SEO is one of those terms that can be super intimidating to a small business owner. You know it’s important if you want to get found online, but it seems complicated and overwhelming. Where do you even begin?
I hear so often from clients that they overlook SEO all together because they just assume it’s something they can’t do themselves and don’t have the budget for an SEO specialist. The truth is, SEO doesn’t have to be complicated. SEO basics are not difficult to implement on your own and the basics alone can have a positive impact on your rankings and visibility.
By simply avoiding these 11 common SEO mistakes, you’ll be setting yourself up to be found online. Here are the most common SEO mistakes I see small business owners making:
SEO Mistake #1: Not customizing your meta titles and meta descriptions
A huge part of effective SEO are keywords. Keywords tell search engines what your content is about so that they can recommend it to the right people, aka your target audience. The most significant keywords are found in your meta titles and meta descriptions.
A meta title is the title of a web page as it appears in search engines. So, this could differ than what you have the page labeled as in the backend. For example, you may have a page labeled “About” in the backend, but your meta title (what shows on the browser tab) is “Meet The Team”.
A meta description is a brief summary of your content and is the paragraph that shows in search engines right under the title. By default, Google will use the first couple of sentences that show on the page as your meta description, unless you specify it yourself.
By using the default meta title and meta description you’re missing a huge opportunity to specify your keywords and get your content in front of the right people.
How to fix it
Install Rank Math SEO on your WordPress site. This free plugin lets you customize your meta titles and meta descriptions and also guides you in other changes your can make to rank for certain keywords.
Need help choosing your keywords? Check out this post here.
How significant is this to my SEO?
10/10
SEO Mistake #2: Using more than one <H1> tag per page
The <H1> tag carries the most weight in determining what your content is about. This is generally the title of your page or blog post. You want to keep things super clear for Google. Having more than one <h1> tag will cause confusion and your rankings will suffer for it.
How to fix it
Check your web pages and blog posts and make sure you are using just ONE <H1> tag on each page. This should also be the first heading tag on the page.
How significant is this to my SEO?
10/10
SEO Mistake #3: Focusing on more than 1 keyword per page
It can be tempting to try to rank for more than 1 keyword or phrase. Let’s say you’re a fitness studio offering both group and private classes. Using both “group classes” and “private classes” as keywords for your home page will just confuse Google because these likely aren’t phrases that the same user would be searching for. By sticking to 1 keyword per page you’re able to narrow down and get more specific on the thing someone is searching for. By focusing one 1 keyword you’re also making it super clear to Google who your content is best for.
How to fix it
Revisit your content and make sure you’re focusing on 1 keyword or phrase per page. If you have multiple offers that serve different audiences, try splitting that content up into separate pages. For example, have a separate page for Group Classes and a separate page for Private Classes and use a different relevant keyword for each.
How significant is this to my SEO?
9/10
SEO Mistake #4: Using headings to style your text
By default a web browser will assign font sizes to headings to create a hierarchy. The <h1> will be the largest with the font size decreasing as you go down. Most website builders allow you to customize these default styles with styles of your own. This comes in handy when you want to specify your own font sizes and allows you to even get more creative. For example, you can globally style all your <H2> headings to be green and capitalized and all your <H3> headings to be blue and italic to fit your brand and add some visual interest to you blog posts. But a mistake I see far too often is tagging text in order to change it’s style.
Remember the words used within these tags is direct communication to Google. Maybe you want a link that reads “Learn More” to be blue and italic – quick and easy to just tag it with an <h3>, right? Wrong! You’re now telling Google the phrase “learn more” is important to understanding the topic of your content. Simplify and clarify is the name of the SEO game. Using heading tags for text that is not considered vital (or doesn’t include a keyword) is just confusing.
How to fix it
If you’ve been utilizing heading tags where they don’t belong, it’s time to go through your site page by page and remove the imposters. Heading tags should be used for the titles of sections on a page or to break up long form content of a blog post. When coming across the use of a heading tag ask yourself “Will the text inside this tag alone help someone to better understand what this content is about?”. If the answer is no, consider demoting the text down to a simple paragraph and styling it individually.
How significant is this to my SEO?
8/10
SEO Mistake #5: Forgetting to change image names
For Google to best understand what your content is about, you want to include specific and relevant keywords everywhere that Google looks. And you better believe they check your images. Uploading an image titled “IMG_456.jpg” is another huge missed opportunity. You can use this space to further reiterate your content’s topic.
How to fix it
Rename your images before uploading them to your website. Be sure to use descriptive titles that use keywords for the page they’ll appear on.
How significant is this to my SEO?
7/10
SEO Mistake #6: Not including internal links
Internal links are any links within your content that point to another page on your own website. Internal links help Google to crawl and navigate your site, they enforce the relevance of your content and boost the content you’re linking to. It’s like giving Google clues about your content’s topic and importance. By including internal links you also help to keep visitors on your site longer – which signals to search engines you’re an authoritative source.
How to fix it
The easiest way to implement internal links is by adding a Related Posts section at the bottom of each blog post. This provides context by linking to similar posts and helps your audience by providing more value.
How significant is this to my SEO?
7/10
SEO Mistake #7: Not using sub headings
The <H1> is the queen of heading tags, but don’t ignore the others! Sub headings <h2>, <h3> (all the way down to <h6>) help Google to better understand your content. Think of heading tags as an outline to a research paper. An outline helps you understand the most important points and the supporting sub points – giving you the highlights before reading the details. Proper use of heading tags is just another way to reinforce your content topic so Google knows you’re an authoritative source.
How to fix this
Check your web pages and blog posts and make sure your content is utilizing sub headings. You don’t have to use them all. It’s rare you’ll need to go beyond <h3> or <h4>. Just think in terms of an outline and how you can structure the page and provide a hierarchy to make it skimable and easy to digest. Make sure the text you tag as a “heading” includes keywords relevant to your content!
How significant is this to my SEO?
7/10
SEO Mistake #8: Your content is too short
I think I’ve made it clear by now that the whole point of SEO is to help Google understand what you’re talking about so it can show your content to the people you actually want to read it. Well, the more words on the page, the more information Google has. Simple. Every page on your website should have at least 300 words. For blog posts, set a goal to write at least 1,000 words. Studies show blog posts with the highest rankings on Google average between 2,100 – 2,400 words. (source)
How to fix it
Double check your word count and make sure you don’t have any pages under the 300 minimum. Revisit old blogs and see if you can expand on the topic and add any updates. Don’t add fluff just to increase your word count, though (this isn’t a high school English paper). You still want your content to be relevant and valuable to the reader.
How significant is this to my SEO?
7/10
SEO Mistake #9: Overlooking site speed
A slow website makes for a poor user experience. Google aims to provide the best answers to its user’s search queries. This means finding content that’s relevant to their search, but also finding sources that prove to provide a positive user experience. A bloated website with slow load times automatically sinks you towards the bottom of the list.
Site speed isn’t as important as some other SEO factors, but by making sure your website is loading quickly (less than 3 seconds, ideally) you’ll stay on Google’s good side. Site speed is important for your user experience anyway! What good is traffic from Google if your new visitors end up frustrated with your site’s performance?
How to fix it
Check your score at Google Page Speed Insights. This free tool will grade your website’s performance on both desktop and mobile. You’ll see a report of the factors that are affecting your score and suggestions on what improvements you can make. You want to aim for a score of 90 or above. Make any improvements that you can or reach out to a web developer for help in increasing your performance.
How significant is this to my SEO?
6/10
SEO Mistake #10: Uploading enormous images
High resolution photography is a must for your website. But you’ve got to pay attention to image size when uploading to your site! Large image files take up a lot of space on your website and loading these photos can seriously slow you down. See mistake #9 for why site speed is important.
How to fix it
Optimize your images. Ideally, images should be resized and optimized before uploading them to your website. Try to resize your images to fit the space they’ll actually be used in. A rule of thumb is not to exceed an image width of more than 2500 pixels. Once images are sized properly, you may still want to compress them to make them as small as you can without loosing any quality. You can use a free website like Tiny PNG to do this or do it manually with something like PhotoShop.
If you’ve already uploaded images to your WordPress website, you can use an image optimization plugin like Smush to compress your images.
How significant is this to my SEO?
6/10
SEO Mistake #11: You’re not submitting your site map
A site map is a blueprint of your website that lists of all your pages and posts. By submitting your sitemap to Google Search Console, you’re sending a signal that you have a website that’s ready to be indexed. (Indexing is the process of Google scanning the internet for new content and adding URLs to its database of web pages). You’re also providing a clear map of the pages your website includes, making Google’s job a bit easier. It’s not absolutely necessary to submit your sitemap – Google will find you eventually – but by doing so, you help speed up the indexing process. You also guarantee that every page on your site gets indexed and Google doesn’t miss anything.
How to fix it
Create a sitemap automatically by installing an SEO plugin like Rank Math SEO (the free version will do this for you). Then sign up for a Google Search Console account (also free). In your account navigate to Sitemaps > Add A New Site Map and enter your sitemap URL – this is typically yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml, but you can confirm through the plugin you’re using. That’s it!
How significant is this to my SEO?
6/10
Conclusion
SEO is affected by several factors, the most significant being keywords. It’s important you choose your keywords intentionally and include them in all the right places. This tells Google exactly what your content is about so it can recommend it to the right people – your potential clients/customers.
By avoiding these common SEO mistakes, you’ll boost your rankings and increase your visibility online.
