White label SEO for small businesses is a lot different from larger companies, like national or global ecommerce retailers, for example.
The main difference is that small businesses often require a much smaller investment in link building. Sure, it can be helpful for competitive niches like law or dentists, but it isn't always a prerequisite like it often is for larger businesses.
If you're looking for white label SEO for your small business, then head to our white label SEO services page to check out what we offer.
This guide will focus solely on explaining what white label SEO for small businesses is, how it works, and everything else that goes with it.
What Do We Mean By 'Small Business'?
In this case, we're talking more about businesses where the competition to rank for their ideal terms is minimal.
For example, a local coffee shop might want to rank more highly on Google map pack when somebody searches for a coffee shop in the area.
Depending on the location, this could either be highly competitive or not competitive at all. In the none-competitive example, this would be a classic example of a small business.
Other examples include hair salons, gyms, local construction businesses... You get the idea.
It's important to make this distinction because it really is about the difficulty of ranking rather than the actual business size, although in most cases there is a direct correlation.
What Does A 'Standard' White Label SEO Campaign Look Like For A Small Business?
On our white label SEO services page you'll see that our basic offer is $500 per month for local campaigns.
This is our bread-and-butter package and the one we use the most for small businesses. It includes all SEO outside of paid link building efforts.
I'll explain what this means later in the article, but for now, let's look at what white label SEO for small businesses actually looks like.
On Page SEO
On page SEO is foundational for any SEO campaign, especially for small businesses, where we often find pages that have not been optimized for their target keywords whatsoever.
Anytime we onboard a small business project, we always check all the basic on page SEO elements, like the meta title and description, H1s, H2s, the overall structure of the page, and copy.
It's very common for pages to not even include their main keywords at all. Imagine trying to rank for 'Dentist New York,' and your page doesn't include that keyword anywhere.
Technical SEO
Small business websites tend to be built by either local agencies, freelancers, or even family and friends.
Depending on how often it has been maintained and the quality of the work done initially, it's very common to see local business websites with a host of technical SEO problems, such as:
- Low page speed
- No index tags incorrectly used
- Broken pages and links
- No HTTPS protocol
- Redirects incorrectly used
- Canonical tags incorrectly used
The list here is almost endless, and this doesn't even include backend issues like poor hosting and server location, as well as other issues like Google Search Console and Analytics integration.
Technical SEO is important to get right because it can mean the difference between a website ranking and not even indexing in the first place.
Content Production
Once all the foundational aspects are handled and the website is indexed and optimized correctly, content production is key to sustained organic growth for any small business.
This doesn't mean publishing irrelevant blog posts that won't generate leads.
It means publishing content that generates leads for the business, including service pages and location pages as a priority, and then supporting informational blog content to help those key pages rank higher.
'Light' Link Building
There is still some link building to be done, even for small businesses, but these links are different from larger campaigns.
We prioritize directory and citation links above all else, as well as reaching out to any broken or old links that the site may have held previously.
Basically, any links we can build for free or at a low price, as the majority of the budget for these campaigns should be put towards content and SEO optimizations rather than expensive links that won't have much impact.
SEO Strategy & Keyword Research & Reporting
The entire campaign should have a solid SEO strategy guided by keyword research and competitor analysis.
All of this should come with regular reporting for the SEO reseller to build trust and lead to a successful, longer-term relationship.
The Key Difference With Larger Businesses
As I mentioned right at the start of this article, the main difference is usually found in link building.
Small businesses simply don't require a big investment in backlinks. There can be some exceptions, which I will cover shortly with examples, but in general, citations and directory links can help a lot of small businesses rank well, assuming the rest of the SEO is managed well.
How The Link Building Is Different
With larger businesses where competition is high, it's more than likely that competitors will be investing into backlinks each month to rank their top pages.
This means that, in order to compete with them, building links is also necessary.
In our campaigns, we find guest posts and link insertions to be the most cost-effective way of doing this, but it can vary from agency to agency.
Exceptions To This Rule
Some small business white label SEO campaigns do require a larger investment into link building.
This happens when the competition to rank for their terms is higher than average. Here are some examples of when this can happen:
- The niche is particularly difficult to rank inherently - think lawyers, dentists, private hospitals, wealth management, etc.
- The location of the small business is competitive - think major cities where competition is naturally much higher, even for basic services.
We also offer custom white label SEO projects for even more challenging niches, or projects where only link building is required (and much more).
Quick Summary
Let's take a minute to go over the key points in this article:
- White label SEO for small businesses relies mostly on technical and on page SEO, as well as content production and a streamlined SEO strategy.
- The size of the business is not as important as the difficulty of ranking. Some small businesses may require more investment into SEO to rank than others because of this.
- Larger business white label SEO campaigns often require a larger budget to allow for more serious link building (guest posts and link insertions).
Need white label SEO for your small business? Get in touch with us today to discuss your options.
