SEO errors: pitfalls to avoid

Melanie Robin
September 9, 2023
4:56 p.m.
0 comments

Updated May 15, 2024

Is your website struggling to rank on Google? You are not alone. Many sites suffer from poor SEO practices that sabotage their visibility. To remedy this, it is essential to know and avoid these pitfalls. In this article, I guide you through the ten most common SEO mistakes and show you how to avoid them. Whether you're an entrepreneur, marketer, or web enthusiast, these practical tips will help you improve your rankings and attract qualified traffic. Ready to give your website the boost it needs? Read on!

The top 10 SEO mistakes to absolutely avoid

1. Duplicate content on your website

First tip to boost your SEO: be unique and original in your writing! Avoid it duplicate content on your site, both for search engines and for your visitors. To be clear, copy and paste is not a friend of SEO. For what ? If a search engine finds the same content elsewhere in its index, your page brings nothing new, no added value and risks not being indexed. Remember, your readers are human first, so write for them first.

That said, it may sometimes be necessary to repeat certain content on your site for practical reasons or specific to your activity. If so, consider using tags “no index” And “no follow” for these pages to avoid any negative impact on your SEO.

Note: if your texts are repetitive and not very engaging, Internet users risk leaving your site. This can increase your bounce rate, and believe me, it's the bane of SEO. Focus on fresh and interesting content!

2. SEO keyword stuffing

If there is one thing not to do to improve your SEO, it is keyword stuffing. Who likes reading monotonous, keyword-loaded content? Person. This is an obsolete technique, counterproductive in SEO and which harms the overall quality of your content. Instead, scatter your keywords throughout the content in a relevant and natural way. Be sure to include your main keyword in strategic locations, such as:

the title;
the title ;
at least one of the subtitles;
the meta description;
the introduction;
in the body of the text in a subtle way;
the conclusion ;
the URL of the page;
images ;
the link anchor.

To make your text richer, don't hesitate to play with the lexical field: use synonyms and different variations of your main keyword.

3. Hidden text on a web page

THE cloaking, also known as cloaking, is the practice of presenting different versions of a web page to search engines and users. You may not know it, but this technique, typical of SEO “Black Hat”, is today widely disapproved. It includes methods like write keywords in blank on white background or hide links in an inconspicuous manner. Always offer a unique version of each page to both search engine crawlers and visitors.

4. “Guest” Posting on Low-Quality Sites

There is a widespread idea that the most effective, and above all natural, method for get a backlink is to post “guest” articles on another website. This can work, but not at any price : limit yourself to quality sites, in direct link with the theme of your website. Not only can this method help you get a valuable inbound link, but it can also increase your visibility and credibility. On the other hand, if the sites chosen are not relevant or of low quality, this could harm your SEO ranking.

5. Poor quality guest posts on their website

It is entirely possible to introduce new contributors to your website and share content written by others. Provided that that this content remains useful and beneficial for your audience, and that it respects SEO best practices. So, don't accept anything less than quality to get the best results.

Note: If you post too much guest content compared to your own content, it can make search engines think that your site relies excessively on other sources.

6. Pop-up ads above the fold

Google is not a fan of sites that overload the visible part of the page without having to scroll, often cluttered with intrusive advertisements. For better SEO, offer a quality user experience, with clear pages and no superfluous elements.

Let’s take the example of a clothing e-commerce site. If the home page is bombarded with pop-ups, of flashing banners, promotional offers and newsletter windows, this can quickly become irritating for visitors. Not only does this make navigation chaotic, but it can also extend loading times, especially on mobile. Find the right balance to design a homepage that is both attractive and functional!

7. A (very) slow website

A slow website? This is not only frustrating for your visitors, but it can also harm your search engine rankings. Ideally, a site should load in less than three seconds. The 2024 Core Web Vitals focus on three key aspects:

LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): The speed at which the main content of your page loads. It must be less than 2.5 seconds.
INP (Interaction to Next Paint): How quickly your site responds when a user clicks or taps somewhere. It must be less than 200 milliseconds.
CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): the visual stability of your page, i.e. preventing elements from moving unexpectedly. It must be less than 0.1.

And if you invest in good hosting and use suitable tools like WordPress, you put all the chances on your side to have a faster site.

8. Buying links (or backlinks)

Google, as well as other search engines, strictly prohibits the purchase of links for the purpose of manipulate algorithms. If you are caught red-handed, your site risks being penalized. Buying backlinks in large quantities and of questionable quality is bad practice and something the Mountain View giant will discover sooner or later. Which can lead to a significant drop in your rankings or even removal of your site from search results. One of the common SEO mistakes that can cost you a lot of money!

9. Too many outgoing links

It's not just low-quality backlinks that can harm your website, large quantities of outbound links can also have a negative impact. Indeed, the latter can be considered as belonging to link farms : that is to say artificial networks of links which aim to boost SEO, rather than providing real value for Internet users.

Also, the more outbound links you have, the more you dilute the authority you pass on to other sites, which can:

Reduce the positive impact of your outgoing links on your site's SEO.
Reduce the ability of these links to help these other sites rank higher in search results.

10. Finally, the Google toolbox left aside

Naturally helpful and attentive, Google has developed free tools for website owners to help them better understand and optimize their online presence. This is notably thanks to Google Search Console that you can find out if your site is affected by many 404 errors and indexing issues!

Here are 4 free and essential Google tools to consider:

Google Search Console ;
Google Analytics 4 ;
Google PageSpeed Insights ;
Google Tag Manager.

Bad SEO: what are we talking about?

SEO practices that will against ethics, which are obsolete or that cross the boundaries of Google's guidelines are considered unscrupulous approaches. While natural referencing aims to improve the visibility of your site on the web giant, adopting such practices can have the completely opposite effect. Bad SEO can result in penalties from Google, which can cause your site to drop in search results, or even disappear altogether!

How can you avoid it? The key is to always follow Google's recommended best practices, focus on creating quality content, and ensuring your site provides a great user experience. Avoid shortcuts and misleading tips, and opt for sustainable and ethical strategies.

What you must remember

To summarize, avoiding these common SEO mistakes is essential to improving your SEO and gaining valuable places in search results. Bad SEO can seriously affect the visibility of your pages on the SERPs (results pages). To avoid this, be sure to: