SEO for MSPs: The $100k MRR Playbook

Executive Summary

If your business isn’t growing, it’s falling behind. There’s nothing more frustrating than ending the year with a P&L that looks nearly identical to the one before it. My goal is to help you avoid that outcome. This guide was created with one clear mission: to provide an actionable playbook on how to implement SEO for your MSP that can generate $100k of MRR in 12-months.

Why Your Website Isn’t Generating Leads

Over 90% of MSP websites generate fewer than one inbound lead per month. Based on my experience, there are three common reasons why:

Mistake #1: Targeting the Wrong Keywords

Most MSP websites are made of a handful of service pages that, whether they know it or not, are targeting highly competitive keywords like “IT services” and “Cybersecurity”. Unless you have a 6-figure annual budget for organic SEO, you don’t have a snowball's chance in hell to rank for these.

Not sure if this is you? Do you have any pages on your website that use a service name + your city in the Title tag? If not then…. You’ve made this mistake.

Mistake #2: Weak Website Authority

You can write the perfect blog post, but if your website isn’t acquiring new backlinks every month, Google isn’t going to take you seriously. MSP websites that rank and generate leads have hundreds of backlinks from authoritative sources.

Are you investing in link building every month? If not then… You’ve made this mistake as well.

Mistake #3: Generic Uncompelling Messaging

Most MSPs use generic messaging and call themselves a “trusted technology partner”. This flat out doesn’t work. If your website isn’t crafted in a way that speaks directly to your target audience and the specific pain points they experience you are noise in an already crowded market.

The Founder-Led SEO Playbook

The Founder-Led SEO Playbook I am about to share with you solves all of these problems. If you follow it to the T you will rank in Google and generate more leads that you will know what to do with. SEO has the potential to be the single largest lead source for your MSP. It has the power to change the trajectory of your business and your life (dramatic, but true).

Real-World Results from an Effective MSP SEO Strategy

Before we get into the nuts and bolts, I felt it would be helpful to dangle a carrot as to what this playbook can do if executed properly. SEO for MSPs takes a lot of time and investment and it's important that you clearly understand what’s in it for you before you start the journey.

$500k in Pipeline Generated Within 60-Days of Implementation

An MSP in Minneapolis went from sporadically generating a few leads every quarter to producing over $500k in pipeline in 60-days with our Founder-Led SEO Playbook. 100% of the deals sourced in the chart below came from search. Zero cold calling. Zero networking. Zero JVs. 100% search.

ROI from an effective MSP SEO strategy doesn't have to take 6-12 months like what other SEO agencies might try to tell you. The right strategy can yield fruit in a matter of weeks, depending on the existing state of your website and competition in your local market.

The Founder-Led SEO Playbook: Authenticity in the Age of AI

We live in the era of AI. In this new paradigm, authenticity is the currency that separates wildly successful marketing strategies from mediocrity. The goal of your SEO strategy is to both rank in search and convert strangers visiting your website into paying customers. Authenticity is your ticket to obtain both and Founder-Led SEO is your framework for capturing it.

What is Founder-Led SEO and How Does it Work

Founder-Led SEO is a systematic process of extrapolating experiences from team members within your MSP and converting them into news-worthy stories that resonate with your audience and earn visibility in search through digital PR.

Unlike traditional SEO playbooks that only focus on clicks and impressions, Founder-Led SEO focuses on conversion by establishing your MSP as the leading authority in your market.

Here’s an outline of the Founder-Led SEO Playbook:

1. Define Strategic Narrative
2. Market and Keyword Research
3. Local SEO and the Map Pack
4. Content Architecture
5. Founder Insight Integration
6. Content Production
7. Authority and Link Building
8. AI Search Visibility
   

Step 1 | Define Strategic Narrative

The first step in the Founder-led SEO playbook is defining the strategic narrative. This narrative explains the market change happening in the IT services industry, the problems MSP buyers now face, and why your approach is the right solution.

It should clearly articulate:

• The shift happening in the IT services market
• Why the traditional approach is failing businesses
• The new model companies should adopt
• Why your MSP is uniquely positioned to lead this change
• Which businesses benefit most from this approach

Develop a Messaging Framework

Once the narrative is defined, it must be translated into a messaging framework that keeps your positioning consistent across every channel.

Your messaging framework should include:

Positioning statement
Define who you help, the pain they experience, and how you uniquely solve it.

Messaging tonality
The tone of voice used across all written communication.

Service catalog
A structured list of services offered, including primary and subcategories.

Unique differentiators
The elements that set your MSP apart from competitors.

Step 2 | Market and Keyword Research

The next step in the Founder-Led SEO Playbook is to identify the keywords your ideal customers use when searching for the services you offer.

Types of Keywords

Not all keywords are created equal. In MSP SEO, your keywords fall into four main categories, and each one serves a different purpose in your strategy.

• Service keywords
• Location keywords
• Industry keywords
• Problem-based keywords

Understanding the hierarchy is critical because it determines which pages you should build and how your website should be structured.

Service Keywords

Purpose in SEO strategy:
Service keywords are the foundation of your SEO strategy because they reflect your core offerings. They help search engines understand what your business provides and build topical authority around those services. Rather than driving immediate leads, their primary role is to strengthen your site’s overall relevance.

Keyword examples:

• IT services
• Managed IT
• Cybersecurity
• Managed detection and response
• IT consulting
• Helpdesk
• Cloud and colocation
• Co-managed IT

How to find them:
Start with your internal service catalog. List every service your company sells or wants to sell, then translate those offerings into the terms a buyer might search for. Your services defined during the service catalog step should map directly to these keywords.

Tier 2: Location Keywords

Purpose in SEO strategy:
Location keywords are “money keywords” as they capture high-intent searches from buyers who are actively looking for a provider in your market. These queries combine a service with a city and represent bottom-of-funnel searches where prospects are ready to engage.

Keyword examples:

• Managed IT in {city}
• IT support in {city}
• IT consulting in {city}
• IT company in {city}
• Cybersecurity in {city}
• Network support in {city}
• Cloud and colocation in {city}

How to find them:

Take each of your core service keywords and combine them with the cities or regions your company serves. Keyword tools such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Google Keyword Planner can help confirm search volume and reveal variations.

Industry Keywords

Purpose in SEO strategy:
Industry keywords are also “money keywords” as they represent prospects in specific vertical markets in search for your services.

Keyword examples:

• IT support for manufacturers
• Managed IT for churches
• Cybersecurity for healthcare organizations
• IT services for accounting firms

How to find them:
Identify the industries you already serve or want to specialize in. Combine those industries with your service keywords. Keyword research tools can help uncover variations and validate demand.

Problem-Based Keywords

Purpose in SEO strategy:

Problem-based keywords capture searches from people experiencing specific technical issues. These queries tend to occur earlier in the buying journey but allow you to demonstrate expertise and attract relevant visitors.

Keyword examples:

• Wi-Fi keeps dropping
• Server outage what to do
• How to recover from a ransomware attack
• Why is my network so slow
• How much does IT support cost for a small business

How to find them:
Look at the common issues your support team resolves and translate them into plain-language questions someone might type into Google. You can also review tools such as Google autocomplete, “People Also Ask,” and forums where business owners discuss IT problems.

Step 3 | Local SEO and the Map Pack

In order to effectively generate leads with search you need a tight local strategy. In local SEO for MSPs there are two primary objectives:

• Rank in the organic search results
• Rank in the local Map Pack

Later in this guide, we will cover how to rank in the organic search results by building location-specific landing pages (that use your location keywords) and local link building. In this section, we are going to focus on one thing: increasing your visibility in the map pack through your Google Business Profile (GBP).

What is the Local Map Pack

There are two ways your MSP can organically show up for location-based searches: the map pack and the organic results. You need to dominate both.

The map pack is the top section of the search engine results page that displays a map alongside a shortlist of local businesses relevant to the query.

For searches like “managed IT services near me” or “IT support in Minneapolis,” this section appears above traditional organic listings. Each result highlights your business name, reviews, location, and key trust signals that influence whether a prospect clicks, calls, or keeps scrolling.

The map pack runs on a different algorithm than organic SEO. Instead of prioritizing backlinks and website authority, rankings are driven by three factors:

• Relevance: How closely your profile aligns with the search intent based on categories, services, and keywords.
• Distance: How close your business is to the searcher or specified location.
• Prominence: The strength of your reputation, driven by reviews, citations, and overall online presence.

Steps to Optimize Your GBP

Optimizing your Google Business Profile is one of the fastest ways to increase visibility for location-based searches. While traditional SEO can take months to gain traction, GBP improvements can start impacting rankings and lead flow within weeks when executed correctly. Before you build a single page on your site, make sure your GBP is optimized.

The objective is simple: send clear, consistent signals to Google about what you do, where you operate, and why your business can be trusted.

Here’s the GBP optimization checklist that we use at our agency:

• Claim and verify your Google Business Profile
• Choose the correct primary category
• Choose relevant subcategories (up to 9)
• Ensure name, address, phone number (NAP) consistency
• Optimize your business description (750 characters)
• Systematically acquire new Google reviews
• Respond to every review within 24–48 hours
• Post weekly updates with photos and CTAs

For a detailed guide on the step-by-step process to get your GBP right checkout our 2026 Google Business Profile Optimization Checklist

Step 4 | Content Architecture

Before creating new pages on your MSP website you should first map out your website content architecture. Your website architecture should be designed intentionally to make it easy for Google and visitors to understand what you do.

Here’s an example website structure that we use for our MSP clients.

Services

• Managed IT
• Cybersecurity
• Co-Managed IT
• Cloud
• Compliance

Industries Served

• IT for Accounting
• IT for Architects
• IT for Construction
• IT for Churches
• IT for Education
• IT for Local Government
• IT for Financial Services
• IT for Healthcare Providers
• IT for Law Firms
• IT for Manufacturers
• IT for Nonprofits
• IT for Nonprofit Organizations

Locations Served

• State 1
  • City 1
  • City 2
  • City 3
• State 2
  • City 4
  • City 5
  • City 6

Blog

• Blog 1
• Blog 2
• Blog 3
• Blog 4

As you can see each section is logically grouped and hierarchically organized, making it easy to navigate and understand how content is related. If it’s easy for users to understand the layout of your website, then it will be easy for search engines as well.

Step 5 | Founder Insight Integration

Founder-led SEO for MSPs works because it combines keyword strategy with real-world expertise. After identifying the keywords your ideal customers are searching for, the next step is integrating the founder’s knowledge and experience into the content strategy.

Most SEO content in the IT services industry is generic. Many articles are written by marketers or agencies that do not operate closely with MSPs. This often leads to surface-level explanations that lack practical insight. Founder-Led SEO takes a different approach. It uses the experience gained from running an MSP to produce content that is more credible, more specific, and more useful to the reader.

Founder insight is what transforms standard SEO topics into authoritative resources.

What Founder Insights Are

Founder Insights are the lessons, patterns, and opinions that come from working directly with clients and managing real IT environments. These insights are developed over years of solving problems, responding to incidents, and advising businesses on technology decisions.

Examples of Founder Insights:

• Common mistakes businesses make when choosing an MSP
• Recurring infrastructure problems seen across multiple organizations
• Lessons learned from cybersecurity incidents or outages
• Strategic advice given to business owners during planning discussions
• Real-world observations about tools, vendors, and technologies

These perspectives allow your content to go beyond basic definitions and provide practical guidance based on experience.

Where Founder Insights Come From

Founder Insights already exist within your business. The goal of this step is to systematically capture them and translate them into content topics.

Here’s a few examples of where these insights naturally come from:

• Sales conversations
• Support tickets and service requests
• Quarterly business reviews
• Incident response and troubleshooting
• Vendor and technology experience

Turning Founder Insight into SEO Content

Founder Insights should be layered onto the keyword strategy developed previously. Instead of publishing generic articles that simply define a topic, the content should reflect the founder’s perspective whenever possible.

For example, a typical SEO article might answer a basic question like “What is managed IT?” A founder-led article might use an angle like “What is managed IT and why most SMBs aren’t happy with their current provider” and explore why many businesses struggle with traditional IT support models and what they should look for when evaluating a managed services provider.

The goal is to combine search intent with experience-driven insight. This produces content that answers the user’s question while also providing depth that competitors cannot easily replicate.

Content Formats for Founder Insights

Founder Insights can be translated into several types of content that support SEO and establish authority.

Educational articles
Explain complex IT topics in plain language while incorporating practical examples from real environments.

Strategic guidance
Provide advice on technology planning, budgeting, and risk management for business leaders.

Lessons learned
Share insights gained from resolving incidents, migrations, or infrastructure challenges.

Industry commentary
Offer informed perspectives on trends in cybersecurity, cloud computing, and managed services.

Myth clarification
Address common misconceptions about IT support, security practices, or technology investments.

These formats help position the founder as a knowledgeable advisor rather than simply a service provider.

The Role of Internal Marketing or an MSP Search Engine Optimization Consultant

Marketing’s role in Founder-Led SEO is not to invent expertise. Instead, it is to extract, organize, and amplify the founder’s insights.

Here’s the workflow that we use with our clients:

1. Schedule a monthly 1-hour podcast-style interview
2. Share questions in advance outlining the topics to be covered
3. Conduct the interview and have the founder share experiences, observations, and opinions
4. Map the ideas to relevant keywords identified during research
5. Structure the information into an article or downloadable resource
6. Review the final piece to ensure accuracy and perspective

This approach allows your MSP to scale the founder’s expertise across content without requiring their ongoing involvement in the writing process.

Step 6 | Content Production

At this point, you are ready to begin scaling content production. To maximize SEO impact, pages should be created in a specific order.

1. Service pages
2. Geo pages
3. Industry pages
4. Blog content

Page Templates for Scalable Content

Each page should follow a structure aligned with both search intent and the page’s objective. Develop templates for service pages and “money pages” to streamline ongoing content production.

Service page outline:

1. Hero: name of service + promised outcome
2. Challenge: common pain points experience + negative business impact
3. Solution: benefits of service + positive business impact
4. Unique value proposition: what you do different + why it matters
5. Service Capabilities: list subcategories that rollup to main service
6. Benefits: callout major business benefits of services
7. Insights: link to relevant content to learn more
8. CTA: schedule a free assessment or download guide
   
   

Geo and Location page outline:

1. Hero: name of service + promised outcome + CTA form
2. Social proof 1: list logos and Google reviews
3. Challenge: common pain points experience + negative business impact
4. Solution: benefits of service + positive business impact
5. Case study: real-world example from Founder Insights
6. CTA: schedule a free assessment
7. Unique value proposition: what you do different + why it matters
8. Service capabilities: list subcategories that rollup to main service
9. Benefits: callout major business benefits of services
10. FAQs: common questions sales gets asked
11. CTA: schedule a free assessment
12. Insights: link to relevant content to learn more

Create Content Silos with Supporting Content

Each “money page” should be supported by 3-5 supporting pages to create a content silo. By doing this, your supporting pages will provide a “power-boost” to the main page and help it rank.

Here's an example:

Main money page:
Managed IT services in Cincinnati

Supporting geo pages:

• IT consulting in Cincinnati
• Cloud and colocation in Cincinnati
• IT support in Cincinnati

Supporting blog content:

• How much does managed IT cost in Ohio?
• 5 signs your business has outgrown break-fix IT
• What to look for in a managed service provider

Step 7 | Authority and Link Building

You can have the best website and the best content in the world, but without backlinks pointing to your site, it will be extremely difficult to rank in a competitive market.

Backlinks are external signals of trust. In Google's ranking system, a backlink functions as a vote of confidence from another website. When credible sites link to your content, it signals that your information is valuable and trustworthy.

There is a strong correlation between MSP websites that have a higher number of backlinks and improved search rankings. MSPs that consistently rank at the top of search results almost always have stronger backlink profiles than their competitors.

Content helps you enter the game. Backlinks are what allow you to win it.

In Founder-Led SEO, backlinks are built through a combination of local relationships, industry credibility, and digital PR driven by Founder Insights.

Local Backlinks

Purpose in SEO Strategy

Local backlinks signal to search engines that your business is trusted within the geographic markets you serve. These links strengthen your ability to rank for location-based searches such as "managed IT services in Cincinnati."

Examples

• Local chamber of commerce directories
• Charity or nonprofit sponsorship pages
• Partnerships with local organizations or businesses
• Vendor partner websites in the same city

These links reinforce your relevance within the local business community.

Industry-Specific Backlinks

Purpose in SEO Strategy

Industry backlinks signal topical authority. When links come from IT, cybersecurity, or MSP-related websites, they strengthen your credibility within the managed services space.

Examples

• MSP peer group websites
• Vendor partner directories
• Technology industry publications
• Backlinks discovered through competitor analysis

These links help search engines understand that your website is part of the broader technology ecosystem.

High-Authority Publications

Purpose in SEO Strategy

High-authority backlinks strengthen both page authority and domain authority. In competitive markets, these links often make the difference between ranking on page two and appearing on page one.

Examples

• Featured articles in technology publications
• Thought leadership articles in business media
• Expert commentary in industry publications

Digital PR Backlinks

Purpose in SEO Strategy

Digital PR is one of the most powerful link-building strategies in Founder-Led SEO. It generates backlinks by turning Founder Insight into stories that journalists and media outlets want to cover.

Unlike traditional link building, which often involves manual outreach for placements, digital PR focuses on creating newsworthy content that earns backlinks naturally.

These links not only improve the authority of your website but also increase visibility in LLMs (more on that below).

Examples

• News stories about your company or leadership
• Founder commentary on cybersecurity trends
• Media coverage of company research or insights
• Executive interviews in business publications

Step 8 | AI Search Visibility

Your target audience is conducting research on you and your competitors before making a purchase decision. This might be happening months before they request a proposal or the day before they make a final decision as to which MSP to go with.

There is a lot of overlap between traditional SEO for MSPs and generative engine optimization (GEO). But, there are a few nuances that are worth clarifying and incorporating in your MSP SEO strategy.

In traditional SEO, selecting the right keywords is crucial for attracting relevant traffic. In GEO, the focus shifts to targeting the right prompts.

With traditional SEO, we reverse engineer what Google wants to see on and off the page for queries like “managed IT services in Cincinnati,” then align our strategy by placing the right keywords in the right locations and building the appropriate backlinks.

With GEO, the concept is similar, but instead of optimizing for Google’s algorithm, we’re working to understand how large language models generate responses and influence the content used in those outputs. Unlike traditional SEO, which focuses on ranking content from your own website, GEO also requires influencing third-party content. This includes listicles on Yelp, industry publications, and featured articles on LinkedIn.

Reverse Engineering AI Search Results

Here’s an example of how to do this in ChatGPT.

1. Pick a query that’s important to your business. For this example let’s use: "best managed IT service provider in Cincinnati”
2. Open ChatGPT in an incognito window (so your history doesn’t influence the model) and enter the query.
3. Chat will provide an answer.
4. At the bottom click “Sources”
5. Write down all the sources that were referenced.
6. Repeat this process for 5-10 prompts

From this one query we can see the following sources were used.

• Top IT MSPs by Clutch
  
• Top IT MSPs as native listicles on an MSP's website
• Top IT MSPs by Design Rush
  
• Top IT MSPs by IT Companies Network

From this, we can infer that improving visibility for this query would require:

1. Get listed on Clutch, Design Rush and IT Companies Network
   
2. Write a listicle on the best MSPs in Cincinnati with our MSP ranked as #1

After repeating this process and recording the sources from each query you will start to note a trend in the sources ChatGPT uses. Prioritize content based on frequency in which it's cited as a source.

The Next 90 Days: How to Turn This SEO Strategy into Revenue

To put it all together, here’s a 90-day plan that your team can follow to start generating leads with Founder-Led SEO.

Days 1–30: Foundation

Week 1: Strategic Narrative + Messaging Framework
Define your strategic narrative and translate it into a clear messaging framework, including positioning, ICP, pain points, and differentiators.

Week 2: Keyword Research
Identify and map service, location, industry, and problem-based keywords. Prioritize “money keywords” that drive conversions.

Week 3: GBP Optimization + Website Architecture
Fully optimize your Google Business Profile and design your website architecture, including service, location, and industry page structure.

Week 4: Founder Insights + Content System Setup
Extract Founder Insights through interviews, create templates for geo and industry pages, and build a content calendar for supporting blogs.

Days 31–60: Build & Launch

Week 5–6: Page Production
Build and publish:

• 8 geo (location) pages
• 4 industry pages

Week 7: Internal Linking System
Connect all pages through a structured internal linking strategy to create content silos that boost rankings.

Week 8: Foundational Authority Building
Begin link building with a focus on driving backlinks to the homepage (local directories, partners, citations).

Days 61–90: Authority & Scale

Week 9–10: Digital PR Launch
Turn founder insights into newsworthy stories, thought leadership, and media placements to earn high-authority backlinks.

Week 11: Scale Link Building
Expand outreach across local, industry, and authority sites to strengthen domain authority.

Week 12: Content + AI Visibility Push
Publish 8 new blog posts and optimize for AI-driven search by analyzing prompts, sources, and citation patterns.

Beyond 90 Days: Scale and Dominate

• Increase publishing velocity of founder-led content
• Expand into additional locations and industries
• Build backlinks to key “money pages,” not just the homepage
• Continuously refine internal linking and conversion paths
• Double down on digital PR and authority signals
• Systematically optimize for both Google rankings and AI-generated results

How to Find the Right SEO Marketing Consultant for Your MSP

SEO takes a lot of time and effort. Realistically, to execute effective SEO for your MSP you will need to invest 15-20 hours per week writing content and building backlinks. If that’s not in the cards for your business, then you may want to look into hiring an SEO marketing consultant for your MSP. But be careful. There are over 20,000 SEO agencies in the US and 99% of them are mediocre at best.

At my first job out of college I ran sales for an AI company in the Twin Cities (before AI was cool). Long story short we burned $150k on two different SEO agencies and had ONE lead to show for it (frustration from this experience is what led me to start DYAD with my wife, Tera).

Don’t get burned like I did 10 years ago. Ask your SEO agency the following questions and see how they respond.

Questions to Ask

1. Tell me about a time when you helped an MSP generate a positive ROI from SEO.
2. What did you do, how long did it take, and what investment was required from the client?
3. Where do you source your backlinks from?
4. How many backlinks will I receive per month and what quality metrics (DA/DR, traffic, etc.) can I expect from them?
5. What is your process for writing content and is it created in-house or overseas?
6. What metrics will you show me to prove that your work is progressing as it should and what should I see and by when?
7. Tell me about a time when an SEO campaign didn’t perform as it should. What did you do to improve its performance?
8. What guarantee can you offer to ensure the return on my investment?

Pricing Guide

SEO for MSPs generally costs between about $3,000 at the low end and $20,000 or more for providers with multiple locations.

When evaluating SEO agency pricing, make sure both backlinks and content creation are included. If a low-cost package does not include backlinks, it’s best to avoid it. In many cases, these offers are designed to win business on price rather than deliver meaningful results or a strong return on investment.

Conclusion

SEO for MSPs is one of the most effective lead generation strategies your business can deploy. But it comes at a cost. The more you invest, the faster you will see an ROI. The worst thing you can do as a business owner is to be half-in and half-out. Regardless if you bring SEO in-house or use a partner, make sure that your campaign focuses on authenticity. Authentic helpful content can provide outsized results for your MSP. Use this to your advantage as much as possible.

If you have any questions on this guide or if you’d like me to run an analysis on your business and the competition in your market, send me a message on LinkedIn. I would love to help however I can, regardless of the commercial arrangement involved.