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

SEO can make or break almost any business online.

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

What are the Types of SEO? The 11 SEO Types Explained!

What is SEO?

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

SEO offers so many benefits including;

• Gives excellent ROI
• Generates high-quality traffic
• Improves your overall website sales
• Increases your organic visibility
• Improves 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 24/7 promotion to your business for FREE.

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

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

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

That’s why most businesses implement various types of SEO to rank their website pages on top of Google search results. 

SEO consists of a TON of tactics. 

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

The Common SEO types include:

1. On-page SEO: Optimizing content and elements within your web pages, like titles and keywords, to enhance search rankings.
2. Off-page SEO: Activities outside your website, such as building backlinks, to improve your online presence and authority.
3. Technical SEO: Technical enhancements made to your site, like fixing broken links and improving site speed, for better search engine visibility.
4. Local SEO: Strategies to enhance your business’s visibility in local search results, crucial for local businesses.
5. Enterprise SEO: Optimizing large websites for competitive keywords and significant traffic.
6. White Hat SEO: Ethical and legitimate SEO practices within search engine guidelines, focusing on quality content and natural link building.
7. Black Hat SEO: Unethical SEO tactics breaking rules, often leading to penalties.
8. Gray Hat SEO: A combination of white and black hat techniques, posing some risks for SEO outcomes.
9. Negative SEO: Malicious tactics used by competitors to harm your website’s search rankings.
10. YouTube SEO: Optimization of video content on YouTube to improve visibility and reach on the platform.
11. Voice Search SEO: Optimizing content for voice-based searches.

Let’s look at these different types of SEO strategies in detail so you can understand which one’s to use to grow your search traffic. 

1. On-page SEO 

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

What is on-page SEO?

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

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

• Optimize title tags and meta descriptions
• Use a short and sweet URL including a primary keyword
• Publish high-quality content
• Target at least one or two keywords with every blog post
• Include ALT tags that are relevant to the images you’re using
• Internal linking matters a lot (so always link to relevant posts while publishing new content)
• Try to sprinkle 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 (such as keyword stuffing).

2. Off-Page SEO

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

What is off-page SEO?

Off-page SEO refers to tactics taken outside of your website to get higher rankings in search results. Unlike on-page SEO, off-page optimization is about everything that doesn’t happen directly on your website.

Here are some of the popular off-page SEO techniques;

• Try to improve your brand online so you can attract a ton of brand mentions 
• Blog commenting
• Forum posting
• Influencer outreach
• Guest posting
• Broken link building
• Social networking
• Social bookmarking
• Write helpful answers on platforms such as 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 others on the web. If you want to improve your website trust signals, off-page SEO plays a key role.

3. Technical SEO

Proper technical SEO helps search engine spiders crawl and index your website more quickly and effectively. If you want to get better rankings, you must improve your website’s technical SEO.

What is technical SEO?

Technical SEO refers to optimizing your website for crawling and indexing. It also helps you find and fix all the technical issues that are preventing your site from getting better rankings.

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

Here are some of the things you should focus on;

• Find and fix all the broken links on your website (including external and internal links)
• Find and disavow all the toxic links that are pointing to your site
• Crawl your site and look for any crawl errors
• Get rid of thin and duplicate content
• Find and fix all the missing ALT tags, lengthy meta descriptions, missing titles, etc
• Ensure your site is equipped with HTTPS 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 perform. But when you’ve access to the right tools like Semrush, you can easily perform technical audits on your website to find and fix all the technical issues.

4. Local SEO 

Local SEO is ESSENTIAL for any business that has 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 search engine visibility for local businesses.

Here are some of the local SEO tactics include;

• Finding local keywords that are relevant to your business
• Optimizing your business’s Google My Business (GMB) profile
• Building “NAP” (Name, Address, Phone) citations on local directories and Google Maps
• Always ask for “online reviews” for your website and business 
• Optimizing your website for mobile as the majority of the local searches are performed on mobile 

Should you implement local SEO on your website?

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

Read: Local SEO Checklist: 5 Ways to Rank Higher in Local Search Results

5. Enterprise SEO

Enterprise SEO is an SEO strategy that’s often used by big enterprise websites that have a ton (several thousand) of pages.

What is enterprise SEO?

Enterprise SEO is the practice of improving search engine rankings for a large enterprise company that consists of hundreds of thousands or even millions of pages.

Some of the enterprise SEO tactics include;

• Optimizing your content for featured snippets
• Targeting extremely competitive keywords 
• Competing with the BIG and authority websites in your industry 
• Producing high-quality content regularly 
• Using structural data
• Optimizing your content for voice search

Should you implement enterprise SEO on your website?

Even if you aren’t a Fortune 500 company, you may still need to implement the best enterprise SEO strategies if your website has a huge number of pages. Enterprise SEO helps large websites to compete for competitive keywords to bring a ton of search traffic.

6. White Hat SEO

White hat SEO uses ethical strategies to get better rankings in search engines. All the SEOs and agencies practice white hat SEO to improve their website rankings in search results.

What is white hat SEO?

White hat SEO refers to the tactics that work within search engines’ guidelines to improve a website’s rankings in search results. 

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

Here are some of the widely-used white hat SEO tactics;

• Creating long-form of content that’s helpful to your target audience
• Build backlinks using the evergreen strategies like guest blogging, blogger outreach, broken link building, etc
• Creating different types of content such as articles, videos, podcasts, infographics, etc
• Improving your website loading times to provide a better user experience
• Building and growing your social media presence organically
• Updating 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 get better rankings in search results. 

7. Black Hat SEO

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

What is black hat SEO?

Black hat SEO is the practice of improving search rankings for a website by implementing unethical tactics that often violate Google search engine guidelines.

Black hat SEO is BAD for your business and it can lead to getting your website banned or penalized in search results.

Here are some of the black hat SEO tactics include;

• Keyword stuffing
• Buying links in bulk from sites like Fiverr
• Content automation (using content automation tools to create content)
• Creating doorway pages
• Cloaking
• Using hidden texts or links
• Leaving spam comments
• Creating copied content

Should you implement black hat SEO on your website?

NEVER! Unless you want your website to get banned in Google search, never practice or implement black hat SEO strategies. It takes time to build and grow search traffic. Don’t expect quick results.

8. Gray Hat SEO

People and SEO agencies that are looking to quickly improve their search traffic often use gray hat SEO techniques. Although gray hat SEO might bring you some search traffic initially, it won’t last (due to frequent core updates from Google).

What is gray hat SEO?

Gray hat SEO is the combination of both white hat and black hat SEO techniques. It may or may not result in your site getting penalized by Google (depends on how you those tactics). 

But it’s still a risky SEO practice that you should avoid if you want to stay safe from Google penalties. 

Some of the common gray hat SEO tactics include;

• Buying expired domains
• Buying domains with exact match keywords
• Using PBNs (Private Blog Networks) to build links
• Buying links
• Social media automation and purchasing followers to grow an online presence 

Should you implement gray hat SEO on your website?

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

9. Negative SEO

Negative SEO is a malicious SEO practice that’s used by your competitors to demolish your website rankings in search engines like Google. If you’re NOT careful and don’t fight against negative SEO, your website may get banned or penalized by search engines.

What is negative SEO?

Negative SEO is generally considered as “black hat SEO”. But it is often done by your competitors to tarnish your website rankings in search engine results.

Here are some of the most common negative SEO tactics most people (or your competitors) use to tarnish a website search rankings;

• Automated spammy link building
• Leaving negative or fake reviews about a product or website
• Link farms
• Scraped content
• Removal of backlinks by sending fake link removal requests
• Hacking a website to steal links

Should you protect your website against negative SEO?

Absolutely yes. You never know how your competitors are trying to bring you down in search results. That’s why securing your website and always keeping an eye on your website’s backlinks is extremely important.

10. YouTube SEO

YouTube SEO is similar to Google SEO but you’re primarily optimizing your keyword terms for YouTube instead of Google. YouTube has over 2 billion monthly active users. So if you’re looking to boost your brand or business online, you should implement YouTube SEO tactics.

What is YouTube SEO?

YouTube SEO is the process of optimizing your YouTube channel videos to 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 primary keyword in your video title and meta description
• Use proper thumbnails 
• Find the right keywords to create videos
• Optimize your YouTube video tags
• Increase your YouTube video’s watch time because it’s an important YouTube ranking metric
• Create YouTube Playlists to bring more traffic to relevant videos

Should you focus on improving YouTube SEO?

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

11. Voice search SEO

With smartphones getting cheaper and reached billions of hands, voice searches are growing rapidly. Most people are now using 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 mostly includes the natural language of users and delivers QUICK relevant answers.

Here are some of the common voice search SEO techniques used;

• Target question-based keyword phrases
• Focus on using conversational keywords
• Implement schema markup
• Make your site mobile-friendly
• Use FAQs while creating pages
• Create content that gives 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’ll be getting additional traffic from search engines like Google.

Read: 10 Best SEO Books to Help You Master SEO in 2024
Read: Types of Digital Marketing to Learn & Master in 2024

FAQs About Different Types of SEO

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

Final Thoughts on types of SEO in digital marketing

There are many SEO techniques you can use to get better search rankings. Make sure to practice the best SEO tactics such as white hat SEO, YouTube SEO, on-page SEO, etc to increase your site’s rankings on the SERPs.

So what are your thoughts about different types of SEO? Which one do you like most? Share your thoughts in the comments.