WordPress is a badass platform.
It’s user-friendly enough that, even if you only know the basics of web development, you can build a decent site.
It’s also really powerful and really flexible, so if you’re a WordPress expert, you can build almost anything you want with this platform.
That’s why so many well-known, high-traffic sites are built on it:
- TechCrunch
- Wired
- Vogue
- The NASA Blog
(There are endless examples.)
If you sell web design services but don’t offer WordPress development, you should seriously consider it.
You can take your business to a new level by adding website development to your service roster.
Of course, that may sound impossible if you don’t have the time to learn WP.
But it’s not impossible because you can always partner with a white label WordPress developer.
White label?
Huh?
I’ll explain below and talk about why it might be a good option for your business.
What Do We Mean by “White Label WordPress Development”?
This is a business arrangement where you pay an outside development agency to build WordPress websites for your clients. It’s essentially like hiring a subcontractor to build sites for you, and you resell those websites under your own brand name.
The development partner hands the site off to you, you hand it off to your clients, and your clients can log in and add/edit content as they please.
Your white label partner is only involved in the site’s planning, production and — if you’re lucky — maintenance.
You remain the sole point of contact for your clients, and your brand is the only brand that customers see and interact with.
White labeling is a common practice across many industries, but it’s especially popular in the web development industry.
WordPress websites are a valuable product to be able to offer your customers, and you don’t need to be a WordPress wiz to offer them.
The Benefits of Partnering With a White Label Web Developer
If you already run a web-related business, there’s one obvious benefit to offering development services:
It’s an additional revenue stream.
You’ll be able to meet the needs of a whole new group of customers, so you widen your client base.
But what’s the benefit of working with a white label developer, specifically? What advantages does it have over hiring an in-house developer or learning to do it yourself?
Let’s talk about some of the benefits:
Benefit 1: Specialized Knowledge and Tools
From a web designer’s perspective, one of the main reasons to partner with a web developer is that they have an expert understanding of website mechanics. While you can make a website’s front end look fantastic, they’ll make sure it functions as it should.
Think of it like you’re an interior designer and your white label partner is a carpenter.
You’ll choose the layout, paint colors, and surface materials, and their development team will build it. If you want a type of cabinet or counter that’s not available in the catalog, they’ll figure out how to make it happen.
To ensure that every website works well and is comfortable to interact with, professional web developers use a variety of expert tools and plugins:
For instance:
- Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) for building easy-to-use websites that the client can log into and edit/update on their own (even if they don’t know anything about web development)
- WPRocket and Imagify to ensure that the site loads as fast as possible (which helps to decrease bounce rate)
- Gulp to minify code and keep the site lightweight, helping it load faster and making for a more user-friendly experience overall
- Foundation for making sure your site is responsive across devices (desktop, mobile, etc.) and browsers
Benefit 2: Proven Process
In most cases, white label development agencies also do “regular” web development work. They have their own list of clients they interact with directly, and they generate their own leads and prospects.
This is good news for you, as it means you can trust that your white-label partner has a reliable working process that they’ve refined over time. You don’t have to worry that an amateur is on the other side of the screen, building your clients’ websites for you — these are professionals, and they’ll ensure that every step of the process is completed.
Reselling websites takes a lot of trust, and every good white label developer knows this. They understand that you have to be happy enough with the product that you’re comfortable putting your own name on it.
That’s why developers usually only get into the white-label market after years of experience in the industry.
They’ve developed enough sites that they can tell two things right away:
- How long the project is likely to take considering development, quality assurance, and content loading
- What types of problems they might encounter within the scope and functionality demands of the client.
Obviously, customers love when projects are completed on time, so yours will be thrilled when you’re able to give them an accurate timeline.
Benefit 3: Transparent Pricing
As we just discussed, a good web development partner can look at a project and tell you roughly how long it’s going to take. This means that they should be able to give you a relatively accurate estimate before they even start working.
That’s what we do — you can get a web development price quote on our website right now!
How Does WordPress Development Pricing Work?
Every agency uses a different pricing structure, so we can only speak for ourselves in this regard. But when we work with white label clients, we price our work based on two factors:
- Deliverables: Number of page templates the client wants
- Scope of involvement: Amount of work involved given the shared expectations of functionality, content loading, etc
The amount of work involved in a project can vary greatly depending on the client’s needs.
For instance, if a client needs us to migrate an existing site’s content to WordPress from another platform, that can add several days (or more) to a project.
If the client wants ongoing maintenance and support, our estimate will obviously reflect that.
The best tip we can offer in regards to pricing is to talk to your white label partner ahead of time to clarify what you need from them and how involved you plan to be. This will help them to provide the most accurate estimate possible.
Benefit 4: Quality Control and Bug Testing
You owe it to your clients to make sure their website is functioning optimally when their customers arrive. If it’s too slow or there are broken images and links, you’re going to lose people’s attention fast.
According to studies, if your website takes more than two seconds to load, then 9% of your visitors are going to close out of the window before it finishes loading. If it takes more than five seconds to load, 38% of visitors are going to bounce before they get to see your site.
That’s a lot of people.
A good white label agency will test for bugs, optimize your site loading time, and run through all the quality control processes necessary to make sure every site they build runs buttery smooth.
Here, for instance, we use a tool called Browserstack to ensure a seamless experience on each site. This tool tests each website on more than 2,500 browsers and devices to make sure that the site looks and works well for every visitor, no matter where they live or what device they’re viewing it on.
Benefit 5: Potential Ongoing Support
A lot of white label agencies won’t just build your WordPress sites; they’ll also maintain them and update them as necessary to ensure they stay functional.
This means that you’ll keep them on retainer to:
- Create backups
- Update WordPress themes and plugins
- Monitor site uptime and downtime
- Maintain website security
Some agencies even offer white label WordPress support. In other words, if the client encounters an issue with their site and wants help fixing it, you can have your clients contact them directly for technical assistance.
This is a particularly valuable service if you want to resell white label sites but don’t know the first thing about WordPress. You won’t have to learn anything about the platform, but you can be confident that your customers are always getting the support they need.
Benefit 6: Less Risk to Your Agency
If you’re thinking about outsourcing WordPress development to a white label agency, there’s a glaring question that’s probably crossed your mind:
Can’t I just hire an in-house developer to build sites for my clients?
And, of course, the answer is yes. There are thousands of talented developers out there who’d love the opportunity and could build brilliant sites for you.
There’s more of a risk in hiring a full-time employee, though. Partnering with a white label agency eliminates the upfront cost of onboarding, training, and all of the other work that goes into hiring a full-time developer.
Yes, it may take some time to find the right agency, and if you “interview” agencies to make sure they’re the right fit for you (which we’d highly recommend!), that will take time too. But if the agency has a portfolio of high-quality work they’ve completed for past clients, you shouldn’t have to worry about wasted time once the work starts.
Just like you, an experienced agency usually has a pretty good idea of how long a job is going to take. This makes it much easier for you to calculate each website’s cost and ROI.
Benefit 7: More Time and Focus
You and your team already have a lot of work on your plates. Whether you’re designing websites, talking to clients, or working to get more clients, you probably don’t have time to learn the ins and outs of WordPress.
This option allows you to focus on your business while expanding your services and giving your customers what they need. All you have to do is sit back and enjoy the positive response from your clients.
Are White Label WordPress Services the Solution You Need?
There’s a reason why WordPress powers 39.5% of all websites — it’s a powerful platform with a lot of capabilities.
And if you sell website design services (or any type of digital marketing services), there’s going to come a time when customer will ask you:
Do you do WordPress development?
By partnering with a white label WordPress agency, you’ll be able to tell them yes.
Looking for someone to build and manage your clients’ sites? Get in touch and we’ll see if we can help.
Content Marketing | WordPress Design + Development | White Label WordPress Development
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