What are the common SEO mistakes you could find & how to fix them - Quick Guide

Is your website not seeing enough movement? If you're looking to improve the organic traffic on your website and increase the chances of winding up in the SERPs (search engine results page), here is where you'll find the five most common SEO mistakes to avoid. We'll take a deep dive into the kind of SEO mistakes that effectively stop your website from climbing up the search engines' rankings and explain how to stay clear of them.

Poor title tags & meta descriptions

Meta titles, or title tags, and descriptions are way more important than some people might realize. Meta titles are what you see on the tab as you open a webpage, whereas meta descriptions are short summaries that will appear just below the search result, informative and inviting. They both indirectly affect SEO, so you ought to pay close attention when setting them up.

Title tags

In order to score some nice Google points, you've got to know that good title tags cannot be too long. To encourage the search engine bots to suggest your page, the suggested length of the webpage's meta title should be no longer than 60 characters. You'd be surprised how little that is. Moreover, keep in mind that you want your title needs to be simple and clearly understandable. Don't just stuff your main keywords in the mix.

Meta descriptions

Meta descriptions, on the other hand, give you a bit more space to play. Here, you should write up to 160 characters. The reason for the limit is that you want your full meta descriptions to display when someone's searching for a topic you wrote about and have the full picture from the get-go.

The same rules apply here in regard to keyword research. Remember to include the main one, but otherwise keep things short and to the point. Meta descriptions are supposed to invite people in, not give a detailed synopsis of what the readers will find on the page.

A website not optimized for mobile devices

According to the data available at Statista, mobile users make up more than half of the internet traffic in 2022 (58,99%, to be precise). Logic dictates, then, that in order to attract visitors you need to make your website mobile friendly. Even if the search engines still recommend your content because it is relevant, outdated design is likely to ultimately steer the visitors away. Along with other most common SEO mistakes, you want to focus on this aspect, as it is too crucial to ignore when executing your SEO strategy.

Updating the website design to fit the needs of mobile users will move you up in the SERP results, as well as improve the loading time. The latter is important too, as the average internet user isn't known for their patience.

Utilizing the wrong keywords

Last but not least, to get the search engines to seek out your website and suggest it to interested parties, you must optimize the website for the right keywords. This should be an ever-present feature in your SEO strategy.

Extensive keyword research should be on the to-do list of every website, and yours must not be an exception. What's more, you need to know what you're looking for and don't make mistakes such as:

• using global keywords when you're primarily offering local services;
• using generic keywords that don't attract your desired clientele;
• using keywords with a too high KD (keyword difficulty).

The general rule is that you want to be as specific as you can. Keep your keyword research laser-focused when creating content and optimizing the website, and pay attention to the metrics on SEO toolsets, like Ahrefs, for instance. Wrong keywords will bury you deep in the third or thirteenth page of Google search engine, while good ones might even get you within touching distance of the first few results. Just be careful when searching for relevant keywords, because keyword stuffing is also a thing. The Google search algorithm will punish you for trying to be clever. If you're smart about it and know how to interpret crucial metrics, you're on the right track.

Also, Google Analytics and Google Search Console are your friends. Check them out.

No internal links

What you should be hoping for is that once someone finds their way to your website, they will stick around a bit more. That's where the internal links come in. They're links visitors can find on the webpage that redirect them to other pieces of content in your domain. Relevant internal links will help not only the visitors to find related content to what they were initially looking for, but Google will also take note. Placing the right internal links also helps to create a proper website structure that helps you in retaining the visitors' attention for longer.

Irrelevant links from other websites

It's easy to fall into the trap of prioritizing the number of links over quality. You want people on other websites talking about you and your business, but if there's little to no similarity between the other website and yours, you might as well treat it like no link at all. They will prove to be ultimately worthless as you're dabbing deeper into search engine optimization. 

When looking for mentions on other sites, be it through guest posting or mentions, you'd ideally find content that's relevant to yours. You should especially avoid links from sites that deal with:

• gambling;
• other adult content;
• pharmacy.

You must also be on the lookout for any broken links that just don't work. They don't lead to any website and provide no value. When encountering a broken link, you either remove it altogether or update it.

Here's a trick, though.  If you're browsing the internet for websites similar to yourself (let's call it researching the competition) and encounter a broken link on someone else's site, contact them immediately and suggest an article on your site (if it's relevant) in its place. Chances are, the owner of the website will be more than glad for pointing out the error and will likely agree to your proposition.

Poorly written content

Last but not least, an SEO mistake that's still common, and one that you ought not to repeat is releasing low-quality content. I'm sure you knew that already, but in order to rise above the rest and allow the search engines to notice your website, you need to produce great content. That includes articles that are:

• well optimized;
• appropriately long;
• up to date (updated, if need be);
• and relevant.

What you need to remember, however, is that you're primarily writing for other people, not Google. If your pursuit of including all the right keywords makes the article you're writing unreadable or difficult to follow, consider changing your approach. Sacrificing a few keywords for the sake of clarifying the content and improving the readability is often a good idea.  

To sum up

As you can see, there are a lot of aspects that impact your website visibility and mistakes to make as you're working on your company's internet presence. Luckily, through effort and research, you can conquer all the most common SEO mistakes out there. Focus on improving the quality of your content, up your keyword research game, work on getting relevant links, and don't forget to utilize a mobile-friendly design. Do that, and you will be on your way to significantly increase the visibility of your website.

Bio

Graduated from the University of Warsaw, Michal Laszuk is a travel expert with an undying thirst for adventure and a writer at PhotoAiD. A self-proclaimed book and movie critic as well, he loves to put his passion for writing to use on the Passport Photo Online blog.