What Are The Types of SEO?

If we’ve taught you anything from our blogs, it’s that SEO is way more complex than simply adding keywords to a web page. Back during the birth of search engines, it was that simple. Spam your keywords over every single heading and alt text, and you’re golden. Nowadays, though? That approach would fly like an ostrich (not at all).

Because of its complexity, SEO is often broken down into subsets so both experts and amateurs alike can wrap their minds around it and have better success.

How many “types,” or subsets, of SEO are out there? Depending on who you ask, there can be as few as three and as many as twelve.

The experts at Uyo Digital Marketing are of the mindset that the main three types, on-page, off-page, and technical, are the most beneficial to learn. All other SEO specialties fall under these three categories, so there’s no need to split hairs here. (Although, stay to the end of the article to learn some of these additional types!)

The following is a discussion of the three types of SEO, why they matter, and what common strategies you can implement for your business’ website. So let’s get into it!

On-Page SEO: What Is It?

The first main type of SEO is on-page SEO. On-page, or on-site, SEO is the practice of optimizing elements on your website to gain more visibility and relevant traffic from search engines. You can do this through a combination of content-related and code-related techniques. (Remember, “Content is King?”)

The goal of on-page SEO is to make it easy for both search engines and users to:

Understand what your web page is about
Identify if that web page is relevant to what they want to know

For example, when you buy shoes online, you know there are many options out there. Do you want combat boots? Stilettos? Sandals? Barefoot shoes? Good arch support? Heelies? (Hey, you do you, boo.)

Regardless of what you’re looking to buy, it’s obvious that you want to avoid wading through every option out there to find what you want. No, you want to quickly and efficiently find your specific type of shoe and get on with your life. On-page SEO techniques allow search engines to cut through all the options to find the shoes you intend to buy. They also allow the brands that sell your specific shoe to be found.

Why Does On-Page SEO Matter?

As the above example shows, on-page SEO is vital for search engine algorithms to understand your web page better and serve it up to the people looking for your products and services. These algorithms are constantly evolving, and your website needs to keep up so you can dominate search engine results and reach your business goals.

More than half of your website’s traffic comes from search engines, which means you’re losing out on ample opportunity if you need to optimize your website for SEO.

Here’s another way to think of it: if SEO were a car (take your pick – mom-van or convertible), then on-page SEO would be the engine. It’s powerful and creates momentum. And, of course, without it, you won’t go anywhere.

Common On-Page Strategies

Some essential on-page SEO strategies you should be implementing on your website include:

Optimizing page titles and heading tags on a page
Optimizing image file names and alt text
Ensuring that the content is high-quality, user-friendly, and unique (not found elsewhere on the internet)
Ensuring that the website structure is intuitive and easy to navigate
Confirming that the page loads as fast as possible
Designing the page to be responsive and mobile-friendly

Off-Page SEO: What Is It?

The second main type of SEO is off-page SEO. Off-page, or off-site, SEO refers to actions occurring away from your website that impact your rankings and traffic from search engines.

This type of SEO aims to measure authority, relevance, trustworthiness, and popularity. So let’s talk about shoes again. It’s easy for anyone to say that their shoes are the best quality, but it’s much more challenging for a customer to know who to believe.

To ensure you’re buying the best quality shoes, what do you do? Well, you look at reviews and maybe even ask around your friend group, right? In essence, off-page SEO is doing the same thing. It’s a reputable, external source vouching for you or the information you’re presenting.

Why Does Off-Page SEO Matter?

As we’ve said earlier, search engine ranking factors and algorithms constantly change. However, trustworthiness and authority (in some form) will always be ranking factors. Why? Because searchers will always want to know if businesses are trustworthy and can come through on their promises.

Going back to our car analogy: off-page SEO, in this case, would be the car’s wheels. They’re also powerful and momentum-building but have the ability to withstand harsh weather and road conditions. If someone calls you out about the quality of your product, but 500 others will vouch for you, then that call-out means nothing. You’ll be able to move forward toward your goals with off-page SEO.

Common Off-Page Strategies

What off-page strategies should you implement as part of your digital marketing strategy? Consider some of the following:

Guest blogging on a business website in a related industry
Posting content from your website on social media platforms
Hiring a well-known influencer to talk up your brand
Building citations in online directories

Technical SEO: What Is It?

Our third main type of SEO is Technical SEO. Technical SEO is exactly what it sounds like: technical. The main goal of this type of SEO is to ensure that search engine bots can do their job without problems. If SEO were a car, technical SEO would be like the drivetrain connecting the engine to the wheels. It’s not a feature of the vehicle that is front of mind, but it sure as hell matters when it isn’t working.

Common strategies for technical SEO include:

Optimizing XML sitemaps and enabling SSL
Adding structured data markup to the website
Minifying site code and HTTP requests to speed up the site
Monitoring URLs for indexation issues

Why Does Technical SEO Matter?

When you’re first learning about SEO, technical SEO can be the most overwhelming type to wrap your mind around. So, is it even worth the effort? Yes! Technical SEO ensures that your visitors are able to navigate your website easily.

Technical SEO also ensures that your site is free of any technical issues that might prevent it from being understood and ranked by search engines. Of course, if your website has major technical problems, all the effort you’re putting into on- and off-page SEO won’t yield the results you want. No bueno.

Integrating technical SEO measures into your overall strategy will not only allow your other SEO strategies to work effectively, but also help you attract more organic traffic and turn that traffic into customers.

Technical SEO vs. On-Page SEO: What’s The Difference?

Understanding the difference between technical SEO and on-page SEO can get a little dicey because, technically (pun intended), both are happening on your website. So how are the two types different?

On-page SEO is optimizing elements of your website that the searcher will see, whereas technical SEO largely optimizes elements of the website that the searcher doesn’t see.

When buying a new car, the buyer sees a fancy paint job, seat warmers, and a backup camera. They don’t typically get underneath the vehicle and start examining the undercarriage. But no one would doubt that external and structural things are principal factors.

Likewise, on-page SEO deals with content and user experience optimization. Technical SEO, on the other hand, deals with what’s “underneath the car,” like canonical tags, server maintenance, and redirections.

What Type of SEO Should You Choose? Uyo Can Help!

So, of the three main types of SEO, which one is the most important for your business?

That’s a bit of a trick question because the true answer is all of them. Nevertheless, we keep returning to the car analogy because it well-illustrates this central point: you need it all to get where you want to go.

Will your car run if it has wheels but no engine? Will it work well if it has an engine but no wheels? Will your car run if the drivetrain is missing? No, no, and a big fat no.

Similarly, to achieve your digital marketing goals, like higher conversion rates and better search engine rankings, you need a strategy that successfully balances on-page, off-page, and technical SEO.

How do you develop a strategy like that? We’ve got an easy answer for that one, too. Schedule a consultation with Uyo Digital Marketing. Our team of experts can come together to strategize a plan customized for you and your business. Meet with us today.

Bonus Content: More Types of SEO

Strictly speaking, the following types of SEO either fit under the three above categories or are not SEO at all. However, we include them as “bonus content” because you’ll likely come across these terms as you learn how to optimize your site.

International SEO

Does your business have a presence in various countries? Or does your target audience speak multiple languages? Then, international SEO practices might be for you.

What is international SEO? It’s the process of optimizing a website so that search engines identify which countries or language groups you want to reach. For this type of SEO, the goal would be to ensure that content remains original and high-quality across languages, the website’s structure supports multi-language features, and technical aspects of the site, like the hreflang attribute, are working as intended.

Local SEO

Local SEO is similar to international SEO in that you’re optimizing for a group of people who live in a specific area; however, it’s on a more micro scale. Instead of optimizing for entire countries, you’re optimizing for states, cities, and even neighborhoods.

If your business has one or more physical locations or serves a specific geographic area, then local SEO techniques should be part of your strategy. Some techniques include optimizing Google Business Profiles, managing location pages, and creating location-specific directory listings.

E-Commerce SEO

What is e-commerce SEO? Simply put, it’s the optimization of an online store. Online stores can be a lot more complex than other types of websites. Additionally, search engines like Google offer shopping features in their search results, a wise place for e-commerce companies to tap.

Some e-commerce SEO techniques include:

Keeping the site structure simple and intuitive, but easy to scale as new products are released
Ensuring that every page of the website has a reasonable click depth
Optimizing the content on product description and product category pages to match search intent
Expanding product pages with useful features to keep users engaged on the site

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

Pay-Per-Click, or PPC, is a term used for paid search ads. Paid ads are not SEO. SEO strategies specifically influence organic listings in search engine results. So while you might pay an SEO expert because of their skill and knowledge, you are not paying the search engines to list your website. With paid ads, you are.

Why point this out? Knowing the difference between paid expertise and paid advertising is essential. You need to know what to expect as you construct your digital marketing strategy. SEO doesn’t have a cut-and-dry ROI breakdown. You’ll never find someone who can tell you that x amount of dollars = x amount of rankings. (And if they are, they’re lying.)

So why are we even including PPC in this list? Because the two can make each other better when used in conjunction.

When you implement SEO best practices, you’ll have a higher-quality website. In addition, PPC bids favor higher-quality websites, so in general, you’ll win more bids and spend less money getting those bids.

On the flip side, searchers who see your paid ads will be more likely to also click on your organic results. PPC also helps you increase your SEO visibility, meaning that by maximizing the top real estate in search results, you’ll be better positioned than competitors. It’s worth investing in both types of marketing.

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