Digital marketing is a vast field, and not all marketers are well-versed in all the elements that contribute to online marketing success. In fact, many marketing agencies focus on a single channel, which means they specialize in one category of digital marketing and deliver outstanding results to clients thanks to concentrated knowledge and skill.
Yet, sometimes, even single-channel marketers understand the value of offering multiple related services to new and existing clients. For example, SEO is a practical and widely applicable service that vastly improves the effectiveness of online marketing. Yet, SEO also tends to be complicated, requiring ever-changing highly technical knowledge and skill from marketers. Fortunately, marketers do not need to hone their SEO expertise to offer SEO services to their clients; instead, they can take advantage of SEO resellers.
What Is SEO Reselling?
An SEO reselling program allows marketing firms to offer SEO services without maintaining an in-house SEO-focused staff by connecting those firms with experienced and specialized SEO agencies. Essentially, SEO reselling connects a marketing company with a third-party service provider. In this relationship, both agencies benefit: The reselling program allows marketers to take advantage of the SEO expertise of a third party and increase their menu of services for clients, and it gives the third-party SEO agency access to a greater network of clients and more income.
For many marketing agencies, SEO reselling is much more cost-effective than other means of acquiring SEO services. Because SEO experts are in high demand and maintain relatively complex hard skills in the marketing field, hiring in-house SEO staff can be expensive. Often, clients utilizing resold SEO services do not know that those services are coming from a third party. End clients and SEO providers rarely come into direct contact, so the marketing firm can maintain a consistent client experience. Therefore, by participating in reselling, marketing agencies can deliver more to their clients without radically changing their operations.
Types of SEO Reselling
Different SEO resellers offer different types of services. Some SEO resellers maintain a full suite of SEO services for clients to utilize; others limit their SEO reselling to simpler, one-off projects that are easier to outsource. Some typical SEO reselling programs include:
SEO audit. Auditing a new client’s current SEO is a good start to understanding their digital marketing needs. Even if a marketing firm does not directly target SEO with its projects, identifying weak SEO can direct its strategies going forward.
Keyword research. Keywords are critical components of SEO, and success in SEO and digital marketing hinges upon identifying the right keywords and phrases to target. Generating keyword reports can be an invaluable resold SEO service, especially because effective methods of keyword research shift every few years.
Onsite content and optimization. A client’s website is the primary location for SEO to make an impact, as SEO experts can optimize content with keywords, link building, mobile capability, technical SEO, and more.
Offsite content. Higher domain authority is also achieved through link-building from other websites. Few marketers understand the difference between black-hat and white-hat link-building techniques, so agencies need to be careful to work with high-quality SEO firms that have high standards for links.
Cost of SEO Reselling
Marketing agencies interested in acquiring SEO services through SEO reselling programs should recognize that they will not be paying premiums to offer clients access to these digital marketing services. Rather, SEO reselling provides access to SEO services at wholesale rates, which means they tend to be more affordable than other forms of partnership with third-party SEO providers.
The precise rate a marketing firm will pay for reselling SEO services depends on a number of complex factors, including the number of clients who will be using the services, the type of services they will offer, and the location and nature of the SEO firm offering services. Generally, it isn’t wise for marketers to search for the lowest-priced SEO to resell; rather, they should strive to work with an SEO company with comparable expertise and culture.
SEO reselling isn’t new, but it is rising in popularity as more marketing firms find value in diversifying their offerings for clients. New and established marketing agencies alike can look into SEO reselling themselves to determine whether they and their clients can benefit from this simple and effective strategy.