Let’s talk about white label SEO. It gets a lot of hype for being a cheaper, more convenient way to improve your Google ranking. On the surface, SEO resellers can make it sound like an amazing deal for everyone.
But, as the saying goes, there are two sides to every story. As you read about why we don’t white-label SEO services, you’ll see that it’s not all unicorns and rainbows, after all.
What is white-label SEO?
You may not already be familiar with this digital marketing services buzzword, so let’s start out by explaining how white-label SEO works.
White label SEO is sometimes called private-label SEO or SEO reselling. It’s a trendy service that has become a common practice among marketing and web design firms.
White-label SEO is a service provided by SEO resellers that allows other companies to offer SEO services to their clients without having to do the actual work themselves. Essentially, the SEO reseller does the work behind the scenes, and the company offering the service takes credit for it.
They love it because it allows them to be a full-service provider- without increasing their overhead costs by hiring SEO experts.
In a nutshell, Company A (the SEO provider/reseller) pays Company B (an agency/freelancer) to provide search engine optimization services to their clients under their own brand name.
Basically, the SEO reseller functions as the middleman between the SEO company and the client and makes a profit by reselling the SEO agency’s hard work.
But, why would a client choose to work with a middleman when they could be communicating directly with SEO professionals? Truthfully, most of them wouldn’t!
Unfortunately, many so-called “full-service” marketing agencies might not even disclose the fact that they outsource SEO services.
Here’s Why We Don’t White Label SEO Services
The short answer is, offering white label SEO services would be like throwing our company’s core values out the window.
We prioritize transparency and communication in every SEO campaign, and that’s impossible to achieve if all conversations are conducted through a middleman.
But our reasons go even deeper than that.
Communicating through an SEO reseller would make it challenging to manage expectations and educate our clients.
Before we even begin marketing research and throughout every step of the campaign, our in-house SEO team makes every effort to educate our clients about what we’re doing and why, and when they should start to see results.
Have you ever played the broken telephone game? It’s where a group of people stand in a line. They whisper a simple sentence down the line from ear to ear. By the time it gets to the end, that simple sentence is totally different from how it started out.
Trying to provide a high level of communication through an SEO reseller would be like communicating through a broken telephone line.
And, we don’t want our client’s questions and concerns to get lost in the translation, either.
Remember the childhood game, broken telephone?
Today’s clients are more sophisticated than ever before.
Clients don’t just want to know what we’re doing to increase their organic reach and placement in SERPs. They also want to know why we’re doing it. And, they want to know how it’s going to impact their campaign.
And, we want them to feel confident in our decisions… not have them wondering where their money is going.
Lack of transparency is already an issue in the online marketing industry.
The online marketing services industry, and especially SEO service providers, already get a bad rap for being uncommunicative and lacking transparency.
We want to build up our industry’s reputation, not tear it down even more by communicating with our clients through a middleman.
SEO campaigns need to be adaptable.
From link building, local SEO, content creation, keyword research, and on-page optimization to technical SEO and PPC, an SEO strategy needs to be adaptable, based on what’s working and what isn’t.
And, let’s not forget about the constant changes to Google’s algorithms. Communicating directly with our client allows us to fully explain what changes we’re making to their SEO strategy and why.
We want to be accountable for our clients’ feelings and thoughts, both positive and negative.
Working directly with our clients gives us the opportunity to learn about what our clients really need, what we’re doing right, and where we need to make improvements.
If we white labeled our SEO services, we would be missing out on the valuable insight that comes from account management, project management, and accountability.
“Accountability is a statement of personal promise, both to yourself and to the people around you, to deliver specifically defined results.” Brian Dive, The Accountable Leader
And, let’s be honest. We’re a little vain.
White labelling SEO services would mean the SEO reseller would get all the credit, while we did all the footwork. Our team wouldn’t get any recognition for their hard work, and that’s a real kick in the teeth when you’re passionate about what you do.
Not only that, but we would miss out on the invaluable testimonials, positive word-of-mouth, and case studies that raise our brand’s awareness, improve our online reputation, and prove the value of our services.
At the end of the day, offering white label SEO would compromise the originality and high quality of our work, and that’s just not a sacrifice that we’re willing to make.
Working with a White Label SEO Reseller is Not What’s Best for Our Clients
When companies split their roles to offer white label services, it’s the client that really suffers.
The client loses out on some of the most important aspects of working directly with a laser-focused boutique SEO agency like Break the Web. Outstanding customer service, transparency, creativity, and flexibility.
Even the best white label SEO firm can’t grasp what you really need if they’re not communicating with you directly.
And, performing an SEO audit or looking at your company’s website isn’t enough to get a true understanding of what your business really does, and that’s essential to any successful SEO strategy.
If you’re locked into a one-size-fits-all SEO package or white-label SEO program with a reseller, the adaptability of your campaign will suffer. You won’t be getting the best value or results for your money or time.
In short, working with a white-label SEO provider is not in our client’s best interest.
The Bottom Line
While white labelling SEO might seem like a lucrative exchange at first glance, it’s really a bad deal for the SEO agency and the client. Interaction, education, and feedback between the client and the SEO agency are invaluable.
The bottom line is we don’t white label SEO services because it’s our reputation and our client’s SEO campaign that will truly suffer.
