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How Many Types of SEO Practices Exist in the Digital World?

Types of seo 2

What Are The Types of SEO Techniques You Can Employ?

The SEO practices adopted by marketers can be broadly classified into two categories i.e White hat SEO and Black hat SEO.

Before we delve in the types of SEO, let us briefly understand what is SEO all about.

According to Moz, Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.

But why is SEO Important?

It is exceptionally important because it is laser-focused on improving the online presence, traffic and ultimately results in a better ranking of your website.

According to Hubspot, 57% of B2B marketers stated that SEO generates more leads than any other marketing initiative. 

Just like the two sides of a coin, SEO also has two sides which are popularly known as the types of SEO.

But what does each of these types of SEO mean? let’s find out.

White Hat SEO

Quite clear from the name itself that White hat SEO refers to the most legitimate practices adhered by the marketers to gain higher rankings in the search engine result pages. The white SEO practices strictly abide by Google’s guidelines for SEO.

One of the types of SEO, the White hat SEO is considered to be highly wholesome in its approach as it follows Google’s algorithms and does not aim at exploiting the loopholes in the same.

The most commonly practised white hat SEO techniques are publishing quality content on the website, HTML optimization and restructuring of the website, link acquisition campaigns supported by quality content along with manual research and outreach.

The practices listed under the White Hat SEO techniques may be slow in giving results but the results-driven are much more lasting in their approach.

Black Hat SEO

As obvious as the name suggests, Black hat SEO includes the practices that aim at finding weaknesses and loopholes in Google’s algorithms in order to rank higher in the search engine result pages.

These practices are against the guidelines provided by Google and overall Google’s algorithms. Thus, the practices under the label Black hat SEO are considered to be illegitimate.

The wholesome level of Black hat SEO is very low and if you ask a person who works like a spam cleaner on search engine result pages he would probably declare the wholesome level to be zero.

The most common black hat SEO techniques include spam links, keyword stuffing, cloaking, hidden text, and hidden links. These practices aim at misleading the users and redirecting to the sites they didn’t vouch for. 

The traffic generated through these practices does not last nor are the rankings able to maintain their position on the search engine research pages. Thus, we can conclude that the rankings achieved through the Black hat SEO techniques are short lived.

Gray Hat SEO

Apart from a Black Hat SEO And White Hat SEO, there exists Gray Hat SEO as well that includes bits from both white and black hat SEO. The Gray Hat SEO mainly came into practice because of the pressure from the clients to receive results they have been paying for.

The third party companies have an extra inclination towards these mixed practices forming the Gray Hat SEO.

Types of seo
Types of seo techniques

What are the various types of SEO currently prevailing in the market?

There are various types of SEO techniques adopted by marketers all over the world as an attempt to mark their online presence. However, the major types of SEO  that can be used to classify the SEO practices undertaken by the marketers include On- page and Off- page SEO.

We have here divided the SEO practices into two categories: On- page and Off-page SEO. But what does each of these terms mean?

Types of seo
On-page seo and off-page seo

On-page SEO and off-page SEO

(i) On-page SEO:

Refers to the activities that are carried out on the page that is to be published. Simply put, the tasks that help optimize a given page such that it appears higher on the Search engine result pages.

The On-page SEO activities primarily include infusing keywords in the right quantity, inserting internal links, meta tags, Meta description, building a customized URL structure, inserting the alt attributes, taking care of the image SEO and most importantly providing the users with quality content.

(ii) Off-page SEO:

Refers to the activities that are performed on a page after it goes live on the web. The activities included in the Off-page SEO include sharing the post, commenting on the post to build engagement, liking the post on the social media, giving the star ratings to the post, answering the queries of the target consumers are all a part of the tasks listed under the Off-page SEO.

Types of On-page and Off-page SEO Techniques

Let’s figure different types of SEO techniques:

On-page SEO

(i) Backlinking:

Types of seo
Backlinks

By giving backlinks to credible sites, the authority of a site increases. A backlink refers to giving the source of the site that has been referred to quote particular information. Giving a backlink to a site that has a higher search engine ranking enables you to have a better level of credibility according to Google’s algorithms and even the SEO Yoast recommended by WordPress.

Also, if you give multiple backlinks to an authoritative site, there are chances that you are able to convince them in the future to give your site a backlink as well. Such a reciprocative action would do wonders for your site’s traffic.

(ii) Infusing Keywords in Order of Priority

If you are a Digital Marketer, you probably are already aware of what is meant by infusing keywords. But what do I exactly mean when I say infusing keywords in order of priority? well in the assigned keywords as well there are subcategories: primary keywords and secondary keywords.

As the name suggests, both these categories are differentiated by the order of priority. The primary keywords must occur at least 8-15 times in a content that is 1500-2500 words long. At the same time, all the provided secondary keywords must occur at least once in the entire content.

The Google’s spiders when crawl into the content posted by you gain knowledge of the context of the content through these keywords. Thus, as suggested in Google’s algorithms, the primary and the secondary keywords must be infused accordingly in the content to help Google understand better what is the content all about.

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(iii) Meta Tags, Meta Description, Alt Attributes

The meta tags, meta description, and alt attributes are an important part of the on-page SEO. The meta tags mainly comprise of the secondary keywords in the content. The meta tags help Google to read the content better and lets the search engine know the context of the content that is been posted on the web.

Whereas the meta description refers to the text that is displayed along with the title on the search engine result pages. The meta description is a crucial SEO element as it determines to a great extent if the searcher will click on your site’s link or not.

If you publish your blogs through WordPress, you must make it a rule to include your primary keyword in the alt text of the images. The screen readers for the blind users use the alt text to read out what is in the image. Thus, it is must be noted that in the absence of alt attributes the reader may simply ignore the image or get stuck there.

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(iv) SEO Yoast for WordPress

After you are done with writing your blog, it is suggested that you must always refer to the SEO Yoast provided by WordPress to improve the overall quality of the blog. The SEO Yoast presents you the key elements that help you to optimize your blog such that it appears at a notable position in the search engine result page.

(v) Image SEO

Image SEO is another way of optimizing the website or the landing pages in specific. An optimized image will appear in the searches made for images on Google. When the user clicks on the link to go to the original source of the image, the user is redirected to your website. Thus, gaining your website traffic. Images are an important component of any website, thus, must be optimized.

(vi) Internal Linking

The internal links are the links of the blogs previously published or the landing pages of the website.  The idea behind interlinking is redirecting the user from one page to the other page of the website. This is an attempt to retain the user.

(vii) H tags

Using the Heading tags ensure that Google takes notes of the headings used by you on the blog. Thus, the H tags must be used to make your blog visible in the SERPs for those particular words. It is also suggested that you use the secondary keywords and the primary keywords in the sub-heads.

(viii) URL Structure

You must adjust the URL according to the primary keyword, doing so would make the visibility of your blog higher. This works in a format that when a user makes a search with a particular keyword if the URL of your blog contains that keyword, the probability of Google showing your blog is quite high.

Also, you must make a deliberate attempt to eliminate all the numbers from the URL that might just appear automatically.

Off-page SEO

As explained above, the off-page SEO deals with the promotion of the content post publishing. Some of the most important and most common off-page SEO practices include:

(i) Sharing

If you think it’s ok to publish a blog and not share it on your social media handles or other connectivity apps that inform people what are you up to. Some of your friends might actually look forward to investing time in your work.

Again you don’t know how many people the post may reach through your social media handle. And if the post appears relevant to them, there’s an even higher possibility that they may share it on their profile or the connectivity apps they use in their daily routine.

(ii) Commenting

As you might have noticed on Facebook, the posts that are been commented upon automatically appear in the news feed. Same is the case with search engines, the blogs or the posts that receive engagement in the form of sharing and commenting.

(iii) Liking/Star Rating

Liking works just the same as commenting and sharing. The more the number of likes and star ratings on a post, the better is the credibility of that post according to Google. The star ratings especially work as reviews for a particular blog, for both the audience and Google, the star ratings are a means of reviewing the blog.

(iv) Answer Queries-Be Responsive

Your potential consumer would put up questions every now and then. Putting up questions signifies only one thing that your audience is interested in what they are reading.

So, there’s a reasonable chance that if you answer their questions you would be able to maximize their interest and crack a sale along with building engagement which is obviously very crucial to your online existence.

(v) Look out for what the user is looking for

One of the most important aspects of off-page SEO is spending time on researching where the potential audience’s interest lies in. When you pick topics of interest to your audience, it is an obvious fact that you will be able to build more engagement. isn’t that what you want?

Moreover, when you post after carrying out a little research, you are updated with what is prevailing in the market and would write on the trending topics that are of interest to all.

(vii) Develop a Personal Touch with the Target Audience

The off-page SEO has several elements that allow you to develop a personal touch with the users. While your reply to the comments and answer their queries over the social media or right below the blog itself, there is a scope for developing a personal touch with the audience. the more personally you connect with the audience, the more familiar the audiences would feel with your brand.

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The Types of Keywords in SEO

Search engine optimization begins with keyword finding and infusing those keywords into the content. Thus, there are various types of SEO keywords that can be infused into the content. What are those keyword types, read on to know:

Generic Keywords

Types of seo
Types of keywords- generic keywords
  • This type of keywords are just like their name, these keywords are too generic in approach. These keywords are too general in outlook and are extremely competitive in approach. it is overall difficult to rank for. However, these keywords are included in the secondary keywords to cover all the possibilities. The websites that are able to rank for generic keywords are able to accumulate a fair share of traffic with these keywords.
  • Also, it must be noted that a lot of marketers are not very keen on using generic keywords until and unless they are ready to invest enough in the promotions of the blog that it would finally rank at a notable position.
  • Example- DSLR camera, red lipstick, etc.

Broad Match Keywords

Types of seo
Types of seo keywords- broad match keywords
  • These keywords are a bit more specific in their approach like Mac peach red lipstick, Canon 1200d DSLR camera, and so on. Thus, these keywords are easy to rank for. Since these keywords are much more specific in approach. The broad match keywords are far more detailed so we know that a user who makes a search using a broad match keyword, what is he looking for basically. Thus, making a sale is not much of a hassle in this case nor is ranking that much of a big deal.

Long Tail Keywords

Types of seo
Types of seo keywords- long tail keywords
  • Long tail keywords have simply marked themselves as the love of every content marketer. These are the most specific set of keywords that leave no scope for guesswork. One thing the marketer can be sure of while using long tail keywords is that the user is already aware of what he is searching for and is looking for a specific result. This also concludes to the fact that the probability of making a sale is much higher.

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Types of SEO Services Offered by the Digital Industry

The Digital marketing industry has units that comprehensively offer SEO services. Every business today is striving to mark its online presence as an attempt to capture their own set of Digital consumers. Let us take a look at some types of SEO services offered by the digital industry today.

(i) Keyword Search

Many companies today outsource their SEO task of searching relevant keywords according to the theme of the business. The digital marketing companies employ SEO specialists to make keyword searches for their clients as per their needs.

If you are a firm that is striving to mark its digital presence and have been blogging on your SEO strategy, a keyword is an important element to be taken care of. In the absence of efficient resources, it is suggested that you avail SEO services from these digital marketing agencies or a hardcore SEO agency.

(ii) Creation of Landing Pages

The pages you redirect your audience to must not be misleading as that will reduce the credibility of your site. Thus, it must be noted that landing pages occupy an important position in the SEO of a website. To perform the task of creating the landing pages effectively, you can always take help of the agencies providing SEO services.

(iii) Page Optimization

There arises the need for page optimization from time to time in order to increase the search engine ranking for that page. Thus, page optimization must be considered every now and then.

(iv) Technical Audit

A technical audit is a task that requires in-depth programming knowledge. A company may or not have such talent amongst their resources but that must not hold them back from having their website audited. your website needs a technical audit because Google and other search engines are computers and they need assistance in understanding your site. An SEO service provider who is aware of the overall functioning of Google’s algorithms must be handed over this task.

Conclusion

This was all about the basics of SEO, types of SEO, types of Keywords in SEO and types of SEO services offered by the digital industry.

Hopefully, now that you know the real difference between White Hat, Black Hat & Gray Hat SEO techniques, you can now execute optimal SEO strategy to improve your site’s search ranking.

Let’s hear your side of the story now!

Write it to us if you think there are any more types of SEO left to cover to create a winning SEO plan for your business type.

Avatar of sahil arora
Sahil Arora
An ambitious Digital Marketing Professional who realized the potential of Digital Marketing too soon and started his career at the age of 18. Taking his passion forward, he loves to write about Digital Marketing and Analytics. Highly dedicated to the digital landscape, he ensures to stay updated with the latest trends and insights on Digital Marketing.

14 thoughts on “How Many Types of SEO Practices Exist in the Digital World?”

  1. This is a valuable post of all the people like who are just beginner in digital marketing want to learn SEO.
    Keep it up…

  2. At last i got a wonderful article about seo. This article is very valuable for the begginer who wants to rank a keyword on google. thanks for providing this great article.

  3. (vii) Develop a Personal Touch with the Target Audience
    should be (vi) Develop a Personal Touch with the Target Audience

    thank you for the info!

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