Common SEO Mistakes to Avoid

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) refers to optimising your website content to improve its visibility and ranking in search engine results pages.?

By improving your website's visibility and helping it appear more relevant, genuine, and authoritative, SEO ultimately aims to increase organic (non-paid) traffic to your website.?

However, there are multiple common SEO mistakes that people make such as duplicating content and neglecting technical SEO. It is vital to ensure that your website avoids these mistakes as they can truly hinder the effectiveness of your content and prevent the achievement of optimal results.

6 common SEO Mistakes to avoid:

1. Ignoring keyword research?

Keyword research is crucial for understanding user intent as it allows you to determine the specific terms consumers are using to search for products related to your industry. These keywords can be strategically incorporated into all content including meta tags, headings, body text and alt text.?

It places a focus on identifying high-volume keywords which can be applied within your content to increase the visibility of your website. This can be useful in discovering which keywords your competitors may be overlooking, giving you a competitive edge in attracting targeted traffic.?

If this is ignored, the chances of effectively tailoring your content to align with your target market’s needs are significantly reduced. This likely is the reason why 96.55% of all pages get zero search traffic from Google. Therefore, it’s important to carry out detailed keyword research to ensure the highest likelihood of attracting qualified traffic.?

2. Not optimising for mobile and user experience

A lack of mobile and user optimisation is a huge mistake as it directly affects how users interact with your website, which consequently impacts your search engine rankings and overall online performance.?

This can include aspects such as text that may be too small to read and buttons that may be difficult to tap, resulting in frustrated customers with an increased likelihood of abandoning your website.

Additionally, including intrusive pop-up ads that appear before or during the user's interaction with the website, can be particularly disruptive on mobile devices where screen space is limited. This can lead to a similar user response of irritation and a negative impression of your website.

Google will always prioritise delivering the best possible user experience. Therefore, websites that provide a better user experience will rank higher in search results.

As mobile phones are being used more frequently for internet browsing, mobile optimisation is essential. Google, in particular, has implemented mobile-first indexing, meaning it primarily uses the mobile version of a website's content for indexing and ranking.

In general, websites that are optimised for user experience will have lower bounce rates—the percentage of users that exit your site after viewing just one page—and greater engagement rates. These are both positive signals to search engines and can contribute to improved rankings.

3. Duplicating content?

Publishing the same or very similar content within a single website or across different domains has a negative impact on search rankings.

It could be challenging for search engines to distinguish between duplicate content and the original, authoritative version.

In some cases, search engines may choose to penalise the entire site for attempting to manipulate search rankings.

Duplicate content can confuse and frustrate users leading to higher bounce rates and lower engagement metrics. Providing unique and valuable content enhances user satisfaction and will encourage repeat visits.

4. Neglecting technical SEO?

Technical SEO addresses backend components of website optimisation that impact search engine crawling, indexing, and ranking, in contrast to on-page SEO, which concentrates on content optimisation. Neglecting technical SEO is a common mistake because it can prevent a website from being properly indexed and ranked in search results pages.

Broken links, faulty redirects, or slow page speed are all aspects of technical SEO. Neglecting these can hinder the crawling process, which is responsible for discovering your website, and result in incomplete indexing and reduced visibility in search results.

Furthermore, page speed is a central indicator of user experience and hence, an important ranking factor for search engines. Optimising server response times and image compression are also examples of technical SEO which will ensure high satisfaction from users, lower bounce rates and ultimately, higher search rankings.

5. Not staying up to date with SEO trends & Google updates?

Google consistently adapts its algorithms to enhance the quality and relevance of search results. These updates hold the key to success for your business in terms of ranking and visibility.

By not staying up to date, you will lose out on the ability to adapt SEO strategies accordingly to improve your search rankings. This is especially due to the fact that search engines continuously introduce new features and enhancements to their search results pages. Missing out on incorporating these can be detrimental to your success, even more so if your competitors are utilising them.

Moreover, staying up to date helps prevent any accidental penalisation. For instance, Google’s recent March 2024 core algorithm update discussed that they will be penalising sites made with AI-generated content. If you missed this and were to continue incorporating AI-generated content into your website, this would seriously detriment its performance.

Staying ahead of the curve in SEO trends and updates can provide you with a competitive advantage as websites that are quick to adapt to changes are more likely to outperform their competitors in search rankings and attract organic traffic.

6. Ignoring local SEO (if your business serves a local audience)

Local SEO refers to the process of optimising a website to increase its visibility in local search results, particularly for businesses targeting an audience within a specific geographic area.?

There are a number of ways to incorporate local SEO such as managing your online presence across Google's platforms, including Google Maps and Search. Optimising your online presence with accurate business information including address, phone number, business hours and photos, is crucial for local SEO. Neglecting this can result in missed opportunities to attract local customers.

Additionally, local SEO involves targeting location-specific keywords that are relevant to your business and target audience. This involves using geo-targeted keywords, including city names and neighbourhoods, to optimise content, meta tags, and headings of websites. Without incorporating this, it may be difficult for your website to rank for relevant local search queries and compete with local competitors.

How Lumen SEO Can Help

Our SEO experts can take care of your whole SEO strategy including keyword research, link building, content writing and technical SEO.? We will help you ensure that you are avoiding the common mistakes mentioned and leveraging SEO best practices to skyrocket the quality and visibility of your content.

You can learn more about what an SEO agency, like ours, does here.

If you like the sound of working with us, we offer free, no-obligation SEO audits on business websites. To claim yours, simply enter your details here and we’ll get a free SEO audit to you within 24 hours.

For a friendly chat about the SEO services we provide here at Lumen SEO, contact us today. Alternatively, you can message us on either our LinkedIn or Instagram pages

Written by Viktoria, for Lumen SEO.