Ultimate Guide to White Label SEO Services
No matter the business, industry, or website, Search engine optimization (SEO) is critical to building a solid online presence. SEO is one of the most popular services being offered by digital marketing agencies today. That’s because SEO actually works and can help businesses generate a lot of qualified leads and sales.
Many things have changed about how businesses are conducted in our digital world and how people find information. Any business that’s looking to achieve significant success online has to pay more attention to SEO. Hence, the tremendous increase in the demand for SEO professionals these days.
Many SEO agencies now strive really hard to stay relevant in the market. They keep looking for effective solutions that would help them cope with their overwhelming workload while achieving desired targets. However, that is not always easy. Hiring professionals can be very expensive and time-consuming, especially in countries like the U.S. Plus, now combining that with managing multiple projects can be really tough.
If you own a digital marketing agency, you are likely also wondering what could be the solution to this. Then, you might need to consider white label SEO. It comes as a perfect solution in a situation where you don’t have enough in-house resources, time, expertise, and fat budget to get more professionals on board to scale your expertise.
Consider this guide as the toolkit you need to learn everything you need about white label SEO. The guide will show you what it is, its unique benefits, and how you can make the most from it for your agency. So let’s get to business right away!
What is White Label SEO?
White label SEO is often used to describe the concept of hiring a professional SEO provider to deliver SEO products or services to your clients under your brand. This is usually a comprehensive solution for marketing agencies and website development companies. It helps them provide an effective service to their clients without having to incur additional overhead costs.
To help you better understand the concept, let’s look at this scenario. Now imagine you being an SEO agency with lots of clients and an overwhelming workload because of the increasing demand from your clients. Now, you are struggling hard to deliver the desired output and make your clients happy and trust your agency more for their needs.
To be able to manage the situation, you may need more hands on deck. You may need to hire additional highly skilled professionals to join your team. But that doesn’t always come easy. It is both expensive and time-consuming. If you are based in the U.S, then the cost might be something to be very worried about.
So, a better alternative would be to go for a white label SEO provider. That will not only help you save up on loads of investment but will give you a better assurance of using the best hands in the industry to meet your clients’ SEO needs. And all that will happen with your own branding. Every report sent to your client concerning the progress of their project will bear your brand name. That means your white label SEO agency partner will do the work while you take the credit.
That’s what makes white label SEO services a great and reliable way to provide your clients with holistic and consistent services without burning yourself out or spending extra resources.
White Label SEO Partnership; How Does It Work?
It’s simple. White label partnerships are only coming to help you grow and expand your business. They can help your clients get quality content creation services, high-authority backlinks, off-site SEO tactics, and reputation management that are necessary to meet their business goals.
If you own a digital marketing agency but do not have adequate in-house resources, forming a white label SEO partnership will greatly help. When you are overly burdened with multiple projects and don’t have enough hands to help you get them done, white label SEO partnership will come to your rescue without hiring new employees.
Not sure if this is a thing for you? Let’s take a quick look at some reasons you might want to get a white label SEO partnership.
What Are the Benefits of White Labelling?
There are various reasons an agency may want to consider white labeling SEO products or services. So if you are not sure if you should consider this for your agency, too, here are the top 8 benefits you could enjoy from white label SEO.
#1: It helps increase your client base
You no longer have to fall short of your clients’ expectations. Having a white label partnership will help you have access to a strong team in the background, hence making it easier for you to meet your client’s expectations. This is especially useful in a situation where you don’t have enough in-house resources to tackle increasing demands from clients. But with white label SEO, your projects will be done faster and more effectively, which in return, will help you attract more loyal clients to your business.
#2: Helps you expand your offerings more quickly
Whether you are looking to attract new customers or keep the existing ones, increasing the scope of your offerings can help you achieve your goals quickly. For instance, if you are an agency that specializes in one aspect of digital marketing, but your clients keep asking for other aspects you don’t have included in your scope of service. Of course, you can’t just jump into that. So you may need to consider white label SEO services.
But having a partnership with a white label SEO agency that does that can help you serve such clients and earn more referrals. You will no longer be seen as a one-stock shop but an agency that offers a wide variety of SEO services that consistently fulfills your client’s needs. That way, you will not only be earning more clients, but you will also be attracting bigger clients with more pay.
#3: Helps you manage manpower more seamlessly
Working with a white label SEO agency will save you the hassle that comes with managing manpower. You will no longer be burdened with firing, hiring, and managing different teams of SEO experts. You can now rest assured that your project is in the best hands in the industry – people who have the skills and experience required to handle your clients’ projects. The white label SEO provider will also manage all your client works based on their expectations and deliver them under your brand name.
#4: Helps increase revenue
A better way to get ahead of your competitors is to partner with a premium white label SEO agency that provides customized solutions based on your client’s needs. This helps you build a better name for yourself in the market and help you continually generate more revenue from your clients. With the white label SEO team handling most parts of your project, you will definitely have more time to focus on other important parts of your business – growing the business and generating more sales.
#5: Helps you save up on extra costs
Hiring a professional to join your team can be expensive. The cost is more than just their salary but also runs to other costs like recruiting costs, workspace, taxes, equipment, benefits too, etc. But with a partnership with a white label agency, you can enjoy the most benefits without having to deal with all these challenges.
#7: Hire People That Share Similar Value as Yours
When it comes to showing utmost care to your customers, you and your employees need to be on the same page. It won’t matter if you care and look after your customer when your employees do the opposite. And that is the major reason you should get like-minded people on your team.
You are not the only one that forms your customer experience about your company. It is your company overall, including your employees. While you are delivering exceptional service to your customers, your employees should also be doing the same. In fact, they interact more with your customers than you do. So when you are looking to turn your company into a referral-generating machine by creating a great customer experience, ask yourself if your employees are also up to the task.
#5: Educate Your Clients about what’s Possible
Unfortunately, many people don’t know what they want until some else shows them. Even if it is not exactly what they want, educate them about your products and services and let them see why each is valuable.
Don’t assume your customers know all they need to know about you. If you provide multiple services in your company, let your customer know about these services once their job is completed. Even if they don’t need it at the time, chances are that they will refer you to others they know that may need it.
#6: Helps you provide other complementary services together with SEO
Partnering with a white label SEO provider helps you appear before your clients as a comprehensive solution they have always needed. They will help you achieve your client’s needs and offer them additional services they may need to grow their business. Since your customers will see it as it’s you providing them all of these, they are more likely to trust and refer their friends to your agency.
#7: Provides a great privilege to promote your brand
Think of how strange it will look if your customers see you offering an additional product or service under another brand’s name. They might get confused and lose trust in your business. Remember that building trust with your clients and customers should always be your priority, even if you are looking to add more products or services. But with a white label SEO agency, you will get the chance to put your brand name on the additional product. This, on the other hand, helps promote your business and boost its reputation in a crowded market.
What Should You Expect From a White Label SEO Provider?
Well, this may not be easy to determine because different white label SEO agencies have their unique SEO approaches and offerings. The most important thing is that the agency is able to decide what works for you and your client. However, there are some core things you can expect from your white label SEO agency, and they include:
SEO campaign roadmap
It is important that your white label SEO agency be able to provide you with a comprehensive SEO roadmap that shows how your project is going to be completed. The roadmap should give details of the SEO strategy they have planned to use to get the work done, why they have chosen such a strategy, and how they have planned to execute it.
Reporting
Both you and your client will love to have an up-to-date report about the progress of the job. So there should be a reporting dashboard that will keep you and your client updated about developments in their campaigns.
Link building
Link building is no doubt one of the fundamentals of SEO. This usually involves generating high-quality link juice from other quality websites to your client’s website. In turn, this has a way of helping your client’s business rank well on search engines for relevant searches. However, link building is not just about getting any link from any website. Instead, you need to search for highly-rated and recognized websites to get links from. So one of the ingredients that should be on your white label SEO agency’s list.
On-site optimization
This is also known as on-page SEO, and it refers to the process of optimizing elements on your client’s website in order to increase its ranking on search engines. High ranking usually means more organic traffic to the website. So, your white label agency might be looking into elements like the title tags, crawls optimization, H1s, etc. All these are important to achieve significant success with SEO.
Keyword optimization
To make the most out of any SEO strategy your partner might deem fit for your client, comprehensive keyword research needs to be part of it. They will search for and select the most profitable keywords. These are oftentimes keywords with low competition, which has a better tendency of helping the website rank well on search engines. A better ranking means more organic traffic and hence better conversion rates, which will help boost your clients’ revenue.
Content creation
It’s easy for anyone to just think of a blog post whenever one hears the term content creation. But really, it is more than that. Content creation could extend to videos, infographics, polls, e-books, quizzes, and many more. So, in order to help improve the search visibility of your client’s pages, you should expect your white label SEO agency to provide additional content on those pages.
However, when it comes to offering content creation, the approach is different with different agencies. But the best thing is that your agency is able to provide various content creation options for you to choose from.
Guest blogging
Yes, guest blogging is another common practice you might see with white label SEO agencies. This tactic is one that many companies have used in the past as an essential part of their marketing strategy to build a significant presence online. Guest blogging provides a great avenue to let potential customers or audience know about a business and the type of products or services it provides.
White Label SEO Reselling; What is It?
White label SEO service can actually come in two main flavors. It can come either as white label SEO reselling or as a fully managed white label SEO. So what’s the difference between the two?
White label SEO reselling refers to the practice whereby bundled SEO services are sold to a marketing agency (by a white label provider), and then the agency goes ahead to sell to their clients. With this type of approach, there is usually no room for modifying the bundled SEO package once it’s purchased.
On the other hand, with a fully managed white label SEO service, the provider provides additional support and other useful services to clients under your brand name. Compared to reselling, a fully managed SEO service gives room for more flexibility.
What Should You Expect From a White Label SEO Provider?
Yes, white labeling is not limited to SEO services. In fact, there are many white label products today in your grocery store. Many goods and services are white-labeled and resold by big brand names without consumers ever realizing it. The major thing about white labeling is anonymity – consumers just won’t know who the original producer of the product or service is.
So, let’s take a slight shift away from SEO services. Let’s see some other examples of white label situations to better understand how versatile white labeling is and why you can trust it too.
Examples of White Label
White label software
A white label software refers to a situation where a software is rented or leased from another brand and then resold to consumers under the branding of the company that bought or rented the software. These types of software are often offered unbranded to a reseller or agency, who then adds its own branding and sells access to the platform.
Generally, white label software are a SaaS arrangement where users will need to pay a monthly fee to be able to use them. In this case, the end consumer is usually another business. Like we said earlier in this guide, white labeling software also comes with lots of benefits. One of them is helping the reselling company enjoy a fast rollout since they don’t need to develop the software in-house.
Another benefit is allowing resellers or service providers to expand their portfolio and service offerings. Since they will be building on the credibility of the company that’s originally producing the software, it will be easier for them to attract new customers with an added service to their portfolio.
Some common white label software providers in the market
There are dozens of providers out there that offer white labeling on their software. Popular among them are:
- Agency Platform: This company offers a wide variety of tools and software that makes SEO intelligence and audits, project collaboration, and social media monitoring a breeze. The platform provides a wide range of tools that can help any service provider scale its operations without having to outsource work to contractors or hire additional staff.
- 3dcart: This software provider boasts of providing everything you need to build your online store. It is a one-stop software that provides you with the latest SEO standards and marketing tools you need to succeed with your online store. From real-time shipping to different payment options, 3dcart has it all.
- DashClicks: This is a website design software that takes care of everything you need to build a custom branded website quickly. So if your agency deals with website building and needs a platform that equips you with all the tools you need to meet customers’ needs quickly, this is a perfect white label software to try.
- AppInstitute: This is an online app builder that allows you to easily make apps for Androids and iOS without writing a single code. With the several templates provided by the AppInstitute in their builder, you can build and brand your app.
AlphaPoint: looking for a white label platform for brokerages and crypto exchanges? AlphaPoint is specialized in that.
White Label Products
These types of products are created by one company and then sold to another company that rebrands and resells it to an end consumer. In this case, white labeling helps resellers be able to add more products to their offerings without having to produce any new product from scratch. That makes it easy for them to quickly scale their offerings and boost revenue.
Where can you find a white label product?
Virtually any type of product can be white-labeled. To find a company that will be willing to offer white labeling on their product, all you need to do is just to research the manufacturers producing your kind of product and let them know about your intentions. You can check Alibaba.com to find directories that connect suppliers with merchants everywhere.
White Label Services
White label services are services such as marketing subcontracted to other reliable agencies but offered under the brand of the agency buying the services. It is more like getting another production house or team to handle your work or part of your work to your customers while you take the credit for your brand.
A good example of this is a scenario where company A offering different digital agency services sell their agency services to company B to resell. Company B then rebrands the services by putting their logo on it and resells to company C, who is the end consumer. Here, the team from Company A does and fulfills the requirements in the digital services company C purchases from company B but under company B’s brand name.
Some common white label service providers in the market
There are also a handful of white-label service providers in the market. These providers offer different kinds of services, ranging from email marketing to content to social media management. Here are some common ones:
- ActiveCampaign: This is a popular brand providing complete marketing automation and CRM suite for businesses. They offer services like email marketing, and CRM tools resellers can buy and then resell as their own.
- Social Pilot: This company provides white label social media management that allows you access to a wide range of social media services, including API integration, post scheduling, email integration, secure interface with access controls, integrated social inbox, etc.
- Constant Content: This is a white label content marketing platform where you can find specialists to write your website copy, blogs, and whitepapers for you.
Landingi: This is another platform offering white label services that allows you to create unlimited landing pages easily and quickly. Landingi also easily integrates with solutions like MailChimp, SalesForce, HubSpot, or any email marketing or CRM tool you might be using.
White Label vs. Outsourcing
These two terms are very close in their meanings, and so many people use them interchangeably. But there is a thin line between the two – they are not exactly the same.
With outsourcing, you are paying someone else to perform a function for your business. This can either be a one-time thing or a continuous service. So, that you are outsourcing does not necessarily mean it’s a white label. It is only a white label when you buy a product or service and then resell it with your own brand name on it.
For instance, you can outsource your digital agency function under your brand name. You can as well have an in-house team providing your digital agency services but selling the services under the brand name of another company. In that case, you are not white labeling but outsourcing. But if you will be giving out your digital agency services to another company and then sell the services to others with your brand name on it, then you are outsourcing and white labeling.
How to Choose a White Label SEO Agency; What to Look for Before Opting for One
Choosing a suitable white label SEO agency is not a walk in the park. It is not an easy task as many people might assume. The credibility in their service and product will go a long way to impact your own business and reputation, and that’s why you need to be extra careful when choosing one to partner with. To make it easier for you, below are some things you need to look out for in a white label SEO agency before opting for them.
Long-term strategy
Before you choose any white label SEO agency, you want to be sure they have the right strategy in place to provide an excellent long-term working experience to you and your clients. You want to be sure that they don’t just have great marketing to sell their product but really have the experience.
Experienced SEO agencies have a team of experts who know just how to help meet your customers’ needs and have the right strategies in place to help handle those search algorithm updates.
Transparency
Transparency is an important virtue you need to look out for when choosing a white label SEO agency. You want to choose a company that will be able to communicate their expectations and be transparent about their services. When they are transparent with their reports and auditing, it will be easier for you to track the progress of the project and then relate it to your clients to continually keep them updated.
A solid reputation and track record
Try to do a background check on the company to see what their track record looks like. Are they known to be honest, transparent, and upfront? How long have they been in business, and what’s their customer’s report about them. You can easily find that out by checking customer reviews about them online.
Ask to know about deliverables
When partnering with a white label SEO agency, always ask them about deliverables. Ask to know what your clients should expect from them. However, never forget to harmer it in that their primary purpose as a white label SEO agency is to help improve organic traffic to your client’s website.
They have similar goals and vision
It is best that you get a white label SEO company that has the same vision and goals with you. Since this partnership is likely going to be a long-term one, you need to make sure you find someone that’s the best fit for your company. If they also sell to SMBs, you might need to avoid them because chances are that they would also try to sell to your customers – unless they have strict policies against this.
Experience being a white label partner
Make the journey smoother for yourself by getting a company that already has experience with white labeling products or services. The truth is that white labeling a service or software goes beyond just adding your logo. It requires unique and well-thought-out strategic processes.
Reliable metrics and reporting
Check out the type of reporting or analytics the agency offers so that you can provide proof of performance to your customers. You will want to see how much work they have done, how much each item costs, and the result so far. Usually, in the SEO world, this comes through a dashboard and tools that help track the SEO tasks performed and what results have been generated from it.
So before choosing any white label SEO agency, ensure they can provide a transparent reporting dashboard for your client campaigns.
They offer a solid solution your client would need
Since you are white labeling, your primary goal is your customers’ satisfaction. So look for a white label SEO agency that has a solid solution to your customers’ pain points – whether it is a product or service. If it is software, how well are they willing to make improvements based on your suggestions? Do they continuously improve their product? Is the product user-friendly? How much support are they willing to provide on it? All these should be part of what you look for when choosing an SEO agency to partner with as a white label agency.
History of success with your types of clients
It is not enough to be exceptional at what they do; you also need to check to be sure they have experience with your types of clients. Have they ever worked with other clients in the same industry or niche? What was the experience like? So, don’t be afraid to ask them for case studies about how their process applies to your particular clientele.
They have clear contract terms
This is also very important. What’s their contract process like? Is it detailed enough? What about their terms and conditions – do you think they are clear enough too? Even if you are not sure yet about their honesty and transparency, going through their terms of contracts will give you a huge clue. At the same time, never hesitate to ask them questions about any part of the contract that is not clear before you sign on the dotted line.
You should be able to test-drive the product or service
Any white label SEO agency that is confident about the quality of products or services they offer won’t be afraid to give you a test drive on their products or services. At least how will you know if the software or services is really what your business needs if you can’t try it before buying?
What Are Some Red Flags to Look Out for When Hiring a White Label SEO Agency?
This partnership is important for you and your customers. It can either build or damage your reputation with your loyal customers. Because of that, don’t only look at the green light when hiring a white label SEO agency but also be aware of the red flags and structure them in when making a decision. Below are some red flags to watch out for:
Your white label SEO company also sells to SMBs
That is not always a good thing. If they do, chances are that they may also try to sell to your customers. Since they will be offering the same product at a cheaper rate, your clients may be tempted to go for them over you. That can cause you to lose many of your clients to them – since they are now a competitor. So if the white label company you intend to partner with also sells to SMBs, make sure they have strict policies that show that they won’t poach your clients and try to sell to them.
Placing low priority on communication
Communication between you and your potential white label partner should be placed high on the priority list. Bad or inconsistent communication between the two of you can lead to problems that may eventually result in broken client relationships. Since your brand name is on the line here, ensure you only partner with a white label SEO agency you can trust with a smooth communication flow.
Their product is too cheap to be true
This is not uncommon in the marketplace. You will come across many white label SEO agencies whose offers seem to be too cheap for the values they are promising to offer. Remember, you are looking for a product or service that will benefit your clients, so make sure you do your homework on any SEO company you will be partnering with so you can be sure you are only choosing one that will benefit your customers’ interest.
Brand consistency is poor
This is similar to communication – and that’s consistency. Before you go for that agency, make sure they know and understand your brand and expect them to treat your customers the same way you would. If you have already set a standard for how your customers should be treated, make sure your white label SEO agency is also not doing anything less than the standard you have set. Since the white label services are going to be an extension of your brand, they should also provide the same level of quality your customers will ever get from your brand.
They use black hats
Oops! Black hat SEOs are those shady guys standing on the street to offer off-brand products to unsuspecting customers. In the SEO world, these are the guys that will promise a marketing agency everything but offer services that are actually against Google’s TOS. That is not good for your customer – it can get them into trouble with the search engine and get their websites removed from SERPs forever.
If your potential white label partner presents you their approach and you notice their strategy looks like it will require lots of work and effort, that is a good sign that you can trust them. But if it is full of several ill-explained tactics and buzzwords, you might need to avoid such white label SEO agencies. If you are white labeling, then you should go for a white hat!
Should You Resell White Label Marketing Services?
We understand. Sometimes, one may not feel convenient putting one’s brand on another company’s digital agency services. And truly, there is a level of risk that comes with doing so. That is why it is important you thoroughly conduct your homework before opting for any white label SEO agency.
Remember that if there is any problem with any aspect of the product or service you white-labeled, it is your brand your customers will hold responsible for it. Your brand name is on the line here. So, make sure you go for a solid agency that has a track record for excellence and won’t cause any problems that might bring problems to your name. Make a lot of comparisons before you finally settle for any white label SEO company.
Takeaway
White labeling is good and convenient but be careful, so you don’t lose your brand’s identity if you always white label. Make sure you are still in the business of building a bankable brand that people like and trust. Dedicate more time to offering something unique of your own to help you stand out in the crowded digital marketing world.
So, while you use white label materials, try to mix them up with your own unique products and services whenever you can. Add more original content when needed, and don’t completely rely on what you get from your white label partner to scale your business.