Search engine optimisation (SEO) is basically ranking your webpages, which translates to following over 200 factors that determine page ranking.
Since there are too many factors to adhere to, SEO is complex for an average online business owner.
Funny enough, people typically rely on methods and strategies used by others, published as guides for fellow webmasters.
This has continually created contrast in the SEO industry, causing many small business owners to make mistakes while using SEO for their websites.
Today, I’m going to point out 20 common mistakes small business owners should avoid while doing SEO for their websites.
Don’t treat SEO as a one-time project
SEO is not what you start and finish at a time, it’s what you continually do as long as your website is alive and your business is running.
SEO evolves, so other websites improve, search results, your competitors, your customer behaviour, and other things change, therefore, you need to continue to work on your website to stay above your competitors.
You need to treat SEO as an ongoing process of publishing useful content, updating your website, testing methods, measuring results, adapting to changes, and improving your website.
Choosing highly competitive keywords
It’s good to use keyword research tools when planning content to publish on your website, but many webmasters go after keywords with 10,000 or 100,000 monthly searches, write about them, and decide they want to rank for them.
The problem is that high-volume keywords can be extremely competitive, and difficult to rank near the first page, let alone ranking in the top 3 of the first page.
It is better to choose 0 volume keywords or long phrase keywords (which we usually refer to as long-tail keywords or low hanging fruits) that can bring targeted customers to your business than difficult base keywords.
Most of those zero-volume keywords actually have some searches, so when you’re doing SEO, don’t just consider search volume, but also competition, location, search intent, and commercial value together.
Ignoring search intent
A page can contain the “right keyword” and still fail because it does not give searchers what they want.
Someone searching “best accounting software for small business” is looking for comparisons. Someone searching “Plumber in Atlanta” is probably looking for a plumbing service provider in Atlanta.
Google explicitly advises creating useful, people-first content and understanding what users are trying to accomplish.
Therefore, you should search the target query before creating a page. Study what Google is already showing and build something that satisfies the same intent better.
Putting your services on one page
A surprisingly common small-business website has: Home | About | Services | Contact
And the “Services” page lists 10 different services in a few paragraphs, rather than in subpages or silo.
That makes it difficult to properly target each service, but having individual service pages makes SEO work easily and effectively.
Create useful, substantial pages for your important services.
For example, you can have a dedicated page for the following similar services.
- Website Design
- E-commerce Website Design
- SEO Services
- Local SEO
- Website Maintenance
Each page can target a different customer need.
Publishing thin content just to have a new page
Some business owners believe that publishing 10 short articles targeting different keywords is better than having five in-depth ones.
According to Google, your content should be original, provide useful information and substantial value rather than being produced primarily to attract search traffic.
Therefore, your content should be user-oriented, and answer users’ questions thoroughly.
Using AI to mass-produce generic articles
This is one of the newer mistakes people make.
Google or any search engines have not forbidden using AI to generate content, but AI-written contents lack depth and experience that Google wants in articles.
Since AI-generated articles are bland, mass-producing these articles without a human touch can trigger penalties on your site, usually deranking or deindexing your webpages.
You should only use AI for research, outlines, and workflow efficiency while you write based on your knowledge, verified facts, and evidence.
Keyword stuffing
Keyword stuffing worked in the past before Google Panda was released, but it’s now an old-school ranking trick.
It simply means repeating the keywords you want to rank for throughout the article. We should put them in the first few paragraphs, body and closing of the articles for Google to notice them, and rank the page for it.
Now, this method is against spam policies. You should write naturally and use relevant terminology where it genuinely helps the reader.
Neglecting Google Business Profile
If you run a local business, having a Google Business Profile is as important as having your website.
I’ve realised that incomplete or neglected Google Business Profiles are one of the major problems of small business owners.
Having your business profile with Google and other business directories can help customers find you and do business with you.
Having said that Google Business Profile is good, but not having accurate profile details across all directories can affect your business visibility negatively.
Make sure your profile is complete and accurate, having all the important details such as category, services, description, operation hours, contacts, positive reviews, etc.
Choosing the wrong Google Business Profile category
I decided to put this separately because businesses frequently select a category that sounds generally appropriate rather than the one that best describes what they actually do.
Don’t select let’s say “Contractor” when there’s a more specific category that fits your exact service, don’t be in a hurry to list your business.
Keeping inconsistent business information online
This is becoming a serious issue, especially now that search engines have evolved to AI search engines.
You don’t list your business as BusinessPally Services Ltd in one place, and BusinessPally Services or BusinessPally LLC or limited in other places.
Same thing with other information like your address or phone number
This usually creates confusion for your potential customers, as well as search engines.
Ignoring customer reviews
Reviews are not merely a reputation-management issue, especially for local businesses.
They are much more important to your business. They influence how potential customers perceive your business and affect your local-search presence.
Ignoring negative reviews and failing to respond to them is one of the common local SEO mistakes.
Always persuade your satisfied customers to review your business with you, and respond professionally to both positive and negative reviews submitted on your business profile or social media pages.
Creating fake location pages
If you run a local business, don’t tend to offer services everywhere. Most small business owners want to rank in 10, 20, or 30 cities so they create listings in their targeted cities, copy and paste their articles, and only change the city.
Avoid mass-produced doorway-style location pages, and only create location pages where you have genuine local information, services, projects, staff, areas served or other useful details.
Having a slow, poorly designed mobile website
If you have a beautiful and clean website, but it takes minutes to fully load, then you’re losing customers big time.
Online users don’t have the patience that they do in physical shops.
Ensure your core web vitals are top-notch, site loads fast on both mobile and desktop.
Don’t ignore technical SEO
SEO is basically divided into onpage, offpage and technical.
Don’t get obsessed with link building (off-page SEO) and neglect technical SEO.
Common technical SEO issues that small business owners neglect are broken links, duplicate URLs, poor redirects, poor site architecture, indexing issues, sitemap issues, and incorrect canonicalisation, among others.
Writing poor page titles and headings
When creating a content page, titling can be very powerful in search page ranking, and attracting customers to your page.
Ensure you write concise, descriptive, and catchy titles and headings that summarise the page, and the subtopic.
Internal links are gold
Internal linking is far more important than you think. If you don’t connect your pages, it can affect search engine crawlability, indexing, and your page ranking.
If you don’t link to your other pages, there’s no way visitors are going to find them easily.
Chasing backlinks instead of building something worth linking to
Backlink is one of the major ranking factors, it’s fine, but focusing on backlinks only isn’t going to help your website and business.
Going after cheap link packages, mass directory submissions, and PBNs can ruin your site’s visibility in the long run.
Create something worthwhile that people can reference, and you’ll be surprised by the amount of natural references you will get, and ultimately, backlinks to your site.
This has not changed the fact that people build links to improve their site, but they also work on other aspects.
Get your Image and Video files optimised
Many small business owners with no advanced SEO skills upload images and videos that are not well optimised.
Optimise these files with descriptive filenames, alt text, and description.
Also, ensure you resize and compress large files before uploading, so they load properly on mobile.
Measuring rankings instead of business results
“I am number three for my keyword” sounds impressive.
But if the keyword produces no enquiries, calls, bookings or sales, the ranking may have little commercial value.
Ensure you track which pages generate leads, which searches generate calls and which services actually convert.
Expecting immediate results and abandoning SEO too early
This is probably one of the most damaging psychological mistakes.
A business publishes three articles, waits for three weeks, sees no dramatic increase in traffic and concludes “SEO doesn’t work.”
SEO can take time, particularly for new websites with little authority or content.
At the same time, waiting indefinitely without measuring anything is also a mistake.
An entrepreneur, business administrator, investor, and publisher who has spent nearly two decades exploring how emerging tech, the internet, and innovation continue to redefine the way people live, work, and build success.
With a unique blend of insight and experience, BusinessPally won the Corporate Vision Magazine – Global Business Award.
I love sharing lessons, personal stories, and forward-thinking ideas that help entrepreneurs and professionals navigate the changing world of business with confidence and creativity.