The question is as old as the industry itself: “If SEO experts are so good at ranking websites, why do they waste time selling services to clients instead of building their own multi-million dollar empires?” It is a fair critique that surfaces frequently on platforms like Reddit, where skeptics argue that a “true” expert wouldn't need a client's paycheck if they could simply “print money” via affiliate marketing or niche e-commerce.
However, the reality of the digital economy is far more nuanced than a simple choice between “working for others” and “working for yourself.” Below is a comprehensive breakdown of why legitimate SEO experts choose the agency or consulting model, and why ranking a website is only one small piece of a much larger business puzzle.
Why SEO Experts Sell Services
The reason SEO experts sell services rather than exclusively building their own sites is primarily due to risk management, cash flow stability, and the difference between marketing and business operations. * Service Revenue is Stable: Client retainers provide predictable, monthly income that allows for hiring staff and scaling a business.
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Affiliate/Niche Revenue is Volatile: Relying on a single site or a handful of niche sites makes an expert vulnerable to Google algorithm updates that can wipe out 90% of revenue overnight.
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SEO is a Component, Not a Business: Ranking a site is a marketing skill. Running an e-commerce or affiliate empire requires supply chain management, customer service, legal compliance, and product developmentโskills that many SEOs simply don't want to manage.
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The “Data Advantage”: Working with 50 clients across different industries provides an expert with significantly more data and “testing ground” than working on one or two personal sites.
1. The Predictability of Cash Flow vs. The “Google Slot Machine”
One of the most significant reasons SEO professionals stick to the agency model is the nature of the income. SEO is a B2B (Business-to-Business) service. When an expert signs a contract with a client, they are guaranteed a specific amount of money for a specific duration of time.
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Monthly Retainers: A professional SEO agency might have 20 clients paying $3,000 a month. That is $60,000 in predictable revenue. This allows the agency to pay rent, software subscriptions, and salaries.
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The Lag Time of Niche Sites: A new affiliate or niche site often takes 6 to 12 monthsโsometimes longerโto earn its first $1,000. For many professionals, spending a year working for “free” while hoping the site ranks is a luxury they cannot afford.
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Algorithmic Risk: If you own 10 niche sites and Google releases a “Core Update” that favors big brands over small blogs, your income could vanish instantly. If you are an agency, you can pivot your clients' strategies and continue earning.
2. Diversification and Risk Mitigation
In the world of investment, you are told never to put all your eggs in one basket. The same applies to SEO. An expert who only owns their own sites is essentially gambling their entire livelihood on a single platform: Google's search algorithm.
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Client Diversity: If an SEO expert has clients in law, healthcare, plumbing, and SaaS, it is highly unlikely that all those sectors will be negatively impacted by an algorithm update or an economic downturn at the same time.
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The “Safety Net” of Services: Even during a “Google Dance,” clients still need guidance, reporting, and technical fixes. The demand for the expertise remains even when the rankings fluctuate.
3. The Difference Between “Ranking” and “Business Operations”
A common misconception in the Reddit thread is the idea that “Traffic = Money.” While traffic is a prerequisite for online wealth, it is not the same as a functional business.
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Logistics and Supply Chain: If an SEO expert decides to build an e-commerce brand to “make millions,” they are no longer just an SEO. They are now a warehouse manager, a shipping coordinator, and a customer service lead. Many experts prefer the “cleanliness” of digital strategy over the “messiness” of physical products.
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Conversion and Product-Market Fit: You can rank #1 for “best running shoes,” but if you don't have a high-converting website, a trusted brand, and competitive pricing, you won't make a dime.
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The Specialist vs. The Generalist: SEO is a deep, technical specialty. Building an empire requires being a generalist who can handle legal, tax, HR, and product development. Most SEO experts would rather be the best at their craft than a mediocre “Jack of all trades.”
4. The “Doctor” and “Financial Advisor” Analogy
To understand why experts sell services, we can look at traditional professions.
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The Surgeon: Why does a heart surgeon work at a hospital for a salary instead of just performing surgeries on themselves to live forever? Obviously, thatโs impossible, but the point is that they are highly skilled technicians who thrive in a structured environment where they can apply their skill to different “cases.”
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The Financial Advisor: People often ask, “If you're so good at picking stocks, why aren't you a billionaire?” The answer is that a financial advisor provides a serviceโrisk management, planning, and emotional guidanceโwhich is a different business model than being a high-stakes hedge fund gambler using their own life savings.
5. Scaling People vs. Scaling Sites
For many SEO experts, it is actually easier to scale an agency than it is to scale a portfolio of niche websites.
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Hiring Talent: It is relatively straightforward to hire an Account Manager or a Junior SEO to help handle client work. This allows the founder to step back and focus on high-level strategy.
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Content Fatigue: Scaling a niche site requires an endless treadmill of content production. Managing a team of 50 writers to produce thousands of articles for a “personal empire” is a grueling, high-overhead task that often yields lower margins than a high-ticket consulting gig.
6. The Reality: Most “Legit” Experts Do Have Side Projects
What the skeptics often miss is that the most successful SEO experts usually do have their own sites. However, they don't talk about them publicly for several reasons:
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Competitive Secrecy: If an SEO expert finds a “gold mine” niche (e.g., “best portable power stations”), the last thing they want to do is tell the world. Doing so would invite thousands of competitors to target the same keywords.
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The “Invisible” Portfolio: Many experts run their service business during the day and spend their evenings and weekends tinkering with their own affiliate sites. They use the stable income from clients to fund the content and backlinks for their private projects.
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The “Agency as a Lab”: Smart SEOs use their clients' sites (with permission) as a laboratory. The insights they gain from seeing what works across 100 different websites are then applied to their private “money sites.”
7. The “Expertise Paradox”: Learning From Different Niches
If you only work on your own sites, you become an expert in your niche. If you work for an agency, you become an expert in the algorithm.
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Cross-Industry Insights: An SEO expert working for a local dentist might discover a new way to optimize for Google Maps. They can then take that discovery and apply it to their other 10 local business clients.
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Exposure to High-End Tools: Top-tier SEO tools (like Enterprise-level Ahrefs, BrightEdge, or Botify) can cost thousands of dollars a month. An individual building a small niche site can't justify these costs, but an agency can. This gives the agency expert access to better data and more powerful “weapons.”
8. Why “Selling Services” Is Actually More Profitable for Some
Finally, there is the simple math of the “High-Ticket” service.
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The Math of an Affiliate Site: To make $10,000 a month in profit from an Amazon affiliate site, you might need 200,000 visitors. Getting that much traffic is incredibly difficult and takes years.
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The Math of an Agency: To make $10,000 a month in profit as a consultant, you only need two or three high-end clients. You can land those clients in a few weeks if you have a strong reputation and a solid network.
Summary of Why SEO Experts Choose the Service Model
| Factor | Service/Agency Model | Personal Niche/Affiliate Model |
| Income Start Date | Immediate (Day 1 of contract) | Delayed (6-18 months) |
| Income Stability | High (Contractual retainers) | Low (Dependent on Google updates) |
| Operational Focus | Strategy and Communication | Content, Logistics, and Tech |
| Risk Level | Low (Diversified across clients) | High (All eggs in one basket) |
| Capital Required | Low (Mainly your time/labor) | High (Content and link costs) |
Final Thoughts
The skepticism regarding SEO experts usually stems from a misunderstanding of what SEO actually is. SEO is not a “get rich quick” button; it is a marketing discipline. Just as a world-class architect builds houses for others rather than spending their life only building their own mansions, an SEO expert applies their craft where the market demands it.
For most professionals, the “sweet spot” is a hybrid model: using the stable, high-margin income from an agency to fund a private portfolio of websites. This provides the best of both worldsโthe security of a service business and the long-term “exit” potential of a private asset.
