How a white-label SEO reseller program can increase your profits (Updated 2022)
I’ll skip to the punchline: white label SEO programs are a must-have. Even so, limitations like lack of expertise, time, and staff often hold businesses back from offering money-making services like SEO to their clients. One way to sidestep these limitations is to become a SEO white label reseller. An SEO reseller program can make a big impact on your recurring revenue, especially when bundled along with your more traditional digital marketing offerings.
SEO doesn’t need to be complicated. Download our guide “How to conquer local search engine optimization (SEO): the comprehensive guide” and see it all come together.
If you’ve explored growing your company by adding SEO to your suite of services but just can’t see it working with your in-house staff, white-label SEO programs may be the best option in terms of scalability.
SEO is well worth offering to your prospects and clients—and that’s especially true for your small to medium-sized business accounts. In fact, 46 percent of all Google searches have a local intent (Safari Digital), meaning customers want to find these businesses. But there’s a lot of competition to secure that coveted visibility. The best white-label SEO strategies can get your clients to the first page of Google, where they stand a fighting chance.
Yet it’s also true that 59% of SMBs admit to struggling with incorporating new technologies (Blue Corona). Which brings us to the question: What is white label SEO? Even if the value is certainly there for SMBs, it’s no use if your business can't offer these services in house and don’t realize that there are other options available.
SEO can be complex and time consuming. An SEO reseller program allows you to sell the SEO products and services your clients need, without sacrificing the expertise such services require. You let your pro white-label team handle the strategy and fulfillment.
So what is white-label SEO? I’ll answer all your questions as we jump into the world of white labeling. Get ready to cover the essentials so you can determine if white label SEO reseller services are a viable option for you.
Table of Contents
- What is white-label SEO?
- Why do agencies use white-label SEO programs?
- The best white label SEO quickly allows agencies to expand their offerings
- Land more (and bigger!) clients with white label SEO programs
- An SEO reseller agency platform can enhance a company’s brand
- An SEO reseller program is part of a more complete solution
- The best white label SEO allows you to focus on core competencies like sales
- What is white label SEO for MSPs?
- Can media companies benefit from an SEO reseller program?
- How one company increased organic traffic by 56% with white-label SEO reseller services
- What is white label SEO going to do for me, benefits-wise?
- White-label SEO programs: SEO services you can resell
- Quick roundup: The best white-label SEO to offer today
- Final thoughts on white-label SEO programs
What is white-label SEO?
White-label SEO solutions can be either software based (products like a SEO reseller agency platform you can rebrand as your own) or a service that optimizes your client's digital content. The white-label part means that it’s 100% re-brandable so your company can sell it as your own product. White-label reseller SEO services are designed to get your local business clients found in the search engine results page (SERP) and increase their online visibility against the competition.
Offering white-label SEO reseller services means you can sell SEO services to your clients without worrying about fulfillment.
As mentioned above, there are two components to a SEO reseller program:
- White-label SEO software: With this option, you’re selling a product that allows your clients to manage their own SEO optimization. The software helps your clients optimize their own content.
- Resellable SEO services: This option involves managed fulfillment, which has a third-party fulfillment team do the heavy-lifting for you.
Here’s how managed fulfillment with white label solutions work:
- Company A sells white-label SEO services to Company B to resell.
- The Company B then sells the SEO services under their own brand to their Local Business client.
- Company A’s SEO white label reseller fulfills the SEO services that the Local Business purchased from Company B. Win-win-win!
An SEO reseller program can be a huge opportunity for you to expand your services and increase profits as a SaaS reseller. By the same token, you will be providing clients with products and services they need to succeed and grow sustainably. You’re positioned as the trusted expert, with your SEO white label reseller partner there to provide the fulfillment and expertise.
Consider that in 2022, 71 percent of small businesses have a website (Zippia). Though that number should be 100 percent, simply having a website is not enough. Statistics show that 75 percent of people will never even scroll past the first page of Google (Neil Patel). So how findable are you, really?
You’ve probably heard the saying, “If a tree falls in the forest, but there’s no one around to hear it, does it even make a sound?” Similarly, is having an online presence worth the time and effort if no one can find you? Obviously, most businesses would like to appear higher in search rankings to get more organic traffic and a bigger ROI from their website. But there are steps you can take today to start making an impact with white label SEO programs. Don’t let the question “what is white label SEO?” hold you back from achieving incredible sales results.
SEO is really simple to pitch, because if your clients or prospects have a website you can go out and ask: Is your website being found? Is it ranking? Is it coming up #1 on Google? Is it coming up on the first search page on Google? As our CEO often says, 'The best place to hide a dead body is the second page of Google search.' So you really want to stress to them that while they have a great website, they need to take that next step and get SEO so that people can find it.
⭐Integration Note: White-label solutions such as white label reseller SEO services often offer robust integration services so you can seamlessly add them to your current offerings without having to build out an entirely new standalone product. Since white-label solutions are designed to be used by other companies, they'll typically come like a puzzle-piece ready to be added on. It’s the perfect fit!
If the concept sounds good, but you’re still a bit fuzzy about what white-labeling actually is and how it works, check out our ultimate guide on white labeling.
Additionally, here’s everything you need to know about becoming a software reseller.
Why do agencies use white-label SEO programs?
An SEO reseller program allows agencies to offer fully managed SEO campaigns to clients in a cost-effective, hands-off way. This enables the agency to offer value to their clients while freeing up time and company resources to focus on other core competencies priorities.
Here’s a quick breakdown of how white label SEO reseller services add big value for agencies.
1. The best white label SEO quickly allows agencies to expand their offerings
Not every agency has the bandwidth to efficiently become an expert in SEO. Training the in-house team or hiring a specialist to fill the role can be taxing on your resources. Whether your prospects won’t hire you unless you offer a SEO package or your current clients want you to help them improve in local search, becoming a SEO white label reseller allows you to increase the scope of your current offerings.
2. Land more (and bigger!) clients with white label SEO programs
Diversifying offerings with a SEO reseller program helps agencies attract the attention of bigger fish in the pond. Higher-value clients are often looking for an agency to streamline their tech stack and be a one-stop shop for their needs. Even smaller businesses don’t want to shop around for multiple digital marketing solutions. In fact, our data shows that re-evaluating client needs and subsequently upselling with solutions to solve their evolving problems increases retention by nearly 20%. You need to offer everything they need to keep them around. What is white label SEO if not a way to increase value for both yourself and your clients?
3. An SEO reseller agency platform can enhance a company’s brand
Agencies who offer SEO products and services under another brand’s name risk confusing their clients. You want to establish trust and build relationships, and white label SEO reseller services ensure a continuity of service under your banner. Otherwise, there’s room for misinterpretation. While your agency needs to have an answer to the question “what is white label SEO?,” your clients do not. The SEO white label reseller does not have to be in the equation. They are only dealing with you, and your credibility only stands to increase.
Your clients come to you because they trust you. Putting your trusted brand name on a white-label product or service such as an SEO reseller agency platform not only gets your brand name out there more, it further enhances your reputation as a trusted industry player.
4. An SEO reseller program is part of a more complete solution
Agencies realize that offering one or two services just doesn’t cut it for SMBs. Businesses want a complete solution from one source or they’ll bounce. The data backs this up. We found that agencies who only sell SMBs one product will lose 70 percent of their clients within two years. On the flip side, adding just one more product shows an increase in retention rate by 20 percent and selling an SMB four products increases retention rate by 80 percent over two years. It’s time to streamline those tech stacks, and a SEO white-label reseller is an integral piece of the puzzle.
5. The best white label SEO allows you to focus on core competencies like sales
Hiring new staff or training current staff to fulfill SEO services for clients is a big commitment in terms of time, energy, and budgeting. Plus, this all takes away from time that could be focused on getting new clients. Agencies turn to white-label SEO reseller services to skip all that and focus on their business superpowers. An SEO reseller program provides space for this renewed focus on sales (and other competencies), while you still reap the revenue and retention benefits of expanding your offering.
The bottom line? The market is consolidating, and your agency is more likely to acquire and keep SMB clients when you offer more of the quality solutions that they need.
We're in an age where local businesses expect more marketing offerings from fewer partners and don't want to juggle ten different digital marketing companies to get their needs fulfilled. That's where a SEO white-label reseller like Vendasta comes into play. A SEO reseller program fills in your gaps and helps you become a full-service agency.
What is white label SEO for MSPs?
A SEO reseller program can be huge for managed service providers (MSPs). With the power to resell products and services such as SEO, MSPs no longer have to refer their clients to agencies and can solve more problems in house. By broadening your solution offering as an MSP, you can gain a competitive edge and secure a profitable future.
Think about it: MSPs are already positioned as trusted partners. For clients, nearly nothing is as important or as sensitive as the management and security of their data. As an SEO white-label reseller, you can continue to build on this trusted relationship. Given the trend that more clients want to deal with less vendors and tech providers, it makes sense that they might turn to you for additional services.
White-label reseller SEO services can be the difference between saying “yes” or “no” to a client who is ready to give you more business.
Can media companies benefit from an SEO reseller program?
What is white-label SEO going to do for your media company? Help you maintain competitive and profitable in an increasingly digital world.
Digital transformation is a big topic of conversation for traditional media companies looking to diversify their revenue and remain competitive in the changing media landscape. It can be difficult to adapt to new technology and tools within the industry. But with a changing business model that relies heavily on digital revenue streams, media companies must future-proof themselves by adopting new strategies.
One such strategy is becoming an SEO white-label reseller. White-label reseller SEO services, especially when packaged with more traditional offerings, can help you generate more revenue from existing local advertisers, open up large new potential markets, and even sell more of your core services.
Selling ads to local advertisers is great for driving awareness (and eventually sales). But the problem with traditional media ads is attribution. Even if clients see positive results after a campaign, is there any way to objectively define the value you added? Can clients concretely see how many sales were generated by each ad?
White-label SEO programs can be the answer to these problems. The ultimate goal of SEO is, similarly to ads, to get more eyes on your client’s products and services. However, SEO strategies and tactics are better suited to contemporary media consumption, and can be clearly attributable to your activities. The best white-label SEO services make it possible for you to show clients objective reporting and metrics that prove the ROI. A SEO reseller program can make the value of the results you’re driving crystal clear.
How one company increased organic traffic by 56% with white-label SEO reseller services
Not only do white-label SEO programs benefit your agency, but they also benefit your business clients with real-life results.
When Vendasta offered white-label SEO reseller services to a medical clinic (with 11 locations!) through a local agency, the results were impressive. The clinic experienced a 56 percent increase in daily organic traffic, as well as a 61 percent increase in additional keyword exposure over the 3 months of the campaign.
The local agency that sold the services to the medical clinic through an SEO reseller program, understood that SEO wasn’t their strong suit—but through the power of white-labeling, it didn’t have to limit them. As an SEO white label reseller, the agency hired our in-house team of experts to manage and optimize their client's campaigns under their brand.
By leveraging white-label SEO reseller services, the agency was able to build a much better SERP presence for the medical clinic in some large, competitive cities like Chicago, Las Vegas, Denver, and Charlotte. Meanwhile, the agency made a name for themselves in the area as a local SEO expert and gained a nice success story to bolster their reputation and credibility, while increasing revenue.
What is white label SEO going to do for me, benefits-wise?
White-label SEO campaigns have big benefits for both you and your clients. With a team of SEO experts at the wheel, you can expect the highest level of campaign optimization and management.
1. Get clients without hiring an in-house team
One of the core benefits of an SEO reseller program is getting a full team of experts on your side without hiring in-house employees. The true cost of hiring a new employee goes far beyond salary, after all. There’s recruiting costs, taxes, benefits, working space, equipment, and more to consider. You don’t have to deal with any of this with the help of white-label SEO programs.
2. Bundle SEO with other complementary services
Like I highlighted above, adding white-label SEO allows you to become a complete solution for your clients. But that’s not the end of the story. White-label SEO reseller services are even more powerful when packaged together with other products and services. By completing a needs assessment using a sales intelligence tool like Vendasta’s Snapshot Report, you can easily bundle SEO services with website design. It’ll be easy to demonstrate the added value to your client’s online real estate and position the two together.
It’s more strategic to think in terms of creating packages instead of selling one-off, a la carte solutions—especially when white-label SEO programs exist to make it easy. Adding an SEO reseller program to the recipe as part of a bundling strategy boosts recurring revenue and makes clients stickier. It also ensures that more business functions are being streamlined through your agency and operating cohesively under your banner for the highest ROI.
3. Generate essential organic traffic for clients
SEO is an essential long-term play that pays for itself over time—if done correctly. That's why it’s more worth it to engage an expert SEO white-label reseller than investing a massive amount of time in becoming a mediocre or serviceable SEO generalist.
To drive growth, most businesses need organic traffic in their arsenal along with social marketing, reputation, and digital advertising. In fact, 61 percent of marketers (Fundera) consider SEO growth and improvement their top priority. White-label SEO reseller services can significantly help realize these worthy goals.
4. Outsource complicated offsite SEO tactics to a proven SEO team
As you’ve probably already gleaned, SEO is a complex aspect of digital marketing. And it’s ever-changing. So many SEO and local SEO ranking factors affect the success of search engine optimization tactics, and it takes constant training and testing to keep up with the persistent changes in search. Delegating this responsibility to a proven, pre-vetted team through an SEO reseller program allows you to focus on your agency’s core competencies: Making sales, building relationships, focusing on your niche strengths, and growing your business.
5. Take pressure off costly PPC campaigns with an SEO white-label reseller program
Google Ads search campaigns basically do the quick and dirty job that you’d like a successful, sustained SEO campaign to achieve. Both strive to drive traffic to your client's website by targeting relevant keywords.
However, you need to keep paying to play with Google Ads, while SEO can keep you in the limelight for extended periods without further investment. Having both going for clients is ideal, but an effective SEO reseller program and some patience can yield sustained traffic for your clients.
In the challenging game of SEO, there's no sure success template that’ll work for every client. Instead, you need to implement a tailored strategy for each website. Engaging with an SEO reseller program can increase your capacity for managing this. It becomes a nightmare when you have to compete with thousands of other websites for a single keyword to rank in the SERP. By using white-label reseller SEO services, a specialized team can tackle the strategy and all the technical and difficult tasks to rank your client's website higher in search engines. And the best part is, you're helping your client to gain organic exposure without stressing about the next Google update.
White-label SEO programs: SEO services you can resell
It’s best to sell a complete SEO solution to your clients and prospects, but often SMBs won’t need or be able to afford a comprehensive SEO package. And that’s okay. The purpose of a SEO reseller program is not to frontload your solutions and sell everything all at once. Getting your foot in the door and building trust is just as important.
The following white-label reseller SEO services are key elements of a best-practice campaign that you could bundle together or resell separately to clients.
White-label SEO reseller services: Onsite and offsite
SEO is not just limited to a client’s website! Some clients need a multi-faceted approach to improving their rankings (Moz), including both onsite and offsite SEO strategies. Leveraging the expert fulfillment team that comes with using white-label SEO programs saves you from doing the challenging, time-consuming work that proper SEO requires in multiple arenas. Tasks like creating entire pages around target keywords, link building, monitoring the campaign, and providing your clients with live proof-of-performance reporting is taken care of. Your agency can grow SEO revenue with a trusted SEO reseller program while you focus on sales, maintaining relationships, and driving profit.
White-label SEO reseller services: Audits
Your job is to identify all the SEO issues that are holding your clients back from dominating their local search and Google snack pack results. Even with some SEO skill and a streamlined process, a comprehensive audit can be a lengthy process. Having an audit done for you via a SEO white-label reseller is quicker, more efficient, and requires fewer tools and less expertise.
White-label SEO reseller services: Reporting platforms
For agencies, clear and precise reporting that communicates the value of your SEO campaign is vital. Your customers need to know exactly where their SEO dollars are going, which is why an SEO reseller agency platform is so key. It’s essential to offer a reporting solution that both shows your customers the work that’s been happening in their SEO campaigns and tracks SERP results for their target keywords.
An SEO reseller agency platform is a rebrandable reporting portal, white-labeled under your logo. What better way to track, capture, and demonstrate all the progress gained from an SEO reseller program?
White-label SEO reseller services: Link building
Building links to relevant, reputable websites is a must-have for successful white-label SEO programs. As a task, it also falls into the “Trust me, you don’t want to do this yourself” category. You also don’t want to choose a solution that puts your client’s website at risk of getting hammered by a Google penalty for unnatural outbound linking (Search Engine Journal). Choosing a reputable white-label link building product can save you time and keep your clients safe.
White-label SEO reseller services: Analysis
SEO analysis is another key element to the SEO campaigns you run for your clients while leveraging an SEO reseller program. Actions like keyword research, competitor research, user intent analysis, and content mapping with pages and a funnel all factor into campaign and SERP success. These are also all technical tasks that your SEO white-label reseller provider can take off your plate.
White-label SEO reseller services: Local citations
Citation (brand mention) building is a necessary element of white-label reseller SEO services. Citations help people discover businesses and also impact SERP rankings. You can add citations on local business directories, websites, and social platforms, but again, for most agencies, white-labeling this type of SEO work is a much more efficient use of time and budget.
The best part about all these various white-label SEO services to sell? Reselling SEO is easier than you might think.
Quick roundup: The best white-label SEO to offer today
I hope by this point I’ve answered the question “what is white-label SEO?”—at least enough for you to consider learning more. SEO is an essential tool for getting your clients discovered more frequently online. The truth is, many SMBs do not have the resources or know-how to increase their digital presence and boost findability alone. By the same token, your agency’s SEO knowledge gap is no excuse. Clients are trusting their SEO optimization to outside third parties. Whatever your situation might be, your agency, MSP, or media company can claim a piece of the pie with white-label reseller SEO services.
If you’re onboard with white-label SEO programs, here’s a little cheatsheet. Consider the following SEO solutions offered through an SEO reseller program:
Alpha SEO
Best white-label SEO for: All-in-one white-label SEO dashboard
A full-service SEO program that helps local businesses rank higher in search engine results. Alpha SEO can handle onsite edits, link building, content creation, comprehensive reporting, and more. Plus, both you and your clients can track campaign progress at any time through an easy-to-navigate dashboard. If you’re looking for a SEO reseller agency platform to offer clients, this is an excellent option.
Boostability SEO
Best white-label SEO for: Crafting an SEO bundling strategy
An SEO program built with SMBs in mind, Boostability is perfectly suited to product bundling with customizable packages, starting with a 10-hour base package, based on each business’s unique needs.
Marketgoo
Best white-label SEO for: Creating an easy-to-follow, step-by-step plan
Let businesses generate their own custom SEO plan with this platform designed for small businesses. Marketgoo is easy to use and very DIY!
SEO Network
Best white-label SEO for: Building a foundation for a keyword-focused SEO strategy
A platform that provides both on-site and off-site SEO, building website relevancy for 10 keywords. Get your clients the content they need to rank and authority inbound links from businesses in their category.
Final thoughts on white-label SEO programs
For many, lack of knowledge, time, and people are common limitations to company growth. White-labeling services like SEO makes it possible to successfully scale your agency despite those limitations.
Reselling SEO services can double your profit. Plus, SEO is only one of many resellable marketing services you can offer. In addition to SEO and website design going hand in hand, many clients bundle white-label content (web content, long form, social posts, and more) into packages that include SEO optimization.
Vendasta’s products have been an amazing tool that is a vital part of our offering. With its robust features, reporting capabilities and customer support that always goes the extra mile, we have an arsenal of things to keep clients in awe. The team at Vendasta keeps us all up to date on new developments and resources that make using the software a simple process.
As a trusted SEO white-label reseller, we offer all of the above at Vendasta (and more to discover in our white-label software marketplace). We’ve partnered and grown with many agencies, MSPs, and media organizations. And an SEO reseller program has been a key ingredient in our partners’ success.
Note: This blog was originally written by Patrick Liddy and updated in 2022 by Domenica Martinello.