Reference Guide
Reading time ~ 4 min
What is white label SEO?
White label SEO is SEO work done by one company and sold to the end client by another. Your agency signs the client, sets the price, and owns the relationship. Someone else — us, in this case — does the audits, the content, the link building and the reporting, branded as yours.
The client never knows a third party is involved. That’s the entire point.
The three models
Full outsourcing. You hand over the whole account — strategy, execution, reporting. Lowest effort on your side, and the model most agencies land on once they’ve tried the other two.
Hybrid. You keep strategy and client-facing communication in-house, and outsource the execution — the audits, the content production, the link building. More control, more of your own time spent.
Tools-only. You buy access to SEO software (rank trackers, audit tools) and do the work yourself with a partner’s tooling. Cheapest option, but it doesn’t solve the actual problem most agencies have, which is staffing — you still need someone who knows how to use the tools well.
The maths
10 retained clients margin
What goes wrong
- Unbranded reports. If a report arrives with someone else’s logo, or in a format your client would recognise as third-party, the whole arrangement is exposed. Ask to see a sample report before signing anything.
- Providers contacting the client directly. Some cheaper providers will reach out to your client for ‘onboarding’ or ‘clarification’ without telling you first. That’s the arrangement breaking in the worst possible way. Get it in writing that it doesn’t happen.
- Link practices you inherit the risk for. If your provider is buying links or running a private blog network, your client’s site takes the ranking penalty, not the provider’s. You’re the one who has to explain it.
- No named contact. A shared support inbox with rotating staff means nobody actually owns your account. When something’s wrong, you want one person to call, not a ticket queue.
- Guaranteed rankings. Nobody controls Google’s algorithm. A provider promising ‘#1 in 90 days’ is either inexperienced or lying, and either way it’s your agency’s name attached to the promise once you resell it.
Eight questions to ask any provider before you sign
- Can I see a sample of the branded report my client would receive?
- Who is my single point of contact, and what’s their direct availability?
- What’s your link-building process, specifically — not ‘white-hat,’ the actual method?
- What happens if I want to leave — do I keep the account history and data?
- What’s the minimum term, and what happens after it?
- Will you ever contact my client directly, under any circumstance?
- What’s included at each price tier, and what costs extra?
- Can you show a real result — a specific site, a specific ranking change, over a specific period?