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March 7, 2022White Label Link Building: Pros & Cons of of Private Label Backlink Services
Joining a white label SEO reseller program could be the best decision your digital marketing firm has ever made—but this isn’t a guarantee.
Not every white label link building or SEO program is created equal.
If you’re the owner of a digital agency, you have a few options when it comes to servicing link building requests for your clients’ SEO:
- Establish your own in-house outreach team for link building, hire writers and build a streamlined process for link acquisition OR
- You can outsource your link building to a white label link building agency
And, even the best white label link building agencies have their proverbial warts.
A marketing agency might naturally wonder:
- Why do private label link building companies get such a bad wrap?
- Doesn’t white-labeling your backlink service cut heavily into your own margins?
- If I can do it myself, why would I outsource my direct client link building work to some white label agency?
- What if the quality of the outsourced, white label agency is shoddy and the links they build are sub par?
- What factors should you consider when hiring a white label SEO reseller services provider, so you can maximize your clients’ SEO ROI without risk?
- Ultimately, What are the pros and cons of hiring a white label link building agency to fulfill your client orders?
Dig in while we discuss!
Table of Contents
How White Label Link Building Works
In case you’re not familiar, most white label backlink programs work in a similar fashion.
- A marketing firm (the reseller/client) will sell link building services or SEO service to an end client for a specified price.
- The reseller then works with a white label link building provider, who provides link building services and related back-office support for a price (typically) less than what the reseller is charging, resulting in a profit for the reseller.
- These services are rendered such that the reselling white label link building company can choose to brand these services as their own with most of the heavy lifting going to the reselling agency.
There are many advantages to this setup, including: higher efficiency, greater link building scale, higher profitability, and access to more resources and expertise.
However, these all depend on your ability to enroll in a white label link building program that gets results.
Key Factors for the Perfect SEO White Label Link Building Program
There are many potential white label link building providers to choose from, but these factors should lead you to a better decision—both for you and your clients.
Content-focused white label link building services
“Link building” refers to any process designed to help you get more links pointing to your site, which opens the door to some questionable practitioners claiming to be legitimate link builders.
Thanks to Google Penguin and its subsequent iterations, the days of spamming links on forums across the internet are over.
These days, there are only two legitimate avenues to build links, and both of them rely on content as a basis for development.
One requires you to develop and promote more onsite content so you attract links from other sites naturally (which is often unreliable), and the other relies on writing high-quality guest blogs with links pointing to your client’s site.
If a white label link building provider doesn’t mention content at all, it may be a bad sign.
High-quality content writing
It doesn’t matter how many articles you write if the content is poorly researched, obviously written by a non-native speaker, or is negligent about the nature of your industry.
This is where most white label link building service providers diverge; some put the highest emphasis on content quality, employing good writers, taking extra time to research, and always proofreading every detail.
Others are more focused on output. High-quality writing can work wonders for your clients’ campaigns, helping them get into bigger and better publishers, earning them a better online reputation, and even generating more referral traffic from the links built in the process.
It’s a non-negotiable feature of your future link building partner.
Dofollow white label backlinks
Nofollow links aren’t necessarily a bad thing, but you don’t want them to be the consistent backbone of your link building campaign.
In case you aren’t familiar, by default, links are “dofollow” links, which pass authority to the site they point to.
This is what’s necessary to improve a client’s domain authority and eventually increase their search rankings.
Nofollow links do pass traffic, but don’t pass authority, making them valuable, but considerably less so than dofollow links—especially for SEO.
Make sure you know which of these your provider is offering.
A focus on campaigns rather than one-time orders
SEO involves hundreds of closely interwoven factors, working in tandem over a period of months.
A single order of links for your client isn’t going to give them a boost in rankings, and it certainly isn’t going to improve their rankings permanently.
Instead of working with a link building provider that only focuses on one-off orders, focus on one that works on long-term improvements in a campaign format.
It’s also important to find a link building provider with flexibility, accommodating multiple budgets, directives, and goals—especially if you have a diverse assortment of clients with different needs.
A wide selection of available publishers
Multiple white label backlinks built on the same publisher will have diminishing returns.
The more authoritative the publisher, the more valuable the white label hyperlinks will be.
Publishers related to your industry are better for link building than others.
These tenets of white label link building requires you to seek out a link building provider capable of offering links on a wide variety of different publishers.
This is a sign not only of a reputable white label link building SEO agency, but one capable of serving the widest range of possible end clients.
Clear, consistent communication
Good communication is a must throughout the white label link building process.
You need to trust that your provider is going to deliver on their promises.
You need someone who can articulate their strategy clearly. And you need someone who’s going to listen to—and understand—your goals.
Spend time in conversation with your account representative to learn how they handle communication, and whether it’s compatible with your approach to white label link building.
Reasonable, discounted link building prices for white labeling
We’d be remiss if we didn’t at least mention prices. White label link building services vary in price tremendously.
And while there may be some variation attributable to profit margins or unnecessary upsells, for the most part, you get what you pay for.
If you find a white label link building provider that’s suspiciously cheap, there’s probably a reason for it.
On the other hand, you don’t want to overpay for services if you don’t have to.
Accordingly, it’s in your best interest to set a budget, set a firm minimum standard of quality, and then find a white label link building provider who meets both criteria.
Good reviews, testimonials, and examples of past work
Good content tends to speak for itself.
Before signing up for white label link building or content writing services, try to get some examples of work the provider has done in the past.
This should be a good gauge to determine their attention to detail, and what type of work they typically produce.
While you’re at it, try to dig up some past customer reviews and testimonials.
While you can’t base your opinion of a white label link building provider exclusively on what other people are saying, you may get some keen insights into their core strengths and weaknesses.
In general, a longer history in white label link building is a sign of greater experience and capabilities.
White label link building discretion
The importance of this factor will depend on your brand’s disposition, and your relationship with your current clients.
Generally, white label link building services allow you to claim the provider’s link building services as your own, branding them however you choose and claiming to have an internal team working on the project.
You could also freely admit you’re using a third party.
The point is, you should have the ability to choose how you want to handle the relationship, and that means working with a white label SEO partner you can trust to be discreet.
Check their official policies and any steps they take to protect your white label status.
Cons of a White Label Link Building Services
While there are a host of benefits to white labeling your link building, there are some downsides to consider:
Lack of control
Because you’re not running the process for your client, you lose some of the control.
You don’t have relationship access to the publications and you’re not working directly with the writers.
How do you know the client’s content and reference in the article is going to be natural?
Quality issues
Some white label link building agencies simply work on retainer.
In such cases, you typically receive a bucket of links in particular domain authority (DA) ranges for your monthly SEO budget.
But often that means you don’t get to pre-select the publishers from the link building outreach to make sure they are a fit, have traffic or don’t pose a risk to your client’s overall SEO metrics.
Cost of white label link building services
While most white label link building resellers provide a discount off their retail rates (typically in the range of 10-30%), you can expect the cost of your link building service to be more than if you had serviced the client orders yourself.
Natural link building is tough.
And, there is no such thing as the “perfect” backlink profile.
Even the best websites include some spam links.
The key is to find a white label provider who can do as much as possible to keep your clients’ backlink profiles clean, the content quality, the anchor text natural and the service expeditious.
Treating White Label Link Building as a Partnership
No matter who you end up choosing as your white label link building provider of choice, it’s important to treat the arrangement as a partnership, rather than a one-time or as-needed deal.
Link building and SEO are strategies that take time to develop, and working with a consistent partner over the months and years is going to make it much easier for you to see those results and scale up.
On top of that, forming a partnership helps your white label backlink provider get to know you better as a SEO reseller, so they can make even more personalized recommendations—and possibly get you a better deal overall.
Hire Our White Label Link Building Service
If you’re ready to learn more about the perks of our SEO white label reseller program, or if you’re in a bind and need link building services for your clients ASAP, contact us at SEO.co today!
We’ll provide you with a free analysis of your current link building efforts, and a quote, so we can start our link building partnership.
Or, we encourage you to use our free backlink checker to analyze your existing backlink profile to see where you might be deficient.
He is a recurring speaker at the Search Marketing Expo conference series and a TEDx Talker. Today he works directly with high-end clients across all verticals to maximize on and off-site SEO ROI through content marketing and link building. Connect with Sam on Linkedin.
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