenue. What I can tell you is that going all-in on just a few revenue drivers can be a recipe for disaster. I’m by nature a disaster planner and one of my biggest fears is being forced to work for someone full-time again. With that said, my perfect diversification strategy looks something like this:

• 50% owned assets across 4-5 projects.
• 50% SEO services across 4-5 clients.

You’ll notice that I have a fair amount of work to get to where I would like to be but that’s the fun of owning your own business – it’s a journey.

Enjoy This Post? Get The Next One Emailed To You

The next issue of The SEO Freelancer will cover the diversification of your freelance income. You won’t want to miss this one!

“Request Indexing” Returns on December 22, 2020

After months of the “request indexing” tool being unavailable, the feature returned right before the end of 2020. Many SEOs praised its return but that was about it, SEOs went on about their day. We didn’t hear much about how the feature changed or any limitations it might now have.

I had the perfect website to put it to the test… hence this very unscientific case study.

We’re glad to announce that ‘Request Indexing’ is back to the Google Search Console URL Inspection – just in time for the new year!

Read more about how to use this feature in our Help Center https://t.co/m1KD0do5Oi pic.twitter.com/Mh0q2ShoYa

— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) December 22, 2020

Stress Testing The Request Indexing Feature

One of my clients launched a website going from a few thousand pages to 500,000+ pages overnight. The team was fully aware that it would be a shock to Google’s system and we continue to be patient for Google to crawl, discover, and index all of this content. The good (not great) news is that most of our site is sitting in the “discovered – currently not indexed” bucket. Google defines these pages as falling into:

Discovered – currently not indexed: The page was found by Google, but not crawled yet. Typically, Google tried to crawl the URL but the site was overloaded; therefore Google had to reschedule the crawl. This is why the last crawl date is empty on the report.

As mentioned before, this website was re-launched and the massive size differential is likely overloading Google. Over time we continue to see this “discovered – currently not indexed” number decrease and our pages indexed increase.

However, now that the “request indexing” tool returned, it seemed like a good time to spot submit some critical pages directly to Google. Patience is indeed key with this website but it was time to stress test this tool.

How Many URLs Can You Now Submit?

Prior to the tool being deactivated, many could submit up to 50 URLs per day. After a few consecutive days of maxing out my submissions, I wasn’t able to submit more than 12 URLs in a 24 hour period. The error message, once you reached your quote will specify “Please try submitting this [URL] again tomorrow”.  However, I found that I couldn’t submit any additional URLs until 24 hours later.

Is Google Attempting To Prevent Automation?

On the second day of my test, I submitted my 11th URL to GSC and hit the “request indexing” button.  This is when I was given a CAPTCHA. I’ve never once seen this in the previous version of the request indexing tool.

Interestingly, after clicking through the CAPTCHA, that was the last URL I was able to submit. This was one URL less (11) than I was able to submit the previous day (12). I was only able to get this CAPTCHA to pop once during this test.

Does The Request Indexing Feature Provide Instant Indexing?

Sadly no. Each time I maxed out the URL submissions I immediately checked the URLs to see if GSC mentioned if they were indexed. In a few tests one or two URLs would get indexed within minutes. Most, however, took 12-24 hours but it was a 100% success rate.

Assuming your content meets Google’s indexing requirements you can assume that your content will get indexed fairly quickly after submitting to Google. Below is a screenshot of my first test in which I was able to submit 12 URLs. 3 URLs were nearly instantly indexed and the other 9 were soon after.

Are GSC Timestamps Reliable?

As mentioned previously, one of my clients is in the process of getting all of their new content indexed. This has forced me to live in our server logs in order to identify (and fix) any issues that are causing Google trouble.

In reviewing the server logs after submitting URLs to Google I was able to match our server discovery dates directly to the timestamp provided by Google in GSC. (notice the hour is different due to my server log configuration, XX:XX:XX PM was still correct

“Inspect URL” Limit? Or Bug?

While everything above helps you answer the question of how many pages and the effectiveness of the request indexing feature. However, I wanted to also share an interesting (Bug?) that I ran into. I can’t replicate this issue and it only happened the day after I hit my request indexing limit for the first time.

You will notice that this “quota exceeded” message for URL inspection is different than the one that is provided for exceeding your “request indexing” limit. This was on the domain property level, but moving to the https://www property it allowed me to inspect more URLs but not submit any more URLs via the request indexing feature.

Have you had similar experiences with GSC since Google relaunched its request indexing feature? If so, hit me up on Twitter @NickLeRoy to chat more about it.

I firmly believe freelancing is a great option for many but is not the right solution for everyone. Since kicking this newsletter off last year I’ve talked to quite a few agency owners and they weren’t shy in sharing feedback. “I hope my employees aren’t reading it” and “you make freelancing look so easy when it’s not” are just a few of the many comments shared. Truth is, they aren’t wrong but they aren’t exactly right either.

I’ve previously written about freelancers and agencies working in harmony but I completely understand where they are coming from. Entrepreneurship, whether it be a brick and mortar store, building an agency, or even freelance services isn’t for everyone. Let’s talk a bit more about this…

Four Reasons You Will Likely Fail As A Freelancer (and how to address each)

Before we jump into this section I want to challenge you. If you currently fall into one of these situations below and you have your heart set on freelancing, PROVE. ME. WRONG.

The entire basis of this newsletter is to encourage people to not be afraid of freelancing. I truly believe I’m doing everyone a disservice if I were to only share insight and stories about how great freelance life is. These situations truly are freelance killers and the sooner you address them, the better.

P.S. My entire school/career was full of people telling me I couldn’t do this/that or wasn’t good enough. Fuck them – use this post as motivation. PLEASE.

1. You Lack The Skills To Execute The Actual Work

The #1 reason people fail in freelancing is due to not having the proper skills to execute their promised services. The barrier to entry in SEO is VERY low. This often leads to people taking on projects that are way over their heads.

Proposed Solution:

I highly recommend that if you are completely new to SEO or digital marketing that you work at an agency for a few years. Not only will you learn the basics behind SEO but you’ll also be able to execute tactics across multiple clients in various verticals and with different technology stacks. Agency world also gives you an introduction to working directly with clients which will also play a critical role in your freelance success.

Starting a freelance SEO career without the proper skill set is going to result in quick failure and/or a lot of clients getting little to no value for their hard-earned dollars. This is by far the number one reason I see freelancers fail.

2. You Lack The Soft Skills To Manage A Freelance Business.

I wrote last month about how effective communication is the key to freelance success. It doesn’t matter how knowledgeable and skilled you are if you can’t run the business side of a freelance career.

As a freelancer, delivering on a project is just the beginning. You also need to market yourself, pitch/sell your services and work directly with your clients. If you are unable to communicate what value you offer then it’s very unlikely you will secure projects. Any projects you do secure will require you to effectively communicate requirements to execute your strategy. Furthermore, you’ll be expected to regularly communicate with your points of contact about the larger strategy and overall results tied to your efforts (we’ll come back to this last point in a moment).

Proposed Solution:

Good news! You don’t have to master this skill before you start freelancing. There are opportunities to white label your work which will allow you to focus exclusively on the deliverables. However, I do not recommend that you use this as an excuse to avoid communicating with partners/clients.

Previous SEO experiences regardless of agency side or in-house will help give you experience in communicating. In both situations, you’ll learn to communicate your findings, establish your requirements, ask for resources and report out on performance.

I also find that networking is a great opportunity to work on your communication skills. Meeting unfamiliar people and talking shop allows you to practice in a relatively safe space.

Communication is so critical to freelancing that we all work to get better each day. It’s not easy and none of us are perfect. Continue to push yourself outside of your comfort zone and you’ll quickly find that SEOs (freelance or not) that can effectively communicate are the ones that companies are most likely to hire!

3. You Are Unable To Measure/Demonstrate ROI

As a freelancer, it’s your job to work with your clients to determine project KPIs. Every company invests in marketing with the expectation of making money from their investment. You, as the “investment” need to take control of KPIs and ensure that you are able to measure and provide data to support a positive return on their investment. I always aim to provide (at minimum) a 3-4:1 return on my SEO services meaning that if my fees are $5,000/month then the client is earning $15-$20,000 in sales.

Clear KPIs and a process to measure/report on ROI is your strongest “guarantee” to keeping your clients happy and regulay payments hitting your bank account.

Proposed Solution:

As mentioned above, the first step to taking an ROI-based approach to your services is to ensure you discuss with your clients what success means AND price your services accordingly. If you pitch your services at 10K/m and the client sells $1 products then they will need to sell 10,000+ incremental products just to break even on their investment (your costs). Many freelancers fail simply because their fees and success metrics don’t align.

The second step is to make sure you are experienced with third-party measurement tools. In many instances, knowledge of Google/Adobe Analytics will suffice. However, many times you may also need access to call tracking or even a CRM.

“But Nick, my client isn’t eCommerce so I can’t track product sales” — no problem. Talk to the client about the value of a lead and the average sale of their product/service.

With this information, you can regularly report on the amount of leads/conversions that the organic channel is driving. The average lead/conversion value will give you a monetary value that you can multiply against the lead/conversion value.

If, in the end, you aren’t able to provide your client a multiple on their investment, you aren’t likely to maintain that client for long. Measure your SEO efforts and report success in $$$

4. You lack the confidence to leave the stability of a 9-5 job

I made every single excuse possible to avoid freelancing full-time. “I’ll miss my co-workers”, “I’m giving up an easy paycheck” and “I can’t possibly afford health insurance for a family of five on my own” were just a few that I often share.

While it’s all true (healthcare insurance is flipping expensive) they are what they are, EXCUSES. In fact, had I not been fired during COVID-19, I can’t even say with 100% certainty that I would be writing this post right now. Crazy how the world works, right?

I wrote back in November about the costs of leaving your 9-5 gig to freelance full-time in an effort to add more transparency to both sides of freelancing full-time. It’s not a decision to take lightly.

Freelancing doesn’t need to immediately need to replace your 9-5 income. I highly recommend that anyone who has an interest in freelancing start by doing it part-time, to begin with.

Proposed Solution:

A part-time freelance commitment allows you to experience each of these four situations that typically kill a freelancer’s career with very little risk. You may find that freelancing part-time is the best solution and allows you to make a few extra bucks. I know many who tried it out and absolutely hated it which allowed them to fully commit to the 9-5 lifestyle. For the rest of you, freelancing part-time may become a gateway to fully committing to the full-time freelance lifestyle.

If you are risk-averse but still committed to a full-time freelance career, I’ve included a few additional suggestions.

• Pay off your debt. You’re likely to make less than your 9-5 at the beginning. Keeping your expenses to a minimum allows you a longer runway to find success.
• Create an emergency fund. Bad months happen. If you can save 6 months of your expenses that will allow you to push forward during the rough times. As you tap into this account replenish it ASAP as funds become available.
• Keep your expenses low. Expenses may be deductions but it is not free money. It’s tempting to buy a brand new computer/desk and sign up for all the software subscriptions you dream of. Freelancing, especially in SEO has a very low overhead cost (check out what it cost me to freelance in 2021). As you build up your savings and contract more work you can invest in more luxuries.

Do You Have The Itch To Leave The 9-5 Behind?

Freelancing is an amazing experience that has personally opened up a lot of opportunities I never had before as a 9-5 employee. Is it the right choice for everyone? Absolutely not. However, if you get past the four hurdles outlined above you will be in a significantly better situation to find success.

Keep Crushing!