The Most Important Types of SEO in 2023

Achieving top search engine rankings in 2023 requires a multi-pronged SEO strategy. But with so many different SEO services and specializations, how do you decide where to focus your efforts and investments?

The key is choosing the SEO services that move the needle for your specific business goals and website structure. While SEO basics like technical optimizations and content creation remain essential, you may also need to leverage more advanced link-building, local SEO, ORM, and other techniques.

In this post, we will explain the most important types of SEO in digital marketing available today. We’ll provide tips on creating SEO strategies based on your target audience, site structure, and objectives to help you rank higher on search engine results pages. Let’s get started!

What Are the Main Types of SEO?

SEO can be divided into two main categories: on-page SEO and off-page SEO. These strategies are valuable in their own right and are regarded as the best SEO best practices. But what exactly are On-page SEO and Off-page SEO, and how do they vary? Let’s find out.

On-page SEO

On-page SEO refers to optimizing individual web pages to rank higher in search engines and earn more prospective traffic. Simply put, it is a way of optimizing website elements to increase their role in search results.

Crucial On-Page Ranking Factors

Your on-page SEO strategy must focus on the following factors. These factors can have the maximum impact on your rankings.

• Page Content: Each page should contain high-quality, unique content optimized with strategic keywords. Seamlessly incorporate relevant keywords in headings, opening paragraphs, image alt text, URL, etc. Use target keywords 2-3 times in the body content.
• Title Tags: Titles should be impactful, optimized with primary keywords, and under 60 characters.
• URL Structure: URL slugs containing keywords signal to search engines the page content. Use hyphens to separate words.
• Schema & Markups: Implement schema markups where applicable to highlight key page content.
• Image Alt Text: Describe images with targeted keyword phrases to improve image SEO. Use natural language.
• Headers & Title Tags: Proper heading structure reinforces page topics and content hierarchy for search engines.
• Meta Descriptions: Meta descriptions appear as snippets in search results. Compelling descriptions improve click-through rates.
• Structured Data: Enhance search snippets with rich results by adding structured data where relevant.

Technical On-Page Factors

In addition to content optimizations, technical SEO can significantly impact rankings. Thus, focus on the following factors.

• Optimized Page Speed: The quicker your website loads, the better the user experience and search rankings.
• Mobile Optimization: Ensure pages are mobile-friendly and load fast on devices.
• Internal Linking: Link to other internal pages using keywords to establish relevance and page hierarchy.
• Semantic HTML: Use HTML tags appropriately so search engine crawlers can better understand the page content and intent.

By optimizing these critical on-page SEO factors, both technical and content-focused, you can achieve higher rankings for target keyword terms while also providing a better user experience.

Why Does On-Page SEO Matter?

The value of on-site web page optimization cannot be underestimated. In addition to assisting search engines in interpreting page content, on-site SEO also aids users in easily and clearly understanding what a page is about and if it responds to their search query. Furthermore, it also facilitates the crawler in comprehending what the website contains and what a visitor will see on the website.

When search engines receive the relevant query, they can efficiently represent or rank the page on the SERP based on this information. Above all, the ultimate aim of on-site SEO is to make it as simple as possible for both search engines and users to:

• Recognize the purpose of a website.
• Determine whether or not the page is important to a search query or queries.
• Consider the website useful and deserving of a high ranking on a search engine results page (SERP).

In the next section, we’ll look at the sibling of on-page optimization– off-page optimization.

Off-page SEO

Off-page SEO refers to activities done outside a website to influence search engine rankings and increase awareness. While on-page SEO is crucial, off-page factors significantly affect SEO success.

Some of the most effective off-page SEO tactics include:

• Link Building: One of the most powerful ranking factors. Build high-quality backlinks from relevant websites to signal credibility. Prioritize contextual guest posts, resource pages, etc.
• Social Media Marketing: Leverage platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn to expand reach. Share content, engage followers, and run targeted ads.
• Influencer Marketing: Partner with influencers in your niche to amplify content and build buzz around your brand.
• Online PR: Build relationships with journalists and publications to earn high domain authority backlinks through featured articles.
• Local SEO: Optimize online listings and citations and build local links to rank for geographic searches.
• Social Bookmarking: Leverage bookmarking sites like Reddit, Digg, and niche communities to share content.

Why Does Off-Page SEO Matter?

Off-page SEO is crucial because it builds credibility and authority signals that can greatly improve your search engine rankings. High-quality backlinks from external websites indicate to search algorithms like Google that a site is reputable and relevant for particular keyword phrases and topics. The more high-authority sites that link back to your content, the more trust is conferred upon your domain. This is reflected in better SERP rankings.

In addition to direct SEO benefits, effective off-page SEO provides other advantages, including expanding brand awareness and reach through exposure on third-party platforms. Promotions on social media, guest posts on authority sites, and influencer partnerships all help showcase your brand to new targeted audiences. Off-page SEO also diversifies traffic sources beyond direct visits and on-site searches. Referral visitors from authority sites are highly relevant and engaged.

Other Types of SEO

Now that we’ve discussed on-page, technical, and off-page SEO strategies, let’s look at different types of SEO. It includes local SEO, mobile SEO, international SEO, video, and voice search SEO.

1. Local SEO

Optimizing for local SEO is essential for any business trying to reach customers in specific geographic regions. This includes properly optimizing and claiming your Google My Business listing, earning local backlinks and citations from directory sites like Yelp, optimizing pages and content for local keywords, including city names and zip codes, and building location-based reviews and signals. Implementing tactics tailored for local SEO can help you rank highly in map packs and local search results.

2. Mobile SEO

With Google’s mobile-first indexing and the massive growth in mobile usage, ensuring your website is fully optimized for mobile is critical for overall SEO success. Mobile SEO strategies include using a mobile-responsive design, minimizing load times on mobile devices, implementing Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), tailoring content for mobile screens, and building mobile-friendly UX. Prioritizing mobile SEO ensures your site performs well for local searches and brings in mobile traffic.

3. International SEO

Search engine optimization should be adapted market by market for businesses targeting international audiences. This requires researching the popular local search engines in each region, optimizing pages for target keywords in multiple languages, creating locally targeted content, earning region-specific backlinks, and tailoring strategies to local SEO standards and cultural nuances. Investing in translations and international SEO opens up new global opportunities.

4. Video SEO

With video content consumption booming, optimizing videos for discovery on YouTube and other platforms has become an essential SEO skill set. Tactics include researching target keyword phrases, optimizing titles and descriptions, generating transcripts, promoting videos on social media, and embedding them on authoritative niche sites to gain backlinks. Shorter, high-quality videos tend to perform best.

5. Voice Search SEO

Voice search has made optimizing content for featured snippets and conversational long-tail keyword phrases important. This includes using natural language, answering questions, targeting long-tail phrases popular in voice search, structuring content clearly, and highlighting key details like dates, names, and numbers.

How to Figure Out What Kind of SEO Services You Need?

With so many types of SEO, it can be confusing to understand what works and what doesn’t. However, following these steps, you can identify the best white hat SEO techniques for your business.

1. Conduct an SEO Audit

Perform a detailed SEO audit to get invaluable insights into website issues that must be addressed. Use online tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to thoroughly analyze on-page elements, site performance, technical factors, content, link profile, and more. Benchmark your website against top competitors to identify gaps. The audit findings will reveal specific areas of SEO that require improvement or attention to optimize your site.

2. Research the Competition

Leverage search engine tools and look at the SEO strategies your top competitors are utilizing. Analyze the keywords and phrases they rank for and their overall approach to on and off-page optimization. Modeling the SEO tactics of successful rivals can provide ideas on impactful techniques to deploy on your own website for better visibility and traffic within your niche.

3. Define Your Target Audience

One of the key steps in determining your SEO approach is clearly defining your ideal customer audience, including their location, demographics, interests, buying stage, and search behavior. Understanding the attributes of your target customers will inform important optimization decisions like local SEO and platform-specific tactics. For example, you must incorporate optimization elements like a local address, geography-based keywords, and locally relevant links to rank well for local search terms.

4. Set Goals and Review Metrics

Look at your current organic traffic sources, conversions, and keyword rankings within primary search engines. Set specific, quantifiable goals around increasing organic traffic, leads, sales, and other relevant KPIs. Analyzing metrics and benchmarks will help identify areas needing SEO focus to accomplish your objectives.

5. Evaluate In-House Resources

Realistically assess your in-house staff’s knowledge, skills, and bandwidth regarding SEO. Determine particular tasks and areas of expertise that may require assistance from an experienced SEO agency or consultant. Filling resource gaps by outsourcing key services can provide cost-effective results.

6. Identify Quick Wins and High-Impact Tactics

Some common quick-win SEO opportunities include technical fixes like optimizing page speed or enhancing structured data markup. Pursue these easy improvements first for fast results. Also, prioritize high-value SEO tactics tied directly to your core goals, target audience, and conversions. Maintain a balance between essential SEO foundations and more advanced techniques. Evaluate new approaches while staying on top of constant search engine algorithm changes.

What Types of SEO Services Are Out There?

If you want to hire SEO agencies or a freelancer but are unsure what services to expect, here’s what you can ask for.

1. Web Design, User Experience, and Web Development

Expert SEO service providers understand the importance of a user-friendly website design and smooth navigation. They ensure your site is responsive, loads quickly, and offers a consistent experience across devices. Additionally, they optimize the website’s structure and coding to make it search engine-friendly.

Services should include:

• Mobile-responsive design to accommodate all devices
• Site speed optimization like image compression, minification, caching
• Improving UI/UX through intuitive navigation and CTAs
• Conversion rate optimization of key pages and user flows
• Search-friendly information architecture and internal linking
• Ensuring the site is built on SEO best practices like clean URLs
• Technical site audit identifying issues hurting SEO
• XML sitemaps creation and regular updates
• Addressing indexation issues, duplicate content, site errors

2. Keyword Research and Content Marketing 

Effective SEO starts with thorough keyword research. SEO service providers identify relevant keywords that align with your business goals and target audience. These keywords are strategically integrated into your website’s content, meta tags, headings, and other on-page elements to improve your website’s visibility.

Services encompass:

• In-depth keyword and topic research to inform strategic content
• Creating SEO-optimized content, including FAQs, how-tos, and thought leadership
• Pillar content, visual assets like infographics and explanatory videos
• Syndicating and promoting content across digital channels
• Monitoring content performance and iteration
• Leveraging user-generated content like reviews

3. Link Building

Acquiring high-quality, authoritative backlinks signal search engines that your website could be trusted. SEO experts use various strategies to build a diverse and natural backlink profile, positively impacting your website’s rankings.

Ethical tactics include:

• Manual outreach for backlinks from relevant authority sites in the industry
• Guest posting on aligned industry blogs and publications
• Broken link building to replace outdated resources
• Strategic partnerships, brand mentions, and influencer collaborations
• Competitor link analysis to identify new opportunities
• Monitoring new links earned and resulting rankings improvements

4. Online Reputation Management

Maintaining a positive online reputation is vital for building trust and credibility. SEO professionals monitor and manage your online reputation by addressing negative reviews, managing customer feedback, and promoting positive content. A strong online reputation fosters customer trust and increases search engine rankings.

Services include:

• Regularly creating and promoting positive brand content
• Generating more positive reviews, testimonials, and advocacy
• Monitoring brand name mentions and sentiment across the web
• Resolving harmful reviews and buried penalized pages
• Pushing down outdated or irrelevant brand content

Conclusion

The SEO landscape continues to evolve rapidly, but the fundamentals remain the same – building a quality website optimized for users and search engines. While on-page optimizations and content creation are still essential, the scope of modern SEO expands far beyond. 

The key is identifying which core and innovative services suit your unique business goals, target audience, and website strengths and weaknesses. Rather than getting overwhelmed by the types of search engine optimization tactics, focus on services that fix critical issues revealed in audits and move the needle on your key objectives. And treat your SEO strategy as an ongoing optimization journey rather than a one-time fix.