The Biggest Mistakes I See in SEO (and How to Fix Them)

SEO isn’t a hack. It’s not a checklist. It’s a system of trust—between your site, your users, and the search engines trying to make sense of it all.

But too many teams still get in their own way. Whether it’s over-optimising, under-investing, or chasing the wrong metrics, these are the most common SEO mistakes I see—across startups, enterprises, and everything in between.

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SEO Mistakes That Keep Costing You

Treating SEO Like a One-Time Project

SEO is not something you “launch.” It’s a process. And when you treat it like a one-off job—something to tick off during a redesign or at the end of a sprint—it quietly decays.

What to do instead: Build SEO into your ongoing workflows. That means regular content reviews, technical health checks, internal linking improvements, and keeping your sitemap and schema clean. Make SEO maintenance part of your ops—not just your campaigns.

Writing Content No One Actually Needs

If your blog is full of keyword-driven filler that no real human would read, congratulations—you’ve got content, not strategy.

Don’t chase keywords. Chase usefulness: Solve real problems. Be genuinely helpful. Every piece of content should answer a question, clarify a decision, or move someone forward. If it doesn’t, don’t publish it.

Overlooking Site Architecture

It doesn’t matter how good your content is if Google can’t crawl it or users can’t find it. Messy structures, orphan pages, and shallow category logic all kill discoverability.

Think like a librarian: Structure your site like a librarian, not a marketer. Use clear hierarchies, logical categories, and smart internal linking. Every important page should be reachable in three clicks or less.

Letting JavaScript Wreck Your Rankings

If your site relies heavily on JS frameworks (React, Vue, etc.) but doesn’t render server-side or hydrate correctly, Google might not see half your content—or index it properly.

What to do instead: Use server-side rendering (SSR) or static generation where possible. Test your pages with “View Source” and Google’s URL Inspection Tool. If your main content isn’t there, you’ve got a visibility problem.

Ignoring EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)

Google’s focus on EEAT means your content isn’t just being judged on keywords—it’s being judged on credibility.

How to build it: Show your work. Use bylines, bios, real authorship, and cite credible sources. Showcase experience. Build up your About page. And don’t let anonymous, generic content be your voice.

Measuring the Wrong Metrics

If your SEO reporting is just “organic traffic and bounce rate,” you’re not seeing the full picture. High traffic doesn’t matter if it’s not the right traffic.

Refocus the lens: Track performance by purpose. For TOFU content, monitor impressions and awareness. For BOFU, track conversions and assisted revenue. Tie SEO to business outcomes—not just vanity stats.

Neglecting Content Updates

Old blog posts rot. Product pages go stale. And “set it and forget it” content is often more damaging than none at all.

Keep it alive: Build a content refresh schedule. Prioritise high-ranking posts and update them for accuracy, usefulness, and current standards. Add new insights. Prune what’s no longer helpful.

Ignoring the Basics (Like Alt Tags and Header Flows)

It’s amazing how often the fundamentals get skipped—missing alt text, broken header hierarchies, duplicate title tags, or pages with no meta descriptions at all.

These might seem minor, but they add up. They signal carelessness to both users and search engines—and they’re easy wins that too many teams miss.

Don’t overlook the obvious: Audit the basics regularly. Use clear, descriptive alt text for all meaningful images. Make sure each page has a single H1, followed by logical H2s and H3s. Check that your metadata is unique, useful, and human-readable. Nail the basics before chasing trends.

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One More Thing: Audit, Audit, Audit.

Most SEO problems aren’t hard to fix. They’re hard to see.

That’s why regular audits are non-negotiable. Sites drift. Content decays. Plugins break things behind the scenes. Without a system for checking what matters, you end up reacting to traffic drops instead of preventing them.

The good news? You don’t need enterprise tools or a 200-slide report to stay on top of things. You just need a clear, consistent checklist—and the discipline to use it.

Instead of stuffing this blog full of how-to guides and SEO buzzwords, let’s be honest—if you’re reading this, you probably already know the basics. You don’t need a crash course. You just need a bit of extra guidance and a solid way to keep track of what actually matters.

So I’ve put together a Manual SEO Audit Sheet—free to use, no email gate, and you won’t be dropped into a drip campaign. Just click, make a copy, and go.

I’ve added notes for recommended fixes, but every site is different—so treat it like a compass, not a checklist carved in stone. Hopefully, it helps steer you in the right direction.

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10 Easy SEO Fixes You’ve Probably Missed

Some SEO mistakes are big. Others are silent.

These are the ones that quietly cost you rankings, trust, and visibility—not because they’re hard, but because they’re easy to forget.

1. Alt Text That Actually Describes the Image
   Not just for accessibility—alt text helps search engines understand your visuals. And here’s a quick test: If your image can’t naturally include a relevant keyword, is it the right image for the page?
   
   Don’t force it, but don’t ignore the opportunity either. Alt text should be descriptive, honest, and useful—both for users and search engines. If you’re serious about image SEO, start with this: Image Optimisation for SEO.
2. A Single, Clear H1 per Page
   You’d be surprised how many pages have two—or none. Your H1 sets the theme. Keep it clear, unique, and human-readable.
3. Meta Descriptions That Encourage Clicks
   Google might not always show them, but when it does, you want one that earns the click. Stop letting WordPress auto-generate them.
4. Canonical Tags on Every Page
   Even if you’re not duplicating content, canonical tags help define what matters. Especially useful on parameter-heavy URLs.
5. Internal Links to Your Own Best Pages
   Most sites link out more than they link in. Your highest-converting, best-performing pages should have clear pathways leading to them.
6. Noindex on Pages That Should Stay Private
   Dev sites, thank-you pages, internal search results—check they’re not accidentally in the index. It happens more than you’d think.
7. Image File Names That Aren’t ‘Screenshot 2024-10-03’
   They don’t need to be long, but they should describe the image. blue-running-shoes.jpg beats IMG1234.JPG every time.
8. Content Updates on Posts That Still Rank
   Ranking doesn’t mean done. It means “worth improving.” Update your winners quarterly. Keep them fresh and relevant.
9. Schema Markup for Key Pages
   Especially for articles, products, events, and FAQs. Structured data helps Google understand your content—and surface it better.
10. Google Search Console Alerts
    Set them up. Pay attention to them. Most major issues (indexing drops, page experience warnings, spam flags) give you a heads-up—you just have to listen.

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Frequently Asked Questions