Struggling to figure out what to do with all of that SEO business your clients are asking about? Small- to medium-sized businesses have heard of SEO, and know they need to be doing it. And they need to rely on their local marketing agencies to help fulfill the work for them. What do you do if you are a marketing agency that doesn’t know much about SEO? Look for a white label agency that specializes in fulfilling SEO work for small businesses. So how do you choose the best white label SEO service for your business? This is a question that marketing agencies ask themselves all the time. In this article, we’re going to cover some basic aspects of what makes the best white label SEO services.
How Do They Build Backlinks?
Backlink-building is the number one item agencies look to outsource for their SEO work. The reason this is because it is the most challenging and most important part of SEO. Anybody can create content and post it on a website. The demanding part is to then promote that content and acquire backlinks to the content or asset.
The easy answer for building backlinks is to go on a site like Fiverr and buy a hundred backlinks for $5. The trap that small businesses and agencies fall into is that these will hurt you more than helping you. For example, if Google sees an unnatural number of backlinks in a short period of time, they are going to find this suspicious. The goal is to methodically acquire backlinks to your website and, ideally, the backlinks will be incredibly relevant to your website.
A credible backlink has these three characteristics. First, it’s going to be relevant to the industry that you are in. Second, it will have relatively high domain authority. And finally, the backlink will be a DoFollow link.
So why am I telling you what a good backlink looks like? So when you interview a white label SEO agency, you are able to ask them these questions about backlinks and see if it’s consistent with what a quality backlink is.
Five-Star Customer Service
It’s true that everybody wants exceptional customer service. So why should anything change when choosing the best white label SEO service? One of the stigmas associated with outsourcing your SEO work is that it’s going to be with a company not in the United States. The reason this is associated with poor customer service is because of the time difference. What can you look for to ensure you’re receiving great customer service?
Do they ask for feedback from the customers? And with that feedback, do they respond to it or ignore it? Net promoter score is a great metric to predict how your experience with any business will end up. Net promoter score (NPS) asks the question, “Would you recommend us to a friend or colleague?” If they have a score above 35, then you’ll probably have a great experience with them.
Another key factor of great customer experience is how quickly they respond to customer service tickets. A good rule of thumb when dealing with a white label SEO agency is within four business hours. Many times these agencies are bootstrapping and wear multiple hats so a response within four hours is acceptable.
Do they answer their phones? This is a pet peeve of mine. If you have a phone number on your website, then when I call it, someone should pick up. Let’s say they pass the first test and pick up the phone; what turns this into five-star customer service? Can the person answering the phone answer your question, and if not, does someone return your phone call within a reasonable amount of time?
Pricing, Pricing, Pricing
The last part of picking out the best white label SEO agency is the pricing of their services. Everything above can be great; however, if the pricing doesn’t match up with the budgets of the customers then it won’t be a great match for anyone. One of the demanding aspects to set any price for a white label SEO agency working with small businesses is that they’re dealing with customers throughout multiple geographical areas. For example, the cost of living in New York City is going to be significantly different from the cost of living in Olean, New York.
If you talk to a white label SEO company and they’re charging you $100 to build 10 backlinks a month, my assumption is that the quality of the deliverables is going to be poor. Another aspect of this price point is that they may disguise what they’re giving you. Ask them if they build backlinks on PBNs or if the content they create is unique for your client.
Also, don’t be afraid to ask for more money from your customer if you like what you’ve heard from an SEO agency, but the price appears to be too high. This might be uncomfortable in the short-term; however, for long-term sustainability will be worth it. The worst they can say to you is no. Don’t make a final decision solely because the initial pricing doesn’t match up. It’s about the entire package with a white label agency.
Conclusion
Talk with multiple SEO agencies to determine which is the best white label SEO agency. Ideally, when you’ve made your decision, this will be a partnership for many years to come. If you tend to hop from agency to agency, then your success rate is probably going to be relatively low. If you’re feeling frustrations initially with the agency you selected, then express them through customer service surveys and conversations with your account manager. One final thought I’ll give you when choosing the best with an SEO agency is to try multiple vendors at once. When doing this, though, ensure that you have multiple campaigns with each vendor because it’s tough to make a judgment from one campaign.
