5 Biggest SEO Mistakes That Will Kill Your Chances of Ranking in Google (And How to Avoid Them)

Do you know what a big mistake is? I'll give you a hint: it's the one that can cost you your entire site's ranking in Google. You see, there are five major mistakes that many people make that can ruin their website's ranking since SEO is such a complex and often misunderstood, part of running a business. I know it can be intimidating, but don't let yourself get lost in the weeds.

An entire guide could be dedicated to each of these mistakes, but I'll cover just the top 5 mistakes that matter most in this article. And yes, SEO is hard work and a tricky beast.

It can be really hard to know if you've done everything right and you're still not getting the results you want. Search engine algorithms change all the time, and while there are many things that can affect rankings, certain mistakes are often made over and over again which leads to a pretty steep fall in ranking positions. Even though hiring someone to do it for you won't guarantee success, at least you'll know that you're on the right track.

Google doesn't just want to rank you; it wants to help you succeed by showing you valuable information. That's why Google will show you the best results from your competitors' sites when they appear on the first page of their SERPs (search engine result pages), which are not static and never will be. They're always changing because Google is constantly tweaking its algorithm for better results. This means that you need to stay on top of what's happening in your niche if you want to keep beating out your competitors and climbing the ranks of the SERPs.

If you're only focused on one keyword, it's possible that someone else has already taken advantage of it. And chances are, they've done a better job than you have!

Here Are 5 Big SEO Mistakes That Could Cost You Rankings On Google

1. Creating Low-Quality Content & Not Having a Content Strategy

Poor quality content can be detrimental to your site's ranking. While many people make the mistake of thinking that better content will automatically lead to better rankings, this isn't always true — some good-quality content might rank higher than lower-quality content if it meets specific criteria such as being unique or informative.

However, there are some things that you should avoid doing when creating high-quality content:

• You should never write duplicate content (i.e., duplicate blog posts). This is against Google's guidelines and will result in penalties being put on your website or blog.
• You should also avoid using "clickbait" headlines that may attract readers but don't deliver on what they promise.

Search engines use keywords as signals to determine which websites are relevant to what people are searching for. When deciding which keywords to focus on, it’s important to consider both broad general terms (like “dog food”) and more specific ones (like “dog food for puppies”). If you don’t have enough high-quality content on your website with those specific keywords, then Google will not be able to find it, which means it will be missed out on by potential customers looking for what they need.

The most important thing you can do for your site is to develop a content strategy. This should be your main focus, and not just on the technical side of things. You need to consider everything from the layout of your pages to the tone of your content, and how much time it will take to create it.

You also need to look at the type of content that works best for your business. If you're selling products or services, then you'll have different types of content than if you're providing advice on how to get a job or build a successful business. Before you start writing any new content, make sure that it's well thought out and that it's going to be useful for both search engines and visitors.

Forgetting about content quality and user experience is another mistake very common among small businesses who don't have much budget for SEO but still want to rank well in search engines. However, this isn't enough if you're targeting more than one keyword term at once — especially when they're related terms such as 'men' and 'women.' In other words, don't rank a site just because it has great content or offers good user experience but not because its title contains relevant keywords (for example: "best online banking services"). You need both.

2. Using Too Many Keywords (Keyword Stuffing)

One of the most common mistakes is keyword stuffing, where you try to use more than one keyword in one URL or page title. The reason why this is a mistake is that Google does not like it and will penalize your site for it. If you want to rank for any keyword, make sure that you only use that exact keyword once in your URL and on your pages' titles.

The title tag is where Google looks when someone searches for your site name or URL through Google, Bing, or Yahoo! Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). While it may seem like more is better when it comes to titles, it can actually hurt your rankings if there are too many terms in one title tag (especially if they're long ones).

Choosing the wrong keywords can have a huge effect on your rankings, so make sure that you’re using the right ones for your site and content.

3. Not Having A Mobile-Friendly Website

Mobile SEO is becoming more important than ever, especially if you want to rank well in Google. Google has been emphasizing the importance of mobile search results for a while now, and it's not going to change anytime soon.

You should make sure that all the content you publish on your website is optimized for mobile devices. For example, if you have a video on your homepage, make sure it's responsive. If not, remove it from the page and replace with an image instead.

4. Poor Quality Linking

The other biggest mistake that will kill your chances of ranking in Google is poor-quality linking. You should aim to have high-quality links pointing back at your website, but if you find yourself with too many low-quality links pointing at your site then they could be hurting it instead of helping it because these are typically penalties for having these types of links pointing towards your domain.

While it's important to have quality content on your website, links back to your site from other websites are also essential for rankings in Google. For this reason, it's a good idea to use a SaaS like Ahrefs or SEMrush which will help you track down all of the links on the web that point back toward your website.

You can then make use of these links when creating new content or promoting existing ones. If you don't have the time to do this type of research, then it's a good idea to hire someone else to do it for you. You can find link-building experts who will be able to track down, clean and build these types of links for you.

5. Not Doing Enough Research Into Your Competition

You should be doing research on your competitors' keywords and pages, but you shouldn't be focusing on finding out what their pages look like or how they rank for those keywords. Instead, focus on getting a feel for the types of content that works well for your page and the types of keywords you should be targeting.

If you want to learn more about the types of content that work well for your page, then check out the Top 10 pages in your niche. What are they doing that's working? How can you improve upon what they've done and make it even better? You can also look at the top pages in your niche and see what type of content they're using. Is it long-form content, short-form content, video, or infographics? What kind of topics do they cover in their content? Are they talking about problems people have in your industry or just giving general information about what you do? Leverage these opportunities to stand out from your competitors.

Here is a bonus...…

6. Not Checking Your Rankings

This one is pretty obvious, but it’s also a major mistake. If you aren’t checking your rankings, you’re missing out on opportunities to improve them.

SEO is a long-term process, and it's important to keep your mind on the long term. If you're just starting out, don't worry about rankings right now. Focus on building quality content that people want to share with their friends and family.