Are you finding that your website isn’t attracting as much traffic as you’d like?
Or perhaps you’re getting visitors, but they’re not converting into customers. Maybe you’re even struggling to rank for the keywords you know are important to your business. That’s because your site is affected by SEO issues.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves enhancing the quantity and quality of your website’s traffic by boosting its visibility in search engine results.
You might wonder how to improve your SEO if you do not see the desired traffic levels.
In this post, we’ll discuss the most common SEO mistakes and provide solutions to fix them.
So, without any further ado, let’s get started.
Table Of Contents
Let us now address the common technical, on-page, content and off-page mistakes and discuss how to fix them.
1 Common Technical SEO Mistakes & Fixes
Let’s begin with the technical SEO issues and their fixes.
1.1 Poor Crawling or Indexing
One common SEO mistake that can severely impact your website’s visibility and performance is misconfiguring the robots.txt file and the sitemap.
The robots.txt file serves as a guide for search engine crawlers, instructing them on which parts of your website they are allowed to access and index.
A misconfigured robots.txt file can unintentionally block search engines from crawling important pages, leading to poor indexing and diminished search visibility.
Similarly, a sitemap lists all the pages on your website you want to be indexed.
If your sitemap is incomplete, outdated, or incorrectly formatted, it can cause search engines to miss key pages, resulting in an incomplete indexing of your site.
Refer to our dedicated tutorial on common robtos.txt and common sitemap issues and their fixes.
Fix: Ensure robots.txt File is Correctly Configured, and Submit a Sitemap to Google Search Console
Correctly Configure the Robots.txt File
Review your existing robots.txt file to identify any directives that might be blocking important pages. You can usually access this file by visiting yourdomain.com/robots.txt.
Ensure that key sections of your website, such as your main content pages, product pages, and blog posts, are not disallowed. Typically, you want to allow search engines to crawl these areas to improve their indexing.
Rank Math makes it very easy to edit your robots.txt file.
While it’s important to allow access to essential pages, you may want to disallow search engines from crawling certain areas, such as admin pages, duplicate content pages, or sensitive information sections.
You can use a robots.txt tester tool to validate your robots.txt file and ensure there are no errors.
Create and Submit a Sitemap
If you have connected Rank Math with your Google Search Console account, it automatically submits your sitemap index to Google.
Ensure your sitemap is up-to-date and includes only the pages you want search engines to index. Avoid including duplicate pages, low-quality content, or pages with no SEO value.
1.2 Unoptimized Website Structure
Unoptimized website structure is another SEO issue that hinders search engine crawlers’ ability to navigate and understand the hierarchy and organization of website content.
This can lead to poor indexing, lower visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs), and decreased organic traffic.
Fix: Implement Best Practices for Website Structure
To fix this SEO issue, you should prioritize organizing the website’s content in a logical and hierarchical manner, ensuring easy navigation for both audience and search engines.
This involves creating a clear site architecture with a well-defined hierarchy of categories, subcategories, and pages, optimizing internal linking, and using descriptive and keyword-rich URLs to improve crawlability and relevance.
Additionally, regularly auditing and optimizing website structure based on feedback, search trends, and SEO best practices can help ensure that the website remains well-organized and optimized for search engines, ultimately improving SEO performance and user experience.
Refer to our dedicated tutorial on website structure to improve the website navigation.
1.3 Slow Page Load Times
Another SEO issue that many websites suffer from is slow page load times.
Search engines like Google prioritize websites that offer fast and efficient experiences to users, so a slow-loading site can lead to reduced visibility and traffic.
High page load times can significantly detract from user experience, leading to increased bounce rates and lower engagement.
When your audience has to wait too long for a page to load, they are more likely to abandon the site. This signals to search engines that the website is not providing a good user experience, which can negatively affect the site’s search engine rankings.
Fix: Optimize Images, Leverage Browser Caching, and Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
To address slow page load times and improve both user experience and SEO, consider implementing the following solutions.
Optimize Images
Lazy loading ensures that images only load when they are about to enter the viewport. This reduces initial load time and saves bandwidth for the audience.
To implement lazy loading, you can use plugins like WP Rocket, which implements lazy loading on images, iframes, and videos.
Compressed images load faster and use less bandwidth. Use tools such as TinyPNG to reduce images’ file sizes without sacrificing quality. You can also consider using the Imagify plugin, which helps you to optimize your images effortlessly.
Use appropriate image formats for different types of images. For instance, JPEG is generally better for photographs, while PNG is preferable for images with transparency.
You can also refer to our image SEO guide, which covers the various ways to optimize images for search.
Leverage Browser Caching
Configure your web server to set expiration dates for different types of files (e.g., HTML, CSS, JavaScript). This instructs the browser to cache these resources for a specified period, reducing the need to reload them on subsequent visits.
Use cache-control headers to specify how and for how long browsers and other intermediaries can cache your resources. Proper caching can significantly speed up page load times for returning visitors.
When selecting a caching plugin, you have several excellent options, including WP Rocket and W3 Total Cache. These plugins provide a variety of features and customization options, enabling you to adjust the caching settings to fit your specific requirements.
Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A CDN distributes your website’s content across a network of servers worldwide. When the audience accesses your site, the content is delivered from the server closest to them, reducing latency and load times.
CDNs can handle higher traffic volumes and provide redundancy, which helps keep your site fast and accessible even during peak times or in case of server outages.
We recommend using RocketCDN, which is a premium CDN that integrates directly with WP Rocket.
By offloading the delivery of static assets like images, CSS, and JavaScript files to the CDN, you reduce the load on your main server, improving overall performance.
Refer to our dedicated tutorial on speed optimization to improve your website’s load times.
1.4 Broken Links and 404 Errors
Broken links and 404 errors are common SEO mistakes that significantly impact your website’s performance.
Broken links occur when a URL points to a page that no longer exists, leading the audience to a 404 error page.
These errors can frustrate visitors, degrade their experience, and increase bounce rates, signaling to search engines that your site may not provide valuable content.
Additionally, broken links can disrupt the flow of link equity, negatively affecting your site’s ability to rank in search engine results.
Fix: Regularly Audit the Site for Broken Links and Set Up 301 Redirects Where Necessary
Utilize tools like Google Search Console or Ahrefs to scan your website for broken links. These tools can identify URLs that return 404 errors or other status codes indicating issues.
You can also use Rank Math to monitor the 404 errors on your site.
Set up regular, automated audits to monitor your site for broken links continuously. This approach helps catch and resolve issues promptly, maintaining a smooth user experience.
When a page is moved or deleted, use a 301 redirect to guide your audience and search engines to the correct, updated URL. This permanent redirect passes the link equity from the old URL to the new one, preserving your SEO efforts.
After setting up 301 redirects, update any internal links on your site that pointed to the old URLs. This ensures that the audience and crawlers directly access the correct pages without relying on redirects.
If possible, reach out to owners of sites that link to your broken pages and request an update to the new URL. This step enhances the user experience and maintains the value of inbound links.
1.5 Ignoring Mobile Optimization
One significant SEO mistake is ignoring mobile optimization.
As more audiences access the internet via mobile devices, having a website that isn’t mobile-friendly can severely impact user experience and SEO performance.
A site that doesn’t adapt to different screen sizes can lead to poor navigation, slow load times, and overall frustrating user experiences.
Moreover, search engines like Google prioritize mobile-friendly websites.
Fix: Implement Responsive Design and Test Mobile Usability
Design your website with mobile users in mind first, then progressively enhance the experience for larger screens. This approach ensures that mobile usability is prioritized.
Use CSS media queries to create flexible grid layouts that adapt to different screen sizes. This ensures that your content looks good and functions well on any device.
Make sure images and fonts scale appropriately for various screen sizes.
Use PageSpeed Insights to find the areas for improvement.
1.6 Lack of Schema Markup
The lack of Schema Markup is a significant SEO issue. It deprives search engines of valuable context about a website’s content, resulting in less visibility and fewer opportunities for rich snippets in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Schema Markup, or structured data, provides search engines with additional information about webpage content. This enhances their understanding and enables rich snippets like star ratings, product prices, and event details.
Fix: Add Schema Markup
You can fix this SEO issue using Rank Math, and utilize the built-in Schema Markup feature within the plugin.
Rank Math offers a user-friendly interface for implementing structured data across various types of content, including articles, products, events, recipes, and more.
Refer to our dedicated tutorial on Schema Markup and implement Schema Markup at the click of a few buttons.
Just for a quick run-through, ensure the Schema module is enabled in Rank Math, as shown below.
Access the Schema section in Rank Math’s settings to configure Schema settings for different types of content. Customize Schema Markup according to your website’s needs and content types.
After implementing Schema Markup, use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to validate the structured data and ensure that it meets Google’s guidelines.
Refer to our dedicated technical SEO tutorial to understand and implement technical SEO strategies in detail.
2 Common On-Page SEO Mistakes & Fixes
Let us now discuss the common on-page SEO mistakes.
2.1 Poor Keyword Research
One of the most common on-page SEO mistakes is targeting the wrong keywords.
This can occur when keywords are chosen without thorough research, leading to a focus on terms that are either too competitive, too vague, or irrelevant to the target audience.
Targeting the wrong keywords can result in low search engine rankings, reduced traffic, and minimal engagement from visitors who do not find the content relevant to their needs.
Additionally, it can lead to wasted effort on content creation and optimization that does not yield the desired SEO results.
Fix: Use Tools to Find Relevant Keywords With the Right Balance of Competition and Search Volume
Start with broad terms related to your business, products, or services. These are your seed keywords that will form the basis of your research.
Use keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner, Semrush, Ahrefs, etc, to expand your list of potential keywords. These tools provide data on related keywords, search volume, and competition levels.
Analyze keyword metrics such as:
- Search Volume: Look for keywords with a reasonable search volume, which indicates sufficient interest in those terms. Avoid keywords with low search volume, as they may not attract significant traffic.
- Competition Level: Assess the competition for each keyword. High-competition keywords can be difficult to rank for, especially for new or smaller websites. Aim for a mix of low to medium-competition keywords to improve your chances of ranking well.
- Relevance: Ensure the keywords are highly relevant to your content and target audience. Keywords should match the intent of the users searching for them, whether it’s informational, navigational, or transactional.
Consider targeting long-tail keywords, which are longer and more specific phrases. They typically have lower competition and higher conversion rates because they match user intent more closely.
Analyze the keywords your competitors are ranking for. This can provide insights into potential opportunities and gaps in your keyword strategy.
Incorporate your chosen keywords naturally into your content, including titles, headings, meta descriptions, and body text. Avoid keyword stuffing, as it can harm readability and SEO.
Refer to our dedicated tutorial on choosing the right keywords and avoiding poor keyword research.
2.2 Keyword Stuffing
Keyword stuffing is a common SEO mistake that involves overloading a webpage with keywords or phrases in an attempt to manipulate a site’s ranking in search engine results.
This practice can make the content sound unnatural and significantly detract from the user experience.
Fix: Focus on Natural Keyword Integration and Prioritize User Experience
Prioritize creating content that reads naturally and provides value to your audience. Add keywords in a way that fits into the text without disrupting the flow or readability.
Instead of repeatedly using the same keyword, use synonyms and related phrases. This approach helps to maintain a natural tone and avoids redundancy while still signaling relevance to search engines.
Strategically place keywords in important areas such as titles, headings, meta descriptions, and the first paragraph of your content. Ensure they are relevant to the context of the content.
Focus on creating high-quality content that answers users’ questions and meets their needs. Quality content naturally attracts more traffic and engagement, which is beneficial for SEO.
Use tools like Rank Math SEO (for WordPress) or other keyword density checkers to ensure your keyword usage is within an acceptable range. Typically, a keyword density of 1-2% is considered optimal.
Review your content regularly for keyword stuffing and make necessary edits. Remove unnecessary repetitions and ensure the content maintains its natural flow.
2.3 Duplicate Content
Duplicate content refers to blocks of content that appear in more than one location on the internet. This can occur within a single website or across multiple domains.
When search engines encounter duplicate content, they may struggle to determine which version is the most relevant and authoritative, leading to potential issues with indexing and ranking.
Having duplicate content on your website is a common SEO mistake that can dilute your site’s visibility in search results, as search engines may prioritize one version over the others.
Additionally, duplicate content can confuse the audience and undermine their trust in your website.
Fix: Use Canonical Tags and Create Unique Content for Each Page
Determine the primary or preferred version of the content that you want search engines to index and rank.
Use canonical tags (rel=”canonical”) in the HTML code of duplicate pages to indicate the preferred version. This tag informs search engines that the content of the duplicate pages should be attributed to the canonical URL.
You can easily set canonical tags using Rank Math.
Create content that offers unique insights, perspectives, or information that cannot be found elsewhere. Original content improves SEO and enhances user engagement and satisfaction.
The content should address the specific needs, interests, and intentions of your target audience for each page. Personalized content resonates better with audiences and encourages repeat visits.
If you have multiple pages with similar content, consider consolidating them into a single, comprehensive page to avoid duplication and strengthen your site’s authority.
Regularly review and update your website’s content to ensure it remains relevant, accurate, and valuable to your audience. Refreshing content can help prevent it from becoming stale and reduce the likelihood of duplication.
2.4 Missing or Unoptimized Meta Tags
Unoptimized or missing meta tags are another common SEO issue that can significantly impact a website’s performance in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Meta tags, such as title tags and meta descriptions, are essential in informing search engines about web pages’ content and influencing users’ click-through rates.
Here’s what the meta title and description look like in SERPs.
When these meta tags are unoptimized, they may lack relevant keywords, fail to accurately describe the page’s content, or be too generic, decreasing visibility and click-through rates.
Fix: Write Unique, Descriptive, and Keyword-Rich Meta Titles and Descriptions for Each Page
Conduct a thorough audit of your website’s meta tags using SEO tools or manually inspecting individual web pages.
Look for title tags and meta descriptions that are either missing, duplicated across multiple pages, too short, too long, or not optimized for relevant keywords.
To avoid common SEO issues with your page’s title tag and meta description, you should:
- Include the target keyword.
- Ensure they are unique to each page.
- Provide a concise summary of what the audience can anticipate finding on the page.
- Make sure they align with the intent behind the target keyword.
You can use Rank Math’s SEO Meta Content AI tool to add meta titles and descriptions to your pages.
Refer to our dedicated tutorial on on-page SEO to optimize your web pages effectively
3 Common Content Mistakes & Fixes
Let us now discuss the common content mistakes and how to fix them.
3.1 Low-Quality Content
Publishing thin, uninformative content is a significant SEO mistake.
This type of content typically lacks depth, detail, and relevance, providing little value to readers.
As mentioned before, search engines prioritize high-quality content that answers user queries comprehensively. Thin content can result in low engagement, high bounce rates, and poor search engine rankings.
Fix: Create High-Quality, Informative, and Engaging Content That Provides Value to the Reader
Identify the needs, interests, and pain points of your target audience to create content that addresses their specific concerns.
Gather information from credible sources to ensure your content is accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date. Cover topics in-depth, offering detailed explanations, examples, and actionable insights.
Enhance content with relevant images, infographics, videos, and charts to make it more engaging and easier to understand.
Create original content that offers unique perspectives or new information, avoiding plagiarism or simply updating existing content.
You can also use our Content AI to create high-quality content for your audience.
3.2 Neglecting Content Updates
Failing to update old content is another common SEO mistake leading to outdated information, diminishing your site’s value for the audience and search engines.
As industries develop and new information becomes available, content can become obsolete, leading to decreased relevance and lower search engine rankings.
Regularly updating content ensures that it remains accurate, useful, and aligned with current trends and information.
Fix: Regularly Review and Update Existing Content to Keep It Relevant and Accurate
Maintain an inventory of your site’s content and schedule regular audits to identify outdated or underperforming content.
Use tools like Google Analytics to track content performance and identify pages that need updates.
Update facts, statistics, and other time-sensitive information to ensure accuracy. Enhance outdated content by adding new insights, additional details, and improved visuals.
Re-evaluate and update keywords, meta tags, and internal links to align with current SEO best practices.
3.3 Not Using Header Tags Properly
Improper use of header tags (H1, H2, etc.) is a common SEO issue that can negatively impact both readability and SEO.
Header tags are essential for structuring content, making it easier for audiences to read and for search engines to understand the hierarchy and relevance of information.
Using too many H1 tags, skipping levels, or not using header tags at all can confuse readers and search engines, leading to a poor user experience and lower rankings.
Fix: Structure Content with Clear, Hierarchical Header Tags to Improve Readability and SEO
Ensure that header tags follow a logical order (H1 followed by H2, then H3, etc.) to create a clear structure.
- H1 Tag: Use only one H1 tag per page for the main title. It should clearly indicate the page’s primary topic.
- H2 Tags: Use H2 tags for major sections within the content, breaking down the main topic into subtopics.
- H3 and Lower Tags: Use H3, H4, and other lower-level tags for subsections within the H2 sections, maintaining a clear, logical hierarchy.
Write descriptive and keyword-rich headers that provide an accurate summary of the content in each section.
Well-structured headers make it easier for the audience to scan and find the necessary information, enhancing the user experience.
4 Common Off-Page SEO Mistakes & Fixes
Let us now discuss the off-page SEO mistakes and how to fix them.
Poor Backlink Strategy
A poor backlink strategy, such as acquiring low-quality or spammy backlinks, can significantly harm your SEO efforts.
Links from irrelevant, low-authority, or spammy sites can lead to penalties and reduce your website’s credibility and ranking.
Fix: Focus on Earning High-Quality Backlinks from Reputable Sources
Write high-quality articles for reputable blogs and websites in your niche. This not only earns you backlinks but also positions you as an authority in your field.
Create valuable, shareable content such as infographics, research reports, and case studies that others naturally want to link to.
Reach out to influencers, bloggers, and website owners in your industry to build relationships and request backlinks.
5 Conclusion
Addressing common SEO issues is necessary to improve your website’s visibility and attract more organic traffic.
By implementing fixes such as optimizing meta tags, resolving broken links, and improving website performance, you can enhance user experience and boost your rankings in search engine results.
Remember to regularly monitor and update your SEO strategies to adapt to changes in search engine algorithms and user behavior.
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