In response to the question of what types of SEO, maybe content optimization and external SEO are the first topics that come to people’s minds. However, the set of SEO methods is much wider. The division of different types of SEO is black hat SEO, white hat, gray hat, content SEO, technical, internal, external, and negative SEO. This division is considered based on compliance with the rules of search engines and in terms of the connection of techniques with the website’s structure. In the following, most of the SEO methods are described, and after reading this article, the readers will get a comprehensive answer to the question (what are the types of SEO).
Content SEO
Content SEO can differentiate a website from competitors. This makes it easier for people to access website pages and increases visitor traffic. For example, a great advertising text that contains keywords is effective in the position of web pages in search engines and can increase customer interaction with the website. When promoting the site’s content, it is better to write descriptions different from the main text. Otherwise, the search engine bots will recognize the content as duplicate and may penalize the website. Duplicate content affects the ranking of web pages in search engines.
There are several ways to remove duplicate content on the site. One of the methods is to put the tag (Rel = Canonical) on duplicate pages. By linking duplicate pages to the original content, search engines will know which to evaluate and index as the original text. Another method is to use a 301 redirect (Redirect 301), which, in addition to search engines, transfers website visitors to the original content.
Keyword research is one of the strategies for content SEO. In this case, SEOs should check the most frequent words and phrases in the search results and place them in the textual content. It is better to have a keyword density of 0.5 to 1 percent. In other words, for each 1000-word article, key phrases should be repeated 5 to 10 times. In content optimization, using interesting and unique titles is very important.
Types of SEO in terms of complying with search engine rules
In response to the question, what are the types of SEO in terms of following the instructions of search engines? We can mention black hat, white hat, and gray hat SEO. Black hat SEO is a set of underhanded methods against search engine rules.
This technique will, in most cases, result in the website being penalized. In other words, black hat SEO has short-term benefits and, after some time, may cause negative consequences such as being removed from search engine results pages. Some black hat techniques are keyword overuse, hidden content, duplicate content, paid backlinks, and changing website reviews. Hidden content is how an HTML page is displayed to search engines while simultaneously showing users a page of CSS, JS, and image-heavy content.
White hat SEO solutions comply with the rules of search engine manufacturers. Creating unique content, using keywords correctly, designing web pages according to the audience’s taste and relevant backlinks, optimizing images, and republishing site content on social networks are among the methods that are usually considered for white hat SEO.
Also, some techniques considered in gray hat SEO include buying popular and expired domains, updating blog posts and long content, using tags in subheadings, and reposting website content on social networks. People can create multiple fake social media accounts to increase the number of followers and shares. This method is an example of gray hat SEO. An example of white hat SEO is if the content is attractive to the audience and is commonly shared on social media.
Negative SEO
One of the things that are less mentioned in response to (What are the types of SEO) is negative SEO. Negative SEO is activities that change competing websites’ position in search engine results. Negative SEO is an unethical method of website optimization, such as hacking others, creating spam links, copying other people’s website content, posting negative posts about competitors, etc.
For example, they build a backlink to a competitor’s website and then change the content or post duplicate content. In this case, the search engine bot considers the linked content duplicate or irrelevant and changes the ranking of the competitor’s website. If your page views drop for no reason or you encounter texts in other languages, such as Chinese, when searching your pages, profiteers have likely implemented negative SEO techniques on your site.
It is not easy to find negative SEO-related things on the website. Some signs through which you can track negative SEO activities on web pages are a sudden decrease in website traffic, changes in the ranking of keywords in search results, displaying irrelevant content instead of web pages, and invalid backlinks. SEOs can evaluate website content and links through Google Search Console, Google Webmaster Tools, and Google Disavow Links.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is optimizing website structure and design to help search engines find and index your web pages. These activities are carried out to place the website in search engine results and improve its position in the ranking of websites.
Some measures that are considered in this field are website code validation and their compliance with existing standards, user experience improvement (UX), content loading speed, having a 404 error page, HTML, CSS, and JS code validation, URL selection Suitable for sitemaps in HTML and XML format. In technical SEO, website designers must answer three main questions.
- Is the website functioning properly?
- How do search engines find website pages?
- Whether the audience interacts with the website or not.
Internal and external SEO
Internal and external optimization methods are somewhat related, and SEO beginners often refer to these types of techniques to answer the question (what are the types of SEO). Posting new content, editing old posts, creating internal links, and paying attention to titles, tags, etc., are among the things considered in internal SEO.
Building internal links reduce visitors’ bounce rate and improve web page rankings. SEOs add relevant information to current content by creating internal links to previous posts. Therefore, the audience of the site and search engines will have easier access to the interesting content of the website.
The last type of SEO is external optimization. External SEO refers to measures that increase the credibility of web pages by receiving links from other reputable websites. Techniques widely used in external optimization are valid backlinks, activity on social networks, having a complete list of keywords for anchor text, liking and reposting content on social networks, and linking pages with other websites.