White label SEO reseller programs: how reselling SEO works, and the services worth reselling

A white label SEO reseller program lets an agency buy SEO from a provider at a trade rate and sell it to its own clients, under its own brand, at a price the agency sets. The provider does the work and stays invisible. The agency owns the client, the invoice and the conversation.

Agencies that want to resell our work under their own name start with our white label SEO.

"Reseller" and "white label" are used for the same arrangement, and most providers use both. If there is a difference, it is in what each word stresses. Reseller is about the money: you buy at one rate and sell at another. White label is about the brand: your name is on the work. A reseller program is usually the version built for volume, with a set list of services and a standard way to order them. For the general definition, see what white label SEO is.

How a reseller program works

1. You join the program. Usually a call, an agreement and sometimes a minimum commitment. Read the agreement for the notice period and for what happens to your clients' work if you leave.
2. You agree trade terms. The rate you pay per service or per client, how invoices run, and the turnaround for each service.
3. You sell to your client at your own price, in your own proposal.
4. You place the order through the provider's form, portal or account manager, with a brief and access to the client's accounts.
5. The provider delivers the work unbranded: the audit, the fixes, the content, the profile changes, the report.
6. You put your name on it and deliver it to the client, and answer the client's questions yourself.
7. The provider invoices you and you invoice the client. The client never sees the first invoice.

White label SEO reseller services: what is usually on offer

Most reseller programs offer some version of the same list. The names vary; the useful question is what you receive for each one and how you can check it was done.

• SEO audit. You should receive a written document with every problem ranked by what it costs the client, and the fix for each. Check that it reads like somebody looked at this site, with specific pages named.
• Technical SEO. Fixes to indexing, crawling, redirects, speed and structured data. You should receive a dated list of what changed. Check a few changes on the live site and in Search Console.
• On-page optimisation. Titles, headings, internal links and copy changes on existing pages. Check the pages named in the log.
• Content. New service pages and articles. You should receive drafts for approval before anything is published. Check that a person edited them: specific facts about the client's business, nothing generic.
• Local SEO. Google Business Profile work, reviews, citations and location pages. Check the profile yourself and ask for the citation list with live links. White label local SEO services covers each of these in detail.
• Link building. You should receive a list of every link, with the page it sits on. Check that the sites are real, relevant to the client and read by people.
• Reporting. An unbranded, editable report built from the client's own accounts. Check that every number can be found in an account the client can open.

Reselling and referring are different arrangements

Some programs called "partner programs" are referral schemes. You introduce the client, the provider signs them directly under its own name, and you receive a fee. That can be a perfectly good arrangement, but it is not reselling: the client becomes the provider's client, the provider sends the reports, and if you part company the client goes with them. Check which one you are being offered before you mention it to a client.

How resellers set their margin

Your rate to the client has to cover the provider's rate, your account manager's time on briefs, reports and calls, and the months that go wrong. Agencies that resell at a thin margin discover in the first hard month that there is no room to put anything right.

Two things help. Sell the result the client wants, more calls and enquiries, and describe the work in your own words. And be careful about repackaging the provider's service list as your offer: once a client has bought "four articles a month", every month becomes an argument about whether four was enough.

Selling SEO you do not do yourself

Most clients do not ask who does the work. They ask what will happen, how long it takes and how they will know it is working. You can answer all three honestly.

• What will happen: start with an audit, so the plan comes from this site and not from a menu.
• How long: fixes and profile changes show in weeks, new pages and links over months. How long SEO takes gives you a timeline to quote.
• How they will know: a monthly report with enquiries and calls first, from accounts in their own name.

If a client asks directly whether you do the work in-house, do not lie. "We work with a specialist team we have vetted, and we manage the work and answer for it" is true and is usually all a client wants to hear.

What a good reseller program gives you

• A named contact who knows your clients.
• Unbranded sample work you can show a prospect: an audit, a report, a page.
• An onboarding checklist covering the brief and the account access.
• Turnaround times for each service, in writing.
• Reports as editable files you can rebrand.
• A clear exit: notice period, handover of the change log, and nothing held in the provider's name.

Red flags in a reseller program

• Guaranteed rankings. Google's own guidance on hiring an SEO says nobody can guarantee a number one ranking. A provider that promises one is either misleading you or planning to do something risky.
• Links sold by the hundred, or by a third-party score such as domain authority, with no list of the actual sites.
• Accounts set up in the provider's name, or a request to become primary owner of the client's Business Profile.
• Long fixed terms with no exit, for a service where results take months to judge.
• Reports exported from a tool with the tool's logo or the provider's account name still on them.
• No sample of real work before you sign.

Questions to ask before you join

1. Who does the work: your own staff, contractors, or another provider?
2. Can I buy one audit for one client before committing to anything?
3. Whose name are the accounts in, and what access do you need?
4. Can I see every link you build, with the page it is on?
5. Is content written or edited by a person before it is published?
6. Do you ever contact the client directly?
7. What is the notice period, and what do I receive when I leave?
8. How quickly do you answer a question I forward from a client?

The same questions, with the answers that should reassure you and the ones that should not, are in how to vet a white label SEO company. For the wider picture of running white label SEO across many clients, read the white label SEO guide for agencies.

How we work with resellers

We do not run a fixed menu. Each client's scope is agreed on a call and written down before work starts, the work is done in the client's own accounts, reports arrive unbranded for you to send, and we never contact your client. Most agencies start with a single audit. White label SEO sets out the engagement, and white label local SEO covers the local work. To start, send us one client's site through the form.