Our previous blogs about SEO have tackled the benefits and solutions that clients can take advantage of in keeping their businesses and brands relevant and ranking higher in search engines. However, we haven’t fully explored the different types of SEO and how they are used in different scenarios.
Let’s briefly explore these different types and how to use them in your organic search strategy to help your website rank higher on the Google search engine results page (SERP).
On-page SEO
Also known as on-site SEO, On-page SEO refers to the process of optimising the elements on the website such as title tags, internal links, HTML code, images, meta descriptions and the content available on the page. This is the most basic and common strategy to help the site rank higher and get more traffic from search engines. One of the common processes to optimise on-page elements is conducting keyword research and incorporating them in the meta descriptions, HTML tags and content. By targeting those keywords, users are able to find your product or service and other information relevant to their searches.
Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO refers to optimising your website off your domain to build trust, authority and credibility. This is done through social media sharing, social bookmarking, link building, podcasts, reviews, etc. According to statistics, the majority of the top-ranking pages get “followed” backlinks at +5% to 14.5% every month.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO’s primary goal is to optimise your website for Google bots to crawl, interpret and index your web pages. Technical SEO involves taking out duplicate content, submitting your sitemap to Google, fixing all broken internal and external links, and creating an SEO-friendly site structure and hierarchy. Just imagine, an estimated 3.5 billion searches are happening each day and your beautiful website has the potential to rank higher but your pages aren’t optimised, so your site won’t matter.
Local SEO
Did you know that 76% of consumers who use their mobile phones to search for something nearby will visit the business within the day? And that 30% of smartphone searches are related to location. Make a habit to optimise your website in local search results so that more people can find your business. Local SEO strategy includes optimising your Google My Business (GMB) profile, performing a local SEO audit, ensuring your name, address and phone number are consistent and can be found in local directories, and adding location pages to your website. There are more strategies to apply in local SEO but these tips will help increase traffic to your website.
White Hat SEO
White Hat SEO is when you use ethical strategies by following SEO rules and follow Google’s search engine guidelines. The main focus is to create high-quality long-form content, build backlinks like guest blogging, grow your social media presence organically and ensure that your website is user-friendly. You need to be patient with this SEO strategy to yield results but your brand will surely have long-term benefits in the search result ranking if you’re diligent to stick to this technique.
Black Hat SEO
If White Hat SEO is good SEO, then Black Hat SEO is definitely the opposite. This SEO type provides immediate gratification because it exploits the weaknesses in Google’s search algorithm to generate more organic traffic. In short, Black Hat SEO violates the search engine guidelines. No matter how instant the results are, it will have a negative impact on your website once Google catches you.
Gray Hat SEO
Gray Hat SEO stands in the middle ground between White and Black Hat SEO. Google will not ban your website if they find out you’re using this technique but it’s still considered risky to use Gray Hat SEO. It involves clickbait articles, paid reviews, buying expired domains, using private blog networks for backlinks and more. Gray Hat SEO will yield traffic results to your website but it’s still not the best practice to apply.
Negative SEO
Negative SEO is similar to Black Hat SEO. Its primary goal is to lower your competitor’s search ranking and tarnish the credibility of their website through the following: writing negative or fake reviews, website hacking, link farms or building unnatural links to a competitor’s website and sending fake link removal requests to take out backlinks. There are legal issues involved if anyone is caught doing this technique against a competitor.
Ecommerce SEO
Ecommerce SEO is ideal for retail store websites. It’s one of the best strategies to drive valuable leads and conversions for your online store business by paid search. Keyword research is crucial for e-commerce SEO to help users find your business. According to SEMrush, search engines are responsible for 37.5% of all traffic to e-commerce websites.
Content SEO
Content SEO involves creating unique content to help pages rank high on search engines. The factors that will help bring traffic to your website are copywriting, keyword strategy and site structure.
Engine Room Global is a performance marketing agency that builds brands, drives leads and helps turn visitors into customers. Contact us for a free consultation today and discover our Global SEO Services now!
