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AyRojgar

SEO service

Getting a client's website higher in Google. The capital is a computer, a Tk 500 internet line and electricity. Most of the money comes in dollars, and the cash incentive for an individual freelancer is now 2.50 percent, not the 4 percent everyone quotes.

  • Last reviewed: 21 September 2026
  • Version 1
SEO service

SEO service

Starting capital
৳31,720 – ৳81,140
Editorial estimate
Manpower
1 – 5 people
First sale
180 – 270 days
Editorial estimate
Break-even
7 – 13 months
Editorial estimate
Kind of work
Online · Medium difficulty

About the business

Getting someone else's website higher up in Google's results. It breaks into three parts: fixing the structure and the writing inside the site, earning links from outside it, and putting a shop, clinic or hotel on the map for local searches. In Bangladesh it runs two ways. One is picking up foreign clients on Upwork or Fiverr and getting paid in dollars. The other is a monthly retainer for a local brand or small company, paid in taka and often paid late. The capital is close to nothing, and that is worth saying plainly rather than inflating. It takes a computer, electricity and internet. Under the BTRC-approved packages from 27 April 2026, 30 Mbps is Tk 500 a month and 100 Mbps Tk 1,000, at the same rate anywhere in the country, and the weighted average retail electricity tariff has been Tk 10.63 a unit since June 2026. No shop, no stock, and no licence at all if you work alone; open an agency in your own name and you need a trade licence. The money rules are where most write-ups go wrong. Bangladesh Bank's FEPD-1 Circular 22 of 22 July 2026 says no EXP form applies to services exported over the internet, inward remittances up to USD 20,000 are credited without Form-C, OPGSP repatriation is capped at USD 10,000 per transaction, up to 50 percent of net ICT earnings may be kept in dollars in an ERQ account with the rest converted to taka, and leaving earnings abroad in any form, virtual assets included, violates the 1947 Act. On the cash incentive, the figure still quoted everywhere is 4 percent; the circular of 5 July 2026 sets 6 percent for firms and 2.50 percent for individual freelancers. On income, the honest version: most people earn almost nothing in the first year, and AI has come for this kind of work first.

Unit economics

ItemRangeEvidenceSuggest a correction
Monthly working capital৳832 – ৳12,500Editorial estimate
Selling price৳9,700 – ৳41,000 / unitEditorial estimate
Variable cost৳832 – ৳2,500 / unitEditorial estimate
Gross margin72% – 94%Editorial estimate
Time to first revenue180 – 270 daysEditorial estimate
Break-even time7 – 13 monthsEditorial estimate
Cash cycle3 – 10 daysPractitioner verified
Waste / loss30% – 40%Editorial estimate
Daily capacity8 – 40Editorial estimate

What you need to start

  • A computer, an IPS or UPS, and a broadband line. Under the BTRC-approved packages from 27 April 2026, 30 Mbps is Tk 500 a month, 100 Mbps Tk 1,000 and 250 Mbps Tk 3,000, at the same rate nationwide. The weighted average retail electricity tariff has been Tk 10.63 a unit since June 2026.Equipment
  • Working alone needs no licence. Opening an office or agency in your own name, or contracting with local companies, needs a trade licence from the city corporation, municipality or union parishad, currently valid one year. Dhaka South City Corporation said on 16 August 2026 it will move to five-year renewal, and Tk 3,000 of the renewal goes to the NBR.Licence
  • Reading Google Search Console and Analytics, keyword research, finding technical faults on a site, writing clean English, and showing a client the result. Without English, foreign clients are hard to hold: in 2021 Bangladeshi freelancers billed under USD 10 an hour, below India, Pakistan and the Philippines.Skill
  • An account with an Authorised Dealer bank. Under Bangladesh Bank FEPD-1 Circular 22 of 22 July 2026 no EXP form applies to service exports over the internet; inward remittances up to USD 20,000 are credited without Form-C and anything above needs the online Form-C (ICT); OPGSP repatriation is capped at USD 10,000 per transaction; up to 50 percent of net ICT service earnings may be held in foreign currency in an ERQ account (30 percent for other services) and the rest must be converted to taka. Dual-currency freelancer cards and MFS wallets are also allowed.Supplier
  • To claim the cash incentive the money has to come home. The circular of 5 July 2026 sets the FY2026-27 rate at 6 percent for firms exporting software and ITES and 2.50 percent for individual freelancers. The same rates applied through both halves of FY2025-26. Many write-ups still say 4 percent; that is out of date.Supplier
  • A room at home is enough, but the power and the line both have to hold. Without an IPS or UPS, load-shedding cuts you off in the middle of a client call.Workspace

How the work is done

  1. 1Get a working computer and a broadband line. The cheapest BTRC-approved package is Tk 500 a month and costs the same anywhere in the country.
  2. 2Learn to run Google Search Console and Google Analytics. A client hands over access to both on day one, and this is where you show your work.
  3. 3Build a site of your own and rank it. Without a result you can show, you do not get the first job.
  4. 4Pick one niche, local services or e-commerce for instance. Taking every kind of job pushes your rate down.
  5. 5Open a profile on Upwork or Fiverr, but chase direct clients on LinkedIn at the same time. It saves the commission and keeps the work steady.
  6. 6Open an account with an Authorised Dealer bank and get an ERQ account opened for ICT services; up to 50 percent of net earnings can stay in dollars.
  7. 7Keep every email, contract and platform statement. Under the circular the bank credits the money on the strength of that electronic evidence.
  8. 8Bring each payment home and then claim the 2.50 percent cash incentive through the bank. Money left abroad earns no incentive and breaks the law.
  9. 9Build a monthly report template showing which keywords moved and how many clicks came. Local clients who get no report drop the retainer in the second month.
  10. 10Take an advance from local clients. Platform money takes 3-10 days to land; local clients take much longer than that.
  11. 11Pick up AI-adjacent work. Writing and coding postings fell 21 percent, while AI-related work grew 25 percent year on year and prompt engineering 52 percent.
  12. 12Take a trade licence when you open an office in your own name; that is when contracts with larger local companies or public bodies become possible.

Seasons

  1. JanNormal
  2. FebNormal
  3. MarNormal
  4. AprNormal
  5. MayNormal
  6. JunNormal
  7. JulNormal
  8. AugNormal
  9. SepNormal
  10. OctNormal
  11. NovNormal
  12. DecNormal
HighNormalLow

Where it works well

  • Strong fitChattogram · The second city, with a dense base of export-facing companies and enough bank foreign exchange branches to settle in.
  • Strong fitDhaka · Most Authorised Dealer bank branches, freelancer cards and ERQ accounts are opened here, and local client and agency work is Dhaka-centred. The government's new Tk 683 crore training project runs through 13 metropolitan cities.
  • PossibleBogura · The trading hub of the north, with broadband and bank branches in place and rent a fraction of Dhaka's.
  • PossibleCumilla · Close to Dhaka, with many expatriate families and banks used to handling foreign currency.
  • PossibleGazipur · On Dhaka's edge, with lower rent and the ability to hold on to Dhaka agency work.
  • PossibleKhulna · Line costs the same as Dhaka under one country, one rate, and living costs less, so the same income goes further.
  • PossibleMymensingh · A supply of university and college students. Internet costs the same, but local clients are few, so work has to come off the marketplaces.
  • PossibleRajshahi · A university city with a supply of young people who write English, and the same nationwide internet price.
  • PossibleRangpur · Internet costs the same under one country, one rate, but load-shedding is worse, so a night shift is hard without an IPS.
  • PossibleSylhet · Expatriate links make foreign clients easier to reach, and broadband costs the same as in Dhaka: 30 Mbps at Tk 500 under BTRC's one country, one rate policy.

Risks and cautions

  • HighDemand: AI has eaten exactly this kind of work first. A 2025 Management Science study found writing and coding job postings down 21 percent within eight months of ChatGPT's arrival and visual design down 17 percent, with demand for writing and translation down 20 to 50 percent. Freelancers told The Daily Star on 20 September 2026 that income fell by up to 80 percent at first; Yousuf Tushar, twenty years in the trade, is down about half, and Kazi Mamun, fourteen years in, is down about 25 percent.
  • HighOther: Training is not income. The government's new Tk 683 crore project targets only 60-70 percent of trainees entering income-generating work, with income expected 3 to 6 months after a three-month course ends. A Tk 47.5 crore pilot in 16 districts in 2022 claimed 64 percent secured freelance work, but there is no independent verification. For almost everyone the first year is a year of nearly no income.
  • HighCompliance: Leaving earnings abroad is now plainly unlawful. Paragraph 9 of FEPD-1 Circular 22 says retention of export proceeds abroad in any form, including foreign accounts, assets or virtual assets, violates the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act 1947. Yet The Financial Express reported on 2 May 2025 that 50 to 70 percent of the earnings of freelancers making over USD 800 a month never comes home. Nothing that stays out there earns the 2.50 percent incentive either.
  • MediumDemand: Nobody agrees on the size of the market, and planning on the big number is planning on air. Prothom Alo reported on 16 July 2024 that the state minister put ICT exports at USD 2 billion, the BASIS president at USD 1.5 billion, and former BASIS president Fahim Mashrur at under USD 1 billion. Freelancer earnings are USD 200-250 million by BASIS's count and USD 300 million by BFDS's. On numbers: 600,000-700,000 registered on platforms, but roughly 150,000 real ones.
  • MediumLate payment: Two kinds of delay. Platform money sits through a mandatory hold and then the wallet and the bank, 3 to 10 days in all. Local retainers are slower, and if the rankings have not moved the client holds the second month's payment, even though SEO takes months to show. That gap is the biggest risk in local work.

Sources

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