Most web design agencies should have an answer for SEO. Not every agency should do the work itself.
Clients ask about search at the exact moment their new site goes live, and “we don’t do that” sends them looking elsewhere. So the real decision is not whether to offer SEO but how: refer it out, build it in-house, or deliver it under your own brand through a white-label SEO partner.
Most guides on this are written by companies selling one of those three options, and they all conclude that theirs is the answer. This one tries to be fair about all three, including when white-label, the option I offer, is the right choice and when it is not.
Why clients ask their web designer about SEO
To most business owners, the website and being found on Google are the same project. The site launches, they want people to see it, and the person they trust about anything web-related is the studio that built it.
So the questions land with you. Will it rank? Is it SEO-friendly? Why is the old site still showing up in search? A studio without a clear answer either loses the follow-on work or ends up promising something it cannot deliver.
There is also a defensive reason. When a redesign goes live and organic traffic drops, the studio usually gets the blame, whether or not SEO was ever in scope. Having SEO covered, by whichever route, protects the relationship as much as it grows it. Redesigns are where this matters most, which is why SEO for site migrations is a service in its own right.
What “SEO-ready” at launch does and does not cover
Many studios already handle a solid baseline: clean URLs, sensible page titles, a mobile-friendly build, reasonable speed, a sitemap and an SEO plugin. That is genuinely valuable, and plenty of sites launch without it.
But it is a foundation, not SEO. Rankings come from what happens after launch: matching pages to what people actually search for, content that answers those searches better than competitors do, internal linking, earning mentions and links from other sites, and months of measuring and adjusting.
That is the real reason the question is awkward for studios. A website build is a project with an end date. SEO is ongoing work, judged over months, and it rarely survives being squeezed in between build deadlines.
The gaps tend to show up in the same places. An SEO plugin installed but never configured. A “discourage search engines” setting left on from staging. URLs changed in a redesign with no redirects. Content cut because the new design had no room for it. Search Console never set up, so nobody notices any of it.
Tip: If your quotes say “SEO-ready” or “SEO-friendly”, define what that covers in the scope. It protects you when a client later expects rankings.
Option 1: Refer clients to an SEO specialist
You recommend a specialist and the client contracts with them directly, sometimes with a referral fee coming back to you.
What works: no delivery risk, no hiring, and it is available immediately. The client gets someone who does SEO full time, and you stay focused on building.
The trade-offs: you earn little or nothing ongoing, and you hand part of the relationship to someone else. The SEO specialist becomes the person advising your client on their website, which can include recommending changes to your build. If the specialist does poor work, it still reflects on whoever recommended them.
Best for: studios that want to stay purely build-focused, or whose clients ask about SEO only occasionally.
Option 2: Hire or train someone in-house
You bring SEO into the team, either by hiring a specialist or by training someone you already have.
What works: full control over quality and process, SEO built into every project from the planning stage, and the knowledge stays inside the business.
The trade-offs: a senior SEO is a significant salary and a hard role to recruit for, and it only makes sense once there is enough SEO work to fill it. One person is also a single point of failure, and SEO spans technical work, content, analytics and strategy, which one person is rarely strong in all at once. Training a developer works well for the launch baseline. It works less well for ongoing strategy, because when a build deadline and an SEO task compete for the same afternoon, the deadline wins.
Best for: studios with steady SEO demand across many clients that want SEO as a core service line.
Option 3: White-label SEO
A specialist does the SEO work and you deliver it under your brand. You keep the client relationship, set the price and keep the margin.
What works: you can offer SEO now rather than after a hiring process. Costs scale with the clients you actually win, you get senior expertise without a senior salary, and it turns one-off builds into recurring revenue.
The trade-offs: your name goes on someone else’s work, and quality across the white-label market varies enormously. Cheap packages built on bulk links and templated content can put a client’s site at real risk, and that risk lands on you, not the provider. You also need to understand the work well enough to present it and answer your client’s questions about it.
Best for: studios that get regular SEO requests, not enough to justify a hire, and want to keep both the client and the revenue.
How the three compare
| Refer out | In-house | White-label | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | None | High: salary and recruitment | Low: scoped per client |
| Ongoing revenue | Referral fee at most | Yes | Yes, with your margin |
| Client relationship | Shared with the specialist | Yours | Yours |
| Quality control | The specialist’s | Yours | Shared, depends on the partner |
| Time to start offering it | Immediate | Months | Days to weeks |
| Best for | Build-only studios | High, steady demand | Regular demand, no hire yet |
Plenty of studios end up combining them: a launch baseline handled in-house, with ongoing SEO referred out or white-labelled.
Questions to ask before your name goes on anyone’s SEO
Whichever partner you consider, by referral or white-label, a few questions separate the good ones quickly.
- Who actually does the work, and how experienced are they? “Our team” can mean anything.
- How do they earn links? A fixed number of links per month is a warning sign, not a feature.
- Can they explain recommendations in plain language? You will be the one passing them on.
- What does the reporting show? Hand-picked keyword positions are easy to make look good. Traffic, enquiries and revenue from Search Console and GA4 are harder to dress up. More on that in how to read an SEO report that hides a flat result.
- Can you start with one client? A good partner should be comfortable being judged on a single project.
- What will they not do? A provider with no limits on what they will take on is telling you something.
When not to offer SEO at all
Sometimes the honest answer is not to.
If most of your clients want a brochure site and have no budget for ongoing marketing, a clear launch baseline and a good referral may be all they need. If you cannot stand behind the results, do not put your name on them. And if the only reason is margin, clients tend to notice when SEO is an upsell rather than a service.
Offering SEO badly does more damage to a studio’s reputation than not offering it.
Where I fit
I provide white-label SEO for agencies: web design, Shopify build and PPC studios whose clients are asking for SEO and who do not have a specialist on the team. So I am not neutral on option three.
But the right route depends on the studio. If clients ask about SEO a few times a year, referring them is fine. If they ask every month and a hire does not make sense yet, white-label is where it works, and a partnership can start with one client site so you can judge the work before bringing more. For redesigns and replatforms specifically, SEO for site migrations covers the launch itself.
Frequently asked questions
Should web designers do SEO themselves?
The launch baseline, yes: clean structure, sensible titles, speed, indexing settings and redirects in a redesign. Ongoing SEO usually needs a specialist, because it is continuous work measured over months, and it rarely gets priority alongside build deadlines.
Is a “SEO-ready” website enough to rank?
No. An SEO-ready build removes obstacles, but rankings come from what happens after launch: content matched to real searches, internal linking, links from other sites and ongoing adjustment. A site can be technically sound and still invisible.
Is white-label SEO honest?
Yes, when the work is good and the results are reported truthfully. Subcontracting is normal across agency work, from development to copywriting. The agency stays accountable for the quality of what it delivers, which is why vetting the partner matters.
Can a web design agency offer SEO without hiring?
Yes. Referring clients to a specialist and partnering with a white-label provider both let a studio offer SEO without adding headcount. The difference is whether you keep the client relationship and the ongoing revenue.
When should SEO be involved in a website project?
At the planning stage, before the URL structure and templates are fixed. This matters most in redesigns and replatforms, where changes that are easy to make on staging become expensive once the site is live and traffic has dropped.
Aashish Maharjan is an SEO specialist focused on ecommerce and international organic growth across global markets. Learn more about my work or request an SEO audit.