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Why White Label SEO and How It Helps Your Agency Grow

Date published: May 25, 2018
Last updated: May 25, 2018

There comes a time when your agency will hit a wall. That wall can come in different forms: lack of personnel, difficulty in executing tasks beyond your expertise, and monthly revenue that seems to have plateaued. When you’ve reached that wall and stagnation wraps around your agency, it will be hard to scale.

Doesn’t mean it’s impossible. The best workaround = white label SEO.

How is White Label SEO Different from Outsourcing?

Aren’t they the same thing? Not exactly.

While white label SEO and outsourced SEO can appear similar on surface level, there’s still a very thin line that separates them.

Outsourcing SEO means hiring a provider to do the work for you without rebranding their service as a new product that you can offer to clients. Some agencies outsource their projects because they lack the time or manpower to do it on their own.

When you go for the white label track, on the other hand, it means buying a service that you don’t currently offer then reselling it under your own name. And that’s not the best part. White label SEO providers give you access to materials or resources they made, so you can present these to your clients with your logo when selling. In a sense, hiring a white label SEO company helps you: get things done easily, build your expertise, and grow your revenue.

In certain cases, the two may overlap. For instance, you purchased white label local SEO from a provider because you want to start offering this service to local businesses. The provider can handle the work, provide the deliverables, and send them to your clients with the service packaged under your brand. Where does your agency fit in this process? You can allocate more of your time and effort into making the right decisions, building real relationships with clients, and giving your agency every bit of chance to be successful. 

Your White Label Formula for Agency Success

At the core, agency owners are still entrepreneurs. As an entrepreneur, your priorities lie in making sure your business stays above water. So, this brings the question, “How can I make the most of white label solutions for my agency?”

Here are the answers:

1. Be Upfront with the Value You Offer

Here’s the reality of working as an agency: attracting clients and making sure they stay all boils down to the value you can offer. If they can’t find value in your service, you’ll find them leaving your agency and going to the competition.

Whether you’re actively finding clients or finding ways to retain them, you need to be upfront with the value you’re offering. This value can be a white paper to educate clients or leads of how your service can help their business, or an SEO audit to show what’s lacking in their site that might call for your agency’s services. The key is to learn how you can translate the value of your service into a language that clients or prospects can easily understand.

In short, your agency should be equipped to address the question “What’s in it for me?” Believe me, you’ll get asked this all the time.

2. Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

Do you rely on just one service as your bread and butter? This is a common mistake that agencies (especially startups) make.

Most agencies focus on their expertise as their main source of revenue, but this doesn’t mean opening any opportunity to offer other digital marketing services. This is the entire point of why you get white label services—to expand your current service offerings and generate a new revenue stream.

So, how do you make this work with white label SEO? Find ways to complement the service with another one. An example is creating a bundle for your web design service to include SEO. As web design is often a one-off project, there’s no monthly recurring revenue. By complementing this with SEO, you have a new source of monthly revenue because results don’t typically happen in a span of 30 days. This means an SEO project can carry over the next month. If your white label SEO provider has successfully brought your clients to first page rankings, there’s no reason to stop the service.

If you’re adamant in putting all your eggs in one basket, you’re taking away the opportunity for your agency to scale. 

3. Learn the Art of Pricing

“How much do I need to price my services?”

You’ll probably encounter this when you start working with a white label SEO company. The ideal amount to price your SEO service is three times the retail amount, so you have enough margin to make profit. Here’s what you need to understand when pricing your SEO service:

  • Be reasonable with your markup – I’m going to be honest here: don’t be greedy. The last thing you want is to drive away clients with a markup that’s too high. At the same time, don’t undervalue the time and effort you put into your clients and the service. When marking up your SEO service, base it on the value that you add to their business.
  • Determine your pricing model – You have different ways to present your SEO pricing. If clients are looking for one-time projects with specific tasks, an hourly rate model can be a good start. If clients are looking for a long-term SEO project, go for a retainer model. You can also create packages with specific inclusions to offer different options for your clients.

4. Be an Affiliate

Networking doesn’t only allow you to connect with people; it’s another way to earn more. How? This is where being an affiliate comes in.

Many white label SEO providers offer an affiliate program to potential agency partners. Depending on their affiliate program, you can earn from 5% to 30% commission for every purchase of a prospective partner with your affiliate link.

Here’s an example:

Your affiliate program allows you to get a 6% commission from an SEO consultant’s website that has your affiliate link. The consultant makes a purchase of $5000 every month, which means you’re earning $300 monthly commission. On top of that, you can still resell SEO services to clients, allowing you to utilize both the white label SEO service and affiliate program to maximize your earnings.

The secret to a successful affiliate program is to grow your affiliates—as the network grows, the more rewards you get. 

Final Thoughts

Good digital marketing agencies know how to get things done to deliver results for clients; the great ones know when it’s time to pass off the hat to the experts. You don’t just fulfill SEO deliverables for clients—it’s about knowing how and where to delegate your time and effort into what matters the most for them and for your business. And that all starts with white label SEO.

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