The majority of people only consider one type of optimization when they think about SEO, and that is the type that involves placing keywords on web pages. Although that is a crucial component of SEO, there is much more to it. In actuality, that’s only a small portion of one kind of SEO.

The process of making your website more visible in Google search results for pertinent keywords or search phrases is known as SEO or search engine optimization. Natural site traffic can be generated with the aid of SEO. When shopping for a service or product online, customers are more likely to choose one of the top 10 results from a search engine. Because they are excellently written and completely SEO optimized, these top 10 results are recommended.

And you’ll need more than one type of optimization if you want to drive as much traffic as possible to your website.

The following SEO types can help your website rank for the keywords you’re after. Having a greater understanding of how to raise your rank is always a good thing, even though you probably won’t use all of them.

1. On-page SEO

This is the kind of SEO that you’re probably familiar with. On-page optimization includes all of the things that your readers will see when they visit your website. For the most part, that means content.

Effective on-page SEO is built on high-quality, informative content. And not just slightly informative—content that’s really going to rank well has to solve problems that no other pages are solving (or, at the least, solve those problems better than other available resources). The information you’re sharing has to be top-notch. Rand Fishkin, of Moz fame, says that it should be ten times better than other content out there. And that’s no joke—if your content is absolutely blowing everything else out of the water, it’s going to rank very well.

The most important part of on-page SEO is making sure your content is awesome. But there are a lot of other factors that go into getting a page to rank well in search results. The example we gave earlier, keywords, is an important one. If you’re writing a detailed piece on a topic, you’re going to include a lot of relevant and related keywords. But making sure that those keywords are totally optimized to meet your goals can provide a big boost to your SEO.

For example, including your keyword in the title, URL, first paragraph, and at least one sub-heading in your page is a good idea. You also want your keywords to cover a single, specific topic. (If you’re familiar with the Yoast WordPress plug-in, pictured below, you’ll recognize many of the elements analyzed by the plug-in as on-page factors.)

But on-page SEO goes beyond keywords. Having a site that’s easy for visitors to navigate is important, too—if your visitors want additional information, but it’s hard to figure out where it is, they’re not likely to stick around to figure it out. Good design is crucial as well. In short, you need to focus on providing a good user experience all around.

If it sounds like just about everything is included in on-page SEO, that’s because it’s a huge factor, and getting it right is super important. Much of this optimization is focused on the user, and that’s who you’re trying to attract, so it’s really important to get it right.

2. Off-page SEO

Defining off-page SEO is a bit more difficult. The first—and arguably most important—part of off-page optimization is link-building. This is a huge part of SEO, and it’s also one of the most difficult. Getting links to your site helps bring in visitors, and it shows Google that other people around the internet value your content and that your site is authoritative.

That’s a big deal.

Getting links from authoritative sites can make a huge difference in how your site is ranked—and while it’s difficult to measure the effect of a single link, it’s safe to say that getting a good one can provide a solid boost to your rankings. Getting links from those types of sites, however, is extremely difficult. Many people have built entire careers on building backlinks.

Social media is another off-page signal that can make a big difference in your SEO, as well. If people are talking about your content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or other social networks, search engines take that to mean that it’s worth talking about and help other people find it. Having a piece of content that’s popular on social media gets you a lot of traffic, too, which can help your SEO as well.

Read Also: What Questions to Ask a SEO Company?

It takes more than writing good content to get your post to succeed on social media, though—solid promotion to the channels where your audience spends time requires a lot of time and effort. The payoffs, however, can be huge.

Building positive relationships with bloggers, journalists, social media personalities, and the people behind websites similar to yours are all positive off-page SEO practices. Commenting on other blogs can be helpful. Guest blogging is still a popular off-page SEO method. Hanging out on Reddit and relevant forums can help, too.

A lot of this might not seem like SEO—but that’s because you’ve been focusing on on-page signals. SEO really has a lot to do with your overall online presence, and off-page SEO focuses on that. It’s often more about you as a content creator than your content itself.

3. Technical SEO

Some people classify technical SEO as a subset of on-page SEO, but we’ll be treating it as a unique type here. Technical SEO, in short, is related to on-page factors but has to do with things that go on behind the scenes.

For example, search engines may give some preference to sites with a responsive design that scales well to mobile devices. Page speed is also an important factor; if your page loads slowly, you’re going to lose visitors, and you might be penalized by ranking algorithms.

Optimizing images, using a secure HTTPS connection, caching information to speed load times, uploading detailed sitemaps, and other technical factors can help your SEO.

The HTML on each page should be optimized, too. Using schema markup to tell search engines exactly what’s on your page, making it easy for crawlers to figure out what your page is about, and using the correct type of redirects are all SEO-related factors. Speaking of crawlers, making sure your robots.txt file is updated to help crawlers find the right information faster is crucial, too.

Technical SEO sounds intimidating, but most of it is guided by the same principles as on-page SEO: you need to provide a good user experience. If your site is fast and easy to use, you’re halfway there. You just need to make sure now that it’s easy for Google’s crawlers to get around, too.

4. Local SEO

While many businesses only operate online, there are still thousands of companies that have a physical location where they need customers. If customers aren’t coming through your door, you’re not making money. So it’s important to take that into account when doing your SEO.

There are a number of steps that are important for local SEO that you won’t need to think about in a more traditional SEO campaign. For example, make sure that you’ve claimed your Google My Business page, which ensures that your name, address, phone number, opening hours, reviews, and other useful information is prominently displayed in search results and on Google Maps.

That listing itself needs to be optimized with good photos, descriptive information, and read reviews from customers.

You’ll also need to make sure that your contact information is prominently displayed and highlighted with schema markup so search engines know where it is. The more effectively you present this information to search engines, the easier it will be for them to show that information to potential customers.

Other things like embedding a Google Maps marker in your homepage, adding a region or city to your page titles, descriptions, and keywords, and displaying awards and trust symbols can also make a big difference not only in being found by local leads but also in getting turning those leads into customers.

5. White-Hat SEO

White-hat SEO refers to all the optimization techniques which abide by Google’s search engine guidelines. Although one needs to be patient to see results, they are sustainable and create genuine goodwill around your brand. Besides, there is no risk of your site getting banned or bumped down in the search results if there is a new algorithm change.

All in all, white-hat SEO is low-risk and high rewards if you do it right. Examples of white-hat SEO techniques include authoring useful and relevant content after doing extensive keyword research, earning links from high-authority sites based on the merit of your on-page content, etc. 

6. Black-Hat SEO

Black-hat SEO is the exact opposite of white-hat SEO in that it finds and takes advantage of any loopholes or weaknesses in Google’s search algorithm to rank better on its SERP. It does not stick to the search engine’s list of SEO dos and don’ts and resorts to spammy or paid link building methods, keyword stuffing, showing different content to bots/crawlers and humans (called cloaking), etc. to get ahead. It goes without saying that black-hat SEO can get your site blacklisted or its rankings to drop so it is best avoided. Besides, these high-risk SEO techniques give you only short-lived results.

7. Grey-Hat SEO

Grey-hat SEO tactics are often used by SEO agencies due to pressure to see quick results from a client and fall in between white and black hat SEO in terms of approach. Although Google’s webmaster guidelines do not explicitly say that such methods are prohibited, they are still frowned upon and can lead to undesired search outcomes.

Examples of this type of SEO include clickbait content that is sensational yet mediocre and of no value to the user, excessive and suspicious link exchange between sites, paid reviews, etc. Again, it is best to stay far away from such underhanded SEO tactics.

8. YouTube SEO

Much like app store optimization, YouTube SEO is a niche type of optimization, but it can make a big difference in how much traffic you’re getting. Many people don’t realize that YouTube is one of the world’s most popular search engines and that ranking for a popular search there is absolute gold.

And if you can also rank one of your videos for a standard Google search, you can get an even bigger boost. So how do you optimize content for YouTube? In much the same way as you do for other search engines.

First of all, your video needs to be great. It needs to answer questions, solve problems, or be more entertaining than what’s out there. If your video is great, it will keep people on the page longer, result in more comments and subscribers, and get more likes and favorites. All of these are ranking signals in YouTube.

Your video title and description should be descriptive, much like your page titles and introductions on text-based pages. A longer, keyword-rich description (without keyword stuffing) will help Google figure out what your video is about. Adding relevant keyword tags doesn’t hurt, either.

When you’re thinking about keywords, you should think about what is commonly called video keywords—these are the searches for which Google prominently displays video results at the top of a normal search page. They’re hugely valuable.

What are common video keywords? How-tos, reviews, and tutorials are always good bets. Getting your videos ranked for these types of searches will have a huge effect on your views. And, of course, there’s the off-page stuff; getting links to your video, getting other people to embed it in their blog posts, encouraging comments and discussion, and so on.

YouTube SEO is exactly what it sounds like. YouTube is one of the most used search engines in the world. The trick to gaining views on YouTube goes beyond creating good videos.

9. Mobile SEO

The process of optimizing a website for search engines while also ensuring that it is viewable flawlessly on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets is known as mobile SEO. A negative mobile phone experience with a brand can turn off a potential customer for good.

This type of SEO is essential because it allows you to reach out to your customers at the right time and in the right place, giving them the best experience possible. Mobile optimization helps you analyze your site’s design, structure, page speed, and other significant factors to ensure mobile visitors are not turned away by any point of information.

10. Ecommerce SEO

The process of optimizing online stores of businesses is ecommerce SEO. Ecommerce SEO encompasses all aspects of the SEO trend of the horizon. It’s a real business that requires you to make money and sell products while expanding them over time. Millions of queries are answered every day by search engines, many of which are related to ecommerce. Ecommerce SEO benefits you in increasing the traffic and ranking of your website.