5 SEO Mistakes Your Business Website Is Probably Making (And How to Fix Them)

1. Skipping Keyword Research or Choosing the Wrong Keywords.

Many business owners make assumptions about what their customers are searching for. They might target highly competitive, broad keywords that are impossible to rank for, or they may focus on terms that don’t align with what their audience is actually looking for. A lack of proper research leads to wasted time and effort on content that will never attract the right visitors.

You absolutely cannot skip keyword research. It is the most important part of your SEO, and the most skipped part of SEO when business owners do it themselves. You think I’m an expert on my business, I know what people are searching for. But you know what experts are searching for, not always what people who are looking for experts are searching for.

And I’m here to tell you, it’s not always easy, it’s not always fun, it’s not free, but you definitely need to do it. I’ve written a number of articles on keyword research and how to do it, and you can read those articles for yourself.

You’ll need some tools, like SEMRush or Moz or KWFinder, to be able to find the data on your keywords, and those tools aren’t free.

2. Creating Low-Quality or “Thin” Content.

In an effort to “have a blog,” business owners might churn out short, unhelpful, or generic articles. Google’s algorithms are built to prioritize content that is high-quality, in-depth, and genuinely useful to the reader. Content that is keyword-stuffed, repetitive, or copied from other sites will not only fail to rank but can also result in a penalty.

And not only on the blog, but on the website pages themselves. If your services page is just a list of the services you offer, you are missing the mark. If your homepage is just a photo gallery, you aren’t giving Google any context for what you do. If you don’t include an about page, you aren’t telling Google, or your customers, who you are.

If you are looking for hard and fast rules on website content, I will give you my “this is the lowest bar” list of what you should have.

Most pages should have a minimum of 500 words. This isn’t going to every page, obviously your contact page is going to be brief. But in general, aim for at least 500 words on your regular pages. You may think, people aren’t going to read that! And they might not. But Google will. Put the most important content on top, add in photos, subheadings, lists, galleries, and then add more content on the bottom. If a person misses that content, no big deal. But Google won’t.

For blog posts, aim for 1000 words. Does that seem like a lot? Well, that should be the minimum. A blog pos should be a high quality article that informs and educates, not a short piece of content that isn’t worthy of a reader’s time. Does every post have to have 1000 words? No. But you need to be proving your content is worthy of being ranked higher than someone else’s.

Don’t skimp on content.

3. Ignoring Technical SEO.

This is a common and often fatal mistake. Business owners may focus on the content (on-page SEO) but neglect the technical side of their website. Issues like slow page speed, a non-mobile-friendly design, broken links, or a poor site structure can seriously hurt rankings, even if the content is excellent. Google wants to provide a good user experience, and a technically flawed site won’t make the cut.

I was on a website the other day on my phone, and there was a cookie disclaimer on it, but because of the ad placement on mobile, I couldn’t close the cookie disclaimer. So half of my phone screen was covered and unusable. then as I started to scroll, another ad popped up on top, so I basically had 25% of my screen to read the article. It was useless and I gave up. Make sure you are testing your site and all it’s pages on mobile. Make sure it loads quickly. Make sure it’s easy to navigate.

And if you want to take it even further, make sure it’s accessible for people with disabilities. If it’s good for accessibility, it’s good for Google.

Take the time to make sure your site works for everyone on every device.

4. Forgetting About Local SEO.

For brick-and-mortar businesses or those serving a specific geographic area, local SEO is important. A common mistake is neglecting to claim and optimize their Google Business Profile, get consistent customer reviews, and ensure their name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent across all online directories.

Local people are looking for local businesses, and they need to know you exist and how to reach you. Go set up your Google Business profile today. Make sure it’s optimized with images, your logo, your information, a link to your website. And start asking your customers to leave you reviews! Those reviews are SEO gold!

5. Expecting Instant Results and Giving Up Too Soon.

SEO is not a short-term marketing tactic; it’s a long-term strategy. Many business owners get impatient when they don’t see their site on the first page of Google after a few weeks or even a few months. SEO takes time to produce results, and the most successful DIYers are those who consistently work on their strategy, track their progress with tools like Google Analytics, and stay the course. It can take months or even a year to see consistent results from an SEO campaign. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and you need to work at it.

Be patient.