Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is essential to help any business rank highly in search results, attract the right traffic and, ultimately, drive growth. But did you know there are many types of SEO, each serving a different purpose? Weāll define types of SEO techniques, explain how many types of SEO there are in digital marketing, and show how each can benefit your brand. Weāll also explore how Team Marvel supports these strategies through its web design and digital marketing expertise.
Why SEO matters for your business
SEO is the process of making your website content more visible to search engines such as Google, Bing and others. By implementing SEO techniques, you can:
- Improve your rankings for relevant search terms
- Increase organic traffic and leads
- Build credibility, trust and longāterm online visibility
We help small businesses grow online through our SEO services in Newcastle. Our approach combines an effective content strategy, optimised structured data, and content marketing to help businesses rank higher in search results and drive consistent organic traffic.
The core types of SEO
Although some sources list a dozen or more categories, the most commonly recognised clusters are:
OnāPage SEO
Also known as on-site SEO, this refers to optimising individual web pages for relevant keywords and user experience. It includes:
- Keywordārich titles, meta descriptions and headers
- Internal linking and anchor text
- Optimised images with alt tags, filenames
- Highāquality, relevant content that answers usersā queries
Onāpage SEO is crucial for attracting and retaining users by making pages understandable to both humans and search engines.
OffāPage SEO
This covers actions taken outside your own website to show search engines that your business is credible and trustworthy. Examples include:
- Getting backlinks from reputable, relevant websites
- Writing guest posts, gaining PR coverage, and working with influencers
- Being mentioned on social bookmarking sites and in online communities
These efforts can improve your domain authority and make it easier for search engines to recognise your site as a trusted source.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO focuses on the back-end health of your website by:
- Enhancing site speed and mobile performance
- Ensuring accurate indexing through sitemaps, robots.txt, and llms.txt for AI agents
- Resolving issues like duplicate content, broken links, and schema markup
- Improving crawlability and overall site structure
These efforts help search engines efficiently access, understand, and rank your website.
Local SEO
Focuses on building your websiteās credibility and authority through external channels:
- Backlinks from reputable, relevant websites
- Guest blogging, PR coverage, and influencer partnerships
- Mentions on social bookmarking sites and in online communities
Offāpage SEO strengthens your domain authority, helping search engines view your site as a trusted source.
Additional types of SEO to know
Many digital marketers also refer to more specialised types of SEO that are highly relevant.
International SEO
For websites targeting multiple languages or countries:
- Use hreflang tags and geoātargeting
- Translate content and optimise for local search variants
- Create regionāspecific pages or domains
EāCommerce SEO
Optimisation tailored for online stores:
- Product descriptions, category pages and schema markup
- Reviews, rich snippets, optimised category filters
- Technical adjustments for large product inventories
Content SEO
Focused on longāform, authoritative content optimised for search intent:
- Blogs, guides, FAQs and pillar pages
- Keyword clusters and internal linking strategies
- EEAT signals (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)
Mobile SEO
Essential for mobileāfirst indexing:
- Responsive design and fast mobile page loads
- Optimised multimedia (images, video, AMP support)
Video, YouTube & Image SEO
Optimising multimedia content for search:
- Alt text, descriptive filenames for images/videos
- Transcripts, thumbnails and metadata on platforms
- Video sitemaps, hosted embedding, proper schema
Voice SEO
Structured for voice queries via digital assistants:
- Conversational tone and natural language Q&A (e.g. āhow toā¦ā)
- Featured snippets and FAQ structured data
Emergent: AEO & GEO (Answer and Generative Engine Optimisation)
New optimisation trends have emerged, reshaping SEO content best practices:
- Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO): Structure high-quality content using natural dialogue and frequently asked questions (FAQs) formats to be surfaced by AI assistants like ChatGPT, Google SGE or Perplexity. This approach ensures that both AI systems and users can easily understand your content and that it aligns with the needs of your target audience.
- Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO): Focus on optimising content to be cited or summarised by generative AI systems. This involves deploying a solid keyword strategy, using llms.txt, AIāfriendly metadata, and structured cues to increase citation likelihood.
- These represent the latest frontier: SEO content crafted not merely for clicks, but for AI summarisation – ensuring that the best content reaches users through intelligent, automated systems.
Other considerations
These refer to the ethical or harmful strategies around SEO:
- WhiteāHat SEO: Ethical, sustainable practices
- GreyāHat SEO: Borderline tactics – higher risk
- BlackāHat SEO: Aggressive, manipulative techniques that may incur penalties
- Negative SEO: Attempting to damage a competitorās rankings
While understanding them helps identify potential risks, at Team Marvel we mainly focus on proven, whiteāhat strategies.
Summary table
| Category | Description |
| OnāPage SEO | Content & metadata optimisation |
| OffāPage SEO | Backlinks, PR, social signals |
| Technical SEO | Site performance, crawling, indexing |
| Local SEO | Geolocated keyword targeting, directories, GBP |
| International SEO | Geo-targeting, hreflang, multilingual pages |
| EāCommerce SEO | Product and category optimisation for online shops |
| Content SEO | Longāform, useful content built for search intent |
| Mobile SEO | Mobileāfirst performance and UX |
| Image/Video/Voice SEO | Multimedia optimisation for search visibility |
| AEO & GEO (AI SEO) | Optimisation for AI-generated answer inclusion |
| Ethicallyāoriented terms | White/Grey/Black/Negative SEO – mindset and tactics |
Search engine optimisation (SEO) continues to evolve, with advanced SEO practices increasingly important for ensuring your website for search engines is optimised effectively. These practices help search engines understand and evaluate your site based on key factors such as content quality, user experience, and compliance with search engine guidelines.
To rank better, websites must focus on creating high-quality content for better engagement and visibility. These techniques include effective keyword usage, backlink building, and structured data implementation.
A strong online reputation also plays a critical role in SEO performance. Modern SEO tactics should incorporate the use of SEO tools to monitor performance and adjust strategies. Understanding how crawling and indexing work helps refine strategies to improve visibility and reach.
How Team Marvel supports diverse SEO types
Team Marvel provides a oneāstop service to support multiple types of SEO:
- Bespoke web design with robust technical SEO foundations: fast, crawlable, mobileāenabled sites.
- Content marketing and onāpage SEO support, including structured content and keywordārich blog pages.
- Local SEO expertise, helping clients appear in local search and map results.
With a full suite of digital marketing solutions – from branding and social to SEO – Team Marvel helps businesses adopt a holistic SEO strategy across multiple types of optimisation.
Ready to grow with SEO?
We specialise in designing websites and implementing digital marketing strategies that align with multiple types of SEO. From technical and onāpage to local presence and emerging AIāfocused optimisation. If youād like support building a comprehensive SEO strategy that evolves with search trends, weāre here to help.Whether you’re aiming to dominate local search in Newcastle or adapt your content for AI generation, we can tailor your SEO efforts to deliver measurable results. Contact us to craft your bespoke SEO strategy and futureāproof your digital presence.