An SEO reseller is an agency that sells SEO to its clients while a partner firm does the work. In plain terms, the client buys SEO from you, and you buy the work from a partner. You keep the client. The partner does the tasks.
What's an SEO reseller agency?
An SEO reseller agency sells SEO that it doesn't carry out itself. A partner firm does the work, and the agency stands between that partner and the client.
You'll see two words for this setup: reseller and white label. A company that sells the service puts the gap like this. White label work carries the agency's name. A reseller sells another firm's service as it comes, with no rebranding. That's one seller's way of using the two words. It isn't a rule.
White label SEO has a plain meaning of its own. As two sellers' own pages put it, it's SEO work done by one company and sent out under the brand of another. Both of those companies sell the service.
So when a firm offers to make you a reseller, ask one thing first: whose name will my client see? The answer tells you which of the two setups you're being sold.
The word names the shape of the deal. What's inside the deal is a separate question. For what a reseller plan holds and costs, see SEO reseller services.
How do you resell SEO and not do the work yourself?
You keep the client side of the job and hand the SEO tasks to a partner. You sell, set your price and stay the client's contact, and the partner does the tasks the two of you agree on.
Here are the steps, in order:
- List what you'll sell. Write down the SEO services you want on your price list.
- Find a partner that does that work. Ask for its task list in writing.
- Agree who does which part. The table below gives you a place to start.
- Set your price. Know the partner's fee before you quote a client.
- Sign the client to your own agreement. The client's deal is with you.
- Pass the work on. Send each task or each new client to the partner the way it asks.
- Check the work. Look at it before the client does.
- Report, bill and pay. Send the client's report and bill, then pay the partner.
For the first step, start from a list Google keeps of services that SEOs and agencies provide for website owners. Its list takes in keyword research, content development, SEO training and technical advice on website development. It also names a review of your site content or structure, management of online business development campaigns, expertise in specific markets and geographies, and optimizing for generative AI.
That's a list of what SEOs in general offer, so no single firm is bound to do all of it. Mark each line three ways: you'll do it, the partner will do it, or you won't sell it.
The table below is a place to start. Change any line you and the partner agree to change, and write down the result.
| Part of the job | Who does it | What to settle with the partner |
|---|---|---|
| Selling SEO to the client | You | Which services you can sell, and under whose name |
| Doing the SEO tasks | The partner | Which tasks are in the plan, and which aren't |
| Setting the client's price | You | What the partner's fee is, and when it can change |
| Billing | You bill the client, and the partner bills you | When each bill is due |
| The plan for each client | Settle it | Who sets the plan, and who signs off on a change |
| The monthly report | Settle it | Who builds it, who sends it, and whose name is on it |
| Talking with the client | Settle it | Whether the partner ever speaks to your client, and under which name |
| Checking the work | You | How you ask for a change, and how many rounds you get |
The money moves in two steps. The client pays you your price, and you pay the partner its fee. The gap between the two pays for your own hours and leaves your profit.
That's why the fourth step comes before the sale. A price quoted before you know the partner's fee can leave you with no gap at all.
The steps above get you to the first sale. For how a program runs month to month, see white label SEO programs.
If you'd like to talk reselling over, a call with us is short, and there's no obligation.
When does it make sense to outsource SEO to a reseller?
It can make sense when clients ask you for SEO and you don't have the hours or the staff to do it. It makes less sense when SEO is the work you most want to keep under your own roof.
The reasons to bring in a partner come down to four: more services to sell, lower fixed costs, steady output, and clients who stay. The pages we read that give those reasons sell the service or a report tool. So take each one as a question about your own shop, with no promise attached.
- More services to sell. Are clients already asking you for SEO?
- Lower fixed costs. What would a hire cost you each month, set beside a partner's fee?
- Steady output. Does SEO work stall when one person is out?
- Clients who stay. Would a client with more of its work at your agency have less reason to look around?
Doing all the SEO and reporting in house has risks too: missed dates, thin margins and clients who leave. No neutral source puts a figure on those risks, so we don't either.
Keeping the work in house has a fair case of its own. It keeps control with you, and it keeps client data inside your agency.
Cost is one piece of the choice, and it's the one you can put numbers on. Our cost page takes four ways to get reports out and puts a monthly cost on each one. It's here: What does each choice cost a California agency each month?.
Before you decide, answer these for your own agency:
- How many hours a month does SEO take now, and whose hours are they?
- Which parts would you never hand off?
- Can you check a partner's work well enough to stand behind it?
- Does the partner's fee leave room under the price your clients will pay?
- Who at the partner would touch your clients' logins and data?
If the answers lean toward a partner, the next job is picking one. There's a checklist for that step: see how to judge an SEO reseller program.
Reselling is a plain trade: you keep the client, and a partner does the tasks. If you're weighing that trade for your agency, we're glad to talk it through on a short call, with no obligation.