The Biggest SEO Mistakes You’re Making (And What to Do Instead) 

SEO.

The dreaded acronym.

The ‘dark art’ that has the power to help you rank high on Google but that nearly every website owner we know seems to dread.

Search Engine Optimisation doesn’t need to be complicated. When broken down into actionable tips and steps and done right, it’s a brilliant strategy to help your ideal customers or clients find you online.

And yet, we see a lot of businesses dip their toes into the murky SEO waters and get things a bit wrong. So here are the 9 biggest SEO mistakes we see people make and how to fix them to make sure you get the results you want.

1. Not doing any keyword research

The first mistake you might not even know you’re making is not doing any keyword research.

That’s right, keyword research is a thing. And it’s definitely a step you don’t want to miss out on.

And if you have, no need to beat yourself up because you’re most definitely not alone. Most business owners do exactly the same because they assume they know exactly what people are searching for online.

And you know what they say about assumptions, don’t you?

For example, if you sell a funky pair of glasses that block blue light to help people fall asleep easier and faster at night, you might be tempted to create a lot of content around ‘blue light exposure’ or ‘blue light glasses’. And that’s great for those customers who already know about your product and its benefits.

But do you know what could also lead to your website? The search term ‘how to sleep better at night’. Because this is something people actually search for. And if you haven’t used it in your website content, you may be missing out on opportunities to be found, to receive an enquiry in your inbox or over the phone, and to make a sale!

And that’s not cool, right?

Plus, if you don’t do your keyword research, you’ll also miss out on loads of extra ideas for content.

So what should you do instead?

Learn how to do some basic keyword research

Keyword research, much like SEO in general, doesn’t need to be complicated. You can keep it super simple and use free tools to start with.

Remember – all you’re trying to do is to work out what your ideal clients actually search for when they go on Google. And once you know what those phrases are, you can create content that answers their questions.

That turns your website into something that’s relevant, useful, and interesting for your readers, but it also gives them more chances of finding your business online.

So how do you go about doing keyword research?

Here are a few tools that can help you:

• Google. Have you ever paid attention to the ‘People also ask’ and ‘Related searches’ sections on the Google results pages? They’re full of interesting terms that real people type or speak into the search engines.
• Keywords Everywhere is a free Chrome extension that gives you trend data and search volumes for the keywords you input. It helps you find out if a search term is popular. And if it isn’t, the tool gives you related keywords and ‘People also search for’ suggestions you can use instead.
• Answer the public gives you visual diagrams full of real questions that people ask when searching for a particular term. It’s really cool – you should try it out if you haven’t already!
• KWFinder is a paid-for tool that tells you exactly how many times a particular keyword is searched for every month. If your keyword is very competitive (i.e. a lot of content already exists and ranks well for that keyword) your chances of ranking aren’t the greatest. So the trick is to find keywords that lots of people search for but that not many other content creators are already using.

Do give keyword research a go. It will definitely change the way you create content!

2. Focusing on one keyword

Another mistake we see a lot of website owners make is to use the same keyword across various pages or pieces of content on your website. 

Say, for example, that you optimised your Homepage for ‘window repairs Liverpool’. You probably went for that keyword because it’s specific to what you do and it includes your location. Perfect.

But you definitely don’t want to use the exact same keyword for your About page, all your Service pages, and 5 of your blog posts. Right?

Unfortunately, putting all your eggs in one basket and trying to rank for that one keyword won’t solve all your problems. Because chances are your competitors will also try and rank for that exact keyword, so Google will have to look at other factors when deciding which results to display first.

Plus, what happens if that keyword isn’t specific enough? For example, while ‘window repairs Liverpool’ is a term people search for, if someone’s looking to have their car window fixed, your website might not be the right fit for them.

People search for specific solutions to their problems. So, depending on what types of services you offer, if you’re not optimising any of your content for ‘double glazing window repairs’ or ‘door window repairs’, for example, you might be missing out on opportunities.

So what should you do instead?

Optimise your content for a variety of relevant keywords

Mix things up and vary your keywords. If you’ve done your keyword research (see how it’s paying off already?), you’ll now have a range of keywords your ideal customers or clients search for, which means you don’t have to use the same one over and over.

If you’ve already used ‘window repairs Liverpool’, you could go with:

• UPVC window repairs Liverpool.
• Sash window repairs Liverpool near me.
• Window lock repairs Liverpool area.

D’you see where we’re going with this?

These are all real phrases people search into Google, and if they’re relevant to your business, they make great choices for your Service pages or your blog content.

By adding more related and relevant keywords into the mix, you give yourself more chances of being found for the products or services you offer.

3. Not optimising your content  

Do you optimise each piece of content you publish on your website? And by that, we mean all your web pages and all your blog posts?

If you don’t, we’ve got bad news for you.

You’re missing out!

Unfortunately, producing a huge amount of content isn’t enough. It’s a great idea and practice for sure. But you need to follow it through by optimising it all.

Why?

Because Google ranks content by using bots and algorithms, and it won’t know what your content is about unless you give it a little helping hand.

And if Google can’t find your website because you haven’t optimised your content, how do you expect your ideal customers or clients to find your business?

So what should you do instead?

Make sure your content is optimised for search

Let’s be honest. Optimisation will add some time to your content creation efforts (we’d say 20-30 minutes per piece of content).

But it’s worth doing. Because it makes the difference between your parents and best friend being the only ones reading your blog (don’t worry, we’ve all been there!) and your ideal customers finding your business on Google.

So once you’ve strategically picked your keywords (again, can you see why keyword research is so important!) include them in the following:

• Page or blog title.
• Meta description.
• URL for the page or blog post.
• Sub-headings.
• Alt-text for the images you added to that piece of content.

This gives Google better chances of understanding exactly what your content is all about and returning it to the search engine result pages. And if you want to know exactly how to do this, check out our blog post – how to optimise your blog posts for search engines.

4. Failing to niche down your content

Another mistake we see a lot of website owners make is to fall into the trap of being too generic. This is the opposite of mistake number 2, where we talked about trying to rank for just one keyword. 

As it turns out, trying to rank for too many keywords (especially if they span over a range of loosely-related topics) isn’t great either.

If you do that, you may not only confuse your audience but also dilute your main product or service. People like to work with specialists and experts. They like to know there’s one or a few core things you sell and are really really good at. 

If you’re a financial advisor specialising in mortgages, you might confuse your audience if you start comparing credit cards or giving generic advice on money-saving.

So what should you do instead?

Choose a niche or topic and go in-depth with it

Instead of focusing on too many topics, choose one topic or a few key ones that relate to your business and go to town on them.

Say, for example, that you want to be known as the local go-to person who helps people with their mortgage. ‘Help with mortgage’ is a broad topic. But when you start breaking it all down and looking at the questions your ideal clients ask, there is a lot of content you could create on this topic.

For instance:

• How to get help with mortgage payments if you’re temporarily unemployed.
• Charities that offer help with mortgage payments.
• Best resources to help with your mortgage when you’ve been made redundant.

And so on.

Once you’ve picked your topic, aim to make it the best resource on the internet for your niche, and you really can’t go wrong.

5. Not having enough website copy

Long-winded web pages full of lines and lines of text are hard and boring to read, right?

True.

But the opposite is also true.

If your core web pages (your Homepage, your About page, and Product or Service pages) don’t have enough content, that could also set you back. Having too little content means your website doesn’t provide a great deal of information to your audience. So will they feel confident enough to get in touch with an enquiry?

Also, not having enough web copy might impact your SEO efforts. Remember when we said that Google doesn’t know what your content is about unless you tell it?

Your website should act as a salesperson for your business – it’s not just the equivalent of a pretty window or a digital business card with hardly any details on it!

So what should you do instead?

Include plenty of relevant information in your content

Your website content should provide value. Its job is to answer your customers’ key questions and help them decide whether they’re ready to go ahead and buy from you.

So, instead of shying away from content, include enough information in the core pages of your website to give your readers what they’re looking for.

Pricing, for example, is one of the main questions your readers might have when browsing your website. Knowing that your product or service is within their budget (or how much it stretches it by) will help them make a decision as to whether get in touch with you or not.

We see a lot of business owners who don’t include their prices. And often that’s because they offer bespoke services and prices vary. But you could always give your ideal clients a ball-park figure. After all, someone who has no idea of how much working with you will cost may be too embarrassed to pick up the phone and ask. And you might lose them as prospective clients.

So don’t be that business! Make sure you always add enough information to your website in order for your ideal clients to make a decision. (And don’t forget to optimise those pages for SEO!) If you’re a service-based business, you can check out exactly what to put on your service page here.

6. Having a slow website 

Here’s one mistake that a lot of people don’t even know they’re making – having a slow website and not doing anything about it.

Why is a slow website even a problem?

Because us internet users expect websites to load quickly. Let’s be honest – we have little patience, and we don’t like waiting around.

But it’s not just that. It’s also a trust issue. If a website takes ages to load, we start thinking there must be something wrong with it or that it must be somehow ‘dodgy’.

And unless you’re a die-hard fan of that brand, what will you do?

Press the back button and go somewhere else.

In other words, if your website is too slow, it may be costing you clients. And to add insult to injury, Google knows if your website isn’t performing too well, which means you have fewer chances of ranking well in the search engine result pages.

So what should you do instead?

Check and improve your page load speed

You can easily check your website’s page load speed with a free tool called GTmetrix.

If you find your website is a little on the slow side, check your plugins. Are there any you no longer need or use? Make sure you deactivate and remove any plugins that aren’t necessary, as having too many will slow your website right down.

Also, don’t forget to compress and optimise all your images by using a tool like TinyPNG.

If you want to find out more about why compressing images is important for SEO, head over to our blog post SEO for Beginners: The Ultimate Guide.

7. Only focusing on on-page-SEO

Have you ever come across the phrases ‘on-page SEO’ or ‘on-site SEO’?

It’s not complicated, promise!

Chances are if you’ve been following our simple SEO advice, you’ve already been doing it. On-page SEO is about optimising your web pages and blog posts to help your website rank higher in search engine results. You do this by including the keyword you want to be found for in your headlines, meta descriptions, URLs, etc., as we already covered under mistake number 3 of this article.

On-page SEO is brilliant!

But there’s another side to the coin, and it’s called ‘off-page SEO’. Following this practice means you strategically spend time and effort to ensure that other reputable websites in your industry and niche link back to your content. Off-page SEO can be extremely helpful and boost your rankings like nothing else.

Because the truth is, there’s only so much you can do on your website alone. Google needs signals from other websites too.

So what should you do instead?

Focus on off-page SEO too

If you want your website to be found online, you need a strategy for ‘off-page SEO’ or ‘off-site SEO’ too.

To encourage other websites to link back to your own website, create helpful content like blog articles, videos, PDFs, reviews, or case studies that others will want to share on social media or link to from their own content.

Often, this isn’t something that ‘just happens’. You’d be very lucky if it does! Having an off-page SEO strategy means you might need to reach out to customers or clients, suppliers or other businesses you work with, and even online authorities or influencers whose audiences could benefit from consuming your content.

Guest posting is another great off-page SEO strategy. Have you got some wisdom to share that a fellow website owner would want to publish on their website? Perhaps you could be a guest on a podcast show? Or have you ever thought about pitching to an online magazine or publication?

There are lots of ways for other websites to link back to yours, which is why we recommend you include off-site SEO in your marketing strategy and come up with a plan to make it happen.

8. Not monitoring your analytics

Another mistake we see website owners make all the time is not monitoring their analytics. If you don’t do this, it means you don’t have a clear idea of what your audience is interested in.

And when you don’t know what content performs well on your website, you might end up creating more of the content that no one wants to read (sorry!). And surely you don’t want to spend time or money sharing something that your clients aren’t interested in, right? That’s a total waste!

Plus, the flip side is also true. If you don’t know what type of content on your website attracts your readers, you might actually miss opportunities to create more of that.

In short, not checking your analytics can really hinder your content strategy. Because unless you know what needs improving, you’ll never be able to do things differently.

So what should you do instead?

Check your analytics and act on the information

All the data you need is right there at your fingertips! All you have to do is check it instead of taking a stab in the dark when it comes to your content creation efforts.

By installing Google Analytics or the Google Search Console on your website you can get in the habit of analysing your website traffic. Check who visits your website, how they found you, what content they tend to consume the most, and how they behave when they’re on your site.

Once you have all this information, you can make better decisions around what content to create next and give yourself better chances of ranking higher in the search engine result pages.

9. Putting your head in the sand 

Completely ignoring SEO is easily done. We know a lot of business owners who’d rather do just that. Because SEO seems extremely technical and complicated to understand or too expensive to outsource. (But it really isn’t!)

You may have also heard on the grapevine (from social media, colleagues, or business associates, etc.) that SEO is dead.

It isn’t.

SEO practices have definitely changed over the last decade. Tactics that used to work 10-15 years ago don’t work anymore. And that’s simply because there’s so much more competition online and because Google keeps us online business owners on our toes by continuously refining and improving its algorithms.

SEO is definitely not dead. In fact, it’s vital for your business.

If you want to be found online, you need to stop putting your head in the sand and pay SEO the attention it deserves. Because ignoring SEO would be the equivalent of setting up a physical shop in the middle of nowhere. How do you expect your ideal customers to find your business if you don’t tell them you’re there?

So what should you do instead?

Buy our SEO Starter Pack 

Our SEO Starter Pack includes a video library that walks you through what you need to know about SEO step-by-step, with planners, checklists, and loads of other bonuses.

So here’s what you can expect when you buy the SEO Starter Pack:

• It includes everything you need to know about getting started with SEO in one place. No more scouring the internet and getting confused by conflicting information!
• It contains easy-to-follow, short lessons aimed at non-techies. We won’t bore you death with one long lesson or bamboozle you with technical jargon. That’s just not us at all!
• The pack teaches you the key parts of SEO – the ones with the biggest impact on your business to help you drive more traffic to your website.

The SEO Starter Pack is now available for $97.00+VAT. You can order it here and access everything right away. So what are you waiting for? Are you ready to use SEO to make a difference in your business?