Types Of SEO
We’ hereby write to reveal the Types Of SEO practices that exist in the market. On many occasions, we’ve come across the aged question of how many types of SEO practices exist in the digital world? This is a great question which has its place these days given that the digital world is gradually taking control. Another question of this same nature is that on what are the types of SEO techniques you can employ? In our writing, we shall be answering all these questions thereby providing you with the best types of SEO practices to adopt and successfully stand the competition in the digital world. The recent years have been characterized by a ferrous competition among owners of digital platforms who are seeking to be ranked high in major search engines like Google. Ranking high holds the key to achieving a successful online presence and receiving more customers.
More marketers are becoming interested in ranking their digital business platforms high in major search engines. This is with the sole aim of gaining more visibility which will in turn bring in more customers. And for sure you’ve heard of the saying that “every customer represents a piece of dollar”. In other words, we are trying to say here that more customers will lead to more sales and a higher profitability rate. Thus, understanding the different types of SEO techniques and how they work is worth your effort. Whether you are a business owner, an internet marketer, a webmaster, or a blogger, you’ll need SEO skills. They are vital for success in the digital world. About a thousand websites are created on daily basis there by increasing competition in the digital world. This has made SEO more difficult these days than it was the case in the past.
Types of SEO practices
There are two main classes or categories of SEO practices which have been generally adopted by marketers around the world. They are White hat SEO and Black hat SEO. These are the two main categories which we shall focus a greater part of our writing on. But before proceeding, let’s get to understand the basis of SEO.
What is SEO?
SEO literally meaning Search Engine Optimization is the practice of increasing the quality and quantity of traffic coming to your website from organic search engine results. A website is useless if people are not visiting it for information or the purpose for which it was created. Websites without traffic usually keep their owners worried all day long. It’s not an experience worth living because it keeps away peace of mind from you. Those who started and are operating websites can better understand this. However, if your website is not receiving traffic, just have in mind that you are not yet doing the right thing. In such cases, you start by learning and understanding how SEO works and before you realize, you’ll be receiving a pretty nice number of visitors per day.
A person might ask why is SEO important? It is important for so many reasons. To start, we’ll say that it improves on the ranking of your website, traffic and online presence. Hubspot reported that 52% of B2B marketers generate more leads than any other marketing strategy. In the likeness of a coin with two sides, SEO also comes with two sides which are perceived as its types or categories. Let’s get to know these two main types of SEO that are boosting the success of marketers.
White hat SEO
Just from its name, one can deduce that it is the sum of the most legitimate practices adhered by the marketers to gain higher rankings in different search engine result pages (SERPs). All the White hat SEO practices strictly abide to Google’s guideline for SEO. The White hat SEO approach follows Google’s algorithms in ranking. This approach does not work towards finding weaknesses in Google’s ranking system or loopholes. Have it in mind that White hat SEO practices may be slow in giving results but their results are usually long lasting. The most commonly practiced White hat SEO techniques are:
- Publishing quality content on the website;
- Restructuring of the website;
- HTML optimization; and
- Link acquisition through quality content.
Black hat SEO
Just from its name, one can deduce that Black hat SEO has to do with all practices aimed at finding weaknesses and loopholes in Google’s algorithm with the objective of exploiting them and ranking high in search engine result pages (SERPs). Note that these unclear practices are against Google’s SEO guidelines and its overall algorithmic system of ranking. Thus, all practices which are labelled Black hat SEO are considered illegitimate. The organic traffic generated from such practices does not last long neither does its ranking positions last on the search engine result pages. With this in mind, we can conclude that the rankings achieved through these practices are short lived. You won’t benefit for long and could even have your website sanctioned by Google and other search engines. Below are the most common Black hat SEO techniques:
- Key word stuffing;
- Spam links;
- Hidden text;
- Cloaking; and
- Hidden links.
Gray hat SEO
Apart from White hat SEO and Black hat SEO, we also have Gray hat SEO. Gray hat SEO includes bits from both the White hat SEO and Black hat SEO. It came into existence due to the pressure which was coming from clients who wanted results they had paid for.
Types of SEO practices that are currently prevailing in the market
Marketers around the world have adopted several SEO techniques with the goal of maximizing their online presence. However, there are two main SEO practices that can be used to classify all the other practices. These two are On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO. Let’s analyze each type separately and understand how it works.
On-Page SEO
What is On-Page SEO? This is the question we’ll start by answering. On-Page SEO refers to the activities carried out on the page to be published. These activities are aimed at helping search engines to properly crawl and understand the page’s content so as to rank it high. We can as well say in simple terms that On-Page SEO refers to practices aimed at optimizing a page to appear high in search engine result pages.
Types of On-Page SEO techniques
1. Infusing key words in order of priority
Infusing key words is a term which is well known to digital marketers. It has to do with placing key words within your content. But what do we really mean by saying infusing key words in order of priority? It has to do with properly assigning primary and secondary key words. The primary keyword which reveals the main purpose of writing should appear 8-15 times in an article ranging from 1500 words to 2500 words. All secondary key words which are not out of context should appear at least once in the writing. By putting both categories of key words, you are making it easy for Google spiders to crawl your content and understand what it is about. As suggested in the Google algorithm, these key words should be infused to help its crawling spiders to understand and rank the content.
2. Backlinking
Backlinks are very important when it comes to boosting the authority and credibility of a website. That’s the more backlinks a website has, the more credit it is given by Google in its rankings. However, it is not only about backlinks but about quality backlinks. Quality backlinks are those obtained from high domain authority websites. These backlinks are like signals pointing to a place where there is high quality content. This attracts Google’s crawling spiders to go through the content and rank it high. You can obtain backlinks to your website through guest posts. Another way is by writing high quality content which will attract others to linkback to your website. You can as well link to authoritative websites and perhaps request a link from them to your website in the future.
3. Using Meta Tags, Meta Description, and Alt Attributes
We cannot talk of On-Page SEO without mentioning Meta Tags, Meta Descriptions, and Alt Attributes. They are of a greater importance for any marketer who desires to rank his/her website high in search engine result pages. The meta tags are mainly made up of the secondary key words which were used within the content. It assist Google in properly reading and understanding the context of the content posted on the web. On the other hand, the meta description refers to the text which is being displayed together with the content’s little on the search engine result pages. The meta description is more of a crucial element in SEO since it determines whether a searcher will click on your link or not. For those using WordPress, it is recommended that they include their primary key word in the alt text of the images.
4. Internal linking
Internal linking is an attempt to retain the users longer on your website by redirecting them through links to previously published posts. Through internal links, users are redirected from one page to another page of the same website. Internal linking helps to reduce bounce back rate which could negatively affect your website’s rankings. In addition, internal linking is a practice which helps Google’s spider crawlers to easily craw your website and understand its structure.Internal linking helps in boosting domain credibility and authority. An example of a website with the best internal links is Wikipedia.com which comes with the highest domain authority of 100 in the digital world.
5. SEO Yaost for WordPress
Yoast is a SEO plugin which is recommended for WordPress users who desire to optimize their content to rank higher on search engine result pages. Always refer to this SEO tool after writing every blog in order to optimize it for human readership and search engine analysis. This tool will help you to publish content which is search engine friendly thereby being ranked high.
6. Image SEO
Images are important components of a website that must be carefully optimized to feature in search engine result pages. You optimize an image for a key word by inserting the key word as its alt text. With an optimized image on your bog, it will be displayed in the Google image search page results. And each time a person clicks on the image, he/she will be directed to your website where the content is in fullness.
7. H tags
Using the heading tags ensures that Google takes notice of all the headings in your content. This will greatly help the Google search engine in understanding your content and its structure for better ranking. It is also advice to use your primary and secondary key words in subheadings.
8. URL Structure
Learn to adjust your URL to feature the primary key word used. This practice will increase the visibility of your blog in search engine results. And whenever a user makes a search using your primary key word, Google and other search engines are more likely to rank you high.
Off-Page SEO
We can’t afford to omit Off-Page SEO when talking of types of SEO practices that are highly used around the world. Off-Page SEO refers to all the activities performed on a page after it goes live on the web. In general, these activities are aimed at boosting traffic to the page. In other terms, we can perceive Off-Page SEO as promoting or sharing the content.
Types of Off-Page SEO practices
1. Sharing
You are missing much traffic from social medias by simply writing and publishing content without promoting it. Many people make this mistake of publishing content and them forgetting it. You need to let people know about your existence through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Instagram. Through these platforms, you can draw lot of traffic to your website. It will help in growing your brand and improving your domain authority as people continuously share and engage with your content.
2. Commenting
Commenting can do more than you think. For sure you’ve seen what happens with Facebook posts that receive lots of comments, these posts automatically appear in the News Feed. It is the same thing with search engines. Comments and engagement on a post will take it to the News Feed.
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