White Label SEO Reselling: All You Need to Know
You are only as good as your foundation. How well you set up the fundamentals will decide what you would be able to accomplish, ever.
Thinking in terms of online business, the search engine optimization methods employed constitute your foundation and is the single-most decisive factor behind the success of your enterprise.
With something as important, it becomes a no-brainer to ensure that you do all the right things right off the bat. Now SEO is something best left to professional experts. In most, if not all cases, business owners have little to no idea about what the process is and how it should be put into effect. Even if they do, it is highly probable that they end up messing things up.
In such a case, seeking professional aid is the go-to option. And that’s where the danger that you would get to know about in the following parts of this article lies.
White Label SEO Reselling- a practice that has infested the digital marketing business with several latent as well obvious, often irremediable harm to businesses looking to grow.
In this article, I try to inform you of all that you need to know about white label/private label SEO firms, ways to navigate through the market ensuring that you don’t fall prey to the gimmicks and how you can identify the legit SEO service providers.
What is ‘White Label SEO Reselling’?
White Label SEO Reselling refers to the practice utilized by ‘SEO agencies’ wherein they don’t actually partake any of the processes/services that they offer as these are outsourced to unknown, often dubious company. There is no legitimacy in the work or the proceedings thereof as the work is actually done by someone else in the background, about which we have zero idea.
Why would a firm do that?
To make profits. A private label SEO reseller agency is set up to lure in customers that are looking for genuine services through crazy, unreasonable offers. The work later is passed on to some unknown group in the background that tries to work things out while the payment is delivered to the SEO reselling agency masquerading as a legit service provider.
Where’s the issue in that, if the work is being done?
In the work done itself. To sustain their greed to maximize profit, these agencies hire cheap, unprofessional people who have shabby, rudimentary, often absolutely no idea about what’s what and make use of some pre-planned template of processes to tweak things up with your website/online profile, jeopardizing your business.
Even if you see initial success, it is only because of some short-lived alterations that damage your website, heading you towards major failure in the long run, not ruling out the dreaded penalty.
If anything, with a such an agency, you are doing more harm to your business aspirations than any good at all. When the damage is done, these agencies would readily wash their hands of any accountability whatsoever, leaving you with loss of money, time and more valuable than these, your business.
It is therefore necessary that you avoid the alluring traps set up by pseudo-SEO agencies and hire a true professional. To be able to do so, you need to be able to identify and tell a white label reseller from a genuine service provider.
The ‘Tell-Tale Signs’ Of White Label SEO Resellers
No matter how enticing they try to make it, for an experienced pair of eyes, it is quite possible to differentiate between a reseller and a genuine service provider. Having been in the industry for a good while now, I have made my fair share of observations.
Based on them I have compiled a set of ‘tell-tale signs’ that will allow you to check if the service provider/agency in question is a legit one or just another reseller, even if you have no prior experience. For ease of understanding, I have categorized them under three broad heads.
They are as follows:
1. Background/Track Record:
There is no such thing that speaks of legitimacy and sincerity of promises and results as previous accounts of similar nature to back things up. A well-maintained track record along with a credible background are key components of an agency/service provider doing legit work.
That’s also something that most of these white label resellers lack. Even if they do have it, it is usually highly unorganized and inconsistent.
The most reliable feedback related to any service comes from its customers. A legit company will always be eager to present before you its collection of positive responses/feedbacks from happy, satisfied customers and would also be willing to help you get in touch with these customers and interact with them in hopes to address your queries and for assurance.
While the resellers generally lack any such account, even if they curate a fraud one, they would never get you in touch with any of those clients for the sole reason that most of them are products of imagination and not real.
Besides, such agencies do not have an authentic presence on the social media platforms that are meant to boost visibility.
NOTE: It may be noted here that lack of track record and a not-so-prominent social media presence are also characteristics of newly established agencies/service providers that may actually be very authentic in their dealing and work. While they may not be so ‘big’ initially, such credible agencies are bound to build an authoritative presence in the industry with time.
How to separate between such agencies and a fraud reselling one? Look out for the next sign.
2. Proceedings
Another major indicator that would help you figure things out in this regard is analyzing the way in which the agency conducts its proceedings.
Actions speak louder than words and tracking that is something that would allow us to go beyond those promises and actually see how things are being conducted.
Keeping things short, look out for the following:
- Does the agency have listed out direct and clear ways through which they can be contacted? Absence of that means the agency does not want customers/clients to bug them with frequent queries/doubts/questions/discussions. These tendencies are highly common among resellers practicing shady business.
- Do they have ‘paid-options’ for something as little as contacting them or seeking information? Another feature of money-minded, greedy opportunists.
- Upon being contacted, do they take too long to revert or come back with a solution for any issue that you want them to help you with? That’s common for private label resellers as they are not the one actually in charge of the work and have to depend on and act as per the timeline of those ‘unknown working hands’ operating in the background.
- Do they back their claims of progress and improvement with legible reports and figures? Most of these claims have absolutely no substance to them and it is therefore impossible for such agencies to provide you with comprehensible reports. Even if they come up with a report it would always be ‘too-technical’ for your understanding.
3. Actual Work
The most obvious parameter of them all.
The work done speaks for itself. While for someone who is a business owner, it is generally not possible to be aware of what the right standard of SEO and related work is and it is something that should be assessed by a real SEO consultant, here are some points to focus on while checking things out, either by yourself or with the help of an SEO expert:
- Content: Relevant, organized and well-structured content is king. With a legit agent, you will notice that this aspect of SEO is something that they pay due attention to as it is the most fundamental of all the things that serve as a base for SEO to take effect on. For more details, check out these SEO copywriting tips.
- Backlinks: Your backlink profile for the website is the backbone of the SEO regime that could make or break the deal. Again, relevant, high-quality backlinks from credible sources are hallmarks of a solid, effective and efficient backlink profile. ‘Less is more’-this is one of the most useful tips to build a high-quality backlink profile for your website.
- Business Listing & Local SEO: Getting carried away a little too much by their boisterous promises, a fake agency would underplay the inevitable requirement of building a solid presence in the local arena via a well-planned and exclusive Local SEO strategy and through proper setting up, verifying and optimization of business listing. They tend to shoot for the stars while neglecting the need for a solid base to function upon.
There’s a lot more that needs to be kept a check on and that’s where a legit SEO marketer comes into play.
What Separates ‘Reseller’ From ‘Real’?
The mere fact that you have to think/worry about so many things while dealing with a reseller agency while all of it is automatically taken care of when you work with a real SEO agency is a factor good enough to understand the difference between the implications that come along while working with the two.
Nonetheless, here are a few pointers to help you consolidate your understanding and reasoning further:
1. Quality
When we do away with all the shenanigans, all the promises, all the alluring packages and all the ‘instant, guaranteed success’ gimmicks, it all boils down to the quality of the work that is actually done and that is something that SEO services will always deliver, come what may.
Whether it’s the content, backlink and keywords or the various SEO practices, a real SEO agency is always concerned about the quality thereof, something that a reseller won’t ever bat an eye for.
2. Experience
A legit provider focuses on the experience it imparts just as much as it focuses on the work being done. Whether it is the ‘getting-in-touch’ process between the clients and the company or the redressal of issues and queries or sharing relevant and sought-after information, or simply being there when the presence and support is needed, a white label SEO agent can’t even think of considering and taking those things into account.
3. Outcome
When it comes to the final product/outcome, the two are at the opposite ends of the spectrum.
Growth, progress and success of your business are things of paramount importance for an actual SEO consultant because those things, in all sense of the word, translate to the success of the service provider as well and similar tags are attached to it as well.
Long-term, stable and growing success of clients = desired outcome for such SEO agencies.
For a white label SEO reseller, even if they were to list the desired outcome themselves, their list would have only one item written in bold at the top, ‘more money/profit for our own agency’ and nothing else.
Well Begun is Half Done
It is best to make all the right moves and do all the right things, right when you are in control. And when it comes to the future of your business enterprise on the internet, that time is right when you are just starting out.
Now that you are aware of what hiring a white label seo reseller agency comes with and how indelible the implications are, I am sure you are well-equipped with all the right knowledge to make a correct, informed decision.
Contemplate no more. Get in touch with me, cut through all the red tape and let me help you put your best foot forward in this journey towards massive success for both of us.