Common SEO Mistakes and Fixes for Beginner Websites

Last month, a blogger reached out to me in frustration. She’d been publishing twice a week for eight months—quality content, good writing, helpful information. But she was getting maybe 50 visitors per month, almost all from social media.

“I don’t understand,” she said. “I’m doing everything right.”

I ran a quick audit of her site. Within five minutes, I found seven major SEO mistakes that were essentially making her invisible to Google.

We fixed them over a weekend. Three months later, her organic traffic was up to 2,000 monthly visitors.

The mistakes weren’t complicated. They weren’t technical. They were the same mistakes I see on 90% of beginner blogs I audit.

Here are the five most common SEO mistakes beginners make, why they matter, and exactly how to fix them.

Mistake #1: Slow Page Load Speed (The Silent Killer)

The problem: Your blog takes 6+ seconds to load. Visitors leave before your content even appears, and Google ranks faster sites higher than yours.

Why beginners make this mistake: They don’t realize that uploading a 5MB image directly from their phone camera is a problem. They install 15 plugins because each one “only does one thing.” They choose a beautiful theme without checking if it’s optimized for speed.

How to check if this is your problem:

1. Go to PageSpeed Insights (free Google tool)
2. Enter your blog URL
3. Look at your score

If you’re below 50 on mobile, you have a serious problem. Below 70, you have room for improvement.

Real example: A food blogger I worked with had a mobile speed score of 23. Her images were averaging 4MB each because she was uploading straight from her iPhone. Her theme was loading 12 different fonts. She had 22 plugins installed.

The fix (Step-by-step):

1. Optimize your images (biggest impact)

• Before uploading, resize images to actual display size (usually 800-1200px wide)
• Use TinyPNG or Squoosh to compress before uploading
• Install Smush plugin to automatically compress images
• Convert images to WebP format (Smush can do this)

2. Install a caching plugin

• Free option: WP Super Cache
• Paid option: WP Rocket ($59/year, worth it)
• This serves pre-loaded pages instead of generating them fresh each time

3. Remove unnecessary plugins

• Deactivate plugins you’re not using
• Delete (don’t just deactivate) plugins you’ll never use again
• Aim for under 15 active plugins total

4. Choose a fast theme

• GeneratePress (free)
• Astra (free)
• Kadence (free) All three are lightweight and fast

Results: After fixing images and installing WP Rocket, that food blogger’s mobile score jumped from 23 to 78. Her bounce rate dropped from 68% to 42%. Traffic increased 35% within two months.

Mistake #2: Missing or Terrible Meta Descriptions

The problem: You’re not writing meta descriptions, so Google is creating them automatically by pulling random sentences from your post. These auto-generated descriptions are often nonsensical and don’t entice clicks.

Why beginners make this mistake: They don’t realize meta descriptions exist, or they think Google will always create better ones automatically.

How to check if this is your problem:

1. Google your blog name
2. Look at how your posts appear in search results
3. Do the descriptions make sense and sound compelling?

If they’re choppy, cut off mid-sentence, or don’t match your content, Google is auto-generating them.

Real example: A productivity blogger’s auto-generated meta description: “…and that’s when I realized. The system I’d been using was completely wrong. In this post, I’ll share…”

It starts mid-sentence because Google grabbed text from the middle of the post. Not compelling.

The fix:

1. Install Yoast SEO or Rank Math (if you haven’t already)

2. For each post, write a custom meta description:

• 150-160 characters (Google cuts off longer ones)
• Include your primary keyword
• Make it compelling (this is your ad copy)
• Include a benefit or promise

Template: “Learn [benefit]. This guide covers [what’s included]. [Call to action].”

Example: “Learn how to fix common SEO mistakes that hurt your rankings. This guide covers speed optimization, meta descriptions, mobile issues, and more. Start ranking higher today.”

3. Go back and add meta descriptions to your top 10 posts

You don’t need to do every post immediately. Start with your most important content.

Results: After adding compelling meta descriptions to her top 20 posts, that productivity blogger saw her click-through rate from search results increase from 2.1% to 4.8%. Same rankings, more than double the clicks.

Mistake #3: Not Mobile-Friendly (The Rankings Killer)

The problem: Your blog looks great on desktop but is a mess on mobile. Text is too small, buttons are too close together, images overflow the screen, or the site is just slow on mobile devices.

Why beginners make this mistake: They design and test their blog on a desktop computer and never check how it looks on a phone.

Why it matters: Over 60% of web traffic is mobile. Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning it primarily looks at your mobile site to determine rankings, even for desktop searches.

How to check if this is your problem:

1. Open your blog on your phone
2. Try to read a post
3. Try to click menu items and links

If you’re pinching to zoom, if links are too small to tap, or if images are cut off, you have a problem.

Also check:

1. Go to Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test
2. Enter your URL
3. Look at the results

Real example: A travel blogger’s site looked beautiful on desktop. On mobile, the sidebar covered half the screen, images were cut off, and the navigation menu didn’t work. Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test flagged 12 issues.

The fix:

1. Use a responsive theme Most modern WordPress themes are responsive (they automatically adjust to screen size), but older themes might not be.

Recommended responsive themes:

• GeneratePress
• Astra
• Kadence
• OceanWP

2. Test your site on multiple devices

• Your phone
• A tablet (or use Chrome DevTools to simulate)
• Different browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox)

3. Fix common mobile issues:

• Make sure text is at least 16px font size
• Ensure tap targets (buttons, links) are at least 48×48 pixels
• Remove or hide sidebars on mobile
• Make sure images scale to screen width

4. Check your mobile speed Mobile speed is often worse than desktop. Use PageSpeed Insights and focus on the mobile score.

Results: After switching to a responsive theme and fixing mobile issues, that travel blogger’s mobile traffic increased 127% in three months. Google started ranking her posts higher because the mobile experience improved.

Mistake #4: Thin Content (The Trust Destroyer)

The problem: Your posts are too short (under 500 words), don’t fully answer the question, or are just fluff without real substance.

Why beginners make this mistake: They hear “publish consistently” and interpret it as “publish anything, even if it’s not helpful.” Or they’re intimidated by long-form content and think 300 words is enough.

Why it matters: Google wants to rank content that comprehensively answers searcher questions. A 400-word post about “how to start a blog” can’t compete with a 2,000-word comprehensive guide.

How to check if this is your problem:

1. Look at your post word counts
2. Google your target keywords
3. Look at what’s ranking on page 1
4. Compare your content depth to theirs

If posts ranking on page 1 are 2,000+ words and yours are 500 words, you have thin content.

Real example: A finance blogger wrote a post titled “How to Budget” that was 380 words. It basically said “track your expenses, make a plan, stick to it.” Technically correct, but not helpful.

Posts ranking on page 1 for “how to budget” were 1,500-3,000 words with specific examples, templates, and step-by-step instructions.

The fix:

1. Aim for comprehensive coverage, not arbitrary word counts

Don’t write 2,000 words of fluff just to hit a number. But do cover your topic thoroughly.

Ask yourself:

• Did I answer every question a beginner might have?
• Did I include examples?
• Did I provide actionable steps?
• Would I find this helpful if I were searching for this topic?

2. Expand your existing thin content

Go back to your shortest posts and either:

• Expand them with more detail, examples, and actionable advice
• Merge multiple thin posts into one comprehensive guide
• Delete them if they’re not salvageable

3. Use the “Skyscraper Technique”

• Find the top-ranking post for your keyword
• Create something better, longer, more up-to-date, or more actionable
• Include things they missed

Results: That finance blogger expanded his “How to Budget” post to 1,800 words with a step-by-step process, real budget examples, and a downloadable template. It went from page 5 to page 1 in four months.

Mistake #5: Ignoring Google Search Console (Flying Blind)

The problem: You’ve never set up Google Search Console, so you have no idea how Google sees your site, what errors exist, or which keywords you’re ranking for.

Why beginners make this mistake: They don’t know Google Search Console exists, or they think it’s too technical.

Why it matters: Google Search Console tells you:

• Which pages Google has indexed
• What errors are preventing indexing
• Which keywords you’re ranking for
• Which pages are getting clicks from search
• If you have security issues or manual penalties

Without this data, you’re optimizing blind.

How to check if this is your problem: If you’ve never heard of Google Search Console or haven’t set it up, this is your problem.

The fix:

1. Set up Google Search Console (10 minutes)

1. Go to search.google.com/search-console
2. Click “Start now”
3. Enter your website URL
4. Verify ownership (easiest method: use your Google Analytics code or install a verification plugin)

2. Submit your sitemap

1. In Google Search Console, go to Sitemaps
2. Enter your sitemap URL (usually yourblog.com/sitemap.xml if you’re using Yoast or Rank Math)
3. Click Submit

3. Check for errors weekly

1. Go to Coverage report
2. Look for errors (pages Google couldn’t index)
3. Fix any errors you find

4. Use the data to improve

1. Go to Performance report
2. See which keywords you’re ranking for
3. See which pages get the most clicks
4. Optimize your best-performing content further

Real example: A tech blogger had been publishing for six months without Google Search Console. When he finally set it up, he discovered:

• 23 pages had indexing errors (Google couldn’t access them)
• He was ranking on page 2 for 15 keywords he didn’t even know about
• His best post was getting impressions but had a 1.2% click-through rate (terrible)

He fixed the indexing errors, optimized the meta descriptions for posts ranking on page 2, and improved his best post’s title. Traffic increased 89% in two months.

Other Common Mistakes (Quick Fixes)

These are less critical but still worth fixing:

Missing alt text on images

• Fix: Add descriptive alt text to every image
• Why: Helps Google understand images and improves accessibility

No internal linking

• Fix: Link to other relevant posts on your blog
• Why: Helps Google understand your site structure and keeps readers on your site longer

Duplicate content

• Fix: Make sure each post is unique; don’t copy-paste content from other sites
• Why: Google penalizes duplicate content

Broken links

• Fix: Install Broken Link Checker plugin and fix any broken links it finds
• Why: Broken links hurt user experience and SEO

No HTTPS (not secure)

• Fix: Get a free SSL certificate from your hosting provider
• Why: Google gives preference to secure sites

My SEO Audit Checklist for Beginners

Use this checklist to audit your own blog:

Speed & Performance

• Mobile PageSpeed score above 70
• Desktop PageSpeed score above 80
• Images optimized and compressed
• Caching plugin installed

Content & Optimization

• All posts have custom meta descriptions
• Posts are 1,000+ words (for how-to content)
• Primary keyword in title, first paragraph, and headers
• 3-5 internal links per post

Mobile & Accessibility

• Site passes Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test
• Text is readable without zooming
• Buttons and links are easy to tap
• All images have alt text

Technical SEO

• Google Search Console set up
• Sitemap submitted to Google
• No indexing errors in Search Console
• HTTPS enabled (secure site)
• No broken links

User Experience

• Clear navigation menu
• About page exists
• Contact information available
• Site loads in under 3 seconds

If you can check 80% of these boxes, you’re in good shape. If you’re below 50%, you have work to do.

What to Fix First (Priority Order)

You can’t fix everything at once. Here’s the order I recommend:

Week 1: Speed Fix your page load speed first. This has the biggest immediate impact.

Week 2: Mobile Make sure your site works well on mobile devices.

Week 3: Content Add meta descriptions to your top 10 posts and expand any thin content.

Week 4: Technical Set up Google Search Console and fix any errors it reports.

Week 5: Maintenance Fix broken links, add alt text to images, add internal links.

Don’t try to do everything in one weekend. Steady progress beats burnout.

The Truth About SEO Mistakes

Here’s what I’ve learned after auditing over 100 beginner blogs:

Everyone makes SEO mistakes. Even experts. The difference is that successful bloggers fix them when they discover them, while unsuccessful bloggers either don’t know the mistakes exist or feel too overwhelmed to fix them.

The good news? Most SEO mistakes are fixable in a few hours. You don’t need to hire an expert. You don’t need expensive tools. You just need to know what to look for and how to fix it.

Use this guide as your checklist. Pick one mistake, fix it this week, then move to the next one.

In a month, your blog will be in better shape than 90% of beginner blogs out there.

And unlike them, you’ll actually start showing up in Google search results.

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About the author: Michael Rodriguez is a content strategist and blogger who has audited over 100 beginner blogs and helped them improve their SEO. He’s been blogging since 2018 and currently manages multiple blogs that collectively generate over 200,000 monthly organic visitors.