Types of search engine optimization (SEO) can be classified into two separate blocks – there are 3 types of SEO techniques and 3 types of SEO services and approaches. If you want to excel with a great SEO strategy, all of the techniques should be included. Regarding SEO approaches it’s different because you are probably going to go with only one, although in most cases they will mix at some point.

Let’s get into more detail:

Types of SEO: Technical SEO

Technical SEO is a fundamental part of any SEO strategy. Without it, any other SEO efforts can very well end up being pointless.

It is all about the technical, non-content related elements of your website. The ultimate goal of technical SEO is to make sure the site is well accessible for search engine crawlers (has no crawlability issues), and all the main pages are being indexed, at the same time making sure the pages consisting of sensitive data and admin pages are not accessible. Other parts of technical SEO include:

• Site speed
• Mobile Friendliness
• Rendering
• Site structure
• Security
• Structured data

Types of SEO: On-page SEO

On-page SEO cares about the content of your website and how it can be optimized to achieve the best results in SERPs. With optimizing your site’s content for specific keywords you can make sure Google or other search engines can better understand what your pages are about in order to show them for specific search queries. On-Page SEO consists of:

• Keyword research – doing a research to find out the keywords to target
• Keyword optimization – optimizing pages content, body texts, metadata, etc. to include the found keywords
• New content creation – publishing new content targeted on the already found and included keywords

Types of SEO: Off-site SEO

Off-Site SEO is about building your websites ‘strength’ in comparison to competitor websites by boosting the site’s reputation and authority. It helps Google see that your page is valuable enough to be shown as an ideal search result in more and more searchers.

Off-Site SEO strategy mostly consists of building backlinks – links from other websites pointing to your site.

SEO approaches: White hat, Black hat, Grey hat SEO

Just like there are white figures and black figures in chess, the ‘players’ in the SEO world can use white or black approaches to help them gain greater search engine visibility. Most SEO experts nowadays, however, try to stay away from the darker approaches.

The symbol of a ‘hat’ is used for these approaches, named after the heroes and villains characters in the Western films of the early 20th century wearing white and black hats. Good versus evil can be applied to the SEO world, too. Which side to choose?

• In short, White Hat SEO aims to utilize such SEO strategies and tools that do not involve breaching Google’s guidelines. It includes content optimization according to the best practices, off-site SEO activities that are based on long-term research and manual actions.
• Meanwhile, Black Hat SEO, like the villain from movies, tries to find the opponent’s weaknesses – search engines. Their actions conflict with the guidelines. Some of the techniques include keyword stuffing, hidden texts and links, link spam and others. Even though Black Hat enthusiasts tend to find new weak spots of Google algorithms, Google is taking preventive actions and has gradually eliminated some of the Black Hat SEO strategies over the years and caught many SEO ‘villains’.
• Grey Hat SEO falls somewhere in between White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO. The practices are not specifically mentioned in any guidelines, but also come with some risks. They include but are not limited to click baits, paying for reviews, link exchanges, etc.

Scandiweb is a leader in eCommerce since 2003, delivering world-class solutions proven to drive traffic and conversions for hundreds of businesses across the globe. Our in-house digital marketing team consists of high-level SEO experts, creatives, and analysts. We’re here to help you ensure SEO excellence and increase revenue from organic traffic, starting with a free SEO audit.

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