SEO marketing has many moving parts, and a lot of businesses are likely making at least one of the biggest SEO mistakes. Even with leadership that understands SEO and why it matters, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Every content team member must understand core web vitals and SEO principles and be able to pivot after identifying core problem areas. 

Everyone on the team must know the five common types of SEO mistakes: strategy, SEO principles, web design, content, and black hat SEO. A business that identifies and corrects these errors should see improved search rankings sooner rather than later. 

Business and Strategy Mistakes 

The most common SEO strategy mistakes come from the top down. SEO team leaders, or their managers, have real opportunities to improve SEO with practical, realistic plans aligned with business goals. 

1. Failing to Set Realistic, Achievable, and Measurable Goals 

“We need to improve our SEO” gives the team nothing to go off of. They have no direction, no goals, and no way to measure their success. How do they know when they achieve “improved SEO?” 

It is impossible to overstate the importance of quantifiable goals. All SEO improvement plans should follow the SMART method: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. 

“We will improve our clickthrough rate by 15% over the next quarter. We will accomplish this goal by focusing more on our headlines and meta titles” is a better goal. It identifies which team members can make the goal possible and gives them a target as they devise a plan. 

2. Not Considering Business Goals 

The goals should be measurable and reasonably achievable and serve a purpose. When setting an SEO strategy, consider: what will the business get out of all this hard work? How does the company’s web content arm benefit the rest of the organization? What is the business paying for—or why are they paying you? 

Some companies will benefit from a robust social media presence or blog. Other B2B enterprises may not need a public-facing program, even if marketers tell them they should. Every business should assess and allocate resources appropriately. 

3. Chasing Vanity Metrics 

Common sense isn’t universal. Certain SEO key performance indicators (KPIs) look great on paper and make shareholders happy. But they need customer action to back them up. For example, a high clickthrough rate means nothing if readers don’t act on the CTA. And high click rates can be even more deceptive.

4. Concentrating on Clicks 

High clickthrough rates are a good sign. But they aren’t the ultimate measure of success. A good SEO plan needs to account for every metric, such as: 

• Organic impressions
• Search rankings
• Conversion rates 

Strategists should also remember to adjust their metrics for multiple search engines. 

5. Focusing on Google 

Google has a near-monopoly on the search engine business, but its competitors, especially internationally, have undeniable market shares. International markets like China, Turkey, and Korea have alternative national search engines in their native languages. Their algorithms differ entirely from Google’s. Microsoft’s Bing is a default search engine for millions of professional users. 

Researching how these search engines differ from Google and adjusting strategies accordingly will help large businesses outmaneuver their competition overseas. 

6. Only Thinking Globally 

Business leaders must remember their roots even as they boost global reach. Interacting with the community like a small business builds revenue early. This approach builds a good reputation close to home, where employees live and work. 

Google Business Profiles, local listings, and interactions with local media all spread the word in a high-impact local advertising environment. Print advertising and fundraisers for local schools and charities are another easy way for leaders to establish an engaged core audience. With community goodwill established, the SEO has the resources to go to work online. 

SEO Mistakes 

Even with a strategy in mind, SEO mistakes happen. Web content teams should use every tool available to identify problems with their approach during and after implementation. 

7. Ignoring the Competition 

Businesses aren’t running the online race alone. Consider other companies, research how they rank online, and the techniques they used to get there. Learn how they got ahead and innovate on it. At the same time, review competitors who fell behind and avoid the same mistakes. 

8. Going Without SEO Tools

Automated analytics and reporting tools, provided by both search engines and third parties, give businesses detailed insight into their performances. They confirm how well the site ranks and give measurable KPIs that inform a long-term SEO strategy’s success. They also assist in keyword research to ensure web content includes the words and phrases potential customers look up. 

9. Discounting Vital Keywords 

A search engine will only direct potential customers to a website if it includes the keywords they typed in. Content managers should regularly research important keywords for their topic and audience, adapting them to changing times and new content goals. This approach requires a flexible content team willing to pivot and test new keywords regularly. 

10. Disregarding Bounce Rates 

Proper keywords and acting on SEO tools help attract customers. But a high bounce rate, or percentage of customers that leave after viewing a single page, means visitors aren’t resonating with the content enough to stick around. Maybe they can’t navigate the site, or the content isn’t engaging. Lost traffic means lost business because they don’t act on the CTA or progress to the next step of the process. High bounce rates indicate a larger problem that SEO teams must correct as soon as possible. 

11. Failing to Audit Regularly 

Thorough audits, either internal or from third parties, can identify gaps in SEO implementation, such as missing keywords or slips in rankings. They measure core metrics where businesses can improve, with actionable insights into their SEO failures—old keywords, content decay, penalties for black hat techniques, and even website design issues.

Web Design Mistakes 

A website can have better content than any of their online peers. It needs an efficient, functional interface that delivers engaging content in an aesthetic, attractive package. To make the best websites possible, web developers must exploit the full suite of tools available to modern web developers. 

12. Maintaining an Unoptimized Website 

Websites that take too long to load are a significant roadblock for the millions of people who still have slow internet. They may leave for faster sites before the page finishes loading. The site should be easy to follow and understand; complicated websites try new users’ patience and increase bounce rates. Websites should make the most important content (such as their core products and services) easy to find. 

13. Squandering Meta Tools

Meta tags boost SEO through hidden interactions with search engines that users will never see. Search engines pull information from the website’s HTML code to display: 

• Summaries of the website in the search results (description) 
• Content type 
• The webpage’s title 
• Mobile viewport 

These all-too-often neglected tools are a vital quality-of-life feature. They give readers essential information before they ever click on a page—and the preview can entice them to do so. 

14. Neglecting Mobile Users 

Mobile users need websites designed for small, vertically-oriented touch screens. They should see all the information they need by scrolling through a portrait layout with large buttons and no wasted space. 

Every modern e-commerce site needs two pages: one for desktop and one for mobile. The small space also makes web designers approach their work with an economical eye. 

15. Overloading Multimedia Content 

Too many high-quality images and videos make web pages load slower, distract the user, and confuse the search engine. Google and its competitors choose one video to highlight in rankings. Second, third, or later, videos may not impact page rankings, wasting hard work.

16. Choosing Low-Quality Backlinks 

Backlinks are embedded links to other websites. They demonstrate to search engines that each page contains well-sourced information. 

Backlink quality matters. Businesses should refrain from linking to their competition, lest they direct traffic and customers away from themselves. They should avoid brand-new sites or sites with a reputation for incorrect or low-quality information. Google considers backlinks a measure of a site’s authority, and poor-quality backlinks indicate a low-quality website. 

17. Omitting or Making Poor Internal Links 

Internal links, or links that send readers to another page on the same website, give search engines vital context. They tell Google and others more information about how the pages interact, what they discuss, and which are most important. They help users navigate seamlessly from one page to another as they consume content. Readers otherwise lose interest fast as they browse even the most interesting content without guidance. 

Content Mistakes 

A high-quality website with clear goals will still fail if the blog posts and articles inside it can’t meet readers’ standards. All content, whether text, interactable, or audiovisual, must be intelligible, engaging, up-to-date, fresh, and give the readers what they want. 

18. Writing Unreadable Articles 

Modern search engines use helpfulness to prevent websites from gaming their keyword and linking algorithms. The more a site benefits its users, the more it boosts its rankings. An article that readers can’t understand doesn’t benefit them, and the site drops in the rankings because of it. 

Writing quality is only one measure of readability and helpfulness. Blogs and articles should divide their blocks of text into headers and subheaders when possible. Shorter, snappier paragraphs and impactful senses help hold readers’ attention. While flashy, advertisements and interactable site elements shouldn’t block valuable content. The readers visited the site to read, not necessarily to watch ads. 

19. Creating Boring Content 

Some websites churn out whatever content they can to attract as many low-quality clicks as possible. This approach hurts the site more than it helps in the long term. Others who can’t or won’t invest the time and resources for quality content shouldn’t instead resort to black hat SEO practices. Content must be interesting on its own merits; only research and metrics can confirm what is and isn’t interesting. It must withstand the test of time.

20. Letting Content Decay 

Readers will naturally lose interest over time. Pages will drop in rankings if written, published, and forgotten about. Rather than pick topics arbitrarily, strategists and writers should research “evergreen” topics that readers will return to long after the page goes live. 

Web admins can operate revamp initiatives to replace or refresh old pages to align with new initiatives or new SEO discoveries. This costly investment pays dividends, but quick-and-easy black hat approaches are tempting for unscrupulous businesses. 

Black Hat SEO Mistakes 

Black hat SEO comes from a term referring to criminal hackers. These unfair practices try to cheat search engine results by appealing to algorithms instead of users. Google and other search engines punish websites they catch using these techniques, even removing them from their indexes entirely. 

21. Stuffing Keywords 

In a method viewed as spam, writers use the most important keywords repeatedly to the content’s detriment. Endless repetition reduces readability and, therefore, overall helpfulness. While it boosts click numbers, keyword stuffing at the cost of content harms user experience and conversion rates. 

22. Trading Backlinks 

“Reciprocal linking,” or agreed-upon backlinking between two websites, does not automatically violate search engine ToS or SEO best practices. When relevant and valuable to the user, they are a non-issue. However, irrelevant or excessive links harm the user experience, as the two sites favor their agreement over the visitors’ experience. 

Backlinks are inevitable. However, webmasters should conduct a careful review of reciprocal linking arrangements to confirm they add value to their site. If not, administrators should remove them immediately. 

23. Forum Spamming 

Forum spamming creates fake backlinks through posts on other websites. Bad actors can make accounts and post links to other sites (especially using bots) to spread them as far and fast as possible. This behavior imitates natural user behavior as they recommend helpful sites and articles, making it difficult to track. 

Companies should never resort to bots or cheap link spamming (especially on irrelevant sites, likely to be ignored by users and removed by moderators). They should instead invest in quality content that readers want to share with others.

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Use Alan and Co Marketing’s personalized contact form to share information about your SEO needs. This digital marketing agency in the US has the experience necessary to identify and act upon opportunities to improve SEO. Its most notable projects are in marketing SMBs, particularly marketing for drug rehabs and sober living programs like Never Alone Recovery. Agency social media marketing, blog creation, and site redesign are all part of Alan and Co.’s complete package. Don’t delay—reach out to boost organic SEO visibility today.