What are the 4 Types of SEO?

September 14, 2022

You want to see better results on your website – who doesn’t? Maybe you’re a new business trying to climb your way up the ranking on the SERPs (search engine results page) or your brand is nationally recognized, but you’re struggling to drive leads. Regardless of the product or service you’re promoting or sharing, how will potential customers know it exists if Google doesn’t give you credit? 

Great question.

There is a way that any brand can achieve their sales or conversion goals by amping up the search engine optimization on their website. With faster page load times, strategized keywords, quality backlinks and a little bit of pixie dust (never hurts), you’ll be well on your way to achieving a winning strategy.

To bring you everything you need to know about the four types of SEO, we turned to the Bolt PR House of Digital expert team. Web Development and SEO Strategist Chris Sopko is known for creating explosive digital marketing strategies for brands big and small across the country.

Chris starts by emphasizing the importance of organic search results. This is often the number-one driver of website traffic. So, you might be wondering how to get your brand on a fast track to these amazing results we speak of. Let’s start by driving full-force into the four types of SEO that lead to organic search success, and how to optimize them. Buckle up.

How To Optimize On-Page SEO

On-page SEO refers to any enhancement of the content on the webpage. As it turns out, the most common reason a website page loads slowly is a high volume of unoptimized images. This relates to the size and filetype of the images. Chris’ best practice is to use PNGs for logos and JPEGs (or WEBP, if possible) for all other images. Large images such as backgrounds should be no more than 1MB, and most other images should be 200 KB or less. 

You don’t necessarily have to be a graphic designer to resize an image. In fact, it’s much easier than you might think. Here’s how:

  • Using Photoshop or Photopea (a free browser-based Photoshop), with the image open in Photoshop, select ‘image’ in the toolbar, then ‘image size.’ Adjust the pixels to fit within the size parameters needed.
  • On a Mac, once your image is in preview, select ‘tools’ in the toolbar and then select ‘adjust size.’ As you change the height and width, the new file size will automatically be calculated and displayed.
  • On Windows, open your image using the Photos application, click on the three dots in the upper right corner, select resize and choose the option that works best.

How To Optimize Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO is all about other platforms that link back to your website. The easiest way to optimize off-page SEO is to build high-quality backlinks to your pages by getting your site linked through social media and other blogs or articles. This is where a highly tailored PR and digital marketing strategy is beneficial. When you work with an integrated agency that offers both of these services, you’re likely to increase the number of backlinks to your site, which builds domain authority. Domain authority is important because it can be a representation of how you rank in search. Consider domain authority the credibility of your site, or how search engines like Google view your site.

How To Optimize Technical SEO

Technical SEO is the trickiest part of optimizing a web page, because it focuses more on improving the technical development aspects of a website that make it easier for both the search engine and the user to navigate and understand the particular site. One technical element that’s standard to optimize is proper heading hierarchy on all website pages, which ensures a page uses heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) properly and in the correct order. Having a proper hierarchy of headings helps search engines quickly understand how a page is structured and what the content entails. The faster Google, or other search engines, are able to index your page and decide if your content is relevant to the user, the more precise it will be in delivering that content to the user. When your page is structured in a way that search engines easily understand, they can decipher if your content is the correct content to serve up based on user intent. 

How To Optimize Local SEO

Local SEO is a crucial part of overall website strategy, because it allows a site to be found… locally! A Google Business page helps potential customers find your business, specifically based on where it is on the map. This is important in driving local foot-traffic to a brick-and-mortar location and local website traffic. Additionally, it is an efficient way to update web visitors on business hours and services while engaging with customer reviews.

Local SEO provides the opportunity to get in front of users at the exact moment they’re searching for your brand. And it comes as no surprise that over 80% of local searches happen on smartphones while people are out and about, and bonus— near your business! If they find you at the exact moment they’re looking for you, they’re more likely to stop by your business or purchase from your online store. Remember, user intent is the number-one driver of success in organic search. When you can answer the pain points of your consumer or prospective buyer, you’re more likely to win their business and keep them coming back for more. 

And if you’re wondering what’s taking your audience “so long” to make a move, studies show it takes 31 touchpoints for a new customer to move from research to purchase. Every step of the buyer journey, including organic search is extremely important to not only get in front of your target audience, but to build qualified leads that inevitably turn into sales and return customers. 

Now that you have the gist of the four types of SEO, it’s time to drive your brand to success with a fresh SEO strategy. Don’t worry, you’re not in this alone. Putting the right digital marketing team with a proven track record of generating website traffic in the driver’s seat is key. And the momentum doesn’t stop there. Successful search engine optimization leads to increased brand awareness, trust, and most importantly, conversions. 

At Bolt PR, we’re all about lighting the fuse that ignites brand impact and business growth. With our dedicated and specialized team of PR, digital marketing and content pros, you’re only a click away from amplifying your brand’s story to the world and reaching new customers/buyers. 

If you’re ready to take the next step in reaching your SEO goals, let us know.

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