Your website might look great, but if it’s making some classic SEO mistakes, you’re probably not getting the attention you deserve. It’s like having a brilliant shop tucked away down a side street with no signs.
In this blog, we’ll highlight some of the most common SEO errors and show you how to clean them up to improve your search rankings.
5 Common SEO Mistakes Hurting Search Rankings
Here are the top SEO mistakes to avoid to improve search rankings:
Ignoring the Basics – On-Page SEO Mistakes That Cost You Visibility
Let’s start with the foundations. When your meta titles and descriptions are missing, vague, or just stuffed with keywords, you’re losing out on clicks before anyone even visits your site.
Then there are header tags (H1s, H2s, etc.), they’re not just formatting tools; they guide both users and search engines through your content. Skipping them or using them incorrectly confuses everyone.
Keyword stuffing is another red flag. Shoving keywords unnaturally doesn’t win you points with Google. It actually does the opposite. Instead, focus on keyword mapping and natural placement to make your content both search-friendly and human-friendly.
And let’s not forget internal linking. It’s essential for helping users and bots navigate your site, improving both SEO and user experience. Structured content with well-thought-out links is SEO gold.
Letting Technical SEO Errors Go Unnoticed
Technical SEO issues are the silent killers of rankings. Broken links, crawl errors, or misused canonical tags—just one of these can send your SEO efforts off a cliff.
Running a site that’s not secure (still using HTTP instead of HTTPS) is another major trust-breaker, both for users and Google.
And don’t overlook your robots.txt or sitemap.xml files. These act like maps for search engines. If they’re misconfigured, your best content might be completely invisible.
Underestimating the Slow Page Speed SEO Impact
How fast your site loads matters a lot. Users expect pages to load instantly. If your images aren’t optimised, your hosting is slow, or you’re bogged down by heavy scripts and plugins, you’re likely driving people away.
Slow page speed increases bounce rates, hurts conversions, and tells Google your site isn’t offering a great experience. This is not exactly a recipe for ranking success.
Creating Without Checking – Duplicate Content SEO Issues
Duplicate content confuses search engines and dilutes your authority. Whether it’s copied product descriptions, blog content that appears elsewhere, or even scraped content, you risk cannibalising your own rankings.
Failing to use canonical tags only makes matters worse. Tools like Copyscape or Siteliner can help you identify and clean up duplicate content before Google does it for you.
Using Outdated Tactics – The Link Building Mistake That Could Get You Penalised
Gone are the days when spammy backlinks or buying links from low-quality sites helped rankings. Today, these tactics scream manipulation.
Over-optimised anchor texts and irrelevant link sources now invite penalties, not traffic. What Google values now is earned, relevant backlinks that support your authority and expertise. In other words, think long-term and build real digital relationships.
Clean Up Your SEO Act Before Google Does It for You
Avoiding these common SEO mistakes is important for maintaining strong search rankings. SEO is an ongoing process that requires regular audits and staying up to date with algorithm changes to keep your site performing at its best.
If you want to skip the trial and error and ensure your SEO strategy is on point, Haarty Hanks is here to help you go through the complexities and deliver real results. Contact us today to learn more!
