In modern business, the equation is simple: digital presence dictates success, and the lack of any online presence is more than likely to condemn a business to failure. With this pressure, digital marketing agencies like yours need to offer efficient, cost-effective, and innovative services to customers if you, in turn, are to survive as well.

At the cornerstone of any digital marketing strategy is SEO; you’ll face the challenge of providing SEO services as part of your portfolio against a background of constant change and increasing competition. One strategy could be developing an in-house SEO service from scratch, but another might be to instead opt for a white label SEO solution to enhance what you can offer an increasingly demanding customer base.

Why can’t you just develop your own SEO operation in-house?

After all, your digital marketing agency already faces a number of challenges, foremost amongst them being the fact that you may lack the resources to build this service in-house. When you consider hiring expert staff (or training your own employees), as well as the tools required, you could be looking at quite a hefty outlay. If you are to recoup that cost, you might find that you are going into the market at a much higher price point than the established names, making your offering considerably less competitive.

In addition to that, once the operation is set up, you’ll quickly find that SEO strategies and algorithms evolve rapidly. Staying abreast of all of these changing factors will take continuous learning and investment, potentially pushing the cost up even further. This is without the additional pressure placed on whomever you recruit to carry out this task, affecting their efficiency.

One other factor you also need to consider is that unless your business is already industry-specific, the clients requiring SEO services will be extremely diverse. This will make it hard to come up with a one-size-fits-all scalable solution, putting even more pressure on your already stretched resources. So, apart from the cost issues, there are also real quality concerns you need to consider. If you provide a sub-par SEO service for a client, it could not only damage your reputation but also dent their confidence in the other services you already provide for them.

Ramp-up time and operational strain

Starting any new service from scratch will take time as you find and recruit the right people for the roles and sort out the necessary equipment and infrastructure. During this time when you are not offering an SEO service to your customers, you could find that they are having their heads turned by your competitors who do.

In addition to this, there is also the operational strain on you and the rest of the management team, as you have one more resource to manage. With everything else those at the helm of a digital marketing agency have to balance, this can mean you are stretched too thin, and the rest of your business can suffer. All in all, when you weigh up these options, you are likely to decide that developing your own in-house SEO service is not a viable option, either for your future or your own personal health.

The benefits of opting for white label SEO

The other alternative you could consider is to opt for a white label SEO service in addition to what you offer customers already. In a nutshell, you outsource SEO services to a reputable third party like clickintelligence.com, who are proven experts in their field, but you provide this service under your own name. To the customer, it will look like it is your agency that is delivering the service, allowing you to provide an all-round package but without any of the downsides already discussed.

In addition to this, you will also be able to reap these benefits:

• Expertise at your fingertips – if you were to have an in-house team, you would have one, maybe two specialists to cover all eventualities. By going for a white label solution, you will have an entire company’s resources at your disposal, providing quality answers for your customers at double quick time. These experts will as be able to keep up with all of the trends and algorithm changes required to keep pace with your competition.
• Cost efficiency – a white label SEO partner will have a competitive pricing structure in place, to which you add your premium for acting as a ‘middleman.’ This means that not only are you sidestepping the huge costs discussed earlier, but your pricing will be competitive from day one and an attractive proposition for existing customers.
• Service effectiveness – as well as offering extra services to customers from a name they already trust, the service delivered will be superior to any you might offer from a fledgling in-house service. This means no damage to your reputation; in fact, it can help you build one as the go-to one-stop service for digital marketing needs.

What to look for in a white label SEO agency

Now you are aware of all the benefits, your only challenge is to find the right white label SEO agency to provide this premium service. There will, of course, be some small variations depending on how your business already operates, but you must look for these main factors.

#1 Proven expertise 

At the top of the list, you’ll want an agency with a proven track record. They should have expertise in on-page optimization at a bare minimum and a flare for link-building services. They should be able to demonstrate this through case studies, preferably in an industry or niche in which you, yourself, specialize in

#2 Ethical practices

There are plenty of companies offering white label SEO services, but as with all things in life, they are not all created equal. Those who have attained impressive results may have done so using less than ethical or ‘black-hat’ techniques, and these need to be avoided. Not only would your potential partners have their rankings damaged in the long term, but the effect on both their reputation and yours could be devastating.

#3 Flexibility 

All businesses are busier at some times than others, so you are looking for an SEO partner who has the resources to cope with extra work during busy periods. This way, you will be offering a quality service to customers no matter how much work they give you, and most importantly, you are not turning work away that could go to a competitor. Of course, in addition to this, you are not paying for the service when you are not using it.

A final thought

In short, if you are an agency that does not offer an SEO service, you won’t be around long. The question, then, is how you go about providing it in a way that supports your customers and makes it worth your while. Creating the service in-house from scratch has a host of hurdles for you to jump, and it is likely to be expensive and of poor quality at first.

Instead, going for a white label solution will allow you to avoid these pitfalls and offer a quality service from day one. You will also have additional benefits, including lower set-up costs and flexibility, provided you pick an experienced and ethical partner.