SEO 101: Your Complete Guide To Types Of SEO 

One of the tried-and-tested tactics in digital marketing is SEO. In fact, In 2020, US brands invested a total of US$79.27 billion in SEO services. It only proves how significant SEO is in businesses operating online. Every company, small, medium, and large, needs SEO to dominate their online presence.

Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engine Optimisation in Singapore optimises your website in order to rank them on search engines like Google and Bing. The optimisation uses a set of practices that involves content creation and the website’s technical configuration.

The Importance Of SEO

Why does ranking on search engines matter in the first place? Nearly 70% of people’s online experience begins on search engines. And in a study by Ahrefs, the top-ranking page on SERP gets 49% of the total search traffic.

Traffic is the primary reason why brands seek SEO services in Singapore. Although pay-per-click or SEM is another way to gain traffic, organic traffic is more cost-effective in the long term, especially if you have implemented effective SEO strategies.

A well-established SEO strategy also increases the user’s trust and boosts the credibility of the website. Many people perceive top websites on organic results are trustworthy and more authoritative than websites that paid for ranking privileges.

In a study by WordStream, the average click-through rate for Google Ads across all industries is only 3.17%. Meanwhile, in a separate study from SISTRIX, purely organic results have an average of 34.2% click-through rate.

There are seven types of SEO: technical, on-page, content, off-page, local, mobile, and e-commerce. Find out their differences and similarities here.

RELATED: Top 10 Latest SEO Trends In 2023

The 7 Types Of SEO

As mentioned, SEO services in Singapore consist of sets of practices. Each practice has its own objectives and focus. But the results all lead to optimising your website for search engines in order to gain top ranking on search engine results page (SERP). 

1. Technical SEO

The heart and soul of technical SEO are optimising the website’s technical configuration. But how do you optimise your website through technical SEO? Technical SEO focuses on two pillars: crawlability and performance.

What is crawlability? Search engines like Google have bots or crawlers. These bots can sieve through thousands of website pages to check and understand the content of your website.

These bots cannot index the page if they are unable to crawl on it. If your website pages have not been indexed, there is a low chance for them to rank on SERPs. It is the reason why your website must be crawlable.

The second pillar is your website performance. It all focuses on improving the website’s loading speed, navigation, and mobile-friendliness. Improving these areas increases the user experience of the website. An SEO agency in Singapore can help you improve your technical SEO.

Benefits Of Technical SEO

• Improves visibility

As mentioned, when search engines properly index your website, they are more likely to appear on SERP. Therefore, they are more visible to the users and have greater reach. Increased traffic also leads to more conversions.

• Improves user experience

According to a study from GoodFirms, 88% of website visitors abandon a website because of the slow loading time. Meanwhile, 73.1% leave because the website is not responsive. Bad navigation is also an issue for 61.5% of website visitors. Technical SEO helps improve all these departments, leading to a better user experience on the website.

• Increases rankings

Many technical SEO factors could affect the probability of ranking on SERP. For instance, if your website is crawlable and has been indexed properly, it has more chances to be displayed on SERP.

Moreover, Google prefers websites with responsive designs, since they are more mobile-friendly. Websites with better user experience tend to rank higher as well, especially if it adheres to Google‘s best practices.

How To Optimise

• Have an XML sitemap

The XML sitemap helps with the crawlability of the website. It serves as a map or a guide for search engine crawlers, telling them which pages to go to. It makes your website more understandable and crawlable for search engines.

• Fix duplicate content

Duplicate content confuses crawlers, moreover, splits the traffic of the website pages. For example, if you have two website pages with identical content, the search engine will decide which of the two they will rank. But most of the time, search engines give duplicate content low rankings.

Canonical tags and links basically tell search engines which of the two pages is the original and which one is the duplicate. Search engines will then choose to rank the original page.

• Ensure mobile-friendliness

Top search engine Google strongly prefers and recommends websites to become mobile-friendly, by rolling out their mobile-first campaign. A way for websites to become mobile-friendly is by using a responsive website design.

A responsive design displays your website in the best-fit format on whichever device the users access it, be it a desktop, smartphone or tablet. You can find an SEO company that provides website design and development services to transform your website into a mobile-first approach.

• Improve your loading speed

As mentioned, a slow-loading page is one of the reasons why visitors abandon your website. There are several ways to improve your page speed, including choosing performance-focused hosting solutions, compressing your images and videos, and caching your website pages.

The best SEO company in Singapore helps you ace all technical SEO departments, resulting in better search engine ranking.

2. On-Page SEO

On-site or on-page SEO optimises the elements within the individual pages of your website. Although on-page SEO is content-focused, it sometimes overlaps with technical SEO. 

The content aspect of on-page SEO marketing in Singapore involves keyword implementation, meta descriptions and tags, whilst the technical aspect includes heading tags and URLs. 

Benefits of On-Page SEO

• Stable traffic source

Implementing effective SEO strategies in Singapore helps you gain SERP ranking, and maintaining them retains the position as long as you can be a source of stable traffic. As mentioned, organic results tend to have higher click-through rates than paid ads. 

• Increases conversion rates

When your website is visible on organic search results and generates stable traffic, it also increases your conversion rates. Moreover, impeccable user experience also decreases website abandonment.

• Increases credibility

A large chunk of on-page SEO relies on content. Your website content must be high-quality, unique, and relevant to your audience. Accurate and quality content establishes your brand in the industry, boosting its credibility among the audience and other businesses.

How to Optimise

• Keyword implementation

On-page articles capitalise on keywords. Keywords are a word or phrases users commonly use in search engines. 

Incorporating keywords on your on-page website content makes it easier for Google bots and crawlers to understand the context of your content and website.

Keyword implementation begins with keyword research. Through research, brands and marketers identify in-demand short-tail and long-tail keywords which they can use to create content for their targeted audience. Keyword research is one of the SEO services offered in Singapore.

• Use proper title tags and meta descriptions

Title tags are the title of the website page that search engines display on SERP. Meanwhile, the meta descriptions are the brief summary or texts below the title tags you see on SERP. 

Title tags and meta descriptions tell the search engine and the audience what the message is about. They should be keyword-rich, appealing, compelling, and within character limits.

• Use proper heading tags

Using the H1 tag on your on-page content helps search engines understand the structure of the page better. Usually, the titles are in the H1 tag, whilst the subheadings are in H2. An SEO company in Singapore helps you optimise your website.

3. Content SEO

If on-page SEO focuses on content and technical aspects of the content, such as proper title tags, meta descriptions, heading tags, and keyword research, Singapore SEO for content focuses on content quality and relevance.

Benefits of Content SEO

• Brand awareness

Content SEO is a great opportunity to introduce your products or services to your audience. Each content varies; it could be informative blogs, success stories, descriptions of your services and company, and many more.

• Improves customer experience and brand trust

Informative and relevant articles and content are helpful to information-seekers. It is also a consideration for search engines to rank website pages.

Not only does meaningless and low-quality material rank lower, but also decreases the satisfaction of users and information seekers. Hence, brands must come up with thoroughly written and researched content to rank higher and improve customer experience and brand trust. 

How to Optimise

• E-A-T

E-A-T means Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Google uses the E-A-T concept to determine the relevance and value of the content to the readers before ranking them.

E-A-T is not a ranking factor, but E-A-T could influence your Singapore content SEO. But how does E-A-T evaluate content? To begin with, the content must help the users. An expert should have helped create the content; the content must be posted on an authoritative and trusted website; and updated regularly.

• Linking

Another way to boost the credibility and quality of your content is by citing and linking credible sources and research on your article. You can use these sources to prove a point, discuss ideas, and back up your statement.

• Copywriting

Besides being informative and helpful, your content must be attractive and compelling to read. Sometimes, too much optimisation could make your article written by a robot, instead of by an expert.

The key is to come up with unique and fresh content. It is safe to say to pick an angle with something your viewers are interested to read. Most importantly, it should be readable or easy to digest by search engines and readers. You can tap an SEO agency that can help you improve your content SEO.

READ MORE: The Importance Of Blogging For An E-commerce Website

4. Off-Page SEO

Off-page or off-site SEO refers to sets of practices and strategies applied outside the website but still influence your website’s ranking on the search engine results page.

The primary goal of off-page SEO is to make users see that your website is trustworthy, credible, and reputable. In a nutshell, off-page SEO is like a recommendation or referral from someone. You can get off-page SEO services from SEO vendors.

Benefits of Off-Page SEO

• Increases credibility

When ranking, search engines consider domain referrals. Domain referral can be achieved through link building. The higher number of website content referring to yours, the more likely you are deemed trustworthy. As mentioned, credibility and relevance influence how search engines rank your website page.

• Increases traffic

Generally, the traffic from the original website you earned a backlink is also driven to your website. It means that you reach more people outside your website. It can also be crucial in tapping an audience that is not your primary target.

• Social media traffic

Brands can also tap on social media traffic in addition to search engine traffic. Although search engines have denied using social signals, such as sharing the website page across social media platforms and interacting with the shared post, as ranking factors, a Hootsuite study came up with different results.

According to the data, website content that received social media promotion received a slight boost in terms of rankings. Although, there are still studies that need to be done to prove the theory. Nevertheless, promoting on social media still helps with brand awareness and driving social media traffic. 

How To Optimise

• Link Building

The heart and soul of off-page SEO. Backlinks, also known as inbound links, link from one website that leads to another. Backlinks are typically embedded on anchor texts or clickable texts.

Link building is simply earning backlinks. Your website gains a backlink if a separate website links your page in its content. It could be a blog citing your study to prove its point. 

Backlinks play a huge role in ranking. People perceive content with tons of backlinks or domain referrals as credible and trustworthy. To earn a backlink, your content must be referral-worthy. Producing many relevant contents can help as well.

• Guest Content

If you can’t convince other websites to link your page, you can do it on your own by producing guest content. Guest content is a marketing strategy where a brand creates content to be posted on a different website of the same industry or niche. The guest content then links to the brand’s website to earn a backlink. 

The guest content strategy increases exposure, reach, and drives traffic. It is also a tried-and-tested strategy of an SEO consultant in Singapore.

• Social media marketing

As mentioned, the impact of social media on rankings remains unclear, social media marketing can still influence your website ranking. According to Hootsuite, 52% of brand discovery happens on social media. Hence, social media marketing is not a wasted off-page SEO strategy.

5. Local SEO

Local SEO in Singapore optimises and improves the visibility of your website on local searches. It targets people of a specific location, such as a town, country or city. This strategy is helpful for local and brick-and-mortar businesses.

Benefits Of Local SEO

• Increases conversion rates

One of the advantages of local search is most of the audience already has a strong intent when looking for a service or product. In fact, 28% of local searches result in a purchase. Therefore, capitalising on local SEO services increases conversion rates. 

• Improves local search visibility

Brands use geographical tags and keywords to improve local search. These tags can be exact locations and phrases, such as ‘pancakes in Singapore’ or ‘pancakes near me.’

The more visible your business is on local search, the more physical store visitors you can get, especially that 76% of people who conduct a local search visit the physical store within the day.

• Effective marketing campaigns

Local SEO is essential in rolling out a more targeted campaign since the audience has already been narrowed down based on the location. It also means reasonably priced campaigns and less work.

How To Optimise

• Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile, previously known as Google My Business, is a free-service platform where businesses can create a profile with their primary information, such as address and contact details. Creating GBP also helps search engines authenticate your business, hence influencing your website to rank on local searches.

• Complete your directories

Besides GBP there are other platforms that require directories. It includes your website itself and social media accounts. There is a higher chance for your website page or social media accounts to rank higher on SERPs if they have the same directories.

• Publish local content 

Writing about local industries or topics that attract local audiences. In addition to your local SEO content, you can also encourage user-generated content which can also influence your SEO strategies.

6. Mobile SEO

Mobile SEO refers to optimising your website for devices like smartphones and tablets. Mobile SEO is becoming increasingly important given that there are more than 7 billion mobile users in the world today.

Benefits Of Mobile SEO

• Mobile-first campaign

As mentioned, Google prioritises websites that are optimised for mobile devices. Websites with responsive website design have a higher chance of ranking high on SERPs than those with non-responsive design.

• Voice search optimised

Smartphone assistant features, like Google Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa, and Apple’s Siri are becoming a trend today. It is highly likely for your content to be voice search optimised if your website has a responsive design.

How To Optimise

• Use responsive design

Responsive website design makes your website accessible regardless of the device, be it a desktop or mobile. Google is an advocate of responsive design. Therefore, implementing it on your website will drastically influence your mobile SEO strategies.

• Optimise your images and videos

Responsive website design does not always guarantee faster loading speed, but there are ways to further improve the load speed, such as resizing your images and videos.

7. E-commerce SEO 

E-commerce SEO is straightforward; its goal is to increase the ranking of e-commerce websites on organic results. It is the combination of all types of SEO mentioned in the article.

Benefits Of E-commerce SEO

• Visibility leads to more sales

Users who search for specific products, for example, HP laptops, have a strong intent to purchase. Therefore, gaining the top rank on search engines not only makes your website more visible and increases traffic but also grows conversions and sales!

• Enhances Branding

Being at the top of the search results page is a great way to create brand awareness. As mentioned, top organic results have high click-through rates and shoppers who come across your brand when searching for products enhances brand awareness and triggers brand retention. It could benefit yourdigital marketing strategy in Singapore.

How To Optimise

• Keyword implementation

Your website is likely to appear in searches if you use relevant or related keywords. But be alert; the competition for e-commerce SEO is tough. Hiring a reputable SEO agency in Singapore can help you gain an edge over your competitors.

• Optimise and improve your website structure

Poor navigation is a reason why visitors abandon a website. It is crucial for the user to find what they are looking for on your website quickly. Having a site search feature can improve user experience. Other features include being able to sort the products by category and save products for later.

A digital marketing company in Singapore that specialises in website design and development can assist you in improving and optimising your e-commerce website.

LEARN MORE: 15 E-Commerce SEO Best Practices To Increase Traffic In 2023 [With Free Checklist]

Conclusion

SEO is a broad discipline. Utilising only one type of SEO practice is not enough if you want to dominate digital marketing in SG. You have to implement at least three or more of these practices to achieve digital marketing success. But once you have laid all your SEO foundations, all will come to fruition, making SEO a valuable long-term investment.

OOm Singapore, a leading SEO agency in Singapore, is committed to providing SEO solutions for your business needs. Besides SEO, OOm also provides digital marketing, website design and development solutions. If you want a one-stop-shop digital marketing solution, contact OOm at 6690 4049 or visit their website for more information.