What are the types of SEO?
Every list gives you the same four types. None of them tells you that a SaaS site and a Shopify store need them in opposite proportions. Here are the four, the types people actually search by, and the page to read for each.
Answered by Aditi Chaturvedi · Updated September 25, 2026 · 8 min read
Short answer
The four types usually listed are on-page, off-page, technical and local SEO. The types people search by business model matter more: SaaS, ecommerce, Shopify, enterprise and international SEO, plus AI search. The four describe the work. The business model sets how much of each you do, so learn the four and let your model weight them.
The four types everyone lists
There are four types of SEO in the usual answer: on-page, off-page, technical and local. That is a fine map of the work. It is a poor map of what you should do, because a SaaS site, a Shopify store and a dentist's office each need a different mix of the four.
"types of seo" draws 320 US searches a month and "what are the 4 types of seo" another 40 (DataForSEO, US, September 2026). This page covers the four, then the types people actually search by business model, and says which split matters more.
What each type covers, who needs it, and the page to read
| Type | What it covers | Who needs it most | Read |
|---|---|---|---|
| The classic four | |||
| On-page SEO | Titles, headings, copy, internal links, images, structured data | Every site. The first type to learn | On-site SEO checklist |
| Off-page SEO | Backlinks, mentions, reviews, brand searches | Sites in competitive niches with pages worth linking to | Off-page SEO checklist |
| Technical SEO | Crawling, indexing, canonicals, redirects, speed, site structure | Large or generated sites. Stores most of all | Technical SEO audit checklist |
| Local SEO | Business Profile, map pack, citations, reviews, location pages | Businesses that serve a physical area | Local SEO audit guide |
| By business model | |||
| SaaS SEO | Hand-built pages, low-volume commercial keywords, content-led | Software companies | SaaS SEO guide |
| Ecommerce SEO | Generated product and collection URLs, category head terms, crawl-led | Online stores | Ecommerce SEO checklist |
| Shopify SEO | Ecommerce SEO plus fixed platform defaults | Stores on Shopify | Is Shopify good for SEO? |
| Enterprise SEO | Tens of thousands of pages, many owners, process over tactics | Large organisations | Enterprise SEO audit |
| International SEO | Hreflang, country or language versions, domain structure | Sites selling in more than one country | Hreflang validator |
| Newer labels | |||
| AI search SEO (GEO, LLM SEO) | Citations in AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity | Any site losing clicks to AI answers | LLM SEO guide |
| Programmatic SEO | Many pages generated from one dataset | SaaS and marketplaces with structured data | Programmatic SEO |
On-page SEO
On-page SEO is everything on the page you control: title tag, meta description, headings, body copy, internal links, images and structured data. It is the type most beginners start with, because it needs no developer and no budget.
Read: our on-site SEO checklist covers every element, the blog post checklist covers a single article, and the glossary entry for on-page SEO defines the term.
Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO is what other sites say about yours: backlinks, mentions, reviews and brand searches. You cannot edit it directly, only earn it. It is the slowest of the four and the easiest to buy badly.
Read: the off-page SEO checklist and the glossary entries for backlinks and off-page SEO. The free DR checker shows how strong a linking site is.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is whether Google can crawl, render and index your pages: robots.txt, sitemaps, canonicals, redirects, Core Web Vitals and site structure. On a large site this type decides everything else, because a page Google cannot reach has no on-page SEO.
Read: the technical SEO audit checklist, the answer on fixing technical SEO issues, and the difference between technical and content SEO. Test one URL in the free robots.txt tester.
Local SEO
Local SEO is ranking for searches with a place in them, in the map pack and in local results: Google Business Profile, citations, reviews and location pages. It only applies to businesses that serve a physical area.
Read: the local SEO audit guide, the answer on improving local SEO for a small business, and the glossary entries for the map pack and NAP consistency.
The types people actually search by
Nobody runs "on-page SEO" as a job. They run SEO for a SaaS product or a store, and the business model sets the mix. These are the types people search for once they have a site:
- SaaS SEO. A few hundred hand-built pages, low-volume keywords, revenue weeks after the click. Content-led. Read the SaaS SEO guide.
- Ecommerce SEO. Thousands of generated product and collection URLs, head-term category keywords, revenue in the same session. Crawl-led. Read the ecommerce SEO checklist.
- Shopify SEO. Ecommerce SEO plus fixed platform defaults: duplicate collection URLs, a generated robots.txt, app scripts. Read whether Shopify is good for SEO and the Shopify SEO guide.
- Enterprise SEO. Tens of thousands of pages and many owners, where process matters more than tactics. Read the enterprise SEO audit guide.
- International SEO. One site, many countries or languages, held together by hreflang and the right domain structure. Test your tags in the free hreflang validator.
SaaS versus ecommerce is the split I get asked about most, and the SaaS SEO versus ecommerce SEO comparison goes through where each one gets stuck.
Newer labels: AI search and programmatic
Two newer labels show up in the same searches. Neither replaces the four types. Both change where the traffic arrives:
- AI search SEO, also called GEO or LLM SEO. Getting cited in AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity. Same technical and on-page work, plus clear, quotable facts. Read the LLM SEO guide and the GEO glossary entry.
- Programmatic SEO. Generating many pages from a dataset, such as one page per city or per integration. Powerful for SaaS, and the fastest way to build thin content. Read the programmatic SEO entry.
There are longer lists: white hat, black hat, grey hat, negative SEO, YouTube SEO, app store SEO. They describe methods or channels, not work you schedule. The SEO glossary defines the ones worth knowing.
The split that changes what you do
The business-model split changes what you do more than the classic four. Here are the same four types, weighted by site:
- A SaaS site spends most of its time on on-page and content, some on off-page, and touches technical SEO once a quarter.
- A store spends most of its time on technical SEO and collection pages, because thousands of URLs are generated, and its off-page work is mostly product feeds and reviews.
- A local business spends its time on local SEO and reviews, and needs on-page work for a handful of pages.
- An enterprise site spends its time on process: who owns which template, and which fix ships first.
So when someone asks which type of SEO to learn, the answer is: learn the four, then pick the business model you work in and let it set the weighting. The types tell you what exists. The model tells you what to do on Monday.
Where to start on your own site
Your own data settles the question faster than a taxonomy. With the CrawlRaven MCP server connected, ask which type is holding your site back. Replace the bracketed site with your own:
Using CrawlRaven for [your site]: over the last 28 days, list the pages with the most impressions and fewest clicks (an on-page problem), the pages that lost the most clicks since the previous period (content decay), and my open technical issues ranked by impact. Tell me which of the three groups is the biggest bottleneck.
CrawlRaven joins Search Console, GA4 and a 200-point crawl into one ranked plan, so the answer is a list of fixes, not a type. The free plan covers one site, no card. Lifetime licences launched at $49 for three sites. Lifetime pricing steps up as licenses sell, so check the pricing page for the current batch.
The four-type list is how SEO is taught. The business-model list is how it is practised. After 15 years on SaaS sites, I still do on-page and technical work every week, but the order and the amount come from the model, not the textbook.
If you are hiring, ask which business model the person has worked in. If you are learning, pick one and go deep. Generalists know all four types; specialists know which one matters this quarter.
Frequently asked questions
What are the four types of SEO?
On-page, off-page, technical and local. On-page is what you control on the page: titles, copy, links, schema. Off-page is what other sites say about you, mostly backlinks. Technical is whether Google can crawl and index you. Local is ranking for searches with a place in them. Most sites need three; businesses with a physical area need all four.
What are the three types of SEO?
On-page, off-page and technical. Lists that stop at three treat local SEO as a specialism rather than a type, which is fair for any site without a physical location. The three cover the page, the links to it and the site's ability to be crawled. Add local only if customers can walk in.
Which type of SEO is most important?
Technical, if Google cannot reach the page; on-page, if it can. That order is why audits start with crawl and indexing. For a SaaS site, on-page and content carry most of the weight. For a store with thousands of generated URLs, technical does. For a local business, the map pack does.
What is the difference between on-page and off-page SEO?
On-page SEO is everything on your own pages: title tags, headings, copy, internal links, images and structured data. Off-page SEO is everything on other sites that points to yours: backlinks, mentions, reviews and brand searches. You edit the first directly. You earn the second, which is why it is slower and easier to buy badly.
Is SaaS SEO a type of SEO?
Yes, in the sense people mean when they search for it. It is not a fifth technique but a mix of the four weighted for a software company: a few hundred hand-built pages, low-volume commercial keywords and revenue that arrives weeks after the click. Ecommerce, Shopify, enterprise and international SEO are labels of the same kind.
What type of SEO should a beginner learn first?
On-page, then technical. On-page needs no developer and no budget, and you see the result in Search Console within weeks. Technical comes next because it explains why some pages never rank at all. Leave off-page until you have pages worth linking to. Then pick the business model you will work in and let it set the rest.
Is local SEO different from regular SEO?
Yes. Local SEO targets searches with a place in them and ranks a Google Business Profile in the map pack as well as a page in the results. It relies on reviews, citations and consistent name, address and phone details, none of which matter for a SaaS site. Everything else, including technical and on-page work, is shared.
Is AI search a new type of SEO?
Partly. Getting cited in AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity is called GEO, AEO or LLM SEO, and it draws on the same technical and on-page work. What changes is the output: clear, quotable facts and pages an assistant can lift a paragraph from. Our LLM SEO guide covers what actually differs.
15+ years of growing SaaS websites through SEO | Author, 200-Point Audit Checklist
Aditi has spent 15+ years helping SaaS companies scale organic traffic through technical SEO and content strategy. She is the author of the CrawlRaven 200-Point Audit checklist used by agencies and in-house teams to systematically improve search performance.
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Check it yourself
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