Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, can seem like a scary and daunting process. There are so many different types of SEO that it’s hard to know where to start.
In this article, we’re going to take a look at 11 of the most popular types of SEO and break down each one.
I’ve been in the digital marketing industry since 1998, and while every now and then a new SEO technique will emerge, a few things have remained consistent. So today, I’m going to share best practices and which types of SEO to avoid.
I’ll give you an overview of each type and the basic SEO strategy behind each. Then I’ll take a deep dive into the two types of SEO that I believe are the most important; on-page and off-page.
The 11 types of SEO
On-page SEO: This type focuses on improving SEO ranking by making changes directly to the content itself. Some examples include title tags, meta descriptions, keywords (both in page content and URL), using an appropriate formatting style such as headings, and making sure you have a good website structure.
Off-page SEO: This type focuses on building links back to your site from other sites to improve rankings. These can be natural or unnatural (aka paid) links, but the goal is still the same – build more high-quality connections between your page and others on the web.
Technical SEO: This type focuses on ensuring that your website is fully functional and accessible, with no errors or coding issues. This includes making sure pages load quickly by reducing image size and using a robots.txt file.
Local SEO: This type of SEO involves optimizing for a geographic area by adjusting content to make sure it’s relevant to a specific location. For example, this might mean making certain keywords more prominent if they are locally popular terms.
YouTube SEO: This type of SEO optimizes video content in order to achieve rankings. Youtube is the second biggest search engine in the world, so it makes sense to create content that’s optimized.
App Optimization: This type of SEO optimizes your app store listing. This includes using keywords in the title and a detailed description of what your app does.
Mobile Optimization: Mobile-friendly sites rank higher on Google searches because they are faster to load and easier to use.
White Hat SEO: This type of SEO is the most common type; it involves following Google’s guidelines for organic search and using optimization techniques that won’t be penalized by algorithms. This includes writing content based on keywords, adding in links where appropriate, monitoring competition, and acquiring links naturally.
Black Hat SEO: This type of SEO is often unethical, such as using banned techniques like keyword stuffing and using private link networks.
Grey Hat SEO: This type of SEO is a mix of white and black hat techniques. It includes ethically questionable tactics that are on the borderline of what Google deems acceptable – for example, cloaking and purchasing links.
Negative SEO: This type of SEO is the act of using black hat techniques to attack competitors. It can range from spamming links on forums, blog comments, and social media posts to hacking into their site with malware or other malicious code.
Deep Dive Into On-page SEO
On-page SEO is right up there as one of the most important aspects of digital marketing. Let’s take a deep dive into how it works.
Why is On-Page SEO Important?
On-page SEO is important because it’s the foundation of everything you do on your site. It includes elements like title tags, meta descriptions, and social media images – all of which are crucial for organic rankings in search engines.
What should I focus on?
Focus first on keyword research to find out what people are searching for and how many searches there are per month (volume). There’s no point in trying to win favor with Google’s algorithm if you’ve no chance of ranking for your chosen keywords.
I have more articles on keyword research here and here.
Use H1 Tag in titles
You need to optimize your titles with an H (Heading) tag. This tells Google what the main topic of your page is and what to expect when someone lands on it.
Title tag modifiers are important too.
Adding modifiers like “best” and “top tips,” for example, will help it attract visitors with the right intent.
Titles are important, but they’re not the only thing you should be focused on.
Use H2 Tags in subheadings
You should also take advantage of subheadings as much as possible (especially when writing long-form) because they make it easier for readers who skim through their results on SERP pages and allows them to absorb information better with shorter reading sessions.
This gives you an opportunity to add your keywords to an H2 tag, which Google considers important for relevancy.
Meta description
Now focus on meta descriptions, which are the snippet of text that appears below your title in search engine results pages (SERPs), usually between 100-150 characters long but a maximum of 160 with spaces.
It’s important not just for users scanning SERPs but also because Google uses it as an indication of relevance, so you want to try and include keywords or phrases related to your post.
Keyword Frequency
Add your focus keyword to the first 100 words of your post. Google likes to see your keywords being used early. Be mindful not to use your keywords too often, as they might appear spammy.
Include your keywords throughout your article, but don’t overdo it, and make sure to avoid keyword stuffing.
For best results, examine what is working for your competitors and stay within those parameters.
You can also use a keyword tool to find popular keywords related to your post and include them in your article.
Image Optimization
Images need to be optimized too. Optimize images should load fast and be relevant to the content.
Don’t forget to use alt text and a caption for your images.
Include keywords in the file name too. This adds relevancy to the image and can help you to rank in Google Images – another powerful source of organic traffic.
Adding Schema
Schema is a way to markup your content and can be helpful for SEO, and has become an important part of content marketing.
The schema includes tags in the code of your web page that allow search engines to understand your site’s information better.
There are two types of schema: Structured data (meta tags) and Rich Snippets (microdata).
The structured data markup helps you show what type of content each page has, so users can find it when they’re browsing or searching on websites with rich snippets enabled.
If you have blog posts as part of your website, then including this meta tag will help people know where to go if they want more information about any given post topic.
Featured Snippets
Featured snippets are a way for Google to answer search queries and show the answers directly in SERPs.
The goal of featured snippets is to provide quick access to information without requiring users to go through an entire site or page, which could entail scrolling or searching click-through links.
If you have valuable content on your web page relevant to what people might be looking for, it can serve as part of a good user experience (and hopefully encourage more clicks).
There are some things you need in order up create these types of snippet, including:
* Content must not contain any errors like broken links, pages with 404 status codes, etc.
* The content needs sufficient structure, such as headers, so there’s enough markup data available.
Avoid duplicate content
Make sure you don’t have duplicate content running across your pages.
Work with a professional copywriter or editor who has experience optimizing web pages online if necessary – this will help avoid plagiarism problems as well as making sure written content is relevant and readable by humans, not just crawlers from search engines.
Optimize for mobile
The next step is to ensure that your website is responsive across devices so people can find what they need from any device they choose.
It should also be easy to use with clean URLs (without adding parameters or extra numbers). The layout needs to be simple and structured without distractions like popups or other flashy elements, which might deter visitors from looking at your site on a phone screen.
Remember: Search engines don’t rank websites based solely on design but rather content relevance combined with high-quality information.
Link Optimization
Optimizing your content also means updating links regularly and checking them for errors like 404s or other mistakes that might hinder your website’s user navigation.
You also want to make sure that your website’s navigation menu bar is laid out in a way that is easy for visitors to find what they need.
Improve page speed
Page speed is an important metric that can affect your ranking in SERPs.
Google has released guidelines for page speed, and it’s a good idea to follow them as closely as possible, especially if you are using any plugins or widgets on your site like Disqus commenting system. Disqus slowed down one of my sites so much I had to remove it.
If you’re running a lot of WordPress plugins, you might find your site has slowed down. To find the worst culprits, disable all your plugins and turn them back on one by one, measuring the page speed each time.
Additionally, several tools allow you to test the load time of the pages on your website from different countries around the world.
If these tests show slower loading times than expected, this might indicate that something needs tweaking with your web page, theme, or server.
So be sure to have someone who knows what they’re doing take a closer look at things before making changes based only on what is found via testing alone.
Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO is an often overlooked aspect of the search engine optimization process, but it can help you rank higher and get seen by more people. The following are some ways in which off-page SEO can be applied.
What is Off-page SEO?
Off-page SEO is a strategy that involves creating and sharing content outside the website in order to rank higher in search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Bing. This includes things such as linking to related websites, commenting on blogs, social media posts, etc. It’s also important to keep track of any mentions of your company online, so be sure not to miss out on these opportunities.
Why is Off-page SEO important?
Off-page SEO is important because it can increase your chances of getting found by people who are searching for you based on information they have about you.
If you want more traffic coming from organic sources, then applying some form of off-page SEO is a good way to go.
Off-page SEO signals
There are over 200 ranking factors, and some of the most important ones are off-page, meaning they take place on other sites.
Off-page SEO signals consist of:
* Links from external websites to your site (the more diverse the link sources are, the better)
* Social media shares and likes
* The number of indexed pages for a domain in Google’s index
The best type of links is those that come from high-quality domains with similar topics or verticals, so you don’t dilute your efforts across too many areas. A good way to get “quality” links is by doing guest blog posts where you write articles for popular blogs on relevant subjects.
Domain Authority
Domain authority isn’t strictly something you can control, but it can greatly impact your rankings.
If you want to improve your website’s domain authority, one way is by creating more pages for site maps and internal links. Gaining a backlink, or several, from high-quality websites will also help.
A higher domain ranking means better search engine results when people are searching related topics – which ultimately leads to increased traffic as well as greater brand awareness in general. It’s not something you can control directly, but it has a huge impact on your rankings.
Steps for improving domain authority include creating more pages for site maps and internal links and getting links from external sources.
A good way to start link building is by doing guest blog posts where you write articles for popular blogs on relevant subjects.
It’s also important to use the right anchor text on your links, so Google understands the relevancy.
Social media signals
Google looks to social media signals from sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others when it’s analyzing your site.
The more you have these signals coming in, the better.
Google looks at social media sites to see what people are talking about your site.
The more they talk about it, the better chance you have of ranking well in search results pages.
One of the best ways to increase your social media signals is to create share-worthy content.
If you create content that’s worth sharing and is shared often, Google will take notice.
Conclusion
While these types of SEO are important, some are more important than others.
On-page and off-page are the two types of SEO that you need to be the most concerned with. By focusing your energy here, you will slowly begin to increase your search engine ranking.