There are four main types of SEO strategy: on-page SEO (what's written on each page), off-page SEO (what other websites say about you), technical SEO (whether search engines can crawl and load your site), and local SEO (how you show up in map and "near me" searches). A fifth has grown out of them, getting named in AI answers, and it mostly depends on doing the first four well. Most service companies need all four, in different amounts, and the right starting point depends on where your site is weakest.
Here's what each one covers, a quick test you can run on your own site, and how to decide which comes first.
The four types at a glance
| Type | What it covers | A quick test |
|---|---|---|
| On-page | Page titles, headings, the words on the page, and how pages link to each other. | Does every service you sell have its own page with a clear title? |
| Off-page | Links and mentions on other websites, plus your directory listings. | Search your company name. Do trade groups, suppliers or local press mention you? |
| Technical | Crawling, indexing, speed, mobile layout and structured data. | Does your homepage pass Google's speed checks on mobile? |
| Local | Your Google Business Profile, Bing Places, directory listings and location pages. | Search your main service plus your city. Are you on the map? |
On-page SEO: say what the page is
On-page work is about making each page plainly about one thing. A title that names the service and the area. A heading that matches. Copy that answers the questions a buyer asks before calling: what it is, who it's for, what affects the price, how long it takes.
Google's SEO Starter Guide is the best free primer here, and it's blunt about what doesn't matter: Google doesn't use the keywords meta tag, there's no magic word count, and stuffing a phrase over and over just makes the page worse for readers.
Off-page SEO: what the rest of the web says
Off-page SEO is everything that happens away from your website. Links from other sites. Mentions of your company name. Listings in directories. For B2B and trades companies, the best of these come from relationships you already have, like a trade association's member directory, a manufacturer's certified installer list, a supplier's project write-up, or a story in the regional business journal.
The shortcut to avoid is buying links. Google's spam policies name buying or selling links for ranking purposes as link spam. It's not worth the risk.
Technical SEO: can Google read and load your site?
Technical SEO is the plumbing. If Google can't crawl a page, nothing else on this list matters for that page, and if the site is slow on a phone, buyers leave before they read a word of it.
Speed has published targets. Google's Core Web Vitals ask that the main content load within 2.5 seconds, that the page respond to a tap in under 200 milliseconds, and that the layout not jump around while it loads. Google says these measures align with what its core ranking systems seek to reward.
Other technical jobs include fixing pages that won't index, keeping an up-to-date sitemap (a file that lists your pages for search engines), and adding structured data, which is code that labels facts like your business name and address so machines can read them.
Local SEO: the map and "near me"
For any company that serves a set area, local SEO decides whether you appear on the map when a nearby buyer searches. Google ranks local results on three things: relevance, distance and prominence. Relevance is how well your profile matches the search. Distance is how far you are from the searcher. Prominence is how well-known your business is, which Google says is partly based on links to your site and the number of reviews you have.
You can't move your office closer to every buyer. You can make sure your profile is complete, your name, address and phone number match everywhere, and your website has a page for each area you serve.
Matching the strategy to the search
Different searches call on different types. Someone typing "emergency commercial roof repair near me" is ready to call, and local SEO decides whether they see you. Someone searching "TPO vs EPDM for a warehouse roof" is still researching, so a well-built on-page article answers them and puts your name in front of them early. Someone who already knows you searches your company name, and off-page and local signals decide whether what they find looks trustworthy.
Which to start with
Fix what's broken before building anything new. Technical problems come first, because they cap everything else. Then local, since much of it is one-time cleanup. Then on-page, one service page at a time. Off-page builds slowly in the background the whole way through, as the relationships you already have with suppliers, manufacturers, associations and past clients turn into mentions and links that point back to the pages you've built.
If you'd like a quick read on where you stand, our Free AI Visibility Check looks at your website, mobile speed, whether you come up in a local search, and what an AI assistant says when a buyer asks who to call. No email needed.
One program for all four
Inbound SDR covers on-page, technical and local SEO together, and supports off-page through directory listings and steady publishing. We build a website of up to 100 pages in the first month, planned around every service you sell and area you serve. We handle crawl and indexing fixes, sitemaps, page speed, Core Web Vitals, mobile and structured data, and keep your Google Business Profile, Bing Places and 65+ directory listings accurate. A new blog goes out every business day on your site and up to 3 social platforms. Packages start at $1,000 per month on a 12-month term, with a dedicated strategist and a monthly report.
It's not for companies that want paid ads, email campaigns or review management, which aren't included. And it doesn't come with a promised ranking, because nobody controls Google's results.
Get the next one in your inbox
New playbooks, benchmarks and guides from our sales floor, for owners and sales leaders who sell to businesses. One email a month. See past issues.
