Top 12 Freelance Writer Skills to Put on Your Resume

Crafting an enticing resume as a freelance writer takes more than showing sharp prose. Stack in skills that prove range, creativity, and a calm, steady hand under shifting client demands. Below, the essential dozen that punch up your profile and help you stand out in a crowded field.

Freelance Writer Skills

1. SEO Optimization
2. WordPress
3. Copywriting
4. Proofreading
5. Content Management Systems (CMS)
6. Google Analytics
7. Social Media Marketing
8. Email Marketing
9. Adobe InDesign
10. HTML/CSS Basics
11. Research Proficiency
12. AP Style

1. SEO Optimization

SEO optimization for a freelance writer means shaping content with relevant keywords, smart structure, and engaging on-page elements so search engines (and people) find it, read it, and stick around.

Why It's Important

Better visibility. More qualified readers. Clear signals to clients that you understand how content moves through search and why it ranks. It’s a revenue multiplier for your work.

How to Improve SEO Optimization Skills

To sharpen SEO instincts and output:

1. Keyword Research: Identify relevant queries with tools like Google Keyword Planner and incorporate terms naturally.

2. Quality Content: Write original, useful, deeply accurate pieces. Tools like Grammarly can help you clean the finish.

3. On-Page SEO: Tune title tags, meta descriptions, headers, internal links. Plugins such as Yoast SEO can guide best practices.

4. Mobile Optimization: Ensure pages load fast and read clean on phones. Run mobile-friendly checks during QA.

5. Backlinks: Earn links by guest posting and creating resources people actually cite.

6. Social Distribution: Share and repurpose across platforms to spark engagement. Tools like Hootsuite can help schedule and track.

7. Use Analytics: Review performance in Google Analytics and Search Console. Refine topics, structure, and internal links based on what people actually do.

Put this loop on repeat and your pages will climb.

How to Display SEO Optimization Skills on Your Resume

2. WordPress

WordPress is a widely used CMS that lets freelance writers create, publish, and manage content without heavy technical lift. Draft, format, schedule, and organize—fast.

Why It's Important

It’s where a huge chunk of the web lives. Knowing it lets you manage your own site, plug into client sites, and deliver drafts that are formatted and ready to ship.

How to Improve WordPress Skills

Level up where it matters:

1. Content Creation and Editing: Work smoothly with the Gutenberg block editor for flexible layouts and reusable blocks.

2. SEO: Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to optimize metadata, readability, and schema basics.

3. Backup and Security: Schedule backups with tools like UpdraftPlus and protect installs with Wordfence.

4. Performance: Speed up with caching and optimization plugins such as WP Rocket.

5. Image Optimization: Compress with Smush or similar to keep pages lean.

6. Social Integration: Use Jetpack or similar to add sharing and basic analytics.

Streamlined, secure, fast—that’s the goal.

How to Display WordPress Skills on Your Resume

3. Copywriting

Copywriting is persuasive writing with a job to do: clicks, signups, demos, sales, attention. For freelancers, it stretches across sites, ads, emails, landing pages, and social—each with its own pressure points.

Why It's Important

Strong copy moves people. It shows you can connect business goals to words that convert, which makes you far more valuable to clients.

How to Improve Copywriting Skills

Build muscle through practice and feedback:

1. Know the Reader: Define the audience, pains, objections, and language they use. Build personas and keep them on your desk.

2. Lean on Proven Structures: Practice frameworks like AIDA, PAS, and 4Ps—then bend them to fit the brief.

3. Daily Reps: Write every day. Headlines, value props, short emails, microcopy. Keep a swipe file.

4. Study Winners: Break down high-performing ads, emails, and landing pages. Ask why each line exists.

5. Get Feedback: Join copy communities or critique groups. Iterate mercilessly.

6. Keep Learning: Short courses from platforms like Udemy or Skillshare can fill gaps quickly.

7. Test the Work: Run A/B tests via your email platform, page builder, or tools like VWO or Optimizely.

8. SEO Awareness: Understand search intent and basic on-page signals so copy can be found.

9. Sharpen: Use Grammarly and the Hemingway App for clarity passes—then read aloud to catch the snags.

Iteration beats inspiration. Ship, test, refine.

How to Display Copywriting Skills on Your Resume

4. Proofreading

Proofreading means catching the last-mile mistakes—spelling, grammar, punctuation, formatting—before a draft goes public.

Why It's Important

Errors erode trust. Clean copy reads easier, feels more credible, and keeps clients coming back.

How to Improve Proofreading Skills

Adopt a tight process:

1. Take Breaks: Step away before the final pass. Fresh eyes, fewer misses.

2. Read Aloud: You’ll hear clunky phrasing and dropped words that your eyes gloss over.

3. Use Tools: Start with Grammarly or Hemingway Editor, then do a human pass.

4. Style and Consistency: Maintain consistent voice, capitalization, hyphenation, and formatting. Resources like Purdue OWL are handy for rules.

5. Track Your Misses: Keep a personal error checklist and scan for those first.

6. Daily Practice: Edit short passages each day; speed and accuracy compound.

7. Courses: Platforms such as Coursera or edX offer targeted refreshers.

8. Peer Reviews: Swap edits with other writers. Different eyes, different catches.

Your future self will thank your final self.

How to Display Proofreading Skills on Your Resume

5. Content Management Systems (CMS)

A CMS lets you create, edit, schedule, and organize digital content without needing to code. For writers, it’s the control room for blogs, pages, and assets.

Why It's Important

It frees you to focus on writing and structure while making publishing quick, consistent, and traceable. Less friction, more output.

How to Improve Content Management Systems (CMS) Skills

Dial in features and flow:

1. Intuitive Dashboard: Choose a CMS with a clean interface. WordPress is popular for good reason.

2. SEO Tools: Add plugins that surface on-page improvements (Yoast SEO, for example).

3. Responsive Design: Use themes that look right on every screen. Drupal and others offer strong responsive options.

4. Content Scheduling: Build a calendar and schedule posts to keep cadence steady. Joomla and WordPress handle this well.

5. Social Sharing: Add share buttons and basic social metadata for wider reach.

6. Security: Harden logins, update often, and consider services like Sucuri.

7. Customizable URLs: Set human-readable permalinks for clarity and search.

8. Analytics: Connect Google Analytics and Search Console. On WordPress, Site Kit by Google makes setup simple.

9. Media Management: Pick a CMS that handles images and video cleanly. Squarespace is known for this polish.

10. Updates and Support: Favor platforms with active communities and frequent updates (WordPress, Drupal).

A smooth CMS is invisible—everything just works.

How to Display Content Management Systems (CMS) Skills on Your Resume

6. Google Analytics

Google Analytics tracks how people find and use your site. For writers, it reveals what content lands, what doesn’t, and where to go next.

Why It's Important

It turns guesses into decisions: topics to expand, pages to fix, headlines to test, and channels that deserve your time.

How to Improve Google Analytics Skills

Focus on GA4 practices that matter now:

1. Define Conversions: Set up key actions as conversions (sign-ups, downloads, contact form submits). These replace legacy “Goals.”

2. Reports and Explorations: Build custom reports and use Explorations to analyze behavior by traffic source, device, and cohort.

3. Ecommerce Events: If relevant, implement GA4 ecommerce events to see how content drives product views and purchases.

4. Content Grouping: Create a content_group parameter or custom dimension to compare categories, formats, or themes.

5. Event Tracking: Track interactions—scrolls, outbound clicks, video plays—using GA4 events and tag management.

6. Search Console Link: Connect Search Console to see queries and landing pages, then align topics with demand.

7. Audience Segments: Compare engaged readers vs. bounce-prone visitors and tailor content paths accordingly.

8. Custom Insights: Set alerts for traffic spikes, drops, or conversion shifts so you can act fast.

Measure, learn, iterate. That’s the engine.

How to Display Google Analytics Skills on Your Resume

7. Social Media Marketing

For a freelance writer, social media marketing means putting work where the audience lives—on platforms like X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and Instagram—while engaging, showcasing, and opening doors.

Why It's Important

It builds proof. Your voice, your network, your reach. Clients see authority and consistency, not just claims.

How to Improve Social Media Marketing Skills

Turn chaos into a system:

1. Pinpoint the Audience: Map who you’re speaking to and what they actually care about. Then write to that.

2. Lead with Value: Share tight insights, stories, frameworks, and samples tied to your niche.

3. Use the Right Mix: LinkedIn for authority and leads. Instagram for visuals and snippets. X for conversation. Repurpose smartly.

4. Visuals Win: Add images, carousels, or short videos. Canva can speed up decent design.

5. Engage Daily: Reply, ask questions, amplify others. Build a two-way channel, not a broadcast tower.

6. Measure: Use platform analytics and Google Analytics to see which posts drive clicks or inquiries.

7. Consistency: Schedule with tools like Buffer or Hootsuite. Small, steady beats sporadic bursts.

8. Searchability: Add keywords and hashtags where appropriate so posts are discoverable.

Keep it human, keep it useful.

How to Display Social Media Marketing Skills on Your Resume

8. Email Marketing

Email lets you talk directly to readers and leads. Send value, build trust, and invite action—on your terms, not an algorithm’s.

Why It's Important

Owned channels are durable. A strong list means repeat readers, recurring work, and launches that don’t depend on luck.

How to Improve Email Marketing Skills

Make every send count:

1. Segment: Group subscribers by interest, behavior, or stage. Targeted messages get opened and clicked.

2. Subject Lines: Write crisp, curiosity-sparking lines without trickery. Test relentlessly.

3. Clear CTA: Each email should point to one action—book, reply, read, buy—stated plainly.

4. Mobile First: Design for thumbs: short paragraphs, big buttons, scannable structure. Tools like Litmus help with previews.

5. Test and Learn: Run A/B tests inside your email platform (subject, sender name, CTA, layout). Track what moves the needle.

6. Deliver Value: Share useful frameworks, case studies, templates, and behind-the-scenes process notes. Resources like Content Marketing Institute can spark ideas.

Build a habit for readers. Show up, reliably useful.

How to Display Email Marketing Skills on Your Resume

9. Adobe InDesign

InDesign is desktop publishing for polished layouts—magazines, reports, ebooks, brochures. Control typography, grids, and exports with precision.

Why It's Important

Presentation elevates perception. When long-form writing needs a beautiful container, InDesign makes you look professional and meticulous.

How to Improve Adobe InDesign Skills

Practice the pieces that speed you up:

1. Start with Fundamentals: Get comfortable with frames, pages, master pages, and styles.

2. Templates: Use or build templates for repeatable layouts and faster turnaround.

3. Text Mastery: Learn paragraph and character styles, hyphenation, tracking, and baseline grids.

4. Interactive Elements: Add internal navigation or hyperlinks for PDFs and digital publications when needed.

5. Shortcuts: Learn keyboard shortcuts for selection, text, zoom, and layout tweaks.

6. Community: Join forums (including InDesign communities) for tips, critiques, and troubleshooting.

7. Repetition: Tackle small self-assignments—newsletters, one-pagers, mini-mags—to lock in muscle memory.

Precision becomes habit—then speed follows.

How to Display Adobe InDesign Skills on Your Resume

10. HTML/CSS Basics

HTML structures content. CSS styles it. Together they turn plain text into readable, accessible, on-brand web pages—a handy edge for any writer who touches the CMS.

Why It's Important

Light HTML/CSS fluency means you can format posts, fix simple layout hiccups, and collaborate smoothly with web teams. It also keeps your drafts web-ready.

How to Improve HTML/CSS Basics Skills

Keep it simple and steady:

1. Regular Practice: Set weekly time to code small components—lists, buttons, cards, simple pages.

2. Build Something: Create a personal site or micro-portfolio. Host projects on GitHub to track progress.

3. Use Solid References: Learn from resources like W3Schools and MDN Web Docs for clear explanations.

4. Join Communities: Ask and learn on Stack Overflow or subreddits like r/webdev.

5. Stay Current: Follow sources like CSS-Tricks for modern layout patterns and accessibility tips.

You don’t need to be a developer—just dangerous enough to move faster.

How to Display HTML/CSS Basics Skills on Your Resume

11. Research Proficiency

Research proficiency is the ability to find, vet, and weave credible sources into writing—fast and accurately—so your content stands on solid ground.

Why It's Important

Trust is currency. Well-researched content earns it, keeps it, and gets shared more often.

How to Improve Research Proficiency Skills

Make rigor a habit:

1. Learn the Basics: Review research and citation standards. Purdue OWL is a reliable reference.

2. Search Smarter: Use advanced search operators to narrow results and exclude noise.

3. Use Scholarly Databases: Pull peer-reviewed sources via Google Scholar or library access.

4. Evaluate Sources: Check author credentials, publication date, primary vs. secondary, and potential bias. The Cornell method for source evaluation is a good model.

5. Organize: Collect and tag sources in Zotero or Evernote. Keep quotes, stats, and citations tidy.

6. Summarize Clearly: Practice turning dense research into crisp summaries. Tools like Hemingway Editor can help clarity.

7. Stay Current: Read journals, newsletters, and reputable outlets in your niche. Keep a living reading list.

Clarity rides on accuracy. Keep receipts.

How to Display Research Proficiency Skills on Your Resume

12. AP Style

AP Style is a widely adopted rule set for grammar, punctuation, and usage—especially in journalism and PR. It keeps writing consistent and clear across outlets.

Why It's Important

Many publications expect it. Using AP Style signals professionalism and reduces edits.

How to Improve AP Style Skills

Build familiarity and consistency:

1. Use the AP Stylebook: Reference it often; updates come annually.

2. Apply Consistently: Keep a personal style sheet for recurring decisions.

3. Track Updates: Follow official channels or summaries of yearly changes.

4. Support Tools: Grammar tools can catch common slip-ups, but verify against the Stylebook.

5. Read Widely: Study AP-sourced news to see rules in the wild.

6. Practice and Get Feedback: Write to AP standards and seek critiques in writing communities.

Precision turns into instinct the more you use it.

How to Display AP Style Skills on Your Resume