White label SEO pricing confuses many agencies because the price your partner charges and the price your client pays are two different things. This guide explains how wholesale pricing works, what actually moves a quote, and a simple way to set a retail price that protects your margin.
The short answer
In white label SEO, the partner quotes your agency a private wholesale price for a defined scope of work, and your agency sets the retail price the client pays. The difference between both, minus your own account-management time, is your margin. Nothing about the retail side is shared with the partner.
Wholesale vs. retail: who sets what
| Wholesale price | Retail price | |
|---|---|---|
| Who sets it | The white label partner | Your agency |
| Who sees it | Only your agency | Your client |
| What it pays for | Research, production, technical specs, reporting | Strategy, account management, relationship, risk, and the production underneath |
| How it is quoted | Against a scope (a brief) | However your agency packages its services |
A partner that asks what you charge your client, or that sells directly to end clients, is not running a real white label model.
What moves a wholesale quote
Four variables explain most of the difference between two quotes:
- Volume of production. The number of pages, articles, technical items, schema implementations and assets per month is the biggest driver.
- Markets and languages. Each extra market adds research, local sources and separate measurement.
- Specification vs. implementation. Writing a ticket your developers can ship costs less than implementing, testing and verifying inside the client's CMS.
- Cadence and commitment. A one-off pilot, a monthly retainer and a multi-client portfolio carry different operating loads, so they are priced differently.
Anything else, such as tools, reporting templates or project management, should be included in the scope rather than added later as surprises.
How to set your retail price
Use a three-step method instead of a fixed multiplier:
- Start from the wholesale cost of the agreed scope.
- Add your own time honestly. Strategy calls, client meetings, report reviews and approvals take hours every month. Price them.
- Price the outcome you are selling, not the hours. Clients buy visibility in search and AI answers for their market, not a count of tasks. Position the package around that.
Then check the result: if the gross margin after your own time is thin, either the scope is too large for the client's budget or the package needs to be repositioned.
A worked example (illustrative numbers)
The figures below are illustrative only, to show the arithmetic. Your real numbers depend on your scope and market.
| Item | Monthly amount (USD) |
|---|---|
| Retail price paid by the client | 2,500 |
| Wholesale cost of production | 1,200 |
| Your account and strategy time (valued) | 400 |
| Gross margin after your time | 900 |
With three clients on the same package, that is 2,700 per month of margin that did not require a new specialist hire. You can run your own numbers with the margin calculator on our pricing page.
Pricing mistakes that erode agency margins
- Comparing partners only on rate cards. Two cheap quotes can hide very different scopes, quality and risk.
- Ignoring your own time. Unpriced meetings and revisions quietly eat the margin.
- Selling guaranteed rankings. It forces you to over-deliver or refund. Sell the work and the evidence, not positions.
- Buying link packages to hit targets. Cheap links can damage your client's site and your reputation.
- Mixing clients in one scope. Keep each client as a separate brief and report so you can price, measure and renew each one cleanly.
How to compare white label SEO quotes
Ask every partner the same questions:
- What exactly is produced each month, and in what format?
- Who implements, and how is the work verified?
- How is progress measured and reported, and how are limitations stated?
- What is your rule on contacting my clients?
- Can I test you with one paid deliverable before a retainer?
The last question matters most. One real deliverable on one of your own clients tells you more than any price list. If you want to try that with us, send us one brief and we will reply with a scope and a private wholesale quote.