10 Common SEO Mistakes Beginners Make (and How to Fix Them)

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1. Not doing keyword research:

Now you may think why keyword research is so important? The reasons are mentioned below:

• To understand user demand
• To be visible in search engines
• To analyze competition
• To increase traffic and conversions

How to do proper keyword research:

• Define your niche or topic
• Use keyword research tools
• Understand the types of keywords
• Verify search intent
• Analyze competition

What problems may occur if you don’t do keyword research:

• Your page will not rank on Google because Google ranks content that matches the user’s search intent the most.
• If you don’t do keyword research, then it may happen that you are targeting highly competitive keywords. In such times, for a new website, reaching the top becomes practically impossible.
• Your website’s organic traffic will decrease.
• Your content will face the problem of cannibalization.

2. Doing keyword stuffing: Why keyword stuffing is harmful;

• You may get a Google penalty
• User experience gets destroyed
• Instead of ranking, you face harm
• Brand image gets damaged

Now the question is how will you know if your content has keyword stuffing?

Let’s learn the methods:

• Excessive repetition of keywords
• Reading feels unnatural, same word/keyword used in every paragraph or heading
• Density abnormally high
• Content only has keywords, real information is less used

Solution of keyword stuffing:

• Content must be written naturally, so that keywords are blended inside sentences normally.
• There are some spaces to usage keywords, such as: Title tag, Meta description, URL, Headings (H1, H2), Content body, Image ALT Tag.
• Use alternative words when writing content
• Write according to search intent
• Increase your content length

3. Ignoring title tag and meta description:

Beginners usually make these mistakes such as not using title tag, giving only default title, keeping the meta description field blank, etc.

What harm happens if you ignore title tag and meta description:

• Click-through rate decreases
• High ranking does not happen
• Duplicate content problem occurs
• User experience becomes bad
• Bounce rate often increases

Solution:

• Keep title tag length 50 to 60 characters
• Place primary keywords at the beginning
• Keep your title tag unique
• Create title tags attractive enough to click
• Use brand name at the end if necessary

4. Keeping bad website structure:

Why not keep bad website structure?

• Google cannot properly crawl your website
• Your website’s ranking will decrease
• User experience will get worse
• Link equity will be wasted
• Google will be confused thinking of duplicate content

Solution:

The only solution is to create a good website structure, and for that you can do these tasks:

• Use categories and subcategories
• Keep URLs short and clean
• Do internal linking
• Use sitemap
• Make navigation menu easy
• Create mobile-friendly structure
• Optimize site speed

5. Not doing mobile optimization:

Creating site only for desktop without mobile optimization is a very big mistake.

What harm happens if you don’t do mobile optimization:

• Your website’s ranking in Google will decrease
• User experience will get worse
• Conversion will decrease
• You will lose to competitors

Solution:

• Must use responsive design
• Must use Google Mobile Friendly Test
• Must do page speed optimization
• Give easy navigation
• Use fewer pop-ups and ads
• Create mobile-friendly content
• Make touch-friendly design
• Do mobile optimization for local SEO

6. Slow website speed:

If your website is slow, the harms are:

• SEO ranking will decrease
• User experience will get destroyed
• Conversion will decrease
• Brand image will be damaged

Solution: To increase site speed, you must do:

• Compress images
• Use caching
• Minimize CSS/JS files
• Use good hosting
• Use content delivery network (CDN)
• Use lazy loading
• Optimize database
• Remove unnecessary plugins
• Test Core Web Vitals

7. Not using internal and external links:

If you don’t use links in content, harms are:

• Search engine cannot properly understand the site
• User experience gets bad
• Authority does not build
• SEO ranking decreases

Solution:

The only solution to this problem is to use links properly. For proper link usage you must do:

• Use internal links.
• Use external links.

How to do this:

• Give at least 3 to 5 internal links in every blog, keep anchor text relevant, give more links to important pages, do contextual linking, and use deep linking.

Why use external links:

• It builds credibility in Google’s eyes
• Builds trust among readers
• Helps in E-E-A-T factor
• Increases SEO value

How you can do this:

• Only link to trusted sites
• Link in relevant places
• Do not link to irrelevant or spammy sites
• Open in new tab
• Use no-follow links

8. Ignoring content quality:

Why must you keep your content quality high?

Reasons are below:

• Google’s algorithm updates, so low-quality content cannot survive
• To satisfy users
• For authority and brand building
• Increases chance of getting backlinks
• Can hold ranking in long term

Solution: To create quality content, you must do:

• Write original content
• Create detailed and in-depth content
• Provide solutions to user’s problems
• Follow E-E-A-T framework
• Make content readable
• Write understanding search intent
• Update regularly

9. Not using analytics:

If you don’t use analytics, problems are:

• You cannot understand which content is working and which is not
• Keyword performance won’t be tracked
• Technical problems will remain unknown
• Your investment will remain ineffective
• You will fall behind in competition

Solution:

• For SEO of your website use Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console.
• And for using these two you must set up Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console.

10. Not doing Local SEO:

If you don’t do local SEO, problems are:

• You will lose your local customers
• Your website will not be visible in Google Maps
• You will fall behind competitors
• Brand value will decrease
• Offline sales will decrease

Solution:

You must properly apply local SEO and for that you must do these tasks:

• Create and optimize Google Business Profile (GBP)
• Use local keywords
• Collect customer reviews
• Create local content
• Build local citations
• Create mobile-friendly website
• Use social media

I hope from the above discussion, those of you who are new bloggers or new website owners will understand the mistakes you are making in SEO and will be able to solve them easily.