Search engine optimization (SEO) has undergone radical changes over the past 20 years. Putting that into perspective, it took over 50 years for hard drive capacities to breach the terabyte mark. Not to mention, it took more than 5,000 years to figure out how to put rubber in the wheel.
SEO is one of many inventions that benefited from accelerated technological growth, presenting new ways just as old ones see widespread use. Remember Penguin, Google’s algorithm update that caught many websites with their pants down? Many were still reeling from the Panda update a year before, which denied them the ability to build low-quality pages specifically for ranking.
As 2022 steadily chugs along, businesses and organizations will be more or less concerned about the changes SEO will bring to the table. Even digital marketing agencies will struggle to keep up and remain competitive in the market. That’s where white label SEO comes in, providing expert support in the field but branded as the client agency’s own.
White label in a nutshell
White label SEO goes by a few names, such as SEO reselling and private label SEO (with a few key differences, more on them later). It works more or less the same way as white labels in other goods; a third-party service provides the goods but gets slapped with the client’s brand. You can see this often in big-name grocery stores.
One of the crucial reasons for white labeling is simple: a business wants to provide certain goods or services but doesn’t have the means. A grocery may offer its own brand of pistachios without the need to manage a pistachio farm or processing facility. Instead, the white label party provides such functions under an amicable arrangement with the client.
The same applies to white label SEO. Imagine your digital marketing agency secured a lucrative contract with a big-name enterprise. But the contract said that your agency would handle SEO-related services, which you might not have or do as efficiently (since it’s not a core service). A white label SEO provider, like Digital Sisco and others, can fill that capability gap.
The exact numbers of marketing agencies using white label SEO are hard to come by. However, given that the market’s on track to grow to USD$83.7 billion in three years (from an estimated USD$40.92 billion last year), it’s no surprise that many of these decide to build their own SEO capabilities or work with a white label provider.
Partnership vs. reselling
As mentioned earlier, the industry sometimes refers to white label SEO as SEO reselling. But for some experts, the industry shouldn’t use these terms interchangeably because it speaks volumes about the relationship between the white label provider and its client.
To understand this, you have to know the difference between a reseller and a partner. A reseller typically passes off the goods and services from the white label as its own and sells them under its name. However, this is as far as its relationship with the white label goes: profit and growth. This setup won’t necessarily include post-purchase support or market analysis.
On the other hand, a partnership covers the fullest extent of the white label arrangement—goods, support, and everything in between. In a way, a white label provider is an extension of the client agency (though not essentially known to the latter’s customers).
Below are two examples of how a partnership can work:
- Account management. Resellers will mostly handle customer interactions, whereas partners can directly interact with the resellers’ customers. The interactions still occur under the reseller’s name, with the added benefit of saving on hiring in-house staff.
- Sales enablement. Resellers may market the white label’s SEO packages, but partners offer more extensive ones. Aside from the actual services, partners may throw in some market research, sales strategies, and other crucial data, still under the client’s name.
It’s worth noting that there’s no right or wrong answer here. Reselling works for client agencies that only look to outsource SEO services, especially those that can handle customer interaction and other functions. Partnerships take these services up a notch but require a hefty investment.
Services to ‘white-label’
SEO isn’t one service but a category of various services––ranging from content creation to link building. Depending on their needs, client agencies may outsource individual services or whole packages from their white label provider. There’s no right or wrong answer here, either.
But if going down the individual route, which service should you delegate to a white label SEO firm? It pays to choose the most in-demand services to maximize growth in a white label setup. Industry experts predict that the following trends for 2022 will influence the services that’ll get more attention among businesses and organizations.
Long-form content
The days of short (800 words or less) blogs are numbered, as long-form content (2,000 words or more) is expected to take the stage. While it’s easy to think walls of text may make readers lose interest, recent studies suggest otherwise.
As early as 2014, several studies have shown that content between 2,250 and 2,500 words long earns the most organic traffic, while those that are 2,500 words or longer get shared the most on social media. Contrary to popular belief, Google hasn’t introduced an update that prioritizes word count (at least, not yet); quality is still king.
These studies have also revealed that the continued generation of short content points to most businesses having little time or resources to write long-form content. A marketing agency offering white label content creation and management services will be at a huge advantage because of the increasing demand.
Mobile-friendly websites
This trend shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that mobile devices have more or less become the medium of choice for various tasks for years, such as browsing the Web. Given the current rate, one study in 2019 stated, around three in four people worldwide will prefer to view websites with their smartphones by 2025.
The consequences of not having a mobile-friendly website are all too clear to businesses. According to a 2021 survey of over 200 web designers, a non-responsive website is the second biggest reason visitors leave a website, just below slow loading times.
The same survey also cited that said reason is also the top reason for redesigning websites from the ground up. Including responsive web design on a marketing firm’s white label SEO will go a long way in capitalizing on such a trend.
Many experts agree that AI will play a more significant role in SEO this year. Enterprises can no longer draw up future marketing endeavors without factoring AI into the equation. The potential revenue growth, from 6% to 10%, by utilizing AI is too hard to pass.
AI-powered SEO involves automating most tasks, some of which include:
- Keyword research
- Content creation and analysis
- Title and meta tag generation
- Multilingual translation
- User intent analysis
- Voice search content
Despite expecting to play a more significant role, AI is relatively new to the scene. The current technology will still have room for improvement in the coming years. Marketing firms that wish to offer AI-powered SEO will need to find a specialized white label SEO provider, preferably with an extensive portfolio.
Featured snippets and quality answers
Google’s featured snippets allow it to produce answers to question-form searches. To put it simply, if you ask Google a question, it’ll look for the content with the closest passage and highlight it at the top of the first page. Contrary to popular belief, featured snippets have been around since 2016 (an offshoot from the Quick Answers feature in 2013).
With the rollout of the Multitask Unified Model in May 2021, Google can now conduct more effective searches using pictures or web pages. Users whose native language isn’t English can benefit from this system.
Harnessing the maximum potential of this system requires quality content, as mentioned previously, with long-tail keywords and structured data. It’ll entail thorough planning on the business’s part, something a marketing firm can offer with planning and analytics. A solid partnership with a white label provider enables these services.
Picking a provider
After determining your marketing firm’s SEO needs, choosing a reputable white label provider is the next step. Naturally, the tips are the same as picking a provider for just about anything: doing your homework, asking for references, getting a breakdown of services and quotes, and more.
That said, there are a few unique aspects worth considering; one is the kind of communication model to adopt. As mentioned previously, account management can involve the white label firm communicating with the client’s customers directly or staying on the sidelines. This decision can influence the rest of the white label arrangement.
Another is the provider’s ability to produce periodic reports on key performance indicators and other information. You’d want to be updated on how the white label arrangement’s working to enhance your company’s performance.
Conclusion
SEO is undergoing radical changes and will most likely stay that way for the foreseeable future. White label SEO services will be in an advantageous position to fill any capability gap digital marketing firms need filling.
