There are nearly 100,000 searches on Google every second. For the billions of people who use it every day, Google (and other search engines) are a key access point to the internet. We’ve long since moved past the days of typing URLs into our address bars; these days we punch a few keywords into Google and hit go.
SEO for businesses is more important than ever. When a search results page layout is the difference between a million hits and a hundred, the importance of SEO is almost too great to exaggerate.
Let’s take a quick tour through the many different types of SEO, and see which one would best serve you!
On-Page SEO
This is SEO that’s on your website. Let’s say you run a furniture store in Detroit. You want anyone Googling stuff like “furniture Detroit”, “best furniture Detroit” and so on to see your store right on the first page of results. Ideally, you’d want to be the first result on the page.
How do you achieve that? Well, there are different ways, but you make sure to use plenty of keywords related to furniture and Detroit in your website’s marketing copy. You put directions, list your stock, and in general do everything you can to emphasize both your ‘Detroitness’ and ‘furniture ness’ in the eyes of the all-seeing algorithm.
Off-Page SEO
This is where things get a bit less intuitive. You see, those search bots don’t just take into account the content on your website to decide where to rank it in search results. They also see if other websites consider you a reliable source, too.
So, for that Detroit furniture store, they’ll also look to see how many times other websites refer to your site when they’re figuring out where to put you. That’s why the best SEO for websites doesn’t end on your homepage, it fosters relationships with other trustworthy sites to ensure that a rising tide lifts all boats!
‘Black Hat’ SEO
This is the one you want to avoid. Black hat SEO is a nefarious species of search engine optimization that tries to exploit weaknesses in search engines’ algorithms to create an artificial leg-up for themselves and their clients. Whether it’s stuffing websites with keywords or straight-up hacking, it’s always a bad idea.
Why? Because it’s immoral, and because search engines are pretty good at this stuff by now. Exploits don’t stay exploitable for long, and when you’re caught, you can guarantee your site won’t appear prominently in search results for a long time to come.
The Many Types of SEO
There are lots of different types of SEO, and it’s important for any modern business to familiarize itself with all of them. A good SEO strategy can be the difference between a thriving business and a failing one, so don’t skimp when it comes to learning about them!
Oh, and don’t waste your time with the black hat stuff, either. Liked this piece? Check our site for more!
