1. Introduction: SEO Isn’t Difficult, but It’s Surprisingly Easy to Get Wrong
Most businesses try their best with SEO, but the problem is that the internet is full of “tips” that sound right… yet aren’t. So, people end up following advice that doesn’t help, or worse, makes things harder.
The encouraging part?A lot of SEO mistakes aren’t huge disasters. Sometimes you just need to make a small adjustment to see a big difference in your rankings.
To help you out, we’ve put together the most common mistakes we see small businesses make, along with simple fixes that work.
2. Mistake #1: Targeting the Wrong Keywords
What You Might Be Doing Wrong
When you start with SEO, it’s natural to aim for the big, high-volume keywords. It feels logical, more searches should mean more potential traffic, right?
Unfortunately, those keywords are usually incredibly competitive, take forever to rank for, and cost more if you’re running ads.
Another issue is ignoring search intent. For example:
An e-commerce store should be looking at keywords like “buy…” or “…for sale”.
Informational sites should focus more on “how to…” or “what is…” * searches.
If your content doesn’t match what the searcher wants, Google simply won’t rank it as highly.
How to Fix It
Long-tail keywords are your friend here. These are longer, more specific phrases like “cheap guest posting packages” or “how to create SEO content for beginners”.
They’re easier to rank for, much more targeted, and often have better conversion rates.
A few tools that make researching keywords much easier:
Google Keyword Planner
SEMrush
Ahrefs
If you need help choosing the right keywords for your site, Bubble has guides and services on keyword strategy you can explore.
3. Mistake #2: Publishing Thin or Low-Value Content
What You Might Be Doing Wrong
Running a business is hectic, so content often gets pushed to the back burner. When that happens, you might:
Post short blogs that don’t really say much
Copy competitor articles hoping to replicate their results
Rely heavily on unedited AI content
Google can tell when content has no real value. And it won’t reward it.
How to Fix It
Quality content doesn’t have to be fancy; it just needs to be genuinely helpful.
Try focusing on:
Answering real questions your customers ask
Adding examples, data, or personal insights
Creating content that people want to bookmark or share
Google’s Helpful Content guidance explains exactly what it’s looking for, and it all comes down to relevance and usefulness.
If writing isn’t your strongest area, Bubble offers SEO content writing that’s designed to boost your rankings without sounding robotic.
4. Mistake #4: Forgetting About Technical SEO
What You Might Be Doing Wrong
It’s easy to focus on content and keywords and forget that your website itself needs to function well.
Some common issues include:
Slow loading pages
Huge images that haven’t been compressed
Broken internal or external links
Pages that don’t work properly on mobile
Technical errors stopping Google from crawling the site
These problems quietly drag your rankings down.
How to Fix It
A few small but important steps:
Compress images (TinyPNG, Squoosh, anything simple works)
Use Google Search Console to check for errors or broken links
Test your speed using PageSpeed Insights
Keep your plugins and website builder updated
5. Mistake #5: Using the Wrong Types of Backlinks
What You Might Be Doing Wrong
Backlinks are still a huge part of how Google decides which sites to trust. But not all backlinks are created equal.
We often see new businesses:
Buying huge batches of cheap links
Getting links from unrelated websites
Skipping outreach completely
Prioritising quantity over quality
Bad backlinks can do more harm than good.
How to Fix It
The number one rule: relevance matters more than anything else.
A highly relevant link from a smaller site is far more valuable than a completely irrelevant link from a massive domain.
Some ways to get better backlinks:
Create helpful resources that people naturally link to
Share guides or templates
Publish guest posts on niche-related websites
Use ethical outreach to get your content seen
Bubble specialises in this, our guest posting and link insertion services are built around relevance and quality, not quantity.
6. Mistake #8: Never Updating Your Old Content
What You Might Be Doing Wrong
There’s a big myth that you should just keep pushing out fresh content and forget about everything else. But older content can still rank extremely well, if you update it.
The problem is that people publish blogs and never look at them again.
Over time, they collect:
Outdated stats
Broken links
Old screenshots
Out-of-date keyword targeting
Google notices when content becomes stale.
How to Fix It
Try giving your content a refresh every 6–12 months. It doesn’t take long and makes a big difference.
You can:
Update stats and references
Replace broken links
Add new internal links
Improve readability
Update your targeting for newer keywords
Sometimes updating old content performs better than publishing something brand new.
7. Conclusion: Fix These Small Mistakes and Watch Your SEO Improve
People often assume SEO has to be expensive, complicated or time-consuming, but honestly, many improvements come from small, smart changes.
If you’ve noticed your rankings dip or you’re just not growing the way you expected, it might simply be time to tweak your strategy or refresh some older content.
And if you want hands-on help, whether that’s guest posting, link insertions, SEO-friendly content, you can explore Bubble’s services anytime.
