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Types of SEO: by task, by kind of site, by surface and by method

On-page, off-page, technical, content, local, ecommerce, international and AI answers, and how to choose.

Published by AI Knows Us · Updated 13 October 2026

There are three useful ways to sort the types of SEO. By task: on-page, off-page, technical and content SEO. By kind of site: local, ecommerce, international and enterprise SEO. By where the answer appears: web search, video, images, voice and AI answers. A fourth cut, by method, separates white hat from black hat. Most businesses need a blend, and the quickest way to choose is to ask what is stopping you from being found today.

Type one: SEO by task

On-page SEO

Everything you change on your own pages: the search intent a page serves, its title and headings, the copy, internal links, images and structured data. This is the type with the most direct control and the first place to look when a page is indexed but does not rank. The task list is in our guide to on-page SEO techniques.

Off-page SEO

Evidence about you that sits elsewhere: links from other sites, listings, reviews and brand mentions. It tells search engines how far to trust you. The ordered tasks are in off-page SEO techniques, and the way to divide effort between the two types is in on-page and off-page SEO.

Technical SEO

The site's foundations: crawling, indexing, redirects, status codes, sitemaps, speed and mobile layout. Without these, a page cannot be shown however good it is. Work through our technical SEO checklist in order.

Content SEO

Planning and writing pages that answer real searches better than the pages that rank today. It covers research, briefs, structure and updates, and it is the type that decides whether a visitor stays. See the SEO blog post workflow.

Type two: SEO by kind of site

TypeForWhat is differentOur guide
Local SEOBusinesses serving a placeThe Business Profile, reviews, citations and service-area pages matter mostLocal SEO
Ecommerce SEOOnline shopsCategory pages, product markup, duplicate variants and faceted navigationEcommerce SEO
International SEOSites in several countries or languagesHreflang tags, country targeting and local contentUK example
Enterprise SEOVery large sitesGovernance, templates, many teams and thousands of pagesStarts with the technical checklist above
B2B SEOCompanies selling to companiesLong buying cycles and narrow, low volume queriesB2B SEO strategy
Platform SEOSites on WordPress, Shopify and similarSettings, plugins and platform limitsWordPress SEO

Type three: SEO by surface

People search in more places than one, and each surface rewards slightly different work.

  • Web search. The ten blue links, maps and features such as rich results. Our guide to rich snippets lists the result types.
  • Video search. YouTube ranks on relevance, engagement and quality, as set out in YouTube video SEO.
  • Image search. Descriptive file names, alt text and pages that give the image context.
  • Voice and answer boxes. Short, direct answers placed near the top of a page.
  • AI answers. Assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude, and Google's AI Overviews, which quote and cite pages. Our guide on how to audit AI visibility sets out the checks.

Type four: SEO by method

This cut describes how the work is done, not what it covers.

  • White hat. Work that follows Google's guidelines: useful pages, honest markup, earned links.
  • Black hat. Tactics that break the rules to manipulate rankings, such as hidden text, link buying networks and cloaking. Google's spam policies list them, and pages caught can rank lower or be left out of results.
  • Grey hat. A label used for practices that sit between the two. If you have to ask which side something falls on, check it against the policies.

Our guide to black hat vs white hat SEO separates the named violations from the myths. The right choice for a business is white hat, because pages that follow the guidelines keep their position when Google's systems update.

How to choose the types you need

Your situationStart with
Pages are not in Google at allTechnical SEO
Pages are indexed and stuck below page twoOn-page and content SEO
Pages sit just outside the top tenOff-page SEO and internal links
You serve a town or cityLocal SEO
You sell products onlineEcommerce SEO
You sell in several countriesInternational SEO
Buyers ask assistants before they searchAI answer visibility alongside web search

The sequence for a new site is usually technical first, then on-page and content, then off-page. A one-page plan covering all three in ninety days is in SEO for beginners, and the plain definition of the subject is in what is SEO.

Common mix-ups between types

  • SEO against SEM. SEO earns unpaid placement. SEM usually means paid search ads as well. A paid ad does not improve your organic position.
  • Technical against on-page. Technical work is about whether a page can be crawled and stored. On-page work is about what the page says.
  • Local against general. A page with a city name in it is not local SEO. Local SEO is the profile, the reviews and the consistency of your details across sites.
  • Content against keyword work. Choosing the phrase is research. Content SEO is delivering the best answer to it.

Questions about the types of SEO

What are the main types of SEO?

On-page, off-page and technical are the three main types by task. Content, local, ecommerce and international SEO are common additions.

Which type of SEO is most important?

The one that fixes your biggest blocker. A site that Google cannot crawl needs technical work first, and a site that is crawled but unconvincing needs content and links.

Is local SEO different from normal SEO?

It shares the foundations and adds the Business Profile, reviews and consistent business details across the web.

Are black hat methods ever worth it?

No. They break Google's published policies and put your pages at risk. White hat work builds assets that keep their value.

Where do AI assistants fit?

Assistants read many of the same pages that search engines do and quote the clearest, best corroborated ones. Treat them as another surface alongside web search.

The newest type: SEO for the answer, not the list

Every type above was built for a list of results. A growing share of buyers now put the question to an assistant and read one written answer that names two or three businesses. That calls for the same discipline, aimed at a different test: are your facts clear, consistent across the sites an assistant reads, and quoted accurately? You can check by asking the assistants directly. AI Knows Us (aiknowsus.com) records, for the questions your buyers ask, which businesses ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews name, and which pages they used to say so.

Read next

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