What kind of SEO provider works best for a marketplace site?

The best kind of SEO provider for a marketplace site is one with deep technical SEO expertise and experience in content strategy for large, dynamic websites. 

In plain terms: a marketplace (with many product or listing pages and user-generated content) needs an SEO partner who understands how to optimize a big, complex site. 

Usually, an agency experienced in marketplace or e-commerce SEO works best, as they can tackle both the technical challenges and the content needed to rank your wide array of pages. 

Let’s break it down so you have an immediate answer and details to guide you.

Why Marketplaces Need Specialized SEO

Marketplace sites (think of platforms like Airbnb, Etsy, or any site that connects buyers and sellers) have unique SEO challenges. 

You often have thousands of pages (for products, listings, profiles) that need to be crawled and indexed properly. There’s also usually a lot of user-generated content or inventory that changes.

 The provider you choose should be adept at technical SEO (site architecture, page speed, schema markup, handling duplicate content issues) and also content SEO (creating landing pages or blog content to attract users to the marketplace). 

Not every SEO person is equipped to handle this scale. For example, a solo freelance SEO might be great at optimizing a small blog, but a marketplace might benefit more from an agency team that has developers, content strategists, and link builders on board.

Agency vs. In-House vs. Freelancer

Many marketplace startups wonder if they should hire an in-house SEO specialist, use a freelancer, or bring in an agency. An in-house hire can be good if you want someone embedded in your team day-to-day, but remember one person might not cover all the bases (technical fixes, content creation, outreach for backlinks, etc.). 

A freelancer could work for smaller marketplaces on a budget, but again you might be limited by one person’s skills. A specialized SEO agency is often the best choice for a marketplace, because they provide a team of experts. 

For instance, at Embarque, we have a team approach – content writers, SEO strategists, and technical experts – working together, which is exactly the kind of multifaceted effort a marketplace site needs. The agency should ideally have experience with marketplace or large e-commerce platforms so they can hit the ground running.

Look for Product-Led SEO Experience

A term often thrown around with marketplaces is “product-led SEO.” This means incorporating SEO into the product itself – e.g., making sure every new listing or user profile is optimized to attract search traffic.

The best SEO provider for a marketplace will understand how to work with your development team to create SEO-friendly category pages, implement things like crawlable site navigation, filters, and internal linking structures that help Google find and rank all your content. 

They won’t just blog about generic topics; they’ll help you build out the structure of the site to capture search demand. Ask potential providers if they have worked on marketplaces or large platforms before, and have them give examples of how they boosted organic traffic for those sites.

Case in Point – Our Marketplace Client 

To illustrate, Embarque has worked with marketplace businesses and seen tremendous results. 

For example, one marketplace platform connecting brands with influencers saw a 4x increase in organic traffic (from 10,000 to 40,000 monthly visits) in one year after implementing a tailored SEO strategy.

Our team focused on creating targeted content (like how-to guides, listicles, and reviews that matched what marketplace users search for) and building a strong backlink profile to raise the site’s authority. 

The strategy also involved smart internal linking (linking high-traffic pages to new pages to give them a boost) and cleaning up technical issues. This kind of holistic approach is exactly what a marketplace site needs – and it showcases why an experienced agency can be a game-changer.

Another great example: MentorCruise, an online mentorship marketplace

They struggled with traffic until they partnered with an SEO team. After a sustained SEO effort, MentorCruise achieved a 1,600% increase in annual revenue and over 2 million organic visits a year – largely by introducing targeted content pages and improving site-wide SEO. 

This was not an overnight miracle but the result of a knowledgeable provider working consistently on technical fixes, content, and link acquisition that suited a marketplace model.

 If your site is a similar multi-vendor or multi-listing platform, you want an SEO provider who can replicate this kind of success by understanding both the product side and the content side of SEO.

Key Qualities to Look For

 In summary, the kind of SEO provider that works best for a marketplace site should have these qualities:

• Technical SEO chops: They can handle big sitemaps, solve crawl issues, and optimize page templates at scale.
• Content strategy for scale: They know how to create or guide creation of lots of SEO content (landing pages, blogs, guides) that will attract users to the marketplace.
• Link building and authority: They have a plan for getting quality backlinks in a white-hat way, which is important to outrank competitors in a niche.
• Experience with marketplaces or e-commerce: They can show you case studies or references from similar projects, meaning less trial-and-error on your project.
• Collaborative approach: They should be comfortable working with your developers, product managers, and content team. SEO for marketplaces isn’t siloed – it touches product design, user experience, and more.

Choosing the right provider is critical, because a marketplace lives or dies by its ability to attract users (buyers and sellers) – and a huge part of that is showing up on Google when people search for what your marketplace offers. A capable SEO agency with marketplace experience (like Embarque and others in that space) can systematically grow your visibility.

Choosing a provider for your marketplace

Go with an SEO provider who has a track record with large sites and a team that covers all bases. Don’t be afraid to ask for examples of how they handled another marketplace or multi-page platform. 

The right partner will not only optimize your current pages but also guide you in creating new SEO-driven sections of your site, which is often the secret sauce for marketplace SEO success.

 With the right SEO provider working alongside you, your marketplace can gain the kind of search presence that drives continuous growth in users and transactions.