How to present your freelance experience on Malt (practical guide)

The experience section isn't there to tell your life story. It's there to answer silent client objections. Understand these objections first.

Objection 1 — 'Does he/she really have solid experience?' A client about to pay you €500-800/day wants to see continuous dates, successive missions, a trajectory. A profile with 3 experience lines suggests 'beginner just starting out'.

Objection 2 — 'Does he/she work in my sector?' A SaaS CTO wants to see other SaaS missions. An e-commerce owner wants to see retail. Your experience section must clearly display the sectors covered.

Objection 3 — 'Is he/she active right now?' If your last experience dates from 14 months ago, the client thinks 'pause', 'career change', or 'hidden unemployment'. Total red flag.

Objection 4 — 'Does he/she deliver real results or just time spent?' Two profiles with 5 years of experience look alike on the surface. The one that displays quantified results in each experience wins every time.

Consequence: your experience section doesn't just list dates. It tells a coherent trajectory with proof at each step. It's a reassurance funnel.

Here's the format to apply to each experience in your section, without exception.

Precise job title: 'Senior SEO Consultant — B2B SaaS' rather than 'Freelance SEO'. The title must contain your role + the sector context.

Client company + sector: client name (or sector if NDA), stage (startup, scale-up, large group), size. E.g.: 'Alan (InsurTech scale-up, 400+ people)'.

Precise dates: format 'MMM YYYY — MMM YYYY' (e.g., 'March 2024 — August 2024'). Not '2024' or '6 months' in vague. Precise dates reassure, vague dates worry.

Description (3-5 lines max): what you did, structured in 2-3 key points. Action verbs, no vagueness. E.g.: 'Complete redesign of the editorial SEO strategy (60 pillar articles), setup of GA4 monitoring, complete technical audit.'

Quantified results (mandatory): 1-2 lines of concrete results. 'Organic traffic +180% in 6 months, 12 keywords in Google top 3, 4 new qualified leads per week.'

Hidden keywords (SEO bonus): slip 2-3 target keywords into the description. Your experience content is indexed by Malt and Google. It's an often-ignored SEO signal.

Complete example: 'Senior SEO Consultant — FinTech scale-up Alan (InsurTech, Series D, 400+ people) March 2024 — August 2024 Redesign of editorial SEO strategy (60 pillar articles), complete technical audit (Core Web Vitals, structure), 6-month netlinking plan. Results: organic traffic +180% in 6 months, 12 keywords in Google top 3, revenue attributed to SEO +45%.'

Two classic situations that make freelancers panic: very short missions (2 weeks) and activity gaps.

Short missions (less than 1 month): - Group them into a single 'POC / Flash Audits' experience with 3-5 missions listed as bullets. - E.g.: 'Flash SEO Audits — Q1 2025: Client A (5-day audit), Client B (10-day POC redesign), Client C (3-day team training).' - Avoid making 10 individual lines that look like 'choppy career'.

Career gaps (2+ months): - Solution 1 — Fill with legit. Intensive training, serious side project, parental leave, assumed sabbatical ('Product sabbatical — 4 months, MVP side project creation'). - Solution 2 — Group the period. If you had 3 missions spread over 6 months with gaps, you can make an experience 'Q1-Q3 2024: Multi-client portfolio (3 successive missions, SaaS and E-commerce sectors)'. - Solution 3 — Never lie about dates. On Malt, the client can request references. If the dates don't line up, you're burned.

What you absolutely must avoid: - Extending mission duration to fill a gap - Overlapping missions in parallel if they weren't - Hiding recent employment (the client can check via LinkedIn)

Special case — recent career change: if you've been freelance for 12 months but you were salaried before, clearly display your salaried past. E.g.: 'Employment — Lead Dev Doctolib — 2018-2023 (5 years)'. It reassures on your total seniority in the profession.

The default order on Malt is reverse chronological (most recent at top). It's good but insufficient. Add a layer of strategic hierarchy.

Rule 1 — Your most impressive experience must be visible without scrolling. If your most prestigious mission (big name, big result) dates from 2 years ago, it's too low in the list. Solution: put a current mission at the same level in progress or move the old one up to 'reference mission' in your bio.

Rule 2 — The first 3 experiences count for 80% of client perception. As with portfolio projects, the first 3 entries are seen in 5 seconds. They must display: your current profession + a reassuring client + a quantified result.

Rule 3 — Group old experiences intelligently. If you have 8 years of experience, don't make 15 individual entries. Group the oldest (>3 years): 'Employment — 2015-2018: Backend Developer (2 roles)' in a single synthetic line. Malt clients are mainly interested in your last 3-5 years.

Rule 4 — Visual continuity. Dates should chain without apparent gaps. If you have a month between two missions, no big deal. If you have 6 months, fill or explain.

Quick test: ask a friend outside your field to scan your experience section in 15 seconds and tell you 'what you do, for whom, with what results'. If they can't answer, it's poorly structured.

Mistake number 1 I see on Malt profiles: pasting your LinkedIn experience section as is. It's catastrophic.

Why it's a mistake: - LinkedIn values length and exhaustiveness. Malt values commercial precision. - LinkedIn targets full-time recruiters. Malt targets clients who buy a service. - Tone and keywords differ: on LinkedIn you talk about 'missions', on Malt you talk about 'deliverables' and 'results'.

What to do instead: rewrite each experience with a Malt commercial angle.

Before/after example:

LinkedIn version (to avoid on Malt): 'Digital project manager at Client X In charge of team coordination and budget monitoring for digital projects. Privileged interlocutor for internal and external teams.'

Malt version (to do): 'Freelance digital project manager — EdTech scale-up (200 people) April 2024 — December 2024 Piloting of 3 parallel product workstreams (roadmap, sprints, budget). Coordination of 12 internal people + 4 freelancers. Redesign of the delivery process. Results: 3 releases delivered on date, 40% reduction in average delivery times, measured team ROI +25%.'

The Malt version gives numbers, action verbs, precise context, a result. The LinkedIn version is vague and interchangeable with 500 other profiles.

Invest 2-3 hours once to rewrite your 5-6 main experiences in Malt version. It's one of the highest-ROI changes you can make.

Frequent question: 'Can I name my clients on Malt?'.

General rule: if you can, yes, ALWAYS. Naming a client reassures noticeably more than an anonymous client.

Case 1 — No explicit NDA. You can name. Don't even ask permission for a simple company name (it's mundane commercial reference). Name.

Case 2 — NDA signed but doesn't mention commercial reference. You can generally name the company as a client without detailing what you did. E.g.: 'SEO Consultant — Doctolib (2024). Confidential missions.'

Case 3 — Strict NDA that prohibits any mention. You don't name. Describe the context: 'FinTech Series C scale-up (200 people, Paris)'. Stays credible without violating the contract.

Case 4 — Sensitive client (defense, health, high finance sector). Anonymize systematically, even without NDA. These sectors are paranoid about visibility, you lose the relationship by mentioning.

Tip: ask your clients at the end of a mission 'can I cite you as a reference on my freelance profile?'. 80% immediately say yes, it unlocks powerful names for free.

Measured impact: a profile that names 4-5 recognizable clients (even medium ones like Alan, Qonto, Doctolib, ManoMano) converts significantly better than a 100% anonymous profile. Social reassurance through the name is massive.

The experience section is an often-neglected SEO gold mine. Each experience is a block of text indexed by Malt and Google.

Lever 1 — Target keywords in job titles. Experience title = strong SEO zone. 'Freelance React Developer — B2B SaaS' ranks on 'react saas developer' and 'freelance react developer'. Don't settle for 'Freelance Developer'.

Lever 2 — Sector and client size in the company name. 'Alan (InsurTech Series D Scale-up)' ranks on 'insurtech', 'series d scale-up', 'health insurance'. Add sector contexts systematically.

Lever 3 — Quantified results in descriptions. Google and AIs (ChatGPT, Perplexity) love precise numbers when they summarize profiles. A 'traffic +180%' is cited noticeably more often than a 'significant improvement'.

Lever 4 — Controlled repetition of target keywords. If 'SEO' is your main keyword, it should appear in the title of at least 3 experiences out of 6. Repetition = specialization signal.

Lever 5 — High-intent action verbs. 'Led', 'Delivered', 'Deployed', 'Redesigned', 'Optimized', 'Structured'. Strong verbs that signal a proactive posture. Avoid 'Participated in', 'Helped', 'Contributed' which weaken.

Cumulative SEO impact: well optimizing 6 experiences on these 5 levers can add 15 to 30% profile views over the next 2-3 months, without changing bio or skills.