In digital marketing, SEO remains a cornerstone service. Agencies everywhere are faced with the decision of managing SEO work in-house or opting for white-label SEO.
Agencies using white-label SEO were 40% more likely to successfully expand into new markets within a year. This statistic underlines the popularity of white-label SEO as a viable solution. However, choosing between white-label and in-house SEO depends on various factors unique to each agency.
What is White-label SEO?
White label SEO is an outsourced solution wherein an SEO provider performs the work for another agency. The third-party agency then presents the results as their own to their clients. The white-label provider remains in the background of the services they work on and supply while they do not label the products they provide.
For agencies, white-label SEO can be a lifesaver because it needs fewer resources to set up, staff, and supervise a team of SEO experts. The agency is in charge of customer interactions and the white-label provider handles all aspects of SEO including on-site optimization, link acquisition, writing content, and generating reports.
What is In-house SEO?
In-house SEO, as this name implies, is when an agency begins and sustains its SEO services within a company. This model involves the formation of an SEO team which can be content writers, SEO analysts and programmers.
Internal SEO teams can work closely with the overall brand objectives, especially within agencies as an in-house SEO team can naturally align better with the agency’s top-level goals. Further, SEO activities can be marketed and easily adapted to the specific needs of each strategy. But maintaining an in-house SEO team costs a lot of money, time and effort when it comes to recruitment of the staff.
White Label SEO vs. In-House SEO
1. Scalability and Flexibility
White-label SEO cannot be beat when it comes to scalability. They can serve more clients without increasing their physical workforce because white-label providers have professionals to meet diversified work loads. This is especially helpful for agencies that face irregular demand rates or those who would like to grow at an accelerated rate. For instance, if an agency acquired a heavy client or several clients at the same time, the white-label provider can scale to the level of the demand in the agency.
Scaling with an in-house SEO team means having to recruit and train new members, which also comes with its fair share of costs and time. Also, as work is centralized within the agency, in-house teams may be constrained by the size of the agency to accommodate larger assignments or an influx of clients without a drop in the quality delivery.
2. Cost-Effectiveness
Another advantage of white-label SEO is that it is relatively affordable compared to most other SEO services hence a great opportunity for organizations to capitalize on. Agencies do not need to spend a lot of money recruiting and maintaining human resources in-house for an SEO team, other expenses like salaries, welfare, training, IT equipment and other overhead expenses are eliminated.
However, keeping a team within the agency means a high cost especially for the small agency or the one with limited capital. Not only does it need constant replenishment in the form of salaries and benefits for its employees but also in training to catch up with emerging trends in the market. Although, having an in-house team gives more control over your business.
3. Expertise and Access to Resources
White-label SEO providers are usually refined specialists with their own teams and advanced tools to achieve excellent results. This way, agencies can get the best technologies for SEO from keyword tools to analytics solutions without necessarily investing in them directly, by working with a white label provider. In addition, white-label providers have the necessary experience and have worked with many industries.
In-house teams, however, might not have a comparable level of specialized knowledge. An in-house team might take relatively more time to learn the new things they need to learn and the team might not be able to be up to date with these trends. White label providers also have increased potential to help agencies achieve more competitive results if they hire their services.
4. Time to Market and Efficiency
White-label SEO is especially useful to cut down the time required to launch new SEO campaigns. White-label providers are capable, and in most cases, ready to offer efficient and immediate solutions and services. This can help an agency on sales and client management, and leave the white-branded partner to handle SEO responsibilities.
However, an in-house team can face a time issue, particularly when working on several advertising campaigns at once. Spending time in internal resource management, hiring, and the tracking of SEO can slow down project delivery. White-label SEO has these structures in place and in addition, has better turnaround time meaning that agencies can quickly deliver outstanding results to their clients.
5. Focus on Core Competencies
Outsourcing requires the agencies to work with a white label SEO Reseller company who will help them concentrate on their strengths such as establishing rapport with the clients. It means that when SEO is managed by a competent provider, the agency can focus on what it has to offer and be assured that the technicalities of SEO are well addressed.
For the agencies that have a dedicated team, SEO services can sometimes distract focus since managing one can take time and effort within the agency. A key advantage of consulting SEO is that agencies can offer themselves as all-in-one partners without compromising quality in segments they are optimally suited for.
To summarize, it can be stated that many agencies do prefer white-label SEO over employing their own in-house SEO. That is why white-label SEO is the best when it comes to how it can provide a solution which is easier, affordable, and can be easily scaled up. That is why white-label SEO serves as an opportunity to deliver SEO services, preserve quality, and grow with relatively low risk while working with the agency.
White-Label SEO is one of the main focuses of EZ Rankings in order to partner up agencies and take care of their SEO problems. EZ Rankings has a team of highly skilled professionals and provides custom SEO services. If your agency is willing to expand its SEO services while avoiding the price tag of an internal team, EZ Rankings is here to help.