7 Basic Types of SEO and What They Mean For Your Blog
If you’ve been online for a minute in the last decade, you’ve heard the term SEO.
A quick LinkedIn search reveals a whopping 410,000 results for professionals with the keyword SEO Expert on their profile.
If you’re wondering why you need to learn this high-in-demand skill, you’re in the right place!
Defining SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.
This is the technical term used to describe the actions online content creators use to show up on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. (I, too, forget that there are other search engines than Google.)
Why Should You Learn SEO?
If you’re running to Facebook or Discord every day to cry out in frustration about nobody reading your blog posts, learning SEO could be a game changer.
Take note of the words “could be.” SEO isn’t the end-all-and-be-all. It’s not a magic wand to guarantee your posts will be read, but it increases the likelihood that search engines will find your posts in their crawls.
SEO isn’t cut-and-dry. It’s not as simple as researching a few keywords, adding them to your blog post, and pressing publish. That’s why SEO Expert is such a sought-after skill desired by businesses wanting to level up in the search engine results.
Whether you’re considering joining the other 410,000 SEO Experts on LinkedIn, or you simply want to improve the chances of your Medium posts getting read, you need to learn the different types of SEO and what they mean for your blog.
I’m going to break down each type of SEO so that even newbies to blogging can grasp each concept.
The 7 Basic Types of SEO
1. Technical SEO
The term technical SEO refers to the actions taken to make a website understood by search engines. These are the most important topics to consider when improving your website’s technical SEO:
Page speed
Mobile-friendliness
Removing duplicate pages
Easy-to-navigate menus
Site Security
2. On-page SEO
On-page SEO, sometimes called On-site SEO, is the specific actions to optimize a specific page to be discovered by search engines. This includes:
Relevant and quality content
Headings and sub-headings
Visually appealing images with descriptions
Links to other pages on your site
Text size and colors that are easy to read
Important snippets of text that stand out
3. Content SEO
Content SEO is the content (text, images, etc.) you add to your blog. It involves the whole SEO process, including:
Performing keyword research
Adding relevant tags to images and posts
Using image descriptions
Updating and merging content (and removing irrelevant content)
Linking pages to each other
Creating a call to action (What do you want the reader to do next?)
4. Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO involves taking steps off your blog’s page to direct traffic to it. Increasing off-page SEO increases your blog’s trust. These are examples of off-page SEO:
Asking other websites or bloggers to link to your pages
Using another website of yours to link to your posts
Social media links to your posts
Guest posting (publishing in someone else’s blog and linking to yours)
Podcast guest hosting (and asking the podcaster to link to your blog in the notes)
5. Local SEO
Local SEO involves targeting people in a specific area. For example, if you write about life in your hometown of St. Louis, you’ll want to attract readers from St. Louis. Ways you can do this:
Research local keywords
Create a Google Business Profile and optimize it
Become familiar with other local bloggers and what they’re doing
Use Google autocomplete to target long-tail keywords
6. Mobile SEO
Mobile SEO involves optimizing your webpage for smartphones and tablets. Google’s Mobile-First Index ranks websites based on the mobile version of the website, even on desktops, so paying attention to your blog’s Mobile SEO is more relevant now than ever before.
Fortunately, Medium takes care of this for us, but if you’re reading this post with the intent of improving your personal blog or website, read through Google’s mobile-first best practices.
If this sounds too complicated, hire an SEO Expert who specializes in “Mobile SEO.”
7. Voice SEO
Voice SEO involves optimizing your website’s keywords for when people search via voice assistants like Siri, Google Home, and Alexa. Voice assistants are rising in popularity, so optimizing your website for Voice SEO is incredibly important.
These are some easy methods to enhance your blog posts for Voice SEO:
Targeting keyword questions and long-tail keywords (such as “museum in St. Louis” instead of just “museum” )
Targeting local keywords
Keeping your text conversational (Use words like “I”, “Me”, “We”, and “You”)
Start Using Basic SEO Today!
These are the seven basic SEO types all bloggers should know about. As you can see, a lot goes into creating an SEO-optimized blog, and it’s no surprise that it’s such a rapidly growing career choice!
If all of this sounds too complicated, fortunately, you have 410,000 (and growing) SEO experts on LinkedIn to ask for help. Just make sure to ask about what type of SEO they specialize in.
For example, I’m studying to become an expert at Content and On-Page SEO. I know a little about Technical SEO and Off-Page SEO. Local, Voice, and Mobile SEO are new to me, though I may dive into these specialties one day.
Alternatively, if you are thinking about becoming an SEO Expert, you may benefit from specializing in one specific area of SEO to stand out in the crowd.
After all, there are only 4,600 Technical SEO Experts on LinkedIn.
This post was originally published on Medium.
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