A strong foundation in SEO is essential for achieving long-term success in the digital landscape.
However, many beginners, eager to see quick results, often overlook fundamental principles or make common mistakes that can undermine their efforts.
To shed light on these potential pitfalls, we reached out to a panel of experienced SEO experts from the BoostMyDomain community.
We asked them to identify the most common SEO beginner mistakes they encounter and share their insights, offering invaluable guidance to help you avoid these errors and build a solid foundation for your SEO strategy.
Read on!
Not Considering the Intent of a Given Keyword
In my opinion, one of the biggest mistakes is not considering the intent of a given keyword.
It’s crucial for SEOs to start looking at what type of content is ranking, and not only its intent but also the format in which the answer is surfaced.
This is especially important when it comes to informational content. Don’t go writing a 2,000-word blog post when most of the results given by Google are videos. The reason is that Google knows what people want to see.
I would also say to rely solely on what your tools are telling you, the experienced keen eye is always better.
It might take some time, but a well-researched keyword research will save you lots of problems and money in the long run.
Alexandre Hoffmann
Managing Partner, Organic Marketing & Innovation, Passion Digital
Improper SEO Migrations
One of the most significant SEO mistakes I’ve encountered involves improper SEO migrations, which can result in substantial ranking and traffic losses.
What’s surprising is that some clients only reach out for help six months later, making recovery much more challenging.
The most common oversights during migration include failing to transfer keyword-rich content, title tags, internal linking structures, and neglecting to set up 301 redirects from old URLs to new ones.
Serhii Savchenko
SEO Specialist, VisibleWebs Agency
Not Performing Topical Authority Correctly
One common SEO blunder beginners make would be not performing topical authority correctly. In theory, it means covering as many topics as possible on your main subject.
That is good, however, just rushing and printing out content won’t bring you results. Your content still needs to outperform the competition.
With that in mind, my advice would be quality over quantity; take your time, you’ll cover the needed topics one by one.
Aleksa Filipovic
Content and SEO Manager, MeasureSchool
Ignoring the Need for a Professional SEO Team
Dare I say it, my beginner mistakes I’ve seen… I’m agency side, so I’m referring to internal / inhouse teams doing SEO or working with people that are more generalist for example.
It’s website migrations or website upgrades / facelifts, whatever you want to call it.
People leaving robots.txt as disallow, then hitting publish and then going on holiday for a week because the push to go live was crazy!
Second to this, not involving an SEO or tech team to handle redirects on migrations, bad for user experience, bad for search engine traffic.
Isaac Bullen
Marketing Director, 3WH
Resorting to Linkfarming Without Relevance
From my experience, a small SEO mistake that would decrease the site’s visibility is linkfarm.
Linkfarm means that the majority of the content is hyperlinks, often random and unrelated to the headline, to other websites.
Of course, many SEO specialists tell you to always include backlinks whether it’s internal or external links, but if your site is full of it, Google will mark your site as spam and decrease its visibility.
To correct this, you should always do your research on which site has high-quality content. By doing so, you would want to include that on your site to increase your authoritativeness and gain more trust from the audience.
Google will increase your visibility.
And most importantly, be sure to only include links or keywords that are relevant to your niche or your content.
Remember, relevance is the key.
Andre Oentoro
Founder, Breadnbeyond
Skipping Meta Titles and Descriptions
Beginners often skip meta titles and descriptions, but they’re key for search engines and users. Without them, search engines can’t understand the page, and users may ignore it in search results.
Fix this by giving each page a unique title with natural keywords and a short description that shows its value.
For example, when improving our content at CSO-Yemen, we saw better click-through rates after rewriting meta descriptions to highlight what users would gain by visiting the page.
It’s a simple step, but it can significantly boost visibility and engagement.
Dionne Ricafort
Marketing Manager, CSO Yemen
Keyword Stuffing
Creating separate pages for low-competition keywords that were still relevant to the product.
Instead of trying to jam a bunch of keywords onto one page, I focused on giving each keyword its own space with content that really matched what people were searching for.
Google’s updates don’t reward keyword stuffing anymore, so this approach worked because it stayed on the algorithm’s good side while still targeting specific audiences.
It was a bit of a gamble, but it ended up driving way more traffic and conversions than I expected.
Paul Chow
CEO, Design Dynamics
Inconsistent Content Creation
One big mistake I often see is inconsistent content creation—or worse, publishing low-quality content.
Content that’s unoriginal, hard to read, or doesn’t answer a user’s question can do more harm than good.
To get it right, aim for content that’s accurate, relevant, and easy to read. It should address your audience’s needs, be grammatically polished, and satisfy search intent.
When your content checks these boxes, it’s more likely to engage readers and earn trust.
Poor keyword research is another mistake that many people make.
A lot of beginners go after high-volume keywords without thinking about what their audience wants.
To get better results and attract the right audience, focus on intent-driven keywords that are relevant to your niche.
Stuffing content with keywords in an effort to boost its search engine rankings is another common mistake. This not only frustrates readers but can also lead to penalties from search engines.
Instead, use keywords naturally in meaningful, value-driven content that flows smoothly and resonates with your audience.
Iva Jovanovic
Content and SEO Specialist, Made Online
On behalf of the BoostMyDomain community of readers, we thank these leaders and experts for taking the time to share valuable insights that stem from years of experience and in-depth expertise in their respective niches.
BoostMyDomain invites you to share your insights and contribute to our authoritative publication. Reach a wider audience, build your credibility, and establish yourself as a thought leader in an industry that caters to every business with an online presence!
