White Label SEO vs In-House SEO: Which Is Better?

You have two choices as your agency grows: either build out a full SEO team and start taking on clients as quickly as they come in, or you outsource the work of your in-house SEO and resell it to your clients under your own brand.

Each option has the potential to bring in massive profits for your agency, but each option also has the potential to drain you of all your profits as you overpay a team of underutilized, idle employees. Read on to find out what white label SEO and in-house SEO are, and which option is best for you and your growing digital marketing or advertising agency.

What Is White Label SEO?

Once an agency has a steady base of retainer clients, hiring in-house can cost less per client than using a white label provider. You deal with the client; the outside team deals with the rest.

White label SEO suits agencies that do design or advertising well but have no SEO experts in house. You can scale the partner's team up or down as client needs change. Senior-level SEO specialists can service your clients and become part of your team instantly, all while you can enable or disable them as needed for whatever is happening with clients' needs.

What Is In-House SEO?

As opposed to white-label SEO services, in-house SEO refers to work completed by team members of your own agency, including an SEO strategist, copywriter, and technical SEO specialist. The advantage of having staff work exclusively for your business is that they understand your process as well as the clients you serve and will be familiar with the majority of the applications your business currently uses.

Bringing SEO work in-house usually costs more. It also takes more time to get started. You have to sort through applicants, and that can take a while. Good candidates expect strong pay. On top of that, the tools needed and software can add more expenses.

White Label SEO vs In-House SEO: Quick Comparison

While it is true that the profit per client is greater when you perform the SEO work yourself, this profit is not as liquid as that from white label SEO. You only get to bill your client for the work that your SEO staff completes, as opposed to what you pay for the white label SEO service for that work.

In-house SEO teams have the same overhead of pay, whether an agency has 5 SEO clients or 15. The white label model provides an ideal transition to in-house, as most agencies start with white-label SEO services first, and then transition to in-house SEO as the number of SEO clients and corresponding revenue grows.

Typically, when an agency has 10+ SEO customers paid on a monthly retainer, hiring in-house SEO is cheaper on a per-customer basis than working with a white-label SEO provider. Of course, there is also the value of having your own team of SEO experts who can speak in your brand voice and provide reports exactly as you need them.

In-house SEO is also highly recommended when clients require same-day changes, when they operate in a strict or regulated environment, or when they're simply willing to pay a premium for in-housework.

Often, the work may look similar to white label SEO work, yet agencies charge a premium for the reassurance of in-house experts.

Remember, outsourcing is not risk-free. When your outsourced work is below par, it's your agency name that your client sees, not that of your partner. A poor audit, thin content, or late delivery will harm your reputation first.

Carefully select a partner. Request sample reports. Test how they handle questions from your clients. Make sure someone reviews the work before it is published under your company name. A short test project for a few days before entering into a long-term agreement will uncover most problems early on. The loss of a client due to one wrong delivery is far more costly than a short test project.

And while white label search engine optimisation or in-house SEO work is being carried out, the fundamental work being undertaken by agencies for their clients has changed too. Basic keyword work and link placement to attempt to manipulate search engine rankings for client websites, for example, are not going to work anymore as they would have in years past.

A quality white label search engine optimisation partner will typically have all of this already covered in their processes & reporting software, enabling you to scale quickly and efficiently. The cost of replicating this expertise in-house, with relevant software, licenses, and ongoing training, is typically outside the budgets of most small in-house SEO teams until they have reached enough clients.

Before you decide, ask yourself these questions:

There is no one-size-fits-all answer. A small agency with a handful of clients is likely to perform best with a partner, whereas a medium-sized agency with dozens of active SEO campaigns might save more by building its own team over time. But don't make this decision once and then forget about it - reassess this each year, as your client base and cash flow will not remain constant.

Most agencies view SEO outsourcing as a short-term solution until they can employ their own SEO staff. However, outsourcing SEO as white labels for agencies has matured to become a viable long-term operating model for agencies of all sizes.

A number of big agencies buy white label SEO from outside teams they trust. It would be possible for many of them to hire internally and run it all in-house. Even so, most keep the partner route. The main reason is that the setup can grow with their volume. Also, the money they would save by changing providers is not that big.

There is no winner in the comparison between white label SEO and in-house SEO. Small to medium-sized agencies with unclear peak loads usually earn more by working with a white label partner. Larger agencies with high constant volumes of SEO work for their clients can earn better margins by working in-house over time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, in most situations. White label SEO saves you from paying salaries, benefits, and expensive software licenses, since you only pay for the projects, you have on the table.

While possible for small agencies, there is typically little profit in performing in-house SEO until you have a steady flow of SEO to work from several clients on an ongoing basis. Until then, the fixed salary cost of an in-house SEO specialist will typically exceed what you can bill for your clients.

Not unless you choose to tell them. Your provider delivers the work under your brand, and an NDA protects that arrangement.

Your current results are plateauing, or your clients are asking about things like an AI Overview of their SEO and voice search optimization for advanced seo services.

Yes, many agencies start off with a white-label SEO partner to build their revenue and client base quickly and then go in-house once the workload and remuneration are of a sufficient scale to justify an in-house SEO team.

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