Choosing the wrong white label SEO pricing model can erode your margins by 20-40% before you even onboard your first client. The difference between hourly, retainer, and project-based pricing isn’t just about numbers—it’s about cash flow predictability, client retention, and your agency’s long-term scalability.
Most agencies default to whatever their provider offers without analyzing which structure actually fits their business model. This guide breaks down each pricing approach with real cost ranges, ideal use cases, and the strategic considerations that separate profitable resellers from those constantly chasing invoices.
You’ll learn exactly when hourly billing makes sense, why retainers dominate the industry, and how project pricing can unlock new client segments—plus how to set markups that protect your bottom line.
Understanding White Label SEO Pricing Fundamentals
White label SEO pricing varies dramatically based on provider expertise, service scope, and geographic targeting. Before comparing specific models, you need to understand what drives these costs and why your pricing structure choice directly impacts profitability.
Why Pricing Model Selection Matters for Agency Profitability
Your pricing model determines more than monthly revenue. It shapes client expectations, defines your operational workflow, and establishes the foundation for sustainable growth.
Agencies using misaligned pricing models often face three critical problems. First, unpredictable cash flow makes hiring and scaling nearly impossible. Second, scope creep destroys margins when deliverables aren’t clearly defined. Third, client churn increases when pricing doesn’t match the value delivery timeline.
The right model creates alignment between what clients pay, what they expect, and what your white label partner delivers. This alignment reduces friction, improves retention, and protects your margins across every engagement.
Key Factors That Influence White Label SEO Costs
Several variables affect what you’ll pay regardless of which pricing model you choose.
Service scope represents the biggest cost driver. Basic on-page optimization costs significantly less than comprehensive campaigns including technical SEO, content creation, link building, and local optimization. According to Ahrefs’ industry research, full-service SEO campaigns cost 3-5x more than single-service engagements.
Competition level in your client’s industry directly impacts pricing. A local plumber faces different SEO challenges than a national e-commerce brand competing against Amazon. Higher competition requires more resources, more content, and more aggressive link acquisition—all of which increase costs.
Geographic targeting adds complexity. Local SEO for a single city costs less than multi-location campaigns or national targeting. International SEO with multiple languages and regional search engines commands premium pricing.
Provider expertise and track record also influence rates. Established white label partners with proven results charge more than newer providers still building their portfolios. You typically get what you pay for in terms of communication quality, reporting depth, and actual ranking improvements.
Hourly White Label SEO Pricing
Hourly pricing charges for actual time spent on SEO tasks. This model offers maximum flexibility but requires careful tracking and clear scope definition to remain profitable.
How Hourly Pricing Works
With hourly billing, your white label provider tracks time spent on specific tasks and invoices accordingly. You receive detailed time logs showing exactly what work was completed and how long it took.
Most providers require minimum hour commitments—typically 10-20 hours per month—to ensure the engagement remains worthwhile for both parties. Some offer hour blocks purchased in advance at discounted rates.
You’ll typically receive weekly or bi-weekly time reports breaking down activities like keyword research, content optimization, technical audits, link outreach, and reporting. This transparency helps you understand exactly where resources go.
Typical Hourly Rate Ranges
White label SEO hourly rates vary based on provider location, expertise level, and service complexity.
Entry-level providers charge $25-50 per hour. These rates typically come from offshore teams or newer domestic providers. Quality varies significantly at this tier.
Mid-tier providers charge $50-100 per hour. This range represents the sweet spot for most agencies—experienced teams with established processes and reliable communication.
Premium providers charge $100-200+ per hour. These rates reflect senior strategists, specialized technical expertise, or providers with exceptional track records in competitive industries.
For context, if your client needs 20 hours of monthly SEO work at mid-tier rates, your wholesale cost ranges from $1,000-2,000 per month before your markup.
Best Use Cases for Hourly Pricing
Hourly billing works best in specific scenarios where flexibility outweighs predictability.
Consulting and strategy engagements benefit from hourly pricing. When clients need SEO audits, strategic recommendations, or training rather than ongoing execution, hourly billing aligns cost with deliverables.
Variable workload clients who need different service levels month-to-month fit hourly models well. Seasonal businesses or startups with fluctuating budgets appreciate paying only for work completed.
Supplemental services beyond core retainer work often make sense as hourly add-ons. If a retainer client suddenly needs a technical migration handled or a content sprint completed, hourly billing for the additional scope keeps things clean.
New client relationships sometimes start hourly while both parties assess fit. This trial period reduces commitment risk before transitioning to retainer arrangements.
Pros and Cons of Hourly Billing
Advantages:
Hourly pricing offers transparency—clients see exactly what they’re paying for. This builds trust, especially with skeptical prospects who’ve been burned by vague retainer deliverables before.
Flexibility allows you to scale services up or down based on client needs and budgets. There’s no pressure to fill arbitrary monthly hours or justify retainer fees during slow periods.
Lower commitment barriers make hourly engagements easier to sell to budget-conscious clients or those testing SEO for the first time.
Disadvantages:
Revenue unpredictability creates cash flow challenges. You can’t accurately forecast monthly income when hours fluctuate across your client base.
Administrative overhead increases significantly. Tracking hours, reviewing time logs, and managing variable invoicing requires more operational bandwidth than flat-rate billing.
Scope discussions become constant. Clients may question every hour logged, creating friction and eroding the relationship over time.
Profit margins often suffer because hourly billing commoditizes your service. Clients focus on time rather than results, making it harder to charge premium rates.
Retainer-Based White Label SEO Pricing
Monthly retainers represent the most common white label SEO pricing model. Clients pay a fixed monthly fee for a defined scope of ongoing services, creating predictable revenue and clear expectations.
How Monthly Retainers Work
Retainer agreements establish a fixed monthly investment covering specific deliverables and outcomes. Your white label provider commits to a defined scope—typically including a set number of optimized pages, blog posts, backlinks, technical improvements, and reporting hours.
Most retainers operate on 3-6 month minimum commitments with month-to-month continuation afterward. This initial commitment period allows enough time for SEO efforts to generate measurable results while protecting the provider’s resource allocation.
Deliverables are typically outlined in a service level agreement (SLA) specifying exactly what’s included. Common retainer components include monthly keyword tracking, on-page optimization for a set number of pages, content creation, link building targets, technical monitoring, and performance reporting.
Typical Retainer Price Ranges
White label SEO retainers span a wide range based on service comprehensiveness and target market.
Basic retainers run $300-750 per month. These packages typically cover local SEO fundamentals—Google Business Profile optimization, basic on-page work, citation building, and monthly reporting. Best suited for small local businesses with limited competition.
Standard retainers run $750-2,000 per month. This tier includes more comprehensive services—ongoing content creation, technical SEO monitoring, moderate link building, and detailed analytics. Appropriate for established local businesses or regional companies.
Premium retainers run $2,000-5,000+ per month. These packages deliver full-service SEO including aggressive content strategies, substantial link acquisition, technical optimization, and dedicated account management. Designed for competitive industries or clients with ambitious growth targets.
According to Backlinko’s SEO pricing survey, the most common monthly SEO retainer falls between $500-1,000, though white label wholesale rates typically run 30-50% below what agencies charge end clients.
Best Use Cases for Retainer Pricing
Retainers excel when ongoing, consistent effort drives the best results.
Established businesses seeking sustained growth benefit most from retainer arrangements. SEO compounds over time—consistent monthly investment in content, links, and optimization builds momentum that sporadic project work can’t match.
Competitive industries require retainer-level commitment. When competitors invest continuously in SEO, one-time projects won’t close the gap. Retainers ensure your clients maintain competitive pressure month after month.
Clients valuing predictable budgeting appreciate knowing exactly what they’ll spend each month. This predictability simplifies their financial planning and reduces approval friction for ongoing investments.
Agencies building recurring revenue should prioritize retainer clients. Predictable monthly income enables hiring, tool investments, and sustainable growth planning.
Pros and Cons of Retainer Models
Advantages:
Predictable revenue transforms your business operations. Knowing your monthly income allows confident hiring decisions, tool subscriptions, and growth investments.
Client retention improves with retainer relationships. The ongoing commitment creates stickiness—clients are less likely to churn when they’ve committed to a multi-month engagement.
Scope clarity reduces friction. When deliverables are defined upfront, there’s less negotiation and fewer surprise requests eating into your margins.
Results compound over time. Consistent monthly effort builds domain authority, content libraries, and ranking momentum that sporadic work can’t achieve.
Disadvantages:
Higher commitment barriers make retainers harder to sell initially. Prospects may hesitate at multi-month commitments, especially if they’ve never invested in SEO before.
Scope rigidity can frustrate clients whose needs change. If a retainer client suddenly needs different services, the fixed structure may not accommodate their evolving requirements.
Underdelivery risks damage relationships. If your white label provider fails to meet SLA commitments, you’re stuck explaining shortfalls to clients who paid for specific deliverables.
Project-Based White Label SEO Pricing
Project pricing charges a fixed fee for defined deliverables with clear start and end points. This model works well for specific SEO initiatives that don’t require ongoing monthly work.
How Project Pricing Works
Project-based engagements define a specific scope, timeline, and fixed price upfront. Your white label provider quotes the complete project cost based on deliverables—not hours or monthly commitments.
Payment structures vary by provider and project size. Common arrangements include 50% upfront with 50% on completion, milestone-based payments for larger projects, or full payment upfront for smaller engagements.
Projects typically include detailed scopes of work (SOW) outlining exactly what’s delivered, revision rounds included, timeline expectations, and completion criteria. This documentation protects both parties and sets clear expectations.
Common Project Types and Price Ranges
Different SEO projects command different price points based on complexity and deliverables.
SEO audits range from $500-3,000 depending on site size and depth. Basic audits cover technical fundamentals and quick wins. Comprehensive audits include competitive analysis, content gap assessment, and detailed implementation roadmaps.
Website migrations range from $1,500-10,000+ based on site complexity. These projects require careful redirect mapping, technical implementation oversight, and post-migration monitoring to preserve rankings.
Content projects vary widely. Individual blog posts run $100-500 each. Content strategy development with topic clustering and editorial calendars runs $1,000-3,000. Large-scale content creation projects can exceed $10,000.
Technical SEO fixes range from $500-5,000 depending on scope. Site speed optimization, schema implementation, crawlability improvements, and Core Web Vitals fixes fall into this category.
Link building campaigns typically run $1,000-5,000 for defined deliverables. Pricing depends on link quantity, quality targets, and acquisition methods.
Local SEO setup for new businesses runs $500-2,000. This includes Google Business Profile optimization, citation building, and initial on-page local optimization.
Best Use Cases for Project Pricing
Project billing fits specific scenarios where defined deliverables make more sense than ongoing work.
One-time optimization needs suit project pricing perfectly. Website launches, redesigns, platform migrations, and initial SEO foundations don’t require monthly retainers—they need focused project execution.
Budget-constrained clients who can’t commit to monthly retainers may afford one-time projects. This opens doors to prospects who would otherwise walk away.
Specific technical problems requiring expert intervention fit project scopes. Site speed issues, indexation problems, or penalty recovery need focused attention, not ongoing monthly work.
Agencies testing new providers often start with projects before committing to retainer relationships. A successful audit or content project builds confidence for larger ongoing engagements.
Pros and Cons of Project-Based Billing
Advantages:
Clear scope and pricing eliminate ambiguity. Clients know exactly what they’re getting and what they’ll pay—no surprises on either side.
Lower commitment barriers attract clients hesitant about monthly retainers. Projects offer a lower-risk entry point into SEO investment.
Higher per-project margins are often achievable. Fixed pricing based on value rather than hours can yield better margins than hourly billing for efficient providers.
Diverse client acquisition becomes possible. Project work attracts different client segments than retainer services, expanding your addressable market.
Disadvantages:
Revenue inconsistency creates feast-or-famine cycles. Without recurring retainer income, you’re constantly hunting for the next project.
Client relationships often end after project completion. Without ongoing engagement, clients may not return—or may go to competitors for their next project.
Scope creep risks are significant. If project boundaries aren’t crystal clear, clients may expect additional work within the original price.
Sales effort per revenue dollar increases. Selling ten $1,000 projects requires more effort than selling one $10,000 annual retainer.
Hourly vs Retainer vs Project: Direct Comparison
Understanding how these models compare across key business dimensions helps you make strategic decisions about which to offer different client segments.
Cost Predictability and Cash Flow Impact
Retainers deliver the highest predictability. You know exactly what revenue to expect each month, enabling confident financial planning and operational decisions.
Projects offer moderate predictability. While individual project revenue is fixed, the timing and volume of projects fluctuates. Pipeline management becomes critical.
Hourly provides the least predictability. Monthly revenue varies based on client needs, making forecasting difficult and cash flow management challenging.
For agencies prioritizing stability and growth planning, retainers should comprise the majority of revenue. Projects and hourly work can supplement retainer income without creating dependency on unpredictable revenue streams.
Flexibility and Scalability
Hourly offers maximum flexibility. Services scale up or down instantly based on client needs without renegotiating contracts or adjusting fixed commitments.
Projects provide moderate flexibility. Each engagement is self-contained, allowing you to take on varying project sizes and types as capacity allows.
Retainers offer the least flexibility in the short term but enable the most scalable business model. Predictable recurring revenue supports hiring, systems development, and sustainable growth.
The flexibility-scalability tradeoff is real. Hourly flexibility comes at the cost of scalable systems. Retainer rigidity enables the operational consistency that supports growth.
Client Relationship Dynamics
Retainers build the strongest long-term relationships. Ongoing monthly engagement creates regular touchpoints, deeper understanding of client businesses, and compounding results that reinforce value.
Projects create transactional relationships. While successful projects can lead to repeat business, there’s no built-in continuity driving ongoing engagement.
Hourly relationships vary widely. Some hourly clients become long-term partners; others treat the arrangement as purely transactional with no loyalty.
Client lifetime value typically ranks: retainer clients highest, followed by repeat project clients, then hourly engagements. Your pricing model mix directly impacts overall client lifetime value.
Choosing the Right Pricing Model for Your Agency
The optimal pricing strategy often combines multiple models tailored to different client segments and service types. Here’s how to build a strategic pricing framework.
Matching Models to Client Types
Enterprise and mid-market clients typically prefer retainers. These organizations budget annually, value predictability, and understand that SEO requires sustained investment. Retainer pricing aligns with their procurement processes and expectations.
Small businesses and startups often start with projects or hourly engagements. Limited budgets and uncertainty about SEO value make lower-commitment options more attractive initially. Successful projects can transition these clients to retainers over time.
Agencies and marketing teams seeking white label support usually prefer retainers for their own client work. They need reliable monthly capacity to serve their clients consistently.
Consultants and fractional CMOs often prefer hourly arrangements for flexibility. Their client relationships may not support fixed monthly commitments, making hourly billing more practical.
Setting Your Markup and Profit Margins
Your markup strategy depends on the value you add beyond white label fulfillment.
Minimum viable markup runs 30-50% above wholesale cost. This covers your sales, account management, and operational overhead while remaining competitive.
Standard markup runs 50-100% above wholesale cost. This range supports dedicated account management, strategic oversight, and reasonable profit margins.
Premium markup exceeds 100% above wholesale cost. This positioning requires significant value-add—strategic consulting, proprietary tools, exceptional service, or specialized expertise that justifies premium pricing.
For example, if your white label provider charges $1,000/month for a standard retainer, your client pricing might range from $1,300 (30% markup) to $2,000+ (100% markup) depending on your positioning and value-add.
Calculate your target margins backward from desired profitability. If you need 40% gross margin after white label costs, a $1,000 wholesale cost requires $1,667 minimum client pricing.
When to Use Hybrid Pricing Approaches
Hybrid models combine elements of multiple pricing structures to optimize for different scenarios.
Retainer plus hourly overflow works well when clients occasionally need services beyond standard retainer scope. The retainer covers core monthly work; hourly billing handles special projects or expanded scope.
Project-to-retainer transitions convert one-time clients into recurring revenue. Offer a discounted initial audit or setup project, then transition successful engagements to monthly retainers.
Tiered retainers with project add-ons provide flexibility within a retainer framework. Clients choose a base retainer tier, then add specific projects (content sprints, link campaigns, technical fixes) as needed.
Performance bonuses on retainer base align incentives with results. A base retainer covers standard work; performance bonuses reward exceptional ranking improvements or traffic growth.
The most successful agencies typically generate 60-70% of revenue from retainers, 20-30% from projects, and 10% or less from hourly work. This mix balances predictability with flexibility and growth opportunities.
Conclusion
Selecting the right white label SEO pricing model directly impacts your agency’s profitability, client relationships, and growth trajectory. Hourly billing offers flexibility for consulting and variable-scope work. Retainers deliver the predictable recurring revenue that enables sustainable scaling. Project pricing opens doors to clients who aren’t ready for monthly commitments.
The most successful agencies don’t choose just one model—they strategically deploy all three based on client type, service scope, and business objectives. Start with retainers as your foundation, use projects for client acquisition and specific initiatives, and reserve hourly billing for consulting and overflow work.
Ready to build a profitable white label SEO partnership? White Label SEO Service provides flexible pricing across all three models, helping agencies of every size find the right fit for their clients and margins. Contact our team to discuss which pricing structure aligns with your growth goals.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average cost of white label SEO services?
White label SEO costs typically range from $300-5,000+ per month depending on service scope and competition level. Basic local SEO packages start around $300-750 monthly, while comprehensive campaigns for competitive industries run $2,000-5,000 or more. Your wholesale cost is usually 30-50% below what you’ll charge end clients.
Can I switch between pricing models with the same provider?
Most white label providers accommodate pricing model changes as your needs evolve. You might start a client on a project basis, then transition to a retainer once they see results. Discuss flexibility upfront when evaluating providers—the best partners adapt their billing to support your client relationships.
How do I calculate my resale markup for white label SEO?
Calculate markup based on your target gross margin and value-add. A 50% markup on $1,000 wholesale cost yields $1,500 client pricing and $500 gross profit. Factor in your account management time, strategic oversight, and market positioning. Most agencies mark up 50-100% above wholesale costs.
What should be included in a white label SEO retainer?
Standard retainers typically include monthly keyword tracking, on-page optimization for a defined number of pages, content creation (blog posts or page updates), link building with specific targets, technical monitoring, and performance reporting. Get detailed SLAs specifying exact deliverables before committing.
Is hourly or retainer pricing better for small agencies?
Small agencies benefit most from building retainer revenue for predictability and scalability. However, hourly and project work can supplement income while you build your retainer base. Aim for retainers to comprise at least 60% of revenue as you grow—this creates the stability needed for hiring and systems development.
How do I present white label SEO pricing to my clients?
Present pricing based on value and outcomes rather than wholesale costs or hours. Focus on business results—traffic growth, lead generation, revenue impact—not deliverable lists. Offer tiered options (good/better/best) to give clients choice while anchoring toward your preferred package.
What hidden costs should I watch for in white label SEO pricing?
Watch for setup fees, reporting costs, tool access charges, and overage fees for exceeding scope. Some providers charge extra for client communication, strategy calls, or rush requests. Get complete pricing documentation upfront and clarify what triggers additional charges before signing agreements.
