An agency's guide to white label SEO services

If you run a digital agency, you have likely encountered this challenge: clients want a one-stop shop for all their marketing, but building a full-fledged, in-house SEO team is a massive undertaking. This involves salaries, constant training, expensive tools, and the time it takes to find people who actually know what they're doing.

That's the appeal of white label SEO services. It's a popular solution that lets you offer expert-level SEO under your own brand, helping you expand your services without the huge overhead.

However, while outsourcing the technical side of SEO can be beneficial, scaling the content is often where challenges arise. Maintaining a client's unique brand voice and ensuring high quality when a third party is handling the writing can be difficult. Modern AI content platforms, like the eesel AI blog writer, are offering a new angle, giving you more control by complementing the traditional white label model.

What exactly are white label SEO services?

White label SEO, also called private label SEO or SEO reselling, is essentially a partnership. One company (the provider) handles all the SEO work, and another company (your agency) rebrands and sells those services to your clients as its own.

The setup is straightforward. You manage the client relationship, including the strategy calls, the sales process, and all communication. Meanwhile, your white label partner is in the background handling technical tasks like website audits, keyword research, and link building.

This model allows agencies to expand their service offerings and tap into new revenue streams without having to invest heavily in hiring and training a specialized team. A successful partnership acts like an extension of your team and is genuinely invested in your clients' success.

The pros and cons of using white label SEO services

Outsourcing SEO can be a strategic move for your agency, but it’s important to understand the potential benefits and drawbacks.

Benefits of white label SEO services: Scaling without the overhead

• Get experts on your team instantly: You get immediate access to a team of SEO professionals without going through a lengthy hiring and training process. They’re ready to contribute from day one.
• It's cheaper than hiring in-house: You can avoid the high costs of full-time salaries, benefits, and expensive SEO software. For context, popular platforms like Ahrefs start at $129/month, and Semrush's plans begin at $165.17/month (if you pay annually). A white label partner bundles all of that into their fee.
• Scale up or down easily: Client demand can fluctuate. With a white label partner, you can easily scale your SEO services up or down as needed, without being constrained by your in-house team's capacity.
• Focus on what you do best: Outsourcing technical SEO frees up your team to focus on their core strengths, whether that’s designing websites, nurturing client relationships, or closing new deals.

Challenges of white label SEO services: Where partnerships can fall short

• You lose some direct control: Handing over a key part of your client's marketing strategy to another company can feel risky. If communication isn't clear and transparent, it's easy to feel out of the loop.
• Quality can be inconsistent: Some agency owners find that the quality of work can be inconsistent. This might mean the provider isn't assigning a dedicated team to your accounts or lacks solid processes, leading to inconsistent results.
• Your client's voice gets lost: Outsourced content is often the weakest link. You might get generic blog posts that miss the unique voice, tone, and expertise of your client's brand.
• Communication can be slow: When you aren’t talking directly to the person doing the work, information can get lost in translation. Going through an account manager can slow down approvals and lead to misunderstandings, which makes it harder to be agile and get results.
  

  White-label SEO can be solid if your provider treats you like a partner. My problem was always consistency. Some months were great, some months felt like someone new was doing the work.

  Reddit

Key components of strong white label SEO services

A solid white label SEO service does more than send a monthly report. According to established providers like Agency Platform, a good package is built on a few core pillars.

Technical foundation for white label SEO services: Website audits and on-page optimization

Every successful SEO campaign starts with a focus on the technical side of the website. This means a full website audit to find any issues holding a site back, like slow page speed, mobile-friendliness problems, or pages that Google isn't indexing.

After the audit, the focus moves to on-page optimization. This involves refining details that search engines analyze, like optimizing title tags, writing effective meta descriptions, structuring headings correctly, and building a smart internal linking strategy around target keywords.

Authority building with white label SEO services: Link building and off-page strategy

Off-page SEO is about building a website's authority and reputation online. The primary way this is done is by acquiring high-quality backlinks from other reputable websites. These links act as votes of confidence, signaling to Google that the site is a trustworthy source of information.

It's crucial that your provider uses "white-hat" tactics, which are ethical, sustainable strategies that follow search engine guidelines. You want to avoid any provider using "black-hat" methods, which can get your clients penalized. For clients with a physical location, local SEO and optimizing their Google Business Profile are also essential.

Content marketing in white label SEO services: The engine of modern SEO

High-quality, helpful content is the foundation of any successful SEO campaign. It’s what earns valuable backlinks, engages your client's audience, and ultimately drives sales.

A white label provider will typically create content like blog posts and landing pages. However, this is often where the biggest challenge arises. It’s one thing to write an article; it’s another to create content that’s well-researched, matches user search intent, and truly captures a client’s brand voice. This is exactly where many white label services struggle.

How to choose the right provider for white label SEO services

With so many options available, picking the right partner can feel overwhelming. Here's a quick checklist to help you vet potential providers and find one that’s a great fit for your agency.

Evaluate their track record and expertise

• Ask for case studies and references: Any reputable provider should be happy to show you their results. Ask for examples from different industries to see the range of their experience.
• Check for independent reviews: Look for reviews on third-party platforms like Clutch.co, where you can find verified feedback from real clients about their reliability and the quality of their work.
• Make sure they use ethical tactics: Verify that their strategies are all above board. You need a partner who prioritizes sustainable, white-hat SEO to protect your clients' reputations and long-term rankings.

Prioritize communication and transparency

• Communication channels: How will you stay in touch? Look for partners who offer direct and fast communication, whether that's through a dedicated account manager, a shared Slack channel, or regular video calls.
• Reporting dashboard: A quality provider will give you access to a white-labeled dashboard. This lets both you and your clients track key metrics like keyword rankings, organic traffic, and conversions in real-time, all under your agency's brand.
• Clear pricing: Make sure their pricing is transparent and easy to understand. You should know exactly what you're paying for, without being locked into confusing long-term contracts.

The hybrid approach: Pairing white label SEO services with AI content

One solution to the content challenge is a hybrid approach. This involves outsourcing technical SEO and link building while retaining full control over your clients' content. AI content generation platforms, like the eesel AI blog writer, are designed to address the content challenges that can pop up in white label partnerships.

Maintain control of your client's brand voice

Instead of receiving generic blog posts from your provider, you can generate publish-ready content that is well-researched and aligns with your client's brand voice.

The process is simple. You provide a topic and your client's website URL. The AI analyzes their existing content to understand their brand voice, tone, and style, then creates a new post that is consistent. It can also include natural mentions of their products or services. This approach offers the scalability of outsourcing with the quality control of an in-house team. At eesel AI, this tool was used to grow daily impressions from 700 to over 750,000 in just three months.

Key features of the eesel AI blog writer

• Automatic assets included: Each blog post comes with AI-generated images, infographics, and tables to enhance readability and engagement.
• Authentic social proof: To add credibility, the AI finds real quotes and discussions from Reddit threads and embeds relevant YouTube videos directly into the article.
• Deep research and AEO: The AI conducts research to deliver drafts that are optimized not just for traditional search engines, but also for AI answer engines like Google AI Overview and Perplexity.
• Affordable and accessible: You can try it completely free to see the quality for yourself. After that, paid plans start at $99 for 50 blog posts, making it a cost-effective way to scale your content production.

To see how other agencies are successfully using white label SEO to scale, check out this video which breaks down the process and potential revenue growth.

A video from Map Ranking explaining how they grew their agency to $2 million in revenue by leveraging white label SEO services, offering insights for other agencies looking to scale.

Final thoughts

White label SEO services are a great way for digital agencies to scale their offerings, add new revenue streams, and deliver more value to clients without the headache of building an in-house team.

Success often depends on choosing the right partner and being aware of the potential downsides, especially regarding content quality. A hybrid approach can be an effective model for agency services. You can partner with a white label agency for their technical expertise and link-building power, while using tools like the eesel AI blog writer to scale high-quality, on-brand content yourself. This gives you a balance of scalability and control.

Ready to take control of your content? Generate your first blog post for free and see the difference.