Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of attracting targeted traffic to a website from search engines like Google. SEO involves many tactics, including on-page SEO, off-page SEO, technical SEO, and more.

11 Types of SEO: What They Are and How to Use Them

Le SEO can make or break almost all business online.

If you are looking for the different types of SEO that people use to generate more search traffic , this article is exclusively for you. Let’s get into the details without much delay.

What are the types of SEO? The 11 types of SEO explained!

What is SEO?

Le SEO (search engine optimization) is the process of making your website and its pages rank higher in search results.

SEO offers many benefits, including:

Gives an excellent return on investment
Generates high-quality traffic
Improves your overall website sales
Increase your organic visibility
Improve your brand and the list goes on

SEO is one of the most powerful digital marketing strategies used by brands and businesses to generate profits. If done right, SEO can provide 24/24 promotion to your business for FREE.

For example, here are some of the top results for the search “where to buy cryptocurrencies”.

If you sell cryptocurrency, you can optimize your website to get top rankings on the search engine results page (SERP).

But… it’s NOT that easy to rank for such competitive keywords.

This is why most businesses implement different types of SEO to rank their website pages at the top of Google search results.

SEO consists of a ton of tactics.

There are different types of search engine optimization tactics used by most people.

Common SEO types include:

On-page SEO: optimizing the content and elements of your web pages, such as titles and keywords, to improve search rankings.
Off-page SEO: activities outside of your website, such as building backlinks, to improve your online presence and authority.
Technical SEO: technical improvements to your site, such as fixing broken links and improving site speed, for better visibility on search engines.
Local SEO: Strategies to improve your business visibility in local search results, crucial for local businesses.
Business SEO: optimizing large websites for competitive keywords and high traffic.
White Hat SEO: Ethical and legitimate SEO practices consistent with search engine guidelines, focused on quality content and natural link building.
Black Hat SEO: Unethical SEO tactics that break the rules, often resulting in penalties.
Gray Hat SEO: a combination of white and black hat techniques, posing some risks to SEO results.
Negative SEO: Malicious tactics used by competitors to harm your website's search rankings.
YouTube SEO: Optimizing video content on YouTube to improve visibility and reach on the platform.
Voice Search SEO: content optimization for voice searches.

Let's take a detailed look at these different types of SEO strategies so you can understand which one to use to increase your search traffic.

1. On-page SEO

On-page SEO (also known as onsite SEO) is one of the most common types of SEO used by millions of websites to improve their organic search engine rankings.

What is on-page SEO?

On-page SEO is the process of optimizing your web pages to rank higher in search results. On-page SEO refers to any on-site optimization that you control and include on your website.

Here are some of the widely used on-page SEO techniques:

Optimize title tags et meta descriptions
Use a short, friendly URL that includes a primary keyword
Publish high-quality content
Target at least one or two keywords with each blog post
Include relevant ALT tags for the images you use
Internal links are very important (so always link to relevant articles when publishing new content)
Try to scatter relevant long-tail keywords wherever necessary for better rankings

Should you implement on-page SEO on your website?

Yes absolutely. On-page optimization helps you get more traffic from search engines like Google. But make sure NOT to overdo it (like keyword stuffing).

2. Off-page SEO

Off-page SEO (also known as off-site SEO) is another popular SEO technique used by webmasters around the world to build links, build their brand, and improve their overall online presence.

What is off-page SEO?

Off-page SEO refers to tactics adopted outside of your website to achieve higher rankings in search results. Unlike on-page SEO, off-page optimization concerns everything that doesn't happen directly on your website.

Here are some of the most popular off-page SEO techniques:

Try to Improve Your Online Brand to Attract a Ton of Brand Mentions
Blog comments
Posting on the forum
Influencer Outreach
Guest Posting
Creation of broken links
Social media
Social SEO
Write helpful answers on platforms like Quora to build links

Should you implement off-page SEO on your website?

Off-page SEO is extremely important because it tells search engines like Google that your website is important to other internet users. If you want to improve your website’s trust signals, off-page SEO plays a key role.

3. Technical SEO

Proper technical SEO helps search engine crawlers crawl and index your website faster and more efficiently. If you want to rank higher, you need to improve the technical SEO of your website.

What is technical SEO?

Technical SEO refers to optimizing your website for crawling and indexing. It also helps you find and fix any technical issues that are preventing your site from ranking higher.

What should you do when performing technical SEO on your site?

Here are some of the things you should focus on:

Find and repair all broken links on your website (including external and internal links)
Find and disavow any toxic links that point to your site
Crawl your site and check for crawl errors
Get rid of thin and duplicate content
Find and fix any missing ALT tags, long meta descriptions, missing titles, etc.
Make sure your site is HTTPS-enabled and mobile-friendly
Make sure your site is crawlable and indexable

Should You Implement Technical SEO on Your Website?

Yes absolutely. Although technical SEO is NOT an easy task to do. But when you have access to the right tools like SEMrush , you can easily perform technical audits on your website to find and resolve any technical issues.

4. Local SEO

Local SEO is ESSENTIAL for any business with a physical location and local presence. Local search engine optimization helps you generate more traffic, leads, and brand awareness from local searches.

What is local SEO?

Local SEO is the process of optimizing a website to be found in local search results. Local SEO helps you improve the visibility of local businesses in search engines.

Here are some of the local SEO tactics:

Finding local keywords relevant to your business
Optimize your business's Google My Business (GMB) profile
Creation of quotes “NAP” (Name, Address, Telephone) on local directories and Google Maps
Always ask for “online reviews” for your website and business
Optimize your website for mobile because the majority of local searches are done on mobile

Should you implement local SEO on your website?

If you run an offline business, agency or store, local SEO is a MUST. Local SEO helps you connect with local searchers in your area.

5. Business SEO

Business SEO is an SEO strategy often used by large company websites with a ton (several thousand) pages.

What is business SEO?

Business SEO involves improving search engine rankings for a large business consisting of hundreds of thousands or even millions of pages.

Some of the business SEO tactics include:

Optimizing Your Content for Featured Snippets
Target extremely competitive keywords
Compete with BIG websites and authorities in your industry
Produce high-quality content regularly
Use structural data
Optimizing Your Content for Voice Search

Should You Implement Enterprise SEO on Your Website?

Even if you are not a Fortune 500 company, you may need to implement the best business SEO strategies if your website has a large number of pages. Enterprise SEO helps large websites compete for competitive keywords to generate a ton of search traffic.

6. White Hat SEO

White Hat SEO uses ethical strategies to achieve better search engine rankings. All SEOs and agencies practice white hat SEO to improve their website ranking in search results.

What is White Hat SEO ?

White Hat SEO refers to tactics that work according to search engine guidelines to improve a website's ranking in search results.

These are extremely safe SEO tactics used by all SEO experts around the world to improve their search rankings.

Here are some of the widely used White Hat SEO tactics:

Create long-form content that is useful to your target audience
Build backlinks using evergreen strategies like guest blogging, blogger outreach, broken link building, etc.
Create different types of content such as articles, videos, podcasts, infographics, etc.
Improve your website loading times to provide a better user experience
Build and Grow Your Social Media Presence Organically
Update your content regularly to provide accurate and up-to-date information

Should You Implement White Hat SEO on Your Website?

Yes always. White Hat SEO complies with Google guidelines. So, you can always implement white hat SEO strategies on your website to rank higher in search results.

7. Black Hat SEO

Black Hat SEO Techniques are used to drive more organic traffic to a website by violating search engine guidelines. Although they do NOT work, many people still practice black hat SEO to quickly get more traffic from Google.

What is Black Hat SEO?

Black Hat SEO involves improving a website's search ranking by implementing unethical tactics that often violate Google's search engine guidelines.

Black Hat SEO is BAD for your business and can lead to your website being banned or penalized in search results.

Here are some of the black hat SEO tactics:

Keyword filler
Buy links in bulk from sites like Fiverr
Content automation (using content automation tools to create content)
Creating door pages
Camouflage
Use hidden texts or links
Leave unwanted comments
Creating copied content

Should you implement black hat SEO on your website?

NEVER! Unless you want your website banned from Google Search, do not practice or implement black hat SEO strategies. It takes time to build and increase search traffic. Don't expect quick results.

8. Gray Hat SEO

Individuals and SEO agencies looking to quickly improve their search traffic often use gray hat SEO techniques. Although gray hat SEO may bring you search traffic at first, it won't last (due to Google's frequent core updates).

What is Gray Hat SEO?

Gray Hat SEO is the combination of White Hat and Black Hat SEO techniques. This may or may not result in your site being penalized by Google (it depends on how you use these tactics).

But this is still a risky SEO practice that you should avoid if you want to protect yourself from Google penalties.

Some of the common gray hat SEO tactics include:

Buy expired domains
Buy domains with exact match keywords
Using PBNs (Private Blog Networks) to Build Links
Buy links
Social Media Automation and Buying Followers to Grow an Online Presence

Should you implement a Gray Hat SEO on your website?

If you want to protect yourself from future Google algorithm updates and penalties, you should avoid using gray hat SEO techniques.

9. Negative SEO

Le negative SEO is a malicious SEO practice used by your competitors to demolish your website's ranking in search engines like Google. If you are NOT careful and combat negative SEO, your website risks being banned or penalized by search engines.

What is negative SEO?

Negative SEO is generally considered “black hat SEO”. But your competitors often do this to tarnish your website's ranking in search engine results.

Here are some of the most common negative SEO tactics that most people (or your competitors) use to tarnish a website's search ranking:

Automated creation of spammy links
Leaving negative or fake reviews on a product or website
Link farms
Scraped content
Removing backlinks by sending fake link removal requests
Hack a website to steal links

Should you protect your website from negative SEO?

Absolutely yes. You never know how your competitors are trying to push you down in search results. This is why it is extremely important to secure your website and always keep an eye on your website's backlinks.

10. YouTube SEO

YouTube SEO is similar to Google SEO, but you primarily optimize your keyword terms for YouTube rather than Google. YouTube has over 2 billion monthly active users. So, if you are looking to strengthen your brand or business online, you need to implement YouTube SEO tactics.

What is YouTube SEO?

YouTube SEO is the process of optimizing your videos. Youtube channel so that they rank higher in YouTube's organic search results for specific keywords or phrases.

Here are some of the popular YouTube SEO techniques you can use:

Include your main keyword in your video title and meta description
Use appropriate thumbnails
Find the right keywords to create videos
Optimize your YouTube video tags
Increase your YouTube video watch time, as it is an important YouTube ranking metric
Create YouTube Playlists to Drive More Traffic to Relevant Videos

Should You Focus on Improving YouTube SEO?

Yes why not? YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google. YouTube's numbers are growing rapidly. So, if you are looking for a powerful platform to build an audience and grow your online presence, YouTube is the best platform.

11. Voice Search SEO

As smartphones become cheaper and reach billions of hands, voice searches are growing rapidly. Most people now use their smartphones and voice assistants to search for something online.

What is voice search SEO?

Voice search SEO is the process of optimizing keyword phrases for searches using voice assistants. Voice search primarily includes users' natural language and provides FAST and relevant answers.

Here are some of the commonly used voice search SEO techniques:

Target keyword phrases based on questions
Focus on using conversational keywords
Implement schema markup
Make your site mobile-friendly
Use FAQs when creating pages
Create content that provides direct answers to voice searches

Should You Implement Voice Search SEO?

Google reports that around 27% of online users worldwide use mobile voice search. So, if you optimize your content for voice search SEO, you will get additional traffic from search engines like Google.

FAQs on different types of SEO

Here are some of the frequently asked questions about different types of SEO and search engine optimization in general.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of attract traffic targeted to a website from search engines like Google. SEO involves many tactics including on-page SEO, off-page SEO, technical SEO, etc.

What are the 3 common types of SEO?

Here are 3 types of SEO that every website should focus on (to increase its search rankings).

– On-page SEO
– Off-page SEO
– Technical SEO

What is the best SEO strategy?

Keyword research and creating quality content is the BEST SEO strategy, no matter what industry you are in. You should also focus on acquiring backlinks as they are very important for improving your search rankings.

What are the SEO techniques for 2024?

Here are some of the best SEO techniques to use in 2024 and beyond.

- Create attractive and permanent content
– Improve your organic click-through rates
– Optimize your content for search engines
– Create relevant links
– Perform regular site audits to find and resolve SEO issues

What is on-page SEO?

On-page SEO is essentially any optimization that takes place directly on your website. On-page optimization is the process of optimizing your individual pages to generate more search traffic for target keywords.

Browse more SEO resources:

Final Thoughts on Types of SEO in Digital Marketing

There are many SEO techniques you can use to rank higher in search. Make sure you practice the best SEO tactics like white hat SEO, YouTube SEO, on-page SEO, etc. to increase your site's ranking in the SERPs.

So, what do you think about the different types of SEO? Which one do you prefer ? Share your opinion in the comments.

11 Types of SEO: What Are They and How to Use Them?

What are the types of SEO? The 11 types of SEO explained!