As a web designer or digital agency that provides SEO services, one of the biggest business decisions you’ll make is how you approach the delivery. Will you partner with a white label SEO provider? Will you deliver the service in-house? These are significant decisions because they’ll impact your services' quality and profitability.
As an SEO agency owner for over 15 years, I’ve used white label SEO partners to deliver SEO services and have also been a white label provider for other agencies. In this post, I’ll share those experiences with you so you can make an informed plan about how to deliver SEO services at your agency and build your team.
Let’s start at the beginning.
What is White Label SEO?
White label SEO is when a web designer or digital agency offers SEO services to clients under their brand and has a third-party partner fulfill the service.
The extent of the relationship can vary. In some white label SEO arrangements, the white label partner handles client communication, SEO strategy, monthly reporting, and SEO implementation while acting under the umbrella of your agency. In this case, the white label partner may have an email address such as seo@youragency.com to communicate directly with your clients.
In other white label partnerships, the role may be limited. For example, you may keep the communication aspect in-house while having a white label partner handle strategy, reporting, and implementation.
Examples of white label SEO providers include The Hoth and E2M
What are the Benefits & Challenges of White Label SEO?
There are several benefits to delivering SEO services with the support of a white label partner.
Scalability Without Overhead
White label SEO allows agencies to scale their service offerings without the expense of hiring, training, and managing an in-house SEO team.
Focus on Core Strengths
Partnering with a white label provider lets agencies concentrate on their core competencies, such as client acquisition, relationship management, and other digital marketing services.
Access to Expertise and Advanced Tools
White label SEO providers typically have specialized teams and access to cutting-edge tools and strategies.
Unfortunately, there are a few challenges that you may have yet to anticipate.
Limited Control Over Service Delivery
Since an external provider handles the actual SEO work, agencies may have limited visibility and control over the deliverables' processes, timelines, and quality. This can lead to challenges in maintaining consistent service standards and addressing client concerns promptly.
Communication Gaps
Misalignment between the agency and the white label partner can result in communication delays or misunderstandings. If the white label provider is not responsive or doesn’t fully understand the client’s goals, it can lead to the potential loss of clients.
Lower Client Results
SEO can’t be done in a back office. The most results-oriented SEO work is done in collaboration with a client. Often, white label SEO providers focus on lower-value SEO tasks that can be done behind the scenes, but these tasks don’t move the needle as much as real-world marketing initiatives that require you to work closely with the client.
Reduced Profit Margins
Let’s say you sell a $1,000/month SEO plan. That’s a significant boost to your recurring revenue. If you turn around and have a white label provider deliver the service, you may spend $500-$600/month providing the service. And that doesn’t account for your time if you play a role in communication.
More Time Consuming Than Anticipated
Your white label partner may not get the keyword research right, and to turn it around to the client, you may need to improve it yourself. The same is true with blog post content. Suddenly, you may find yourself doing more work to ensure the work product matches your agency’s standards.
After experiencing the pros and cons of white label SEO services at our agency, we developed a model to deliver SEO services that capitalized on the benefits and limited the downsides of white label SEO.
Ultimately, there are multiple ways to deliver SEO services without overwhelm. Let’s look at a model that worked well for us, and you can adapt it to suit your needs.
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Choosing the Best Approach to Deliver SEO Services
As your SEO offering grows, here are examples of what your delivery processes and team may look like at varying levels of recurring revenue.
Learning ($0 in Monthly Recurring Revenue from SEO)
Get hands-on experience with SEO and sell your first SEO project.
- Build your SEO skill set by treating your agency website like a client. Complete an SEO Assessment and SEO Set-Up for your website.
- Focus on business planning by dialing in your packaging, pricing, marketing, and selling.
- Accelerate this process by signing up for a Pathfinder SEO subscription. Our software provides step-by-step lessons on delivering SEO Assessments, SEO Set-Ups, and Monthly SEO Services. We also have templates and resources to support the business planning.
- Sell your first SEO project, ideally to an existing web design client or a local business project, as these will be the easiest to deliver.
Getting Started (Up to $2,500 in Monthly Recurring Revenue from SEO)
Continue the owner-operated model to grow your skills and maintain profitability.
- As the business owner, you deliver SEO services, including client communication, project management, SEO strategy, monthly reports, and SEO implementation.
- Deliver the first 2-3 SEO projects so that you understand the key dynamics. Use this initial hands-on time to have conversations with clients about SEO.
- Create SEO project templates in your project management software to position your to scale as your recurring revenue grows.
- Track your time to ensure your projects are profitable and refine your pricing as needed.
Growing (Up to $10,000 in Monthly Recurring Revenue from SEO)
Start growing your SEO team with contractors who are great at specific tasks while continuing to be the quarterback of the offering.
- Continue to be the SEO account manager. Handle client communications, monthly reporting, and SEO strategy.
- Hire contractors for specific tasks, such as a developer to help with technical SEO and a copywriter to help with content marketing. QuicklyHire makes it easy to find freelancers and contractors who are great at these tasks.
- Taking some of the delivery work off your plate will allow you to sell more services and increase your recurring revenue to the next level.
Scaling (Over $10,000 in Monthly Recurring Revenue from SEO)
You now have the revenue to hire an A-team player who can relieve you of the quarterback role and manage your team of contractors.
- Hire an A-team player who can handle client communication, SEO strategy, monthly reporting, and managing your contractors.
- In many agencies, this will be an SEO Account Manager role. Ideally, they are a full-time, in-house team member if your budget allows.
- Decide what role, if any, you want to play in delivering SEO services. Rely on the task templates in your project management tool to keep your SEO department organized and Pathfinder SEO to engage your Account Manager in a community of like-minded SEO experts where they can get questions answered and continue to learn.
- As your recurring revenue grows, hire additional SEO Account Managers as your strategists and contractors as muscles for specific tasks.
Is It Time to Make a Change?
If you are currently delivering SEO services using a white label provider, then re-evaluate the effectiveness. Is your offering profitable? Are your clients seeing solid results? Are you saving time? If the answer to these three questions is yes, then keep doing what you are doing. If not, then consider changing your delivery model.
You may have to get more hands-on in the short term, rebuild with the help of contractors who are great at specific tasks, and then hire your A-team player to run your SEO department as your recurring revenue allows. In the long run, you’ll walk away from this investment of time today with a profitable, scalable SEO offering that requires little effort.
How to Build a Great SEO Team
As your recurring revenue grows, one thing is certain: you’ll need to build a team to deliver the service. There are many ways to grow a great team. Here are a few ideas.
White Label SEO Services by Pathfinder SEO — Our core offering is our software with an option of on-demand white label services. Designed to support web designers and agencies who follow our guided approach to offering SEO services, we offer white label SEO projects to complete an SEO Assessment and SEO Set-Up for you for your clients. These services are only available to Pathfinder SEO subscribers as we want to have complete alignment with your offering of high-impact white label services. We then turn the monthly SEO delivery back to you and your team.
QuicklyHire — Scale smarter with fractional, vetted freelancers. QuicklyHire's on-demand expertise is a great way to find experts who can handle tasks such as technical SEO and content marketing.
Still Have Questions?
Join our community at Pathfinder SEO to learn more and get the support your business needs to offer SEO Services.
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