An SEO reseller is simply an agency, freelancer, or other figure who sells SEO to a client but relies on another party (usually a white label SEO agency) to fulfill the work under their name.
SEO reselling is a lot more common than you would think, and in this article we'll explore exactly what it is, how it works in the real world, and much more.
SEO Reseller Vs. White Label SEO
Things can get confusing when you start hearing things like 'SEO reseller' and 'white label SEO' in the same sentence, so let's clear that up real fast.
An SEO reseller is a person or agency who sells SEO to a client, but then gets a third party to do the work. The third party, in this case, would be a white label SEO agency or freelancer.
So, when we're talking about an SEO reseller, we mean any person/company/agency who is selling SEO to their clients but getting somebody else to do the work, whoever that is.
White label SEO is where somebody else provides SEO under a white label agreement, usually agency-to-agency.
SEO Reselling 101
So, we've already gathered that SEO reselling is simply when person/company A sells SEO to their client B, but relies on third party C to do the work.
SEO resellers are simply the people who are doing the selling and landing the clients.
So, why do people actually do this, and how does it work?
Let's take a look.
How It Works In The Real World
SEO reselling is most often done by agencies who don't necessarily specialize in SEO, but have clients who might benefit from the service.
This might sound confusing initially, but let me show you some examples of the types of agencies we work with to give you a clearer picture:
- Social Media Marketing Agencies
- Website Development Agencies
- Influencer Marketing Agencies
- Google PPC Agencies
- Facebook Ad Agencies
You get the idea...
Basically, any of these types of agencies will already have paying clients who could benefit from SEO and, in some cases, may have already asked their agency if they offer this service.
This leaves the business with a few options. They can either build an in-house SEO team and figure out their SEO pricing, they can refer them to another agency, or they can offer SEO directly by using an SEO reseller or white label SEO agency.
When you start to think about the real-world complications of running an agency, you can see why a lot of agency owners decide to partner with an SEO reseller to service their own clients and make more profit.
SEO reselling isn't an ideal solution in a lot of cases though, and it can lead to problems when not done correctly, but we'll touch more on that later in this article. For now, let's take a look at what's actually included in an SEO reselling program in terms of deliverables.
What Is Including In An SEO Reselling Program?
SEO reseller programs can vary depending on what type of SEO you need, but the most common are link building - or off-page SEO - and full SEO management.
Link Building
SEO reselling programs designed purely for link building are quite common.
These, as you've probably figured out, offer link building only for client sites. These types of links are most often guest posts and link insertions and can help boost site authority and rankings when built correctly.
Full SEO Management
The other and even more common type of SEO reselling is a 'full SEO management' package.
These provide the entire Search Engine Optimization package, and while the deliverables can vary from agency to agency, the following aspects are usually involved:
- Link Building - Including citations & directory links, guest posts, link insertions, and sometimes digital PR depending on budget.
- Content Production - Blog posts, service pages, product descriptions, etc.
- Technical SEO - Taking care of all technical SEO issues like broken links, 404s, slow load speed, indexing issues, and so on.
- Keyword Research & SEO Strategy - Researching and targeting valuable keywords for the business with a proper SEO strategy.
- Local SEO Management - GBP optimization and management, local ranking management.
- On Page SEO Optimizations - Optimizing all pages for proper on page SEO (meta titles, descriptions, structuring content, etc).
Full SEO management is usually an easier sell to a client, as they likely don't understand all the intricate aspects of SEO to begin with, so it's better to just sell an 'full SEO package' rather than anything else.
Why Do People Resell SEO?
People resell SEO for a variety of reasons: time management, cost efficiency and struggling to handle current workload are just a few reasons we see.
A lot of the time, it is simply an agency looking to offer SEO to their clients but who don't actually have the time to do it.
Benefits Of Reselling SEO
Assuming SEO reselling is done correctly - meaning the person/agency providing the SEO know what they are actually doing - it has many benefits.
Scale
The main benefit, outside of client satisfaction (more on that shortly) is scale for the SEO reseller.
Reselling SEO essentially unlocks a new revenue stream for agencies or freelancers who are reselling the SEO service to their clients without actually doing any extra work. This means they can scale, both in terms of revenue & new clients, easier than before.
Obviously client satisfaction is extremely important and actually one of the benefits we will discuss shortly, but we can't ignore the direct benefit for the reseller as well.
Client Satisfaction
The end client who is paying for the SEO should be satisfied with the progress that the 'SEO reseller' is providing for them in terms of organic traffic growth and revenue.
This is where a lot of SEO resellers can struggle though, as finding a reliable white label SEO partner is very difficult.
When SEO Reselling Can Be A Problem
SEO reselling can quickly become a problem if one of the following happens:
Client Loses Trust
Trust is super important from the client side.
If they suspect that something isn't right with the SEO service, they're going to start asking a lot more questions or simply cancel the service.
Building trust can be harder with SEO reselling, especially if the SEO provider are not communicative and providing the updates you need to resell properly.
Clients' SEO Results Are Poor
The other obvious issue with SEO reselling occurs when the SEO work is done to a poor standard, leading to no results for the clients, and sometimes even manual/algorithmic penalties.
How To Choose An SEO Reselling Partner
If you're interested in reselling SEO to your clients, choosing the right SEO reselling partner is the most important step of the process.
Get this wrong, and your clients will suffer and blame you for the results. Get it right, and your clients will be happy while you increase your bottom line.
We have already written a guide on choosing a white label SEO partner, and many of the same points apply here, so I highly recommend reading that article first.
I'll reiterate some of the points below if you want the TL.DR:
Make Sure You Can Trust Them
This is much easier said than done, but at the end of the day, a successful partnership comes down to trust.
You need to be able to see proof of their work, client testimonials, as well as (ideally) a rest run for one client over the course of a month to see what work actually gets done and how they communicate.
Trust is built over time, but if your gut instinct says you can't trust them, it's usually right.
Pricing
Pricing is another important factor to consider, as you need to be able to markup the reselling package to make a profit. Otherwise, there is no incentive for the agency to offer the service in the first place.
We see clients markup our white label SEO services by 50-100% on average, although it really does depend on the specific situation.
Transparency
The last thing to keep in mind is how transparent the SEO reseller is.
This goes hand in hand with trust, but you need to have clear proof of the deliverables they are providing and what results they are leading to.
This also means you need to be sure they aren't using any black hat tactics that can lead to short-term gains but long-term disasters (think PBNs).
How To Make Sure Your SEO Reseller Is Delivering Results
The last thing I want to touch on is how to check that your SEO reseller is actually delivering real work and results.
Now, any reliable SEO reseller or white label SEO service provider should be providing monthly white label SEO reports to show you exactly what has been done and what impact it has had.
As a white label SEO agency ourselves, we know that some white label SEOs can use various tactics to make it look like work is being done when in reality, the client is not benefitting and may even be harmed.
Here's our checklist of things to watch out for.
Look At What Is Being Reported On
When checking the report, make sure it is highlighting what has actually been done - number of blog posts/service pages/product descriptions/etc published, links built, citations built/ optimizations done, and so on - and what result this has had.
Organic traffic increases are great, but if it isn't leading to organic conversions for the business (or other KPI they have outlined) then it doesn't matter.
Keep in mind that not every month will see positive gains, and that SEO does take time to have a large impact, especially on new sites. The important thing is the SEO strategy, and what keywords are being targeted specifically.
Check What Type Of Links Are Being Built
This one is very, very important.
LOTS of white label SEO providers rely on PBNs to rank sites with little investment. They rely on these PBNs, rather than building quality links, which leads to short-term success in favor of long-term traffic.
Make sure to ask for live link URLs (these should be in the reports) and use third-party tools to check for any suspicious links - we use Ahrefs for this.
Check The Content That Has Been Published
Lastly, make sure to proofread the content they publish and run it through an AI checker.
AI checkers can be hit and miss, but if the content doesn't read well at all and is scoring high across multiple AI checkers, it's definitely a red flag, and shows that they're willing to cut corners on quality.
Key Takeaways
Here's a quick recap of everything we covered in this article.
- An SEO Reseller is simply someone who sells SEO to their client but gets another person to do the work. Typically, a white label SEO (agency) will fulfill the work.
- Most SEO resellers are actually agencies that don't offer SEO as their primary service.
- SEO reselling typically includes full SEO management or off-page SEO.
- SEO reselling can work very well or very badly, depending on the quality of the SEO services provided.
If you're looking for reliable white label SEO services, get in touch with us today. We handle the accounts for agencies in just about every niche you could imagine, and deliver consistent SEO results no matter the niche.
