SEO adds a set of complex practices and techniques to improve a site’s online visibility and search engine rankings. Marketers rely on multiple SEO strategies to drive organic traffic to the website. These tactics add keyword research, social media marketing, content optimization, off-page SEO, etc.
However, when you dive into SEO or search engine optimization, you will come across several kinds of claims that are SEO types, which can be overwhelming. More than distinct processes, these SEO subsets are a method to break down the complex process of SEO and make it easy to manage.
Although on-page and off-page are the two most famous types of SEO, professionals also use other SEO methods to drive good results.
This content will help you explore multiple SEO types that marketers rely on to build effective campaigns.
What is SEO?
(SEO) Search Engine Optimization is a regular process to boost a website’s online visibility and drive organic traffic. So, it aims at improving a site’s search engine rankings for relevant keywords. SEO involves multiple strategies and techniques that work to enhance user experience, optimize a site’s content and structure, and make it more discoverable.
There are multiple types of SEO, each comprising distinct elements. Gaining a clear understanding of these SEO types can help you tailor these strategies for good and more effective results.
Types of Search Engine Optimization
SEO includes different approaches and strategies, and each of them intends to optimize the website for top search engine result rankings. We have listed below, 17 types of SEO in digital marketing:
- On-page SEO
- Off-page SEO
- Technical SEO
- Local SEO
- E-commerce SEO
- International SEO
- Video SEO
- Image SEO
- Voice SEO
- Mobile SEO
- YouTube SEO
- Social SEO
- Content SEO
- Negative SEO
- White-hat SEO
- Black-hat SEO
- Gray-hat SEO
Read Also: What 15 Types of Backlinks in SEO are Needed Right Now!
Types of SEO
Let’s understand the multiple types of SEO in digital marketing, in detail:
1. On-page SEO
The first and foremost type of SEO optimization is On-Page SEO, it refers to the optimization of individual web pages to improve their ranking in (SERPs) search engine results pages. Like content, HTML code, images, etc, to boost search engine rankings on SERPs and drive quality traffic. It includes making every element and appealing to visitors and search engines.
Why is On-Page SEO Important?
- Improved Rankings: On-page SEO can increase organic traffic by improving the ranking of individual web pages in SERPs.
- Increased Click-Through Rate (CTR): Optimizing title tags meta descriptions, and on-page SEO can increase the CTR of search results, leading to more users on the site.
- Improved User Experience: On-page SEO can improve the reader experience by making web pages more relevant, engaging, and informative. This can lead to increased time on the website, lower bounce rates, and higher conversion rates.
- Better Crawlability and Indexability: Optimizing the structure and content of a web page, on-page SEO can make it easy for search engines to crawl and index the page, making sure that it appears in relevant search results.
Elements of On-Page SEO
There can be multiple elements of On-Page SEO, a few of the most common are as follows:
Keyword Research: Keyword research is the process of seeking and researching relevant search phrases used by a searcher to search for a query or product online. To increase brand awareness and improve rankings, marketers strategically use these keywords in content to rank web pages.
Title Tag: This refers to the clickable headline that we view in search results. An optimized title tag must add relevant keywords and should be concise yet descriptive.
Meta Description: The meta description is a summary of the web page that appears below the title tag in search results. It should be compelling and informative to encourage readers to click on the link.
Header Tags: Header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) are used to structure the content on a web page and indicate the significance of multiple sections. They should be used strategically to highlight crucial keywords and phrases.
Content: Content is king, the content on a web page should be high-quality, relevant to the target audience, and optimized for relevant keywords. It should be good-written, informative, and engaging.
Images: Images can enhance the reader experience and make a web page more visually appealing. Although, they should be optimized for the web by compressing them and using descriptive alt tags.
Internal Links: Internal links connect multiple pages on the same site. They help search engines understand the structure of the site and distribute link equity entire of the entire website.
External Links: External links connect a web page to other sites. They can be used to provide additional information, cite sources, or create relationships with other sites.
Page Formatting: Writing quality content and creating attractive images are important to optimizing a website. Although, it is also important to spruce up the content. Google assesses web pages on their appearance and looks, checking if it’s full of ads and popups to rank them on its SERPs.
2. Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO focuses on promoting a website on other platforms and websites. It adds link-building, social media marketing, email marketing, etc. Unlike on-page SEO which is more about a site’s structure and content, off-page SEO includes techniques to boost a site’s ranking on search engines by optimizing factors outside the website itself. The types of SEO aim to increase a site’s reputation, relevance, and authority, which is crucial to driving organic traffic.
Elements of Off-page SEO
Here are some vital off-page SEO elements marketers focus on:
Backlinks: These are links from other websites from which you get link juice for your specific web page. Backlinks allow search engines to assess the popularity and authority of a site.
H.A.R.O: Help a Reporter Out (H.A.R.O.) is an online service that connects reporters and media professionals so they can collect quotes to curate blogs, press releases, articles, and other types of content. In simple terms, it refers to addressing reporters’ queries to gain more backlinks and media attention.
Social Media: Increased social media engagement, like comments, shares, likes, and feedback, can boost the visibility and popularity of a site. It is also an effective way to create stronger and long-term relationships with potential clients while driving quality traffic to the site.
Brand Mentions: When the name of the product or brand is mentioned on other sites, forums, social media, and other channels, it includes brand enhancement and awareness of the reputation of the website.
Competitor Analysis: Marketers regularly keep a close watch on the activities of their competitors, analyzing their digital marketing and SEO techniques to optimize their own. This helps them understand keywords competitors are using, content they are publishing, and campaigns they are creating.
Guest Blogs: Marketers often write and publish content on other sites that link back to their websites, these are known as guest postings. They create links, increase brand awareness, and drive traffic.
Benefits of Off-Page SEO
- Improved Rankings: Off-page SEO can help improve the ranking of a site in SERPs, leading to increased organic traffic.
- Increased Brand Awareness: Off-page SEO can help increase brand awareness by promoting the site on social media, creating relationships with other websites, and engaging in other online activities.
- More Backlinks: Off-page SEO can help create backlinks from other sites, which can improve the popularity and authority of the website in the eyes of search engines.
- Increased Traffic: Off-page SEO can help drive traffic to the site by increasing building backlinks, brand awareness, and engaging with potential clients on social media.
Read Also: What is On-Page vs Off-Page SEO? Different But Important!
3. Technical SEO
Technical SEO adds multiple types of SEO techniques to improve the technical aspects of a website so that search engines can easily crawl and index it for improved search engine rankings. It adds improving page loading speed, setting up redirects, configuring robot.txt files, making the site mobile-friendly, and so on. Technical SEO makes a website more accessible to search engines and visitors.
Elements of Technical SEO
The following are the core key elements of technical SEO:
Website Structure: The site should follow a proper and clear structure so users can easily navigate it. There must be a logical hierarchy of multiple web pages and categories, allowing search engines to crawl and index it without much hassle.
Website Speed: The site’s loading speed, adding its text, videos, and images, determines its ranking in SERPs. If a site takes too long to load, it can lead to a higher bounce rate and lower search engine rankings.
Identification of Crawl Errors: To improve your website’s rankings and overall visibility, you need to identify crawl errors that hamper performance. This is the best way to seek and resolve errors, like broken links, missing pages, etc, making the site and its content easily accessible to search engines.
Mobile-Friendliness: People now rely on their mobile to access apps or sites. So, your website should be mobile-friendly so that more visitors can access it on their smartphone devices.
Security: Your site should be secure to keep user data safe and prevent hacking. You can protect your site from cyber-attacks by using a secure hosting provider, implementing SSL encryption, and updating software.
Audit of Duplicate Content: Two write-ups that are identical can also affect your search engine ranking and credibility. Hence, audit your content continuously to seek the same content on the internet and optimize it for improved search engine rankings.
XML Sitemap: It is a file that lists crucial web pages so that search engines can discover and index them easily.
Keyword Cannibalization Audit: This refers to identifying different pages on the site competing for the same keyword and fixing this issue. Examples can dilute the online visibility of the site and affect its organic performance.
Benefits of Technical SEO
- Improved Rankings: Technical SEO can help improve the ranking of a site in SERPs by making it more accessible to search engines and visitors.
- Increased Organic Traffic: By improving the site’s structure, speed, and mobile-friendliness, technical SEO can increase organic traffic to the site.
- Butter User Experience: Technical SEO can improve the user experience by making the site faster, easier to navigate, and more secure. This can lead to increased time on the website, lower bounce rates, and higher conversion rates.
- Improved Crawlability and Indexability: By optimizing the site’s code and structure, technical SEO can make it easy for search engines to crawl and index the website, ensuring it appears in relevant search results.
4. Local SEO
Local SEO comprises strategies to optimize a site for local search results. If you have a leader bag store and want to attract customers to visit it, you need to work on local SEO to improve its visibility and popularity. It targets audiences based on location by promoting a business across directories, maps, and local search engines.
It helps you get more customers and traffic to your office or store. Local SEO techniques add building citations and backlinks from local sources, optimizing Google My Business profile, including local keywords, managing online reviews, and ensuring local business listings. These types of SEO optimization techniques aim to attract local clients to your nearby store.
Elements of Local SEO
Here are some local SEO elements you need to pay attention to:
Google My Business (GMB) Account: You need to build and enhance your Google My Business listing to improve the online visibility of your business in local search results.
Google Maps. Add all the necessary details, like the name and address of the business, contact details, pictures, and operating hours.
Local Citations: Register your business with trusted directories and platforms, like Yelp, Foursquare, etc. Your listings should be accurate and consistent across all platforms and channels so that search engines can confirm your credibility and address.
On-page SEO: Build and publish content for local search results and make it relevant to your business location. Your business’s address and phone number must be consistent and shown correctly.
Online Reviews: Encourage your existing customers to share their feedback on multiple websites, like Google, Yelp, and more, to enhance your marketing efforts.
Backlinks: Get quality links to your site from high-authority and reputable regional sites and trade publications.
Content Marketing: Curate informative, optimized, and top-notch content targeting local people and displaying your subject-matter competence.
Mobile Optimization: Optimize your site for all operating systems and smartphone devices as users now prefer their mobiles to look for products, services, or queries.
Social Media: Develop social media profiles to connect with native people and promote your services and products.
Benefits of Local SEO
- Visibility in local search results is increased
- More targeted traffic to your site
- Improved client engagement and conversions
- Stronger brand trust and reputation
5. E-commerce SEO
E-commerce stores also need to achieve high ranks on SERPs to attract more potential and quality clients. Whenever a user searches for goods, the search engine displays the most relevant online stores offering the same product.
Therefore, comes E-commerce SEO, which is among the top 4 types of SEO and is used to optimize online stores. It enhances the visibility and search engine rankings on e-commerce sites by focusing on multiple elements, like blogs, category pages, product pages, etc. Similar to any other SEO tactic, it also intends to drive more organic traffic to the site and boost sales. It also adds improving website architecture, analysis, competitor research, and homepage SEO.
Elements of E-commerce SEO
E-commerce SEO includes optimizing online stores to improve their visibility in search engine results and attract potential clients. Here are the core elements of e-commerce SEO:
Keyword Research: Identify and target relevant keywords related to the services or products offered on the e-commerce website.
Product Descriptions: Write unique and compelling product descriptions with a focus on using relevant keywords naturally.
On-Page Optimization(SEO): Optimize product pages and category pages for search engines, adding meta titles, meta descriptions, headers, and image alt text.
User-Friendly URLs: Create clean and user-friendly URLs that add relevant keywords and accurately describe the content.
For Example: www.techvastness.com
Website Structure: Ensure a logical and intuitive website structure that makes it easier for users and search engines to navigate.
Mobile Optimization: Optimize the e-commerce website for phone devices to cater to the growing number of users who shop on mobiles and tablets.
Benefits of E-Commerce SEO
- Increased traffic and visibility to your store
- Improved goods discoverability and sales
- Enhanced client experience and satisfaction
- High conversion rates and revenue
Read Also: What is Off-Page SEO Techniques? 17 Best Methods!
6. International SEO
International SEO is used to optimize multilingual sites or content to enhance their online visibility and ranking in global search results for users in multiple countries. Websites offering content in multiple languages use specific SEO techniques to enable search engines to index their content better. It is known as international SEO techniques. Their goal is to make such sites more accessible to the global people and increase engagement, conversions, and traffic.
This is one of the core types of SEO used by big companies and global brands to drive more organic traffic from multiple regions and countries. To launch successful international SEO campaigns, you need to meet the target audience’s requirements and cater to the global market’s cultural context so they can make transactions in their interaction with your brand in their language and use their currency.
Moreover, ensure to use of the right format for the date and time according to the region. It would help if you also communicated in the users’ native language while addressing their queries to offer the best experience.
Elements of International SEO
As mentioned, international SEO is a technique for optimizing a site for best performance in search engines across different languages and countries. It adds various tactics and ways that make a website relevant, appealing, and accessible in different locations.
International SEO is the process of optimizing a website to make sure that it performs well in search engine results across different countries and languages. It adds strategies and techniques to make a site accessible, relevant, and appealing to users in multiple geographic locations. The core elements of international SEO are:
Geotargeting: Use geotargeting settings in search engine tools such as Google Search Console to specify the target country for multiple versions of your website.
Hreflang Tags: Using hreflang tags to indicate to search engines the language and region of specific pages. Hreflang tags help prevent content duplication issues for websites with content in different languages.
Country Code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs): Use country-specific domain extensions (e.g., .uk, .de) for multiple versions of your website to signal relevance to a specific country.
Subdirectories and Subdomains: Organizing international content uses subdirectories (e.g., example.com/fr) or subdomains (e.g., fr. example.com) to separate content by region or language.
Localized Content: Crafting content that is culturally and linguistically appropriate for the target people. This adds translating content, adapting images, and considering local clients and preferences.
Currency and Pricing: Display prices in the local currency and adapt pricing strategies to reflect regional variations in market conditions.
Benefits of International SEO
- Increased traffic and visibility from international markets
- Improved client engagement and conversions
- Strong brand trust and reputation
- Access to fresh revenue streams and growth opportunities
7. Video SEO
Video SEO adds optimizing video content and video hosting platforms to improve their ranking in search results and increase organic traffic. The goal of video SEO is to improve a video’s ranking in search results, and views, and drive traffic to a site.
Elements of Video SEO
Video SEO refers to optimizing video content for search engine visibility and ranking. This is important for getting videos discovered by larger viewers and increasing views. Here are the core elements of video SEO:
Keyword Research: Identify relevant keywords for your video content. This adds using tools to seek keywords that align with your video’s topic and have a good search volume.
Video Title: Make your video’s title compelling and keyword-rich. This should accurately represent the content and entice people to click.
Video Description: Write a detailed description that t provides context about the videos content. Add relevant keywords naturally and consider including links to relevant resources.
Tags: Include descriptive and relevant tags to your video. In addition to improving discoverability, tags help search engines understand the context of your video.
Thumbnail Optimization: Crafting an eye-catching and relevant thumbnail for your video. Thumbnails play an important role in attracting viewers’ attention and encouraging clicks.
Transcriptions and Closed Captions: Provide accurate transcription or closed captions for your videos. This not only improves accessibility but also helps search engines understand the context of your video.
Benefits of Video SEO
- Increased reach and visibility of your videos
- More targeted traffic to your site or channel
- Improved engagement and interaction with your visitors
- Stronger brand reputation and awareness
8. Image SEO
The goal of image SEO is to enhance search engine rankings and drive organic traffic for images and image hosting platforms. However, alt text is the most famous image SEO factor, there are more techniques that marketers use to make images SEO-friendly.
Elements of Image SEO
Image SEO focuses on optimizing images on a site to make them more responsive and increase their online visibility. It is one of the top SEO types used to engage and attract more people, leading to more traffic to the site and its enhanced performance. The core elements of image SEO are:
File Names: Give your images descriptive and relevant names. Avoid generic names such as “imge001 .jpg” and instead use descriptive names that add keywords related to the image content.
Image Alt Text: Provide concise and clear alt text for every image. Alt text (alternative text) is a brief description of the image that helps search engines understand this content. Alt text is also significant for accessibility.
Image Size and Compression: Optimize the size of your images without compromising image quality. Huge image files can slow down your site, affecting user experience and SEO. Using compression techniques to reduce file sizes while maintaining visual quality.
Image Format: Select the appropriate image format for your content. JPEG is suitable for photographs, while PNG is good for images with transparency. WebP is a modern format that combines better compression with high quality.
Responsive Images: Make sure that your images are responsive and adapt to multiple screen sizes. Responsive design is a factor considered by search engines in determining the mobile-friendliness of a site.
Image Sitemap: Add images to your website’s XML sitemap. This helps search engines index your images and understand their relationship to your content.
Benefits of Image SEO
- Increased traffic and visibility to your site or platform
- Improved discoverability of your images in search engine results
- Enhances engagement and user experience
- Stronger brand recognition and awareness
Read Also: How to Become Digital Marketer? Step-By-Step Guide!
9. Voice SEO
Voice SEO includes optimizing a site and online presence to improve its accessibility and visibility via voice search and voice-activated devices.
Elements of Voice SEO
Voice SEO, known as voice search optimization, includes optimizing digital content to improve its ranking and visibility in voice search results. With the rise of virtual assistants and voice-activated devices, like Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google Assistant, optimizing for voice search has become increasingly crucial. Here are the core elements of voice SEO.
Natural Language Keywords: Focus on natural language keywords that searchers are likely to use when speaking, as voice searches tend to be more conversational.
Featured Snippets: Aim to paper in featured snippets, because many voice search responses are drawn from these information-rich and concise snippets.
Local Optimization: Optimize content for local searches, because a crucial portion of voice searches is location-specific. Make sure your business information, like address and phone number, is accurate and up-to-date.
Conversational Content: Create content that mimics the way users speak. Writing in a conversational tone and providing direct answers to common questions.
User Intent Understanding: understand the people’s intent behind voice searches. Optimize for informational, transactional, and navigational queries accordingly.
Benefits of Voice SEO
- Increased traffic and visibility from voice search
- Improved engagement and user experience
- Stronger brand reputation and awareness
- Access to new potential clients and audiences
10. Mobile SEO
As the name suggests, mobile SEO refers to the process of optimizing a site for phone devices and tablets. It is not exactly a multiple type of SEO strategy but a subset of SEO that is specific to smartphones.
More than 60% of searches happen on mobiles. So, Google has created a phone-first index to assess how mobile-friendly a site is. A bad user experience on smartphone devices means users will never return to that page. Hence, you must offer a great and seamless experience to users, which is possible via mobile SEO. It aims to improve the style, structure, and loading speed of web pages when users use mobiles to access a website.
A few essential elements to consider for mobile phone SEO are:
- A web page’s loading speed.
- Format of the content for looking on mobiles.
- Smartphones compatibility
- Easy of use
- Users experience
- Not aggressive advertisements or popups that can hamper the overall experience.
Benefits of Mobile SEO
- Increased traffic and visibility from mobile SEO
- Improved engagement and user experience
- Stronger brand reputation and awareness
- Access to new potential clients and audiences
Read Also: How to Make Money in Digital Marketing? 13 Greatest Ways!
11. Youtube SEO
YouTube SEO is the process of optimizing your YouTube videos and channel to improve their ranking and visibility in YouTube search results and other search engines such as Google. By optimizing your videos for relevant keywords, you can increase the chances of users seeking your videos when they search for those keywords.
Elements Of YouTube SEO
YouTube SEO includes optimizing your channel and videos to improve their ranking and visibility on YouTube’s search results. Here are the core elements of YouTube SEO:
Keyword Research: Identify relevant and high-volume keywords for your YouTube video. Use tools such as YouTube’s search suggest, Google Keyword Planner, or third-party tools to seek suitable keywords.
Video Title: Create compelling, keyword-rich video titles that accurately represent the content of your video. Aim for titles that grab and encourage attention clicks.
Video Description: Write informative and detailed video descriptions that add relevant keywords. YouTube allows for longer descriptions, so use this space to provide additional links, context, and timestamps.
Tags: Include relevant tags in your video. The tags help YouTube understand the content of your video and improve its discoverability.
Thumbnail Optimization: Craft eye-catching and custom thumbnails that accurately represent your video. Thumbnails are often the first thing people notice and can importantly impact click-through rates.
Video Transcript and Closed Captions: Provide accurate transcripts and closed captions for your YouTube videos. It not only improves accessibility but also helps YouTube understand the content of your video for search purposes.
Benefits of YouTube SEO
- Increased Visibility: By optimizing your videos for relevant keywords, you can increase the chances of searchers seeking your videos when they search for those keywords.
- More Views: Increased visibility leads to more views, which can help you grow your engagement and audience.
- Higher Rankings: Optimizing your videos for relevant keywords can help you rank top in YouTube search results, leading to more subscribers and views.
- Improved Engagement: Optimizing your videos for relevant keywords can help you attract interested viewers, leading to improved engagement and watch time.
- Increased Brand Awareness: By optimizing your videos for relevant keywords, you can increase the chances of searchers seeking your videos and learning about your brand.
- More Subscribers: Optimizing your videos for relevant keywords can help attract subscribers interested in your content, leading to a larger and more engaged audience.
- Higher Revenue: Optimizing your YouTube videos for relevant keywords can help you generate more revenue from ads if you monetize your videos.
12. Social SEO
Social SEO types is a strategy that adds optimizing your site and social media presence to improve your search engine rankings. It combines the principles of SEO with social media marketing to help your website appear top of search results and attract more visitors from social media platforms.
Elements Of Social SEO
“Social SEO” is a term that adds the intersection of social media and search engine optimization (SEO). It refers to the impact of social media activities on a site’s search engine visibility and ranking. While social signals (like comments, shares, and likes) are not direct ranking factors in search engine algorithms, there are several ways in which social media can influence SEO. Here are the core aspects of SEO:
Social Signals: The direct impact of social signals on search rankings is debated, there is evidence that social engagement (likes, comments, and shares) may indirectly influence SEO. Famous content on social media tends to attract more links, which can positively impact search engine rankings.
Brand Visibility and Authority: Active and engaged social media profiles contribute to brand authority and visibility. A stronger presence can lead to increased searches, often associated with top search engine rankings.
Link Building: Social media is a platform for discovering and sharing content. When your content is shared on social media, it can attract backlinks, which are an important factor in SEO. Furthermore, social media profiles themselves can appear in search results.
Local SEO: Especially for businesses, social media profiles play an important role in local SEO. Having a complete and consistent business profile on platforms such as Google My Business and making sure accurate business information on social media can positively impact local search results.
Content Distribution: Social media is a powerful tool for distributing and promoting content. Sharing your blog posts, videos, articles, and other content on social platforms can increase visibility and drive traffic, indirectly impacting SEO.
Social Media Profiles in Search Results: Social media profiles often appear in search engine results pages. This can be an additional opportunity to control and influence the information that appears when people search for your brand.
Benefits of Social SEO
- Increased Visibility: Social SEO helps increase the visibility of your site by promoting it on social media platforms. When you share high-quality content on social media, you can attract more users to your site and improve your search engine rankings.
- Improved Brand Awareness: By promoting your brand on social media, social SEO helps improve brand awareness. When you engage with your people on social media, you can create relationships and build a positive perception of your brand, which can lead to increased site traffic and sales.
- Enhanced Credibility: Social SEO helps enhance the credibility of your site by demonstrating that you are an engaged and active brand. When you share valuable content and interact with your people on social media, you display that t you are a thought leader in your industry, which can lead to increased credibility and trust among potential clients.
- Higher Search Engine Rankings: Social SEO improves your search engine rankings by generating backlinks to your site. When you share your content on social media, other people may share it with their followers, building backlinks to your site. Backlinks are a crucial ranking factor for search engines, and they can help your site appear at the top of search results.
- Increased Traffic: Social SEO helps increase traffic to your site by driving users from social media platforms. When you share high-quality content on social media, you can attract more users to your website, leading to increased sales and conversions.
13. Content SEO
Content SEO is optimizing web content to make it more relevant and visible to search engines. This includes relevant keywords and phrases in the content, structuring it properly, and ensuring it is well-written and engaging.
Elements of Content SEO
“Content SEO” refers to the practice of optimizing the content on a site to improve its ranking and visibility in search engine results. It adds crafting high-quality, relevant, and valuable content that is not only attractive to visitors but also aligns with search engine algorithms. Here are the core elements of content SEO:
Keyword Research: Identifying relevant and high-performing keywords for your content. Use tools such as Google Keyword Planner or other keyword research tools to seek terms that people are searching for.
Quality and Relevance: Build high-quality, valuable, and relevant content that addresses the needs and interests of your target audience. Content should be engaging, and informative and provide solutions to people’s queries.
Keyword Placement: Strategically place keywords in crucial elements of your content, like the title, headings, and entire body. Therefore, it’s important to use keywords naturally and avoid keyword stuffing.
Content Structure: Organize your content with a logical and clear structure. Use heading (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to break up the content and make it more readable. Search engines appreciate good-organized content.
Meta Tags: Write compelling and descriptive meta tags, adding the meta title and meta description. Click-through rates can be affected by these elements in search engine results.
URL Optimization: Create user-friendly and clean URLs that add relevant keywords. A well-optimized URL provides users and search engines with an idea of the content’s topic.
Benefits of Content SEO
- Improves organic traffic to a site.
- Increases brand visibility and awareness.
- Builds trust and credibility with potential clients.
- Generates sales and leads.
14. Negative SEO
Negative SEO may not be the most ethical SEO practice, but marketers and brands use it in certain situations to achieve higher rankings. Negative SEO aims to harm competitors’ search engine rankings to replace those positions or gain from their losses.
There are several negative SEO techniques used by businesses, like posting negative feedback and reviews on multiple platforms, shaking others’ websites building different low-quality links. etc. If a person included in such malicious activities is identified, it can lead to legal ordeals. Hence, it’s always recommended to stay away from negative SEO.
Read Also: What is a Blog & How Does it Work?[Pros & Cons]
15. White-hat SEO
White-hat SEO adds all major types of SEO in digital marketing that abide by the guidelines and regular of all major search engines, adding Google, Yahoo, and Bing. These ways take time to yield results, hence you need to be patient. Therefore, once white-hat SEO starts working, you get sustainable and long-term results that build goodwill and credibility around your brand.
White hat SEO techniques comprise ethical practices to improve search engine rankings while continuing and integrity of the brand and site. The great part of this SEO type is there is no risk of getting the website banned by search engines if there are algorithm updates. Hence, we can say that white-hat SEO is low-risk and highly rewarding if done right.
Some common examples of white-hat SEO are developing quality and relevant content, using keyword-rich meta tags, doing extensive keyword research, creating links from high-authority links, offering top-notch content and services, building an easy-to-navigate website, etc.
16. Black-hat SEO
Black-hat SEO is the opposite of white-hat SEO, comprising techniques that exploit weaknesses in Google’s search algorithm to get a top rank on SERPs. These ways don’t follow the regular search engines and resort to bad practices to get the site ahead, like keyword stuffing, paid link building or spammy, cloaking to misguide crawlers, etc.
Such black-hat SEO ways may give instant results but can get your website blacklisted or affect its search engine ranking if detected by Google. Plus, you achieve short-lived results even after taking such high risk. So, it’s great to avoid black-hat SEO.
17. Gray-hat SEO
Gray-hat SEO adds tactics that are neither black-hat nor white-hat, hence the terms and conditions regarding these practices are unclear. Gray-hat SEO is used by marketers to get quick results.
Neither Google nor other search engines prohibit these strategies, but they are frowned upon and can result in unwanted results. Although, they won’t get your website banned from search engines. Hence, we can say that the content you create and publish according to gray-hat SEO is ill-defined. Excessive or suspicious links, clickbait content to sensationalize it, and paid reviews are examples of gray-hat SEO. However, these practices are not forbidden, avoiding such understanding techniques is good.
Conclusion
It’s important to understand the core types of SEO in digital marketing to improve your website’s online visibility and search engine rankings. From on-page and off-page SEO to video SEO to international SEO to technical SEO, each plays a vital role in SEO marketing campaigns. On-page SEO optimizes the site, while technical SEO ensures the smooth functionality of the website. Similarly, off-page SEO creates page authority, and international SEO takes your business to the world. Ensure you navigate these SEO ways effectively and use the right technique to attract traffic and sustainable business growth.