Must-ask Questions for SEO Resellers
When your marketing firm wants to add SEO to its menu of services, you should automatically think of SEO reselling. SEO resellers are specialized SEO providers that work with marketing firms to deliver high-quality SEO to clients. Resellers benefit by avoiding the hassle of searching for clients, and your agency benefits by delivering SEO services to your current and future clients.
However, not every SEO reseller is created equal. You need to be careful to work with SEO providers that are committed to delivering the best-quality SEO to your clients, which means you need to vet your SEO reseller intensely before you utilize their services. Here are a few essential questions that you need to ask any potential reseller before you resell their services to your clients to make sure that these SEO resellers are specialized SEO providers.
What Are the Costs of Your SEO Services?
Cost can be a useful tool for understanding more about an SEO reseller before you partner with them. Usually, marketing agencies opt to resell SEO because they cannot afford to hire in-house staff and are looking for more robust SEO solutions than freelancers or consultants can provide. SEO reseller services will be more expensive than the latter two options because SEO resellers are complete firms with large teams of experienced SEO professionals utilizing complex tools and resources to accomplish various SEO goals. However, SEO reseller services should be much more affordable than managing SEO through an in-house team — otherwise, you gain little by outsourcing this crucial service.
Another cost-related consideration you should make is how one reseller’s rates compare to those of other SEO resellers. Though you should want to minimize your costs, you also want to maximize the services you receive. If one reseller seems to offer services at rock-bottom prices, you should recognize that as a red flag. Rates that are well below the SEO competition signal that an SEO reseller is engaging in less-than-reputable practices that are likely to harm your clients’ online authority and reduce the success of your digital marketing efforts. Instead, you should try to find a reseller with rates that are comfortably competitive within their market.
How Do You Understand Client Needs?
Often, white-label marketing services like SEO reselling are packaged just like your own firm’s services. If you are interested in maintaining complete control over your client relationships and experience, you can do so with resold SEO. However, separating your SEO reseller from your clients completely does pose a rather significant challenge: To be effective, SEO needs to accurately reflect a client’s business and brand, which means that SEO providers need to get to know the client before they can work with you to achieve digital marketing success.
Different SEO resellers will have different strategies for gaining information about clients before they develop SEO strategies. In some cases, they will ask you to compile specific reports on your clients, which may necessitate some degree of SEO knowledge and skill from you. In other cases, SEO resellers may conduct deep research on their own to determine a client’s needs. If you are intent on keeping your SEO reseller separate from your clients, you need to know how they will obtain this critical intel on all projects going forward.
Will You Work With Me to Address Client Concerns?
Of course, not all marketing agencies want a silent SEO reseller. If you have limited or no experience with SEO, you may struggle to sell your clients on SEO services or navigate the account management and reporting associated with SEO projects. In this case, you might want your SEO reseller to function more in a partnership role, extending your firm with additional support services that clients typically need and want.
Not all SEO resellers want to function in a partnership role. If you are looking for a white-label SEO partner, you need to be careful to clarify this in discussions with SEO resellers. When both you and your SEO partner understand their roles from the start, you can develop a more productive relationship that leads to greater mutual success.
SEO reselling is a valuable service that your marketing agency can benefit from — if you are careful to select the right SEO reseller for you. By asking the right questions of prospective resellers, you can gain access to SEO services that you and your clients can trust.
