Avoiding Common On-Page SEO Mistakes

Mistake #1: Disregarding Search Intent

One of the most fundamental yet frequently overlooked on-page SEO mistakes is failing to align content with search intent. Search intent, or user intent, is the primary goal a user has when they type a query into a search engine. Google’s entire business model revolves around providing the most relevant and satisfying answer to that query. If your page doesn’t match the user’s underlying need, it doesn’t matter how well-optimized it is in other areas; it will struggle to rank for that keyword. Understanding and catering to intent is the non-negotiable foundation of modern on-page SEO.

There are four primary types of search intent:

1. Informational Intent: The user is looking for information. Their queries often start with “how to,” “what is,” “why do,” or are simply nouns like “on-page SEO.” They want answers, explanations, guides, or tutorials.
2. Navigational Intent: The user wants to go to a specific website or page. They know the brand or destination. Queries include “YouTube,” “Ahrefs login,” or “New York Times.” It’s generally not worth targeting these keywords unless they are for your own brand.
3. Transactional Intent: The user is ready to make a purchase. Their queries are highly commercial and include terms like “buy,” “deal,” “coupon,” “for sale,” or specific product names like “iPhone 15 Pro Max 256GB.”
4. Commercial Investigation Intent: This is a hybrid intent where the user intends to buy in the future but is currently in the research and comparison phase. Queries include “best running shoes for flat feet,” “SEMrush vs. Ahrefs,” “GoPro Hero 12 review,” or “cheapest 4K TVs.”

The mistake occurs when there’s a mismatch between the content you create and the intent Google has identified for a keyword. For example, you run an e-commerce store selling coffee beans. You want to rank for the keyword “how to make cold brew.” You create a beautiful category page showcasing all your best coffee beans for cold brew. However, when you search “how to make cold brew,” you’ll notice the top-ranking results are not e-commerce category pages. They are blog posts and articles providing step-by-step instructions, complete with pictures and videos. They are fulfilling the informational intent of the query. Your transactional page, no matter how well designed, fails to meet this core need and will therefore not rank.

How to Fix This Mistake:

The solution is to perform a Search Engine Results Page (SERP) analysis before you even start writing content or optimizing a page. This is your most direct line to understanding what Google believes users want for a given query.

• Analyze the Top 10 Results: Perform a search for your target keyword in an incognito window. Look at the top 10 organic results. What type of content is ranking?
  • Are they blog posts (informational)?
  • Are they product pages (transactional)?
  • Are they e-commerce category pages (transactional)?
  • Are they landing pages (transactional/informational)?
  • Are they reviews or comparison articles (commercial investigation)?
  • Are they videos or news articles?
• Examine the Content Format: Beyond the content type, look at the format. If the top results for “best protein powder” are all listicles (e.g., “The 10 Best Protein Powders of 2024”), then creating a single-product review page is unlikely to succeed. You need to create a listicle. If “how to tie a tie” shows video carousels and step-by-step guides with images, you must replicate that format.
• Check SERP Features: Look for SERP features like “People Also Ask” (PAA), Featured Snippets, video carousels, and image packs. These give you immense insight into the secondary questions and information users are seeking. Your content should aim to answer these PAA questions and be structured in a way that could potentially capture the Featured Snippet (e.g., using clear, concise definitions or numbered/bulleted lists).
• Use SEO Tools: Tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz can provide intent data for keywords. For instance, Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer will often tag keywords with “Informational,” “Transactional,” etc., giving you a quick-start guide before you even hit the SERPs.

By letting the SERP be your guide, you reverse-engineer success. You stop guessing what users want and start providing the exact type and format of content that Google is already rewarding. This alignment is the single most important on-page factor for achieving sustainable rankings.

Mistake #2: Ineffective Title Tag Optimization

The title tag is an HTML element that specifies the title of a web page. It is displayed on SERPs as the clickable headline for a given result and is also shown in the browser tab. It is arguably the most critical single on-page SEO element after the content itself. A poorly optimized title tag is a massive missed opportunity that can cripple your click-through rate (CTR) and signal a lack of relevance to search engines.

Common mistakes with title tags include:

• Being Too Vague or Generic: Titles like “Home” for the homepage or “Blog” for the blog page are useless. They provide no context to search engines or users about what the page contains.
• Keyword Stuffing: An old-school black-hat tactic that is now detrimental. A title like “Buy Red Widgets, Best Red Widgets, Cheap Red Widgets for Sale | Widget Co.” looks spammy to users and search engines, leading to poor CTR and potential penalties.
• Exceeding the Length Limit: Google typically displays the first 55-65 characters of a title tag (it’s actually based on a pixel width of around 600px, but characters are a good rule of thumb). Titles that are too long get truncated with an ellipsis (…), which can cut off important keywords and reduce the appeal of your headline.
• Missing the Primary Keyword: The title tag should, almost without exception, contain the primary keyword you are targeting for that page. It’s the strongest relevance signal you can send. Placing it closer to the beginning of the title is generally considered best practice.
• Failing to Include a Brand Name: For brand recognition and trust, it’s often wise to include your brand name at the end of the title tag, usually separated by a pipe (|) or a hyphen (-). This is especially important for homepages and core landing pages.
• Creating Duplicate Title Tags: Every indexable page on your site should have a unique title tag. Duplicate titles confuse search engines and can lead to them indexing the wrong page for a query or diluting ranking signals between pages (a symptom of keyword cannibalization, discussed later).

How to Fix This Mistake:

Crafting the perfect title tag is both a science and an art. It needs to be optimized for search engines while also being compelling for humans.

• Start with Your Primary Keyword: Place your most important keyword as close to the beginning as possible without sounding unnatural. For a page about on-page SEO mistakes, a good start is “10 On-Page SEO Mistakes to Avoid.”
• Keep it Within the Length Limit: Use a tool like a SERP snippet preview tool (many are available online for free) to check your title’s pixel width. This ensures it won’t be truncated. Aim for under 65 characters as a safe guideline.
• Add Modifiers and Compelling Language: To increase CTR, add words that entice clicks. These can include numbers (“10 Tips…”), brackets or parentheses (“[Updated for 2024]”), questions (“Are You Making These Mistakes?”), or emotional/powerful adjectives (“Actionable,” “Ultimate,” “Simple”). For example, “10 Critical On-Page SEO Mistakes to Avoid [Guide]” is more compelling than “On-Page SEO Mistakes.”
• Incorporate Branding: Add your brand name at the end. For example: “10 Critical On-Page SEO Mistakes to Avoid | YourBrand.” This builds brand equity and helps users recognize you in the SERPs over time.
• Ensure Uniqueness: Use a site crawler like Screaming Frog or the site audit tool in Ahrefs/SEMrush to run a crawl of your website. These tools will flag all instances of duplicate, missing, or overly long/short title tags, allowing you to fix them systemically.
• Reflect the Content Accurately: The title is a promise to the user. If your title is “Ultimate Guide to Baking Sourdough,” the content must be a comprehensive, ultimate guide. A mismatch leads to a high bounce rate (or more accurately, a low dwell time and pogo-sticking), which signals to Google that your page is not a good result.

A well-crafted title tag acts as a powerful advertisement for your content on the SERP. It simultaneously tells Google what your page is about and convinces the user that your result is the best one to click. Ignoring its optimization is like writing a brilliant book but giving it a boring, irrelevant cover.

Mistake #3: Writing Uninspired or Missing Meta Descriptions

The meta description is an HTML attribute that provides a brief summary of a web page’s content. While it is not a direct ranking factor—Google confirmed this years ago—it plays a tremendously important role in on-page SEO through its influence on click-through rate (CTR). A compelling meta description can be the deciding factor for a user choosing your result over a competitor’s, even if you rank slightly lower.

Common mistakes related to meta descriptions are:

• Leaving Them Blank: If you don’t provide a meta description, Google will pull a snippet of text from the page that it thinks is relevant to the user’s query. This is often an awkward, out-of-context sentence fragment that does nothing to entice a click.
• Duplicating Them Across Pages: Just like title tags, every page should have a unique meta description. Duplicating them provides a poor user experience in the SERPs and can confuse search engines about the distinct value of each page.
• Making Them Too Short or Too Long: While there’s no penalty, a description that’s too short is a wasted opportunity. One that’s too long will be truncated (typically around 155-160 characters or ~920 pixels).
• Keyword Stuffing: “Our red widgets are the best red widgets you can buy. Find cheap red widgets and red widget deals here. Click for red widgets.” This is unreadable and screams spam.
• Being Boring and Passive: A description that simply states what the page is about (e.g., “This page contains information about on-page SEO.”) is a failure. It needs to be an active, persuasive piece of ad copy.

How to Fix This Mistake:

Think of the meta description as the 160-character elevator pitch for your page. Its job is to sell the click.

• Stay Within the Optimal Length: Aim for a length between 120 and 155 characters. This gives you enough space to be descriptive and persuasive without risking truncation. Use a SERP preview tool to verify.
• Include the Primary Keyword: While not a ranking factor, including the keyword is crucial for user experience. When a user searches for a term, Google bolds it in the meta description of the results. This visual cue draws the eye and confirms to the user that your page is relevant to their query.
• Write Compelling Ad Copy: Use an active voice. Address the user directly (“You’ll learn…”). Highlight the key benefit or solve their problem. What will they gain by clicking on your page? For a post on on-page SEO mistakes, a weak description would be: “This article discusses common on-page SEO errors.” A strong one would be: “Struggling to rank? Uncover 10 critical on-page SEO mistakes you might be making. Learn how to fix them today and boost your organic traffic.”
• Include a Call-to-Action (CTA): When appropriate, encourage the click with a soft CTA. Phrases like “Learn more,” “Discover how,” “Find out,” “Shop now,” or “Get the guide” can be very effective.
• Be Honest and Accurate: The description must accurately reflect the page’s content. Clickbait will lead to a high bounce rate, signaling to Google that your page is a poor result.
• Audit and Fix Systematically: Use a crawler like Screaming Frog to find all pages with missing, duplicate, or poorly-sized meta descriptions. Prioritize fixing them on your most important pages first (e.g., homepage, core service pages, top-performing blog posts) and then work your way through the rest of the site.

It’s important to note that Google doesn’t always use your specified meta description. For certain queries, especially long-tail ones, it may choose a snippet from your page that it feels better answers the specific query. However, by providing a well-crafted one, you increase the likelihood it will be used for your primary target keywords, giving you control over your page’s messaging in the SERPs.

Mistake #4: Improper Heading Tag Structure (H1, H2, H3)

Heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) are HTML elements used to structure a document and create a logical hierarchy. They are not just for making text bigger or bolder; they are crucial signposts for both users and search engines. A flawed heading structure makes content difficult to scan for readers and harder for search engine crawlers to understand the topical relevance and structure of your page.

The most common errors in heading tag usage are:

• Missing or Multiple H1 Tags: Each page should have one, and only one, H1 tag. The H1 is the main headline of the page’s content. Missing it means you’re failing to declare the page’s primary topic. Using multiple H1s can confuse search engines, as it’s like giving a book two different titles. While modern browsers and Google can often figure it out, it’s a fundamental best practice to stick to one.
• Using Headings for Styling: A classic mistake is to use heading tags (like an H2 or H3) simply to make text larger or bold, without any consideration for the document’s structure. If you need to style text, you should use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) instead. Using an H2 for a small, unimportant sidebar note, for example, breaks the semantic structure.
• Skipping Heading Levels: The heading structure should be sequential and logical. You should not jump from an H1 directly to an H4, skipping H2 and H3. The structure should flow like an outline:
  • H1: Main Title of the Page
    • H2: Main Section
      • H3: Sub-section of the H2
      • H3: Another sub-section of the H2
    • H2: Another Main Section
      • H3: Sub-section of the second H2
• Stuffing Keywords into Headings: While headings are an excellent place to include your primary and secondary keywords, they must be written for humans first. An H2 that reads “Best On-Page SEO Mistakes On-Page SEO Guide” is spammy and unhelpful.
• Using Vague or Uninformative Headings: Headings like “Introduction,” “More Information,” or “Next Steps” do very little for SEO or user experience. They don’t contain relevant keywords and don’t tell a scanning user what the section is about.

How to Fix This Mistake:

Treat the headings on your page as the table of contents for your content.

• Use a Single, Compelling H1: Your H1 should be very similar to your title tag, but it can be slightly longer and more descriptive. It should clearly state the page’s topic and include your primary keyword. For example, if the title tag is “10 On-Page SEO Mistakes to Avoid | YourBrand,” the H1 could be “A Deep Dive into 10 Critical On-Page SEO Mistakes Sabotaging Your Traffic.”
• Structure Content Logically with H2s and H3s: Use H2s to break up your content into its main thematic sections. Then, use H3s (and H4s, if necessary) to break down those main sections into more specific sub-points. This creates a clear hierarchy. For this very article, “Improper Heading Tag Structure” is an H2, and sub-topics within it could be H3s.
• Incorporate Keywords Naturally: Your H2s and H3s are perfect places to include long-tail keyword variations and LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords. For a page about “best dog food,” H2s could be “What to Look for in High-Quality Dog Food,” “Best Dog Food for Puppies,” and “Grain-Free vs. Grain-Inclusive Dog Food.” This naturally incorporates relevant terms and helps Google understand the breadth of your content.
• Prioritize Scannability: Most users don’t read web pages; they scan them. A strong heading structure allows a user to quickly scan your page and find the specific information they need. This improves user engagement signals like dwell time.
• Audit Your Heading Structure: Use a browser extension like “SEO Minion” or “Detailed SEO Extension” to quickly view the heading outline of any page. For a full site audit, use a crawler like Screaming Frog. It can be configured to extract all H1s and H2s from your site, allowing you to easily spot pages with missing H1s, multiple H1s, or other structural issues.

A clean, logical heading structure is a win-win. It improves the user experience by making your content more accessible and digestible, and it enhances your SEO by providing a clear, semantic map of your content for search engines to interpret.

Mistake #5: Keyword Cannibalization

Keyword cannibalization occurs when multiple pages on your own website compete for the same or very similar keywords in Google’s search results. While it might sound like a good thing to have multiple shots at ranking, it’s actually a destructive on-page SEO mistake. Instead of one authoritative page ranking strongly, you force your own pages to compete with each other, which dilutes your authority, splits your backlinks and CTR, and confuses search engines about which page is the most important for the query.

This issue often arises unintentionally as a website grows. For instance, a SaaS company might have:

• A blog post titled “The Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing.”
• A service page titled “Email Marketing Software.”
• A case study titled “How Company X Grew with Our Email Marketing Platform.”
• Another blog post from two years ago titled “10 Tips for Better Email Marketing.”

All of these pages could potentially rank for “email marketing.” When a user searches for that term, Google is faced with a choice. Which of your pages is the best answer? Unable to decide, it might rapidly switch between them in the rankings, or worse, decide that none of them are individually as authoritative as a competitor’s single, comprehensive page on the topic.

Signs of Keyword Cannibalization:

• Fluctuating Ranks for a Keyword: You see different URLs from your site ranking for the same keyword over time. One week it’s the blog post, the next it’s the service page.
• A “Weaker” Page Outranking a “Stronger” One: Your old, thin blog post from 2018 is outranking your newly created, comprehensive pillar page on the same topic.
• Stagnant Rankings: Your pages seem stuck on the second or third page of Google, unable to break through, because their authority is split.

How to Fix This Mistake:

Solving keyword cannibalization requires a content audit and a clear strategy.

• Identify Cannibalization Issues: The simplest way is to search Google using the site:yourwebsite.com "keyword" operator. This will show you all the pages on your site that Google considers relevant to that keyword. If you see multiple pages that are very similar in intent and content, you have a potential issue. For more systematic tracking, use a tool like Ahrefs’ Site Explorer. Enter your domain, go to the “Organic Keywords” report, and look for keywords where the “URL” column changes when you check the position history.
• Analyze the Competing Pages: Once you’ve identified the competing URLs, analyze them.
  • Which page has the most traffic?
  • Which page has the most high-quality backlinks?
  • Which page has the best content and is most aligned with search intent?
  • Which page converts better?
• Choose a Strategy: Consolidate, Differentiate, or Delete:
  1. Consolidate (The 301 Redirect): This is often the best solution. Identify the “strongest” page—the one that is most comprehensive, has the best links, or best matches intent. Then, take the best elements from the other, weaker pages and merge them into the strongest page to make it even more authoritative. Finally, implement a permanent 301 redirect from the weaker pages to the newly consolidated “canonical” page. This passes most of the link equity from the old pages to your main page and tells Google that this is the one and only page to rank for this topic.
  2. Differentiate and Re-optimize: If the pages serve slightly different intents, you can re-optimize them to target more specific, distinct keywords. For the “email marketing” example, you could keep the service page focused on the transactional keyword “email marketing software.” The “Ultimate Guide” could be optimized for the broad, informational term “email marketing.” The “10 Tips” article could be re-focused on a long-tail keyword like “email marketing best practices.” This involves rewriting title tags, H1s, and content to de-conflict the keyword targeting.
  3. Canonicalize: If you need to keep two very similar pages for user experience reasons (e.g., one for desktop users, one for mobile, though this is rare with responsive design), you can use the canonical tag (rel="canonical"). This tag is placed in the HTML head of the “duplicate” page and points to the URL of the “master” page you want Google to rank. This tells search engines to consolidate all ranking signals to your preferred URL.
  4. Noindex or Delete: If a competing page is very old, has no traffic, no backlinks, and provides no real value, the simplest solution might be to simply delete it (and 301 redirect its URL to a relevant page) or apply a “noindex” tag to it, asking search engines to remove it from their index.

By proactively managing your site’s content and preventing keyword cannibalization, you present a clear, authoritative front to Google, allowing your best pages to achieve the high rankings they deserve.

Mistake #6: Thin, Low-Quality, or AI-Generated Content

In the early days of SEO, quantity often trumped quality. Today, the opposite is true. Google’s algorithms, including core updates and systems like the Helpful Content System, are designed to reward content that is comprehensive, expert, authoritative, and trustworthy (E-E-A-T). Thin content is a major on-page SEO mistake that can not only prevent a single page from ranking but also drag down the perceived quality of your entire website.

What constitutes thin or low-quality content?

• Low Word Count on Topics That Demand Depth: A 300-word article on a complex topic like “how to invest in the stock market” is inherently thin. It cannot possibly provide the depth and value a user is seeking. While there’s no magic word count, the content must be substantial enough to thoroughly cover the topic.
• Lack of Originality and Insight: Content that merely rehashes the top 5 search results without adding any new information, unique perspective, personal experience, or data is considered low-quality. It doesn’t help the user.
• Superficial or Inaccurate Information: Content that is factually incorrect, outdated, or only scratches the surface is a poor user experience. This is especially damaging for Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) topics like finance, health, and safety.
• Pure, Unedited AI-Generated Content: While AI tools like ChatGPT can be excellent assistants for brainstorming and outlining, using them to generate entire articles without significant human editing, fact-checking, and the addition of unique experience is a recipe for creating generic, unhelpful content. Google’s stance is that it rewards high-quality content, regardless of how it’s produced, but AI-generated content often fails to meet the “experience” and “expertise” components of E-E-A-T.
• Doorway Pages: Pages created solely to rank for specific keywords that then funnel users to a different, often unrelated, page.
• Auto-generated or Scraped Content: Content that is stolen from other websites or automatically generated with no human oversight.

How to Fix This Mistake:

The fix for thin content is straightforward in concept but requires significant effort: create genuinely helpful, high-quality content.

• Focus on Depth and Comprehensiveness: Before writing, analyze the top-ranking pages for your target keyword. What sub-topics are they covering? How deep do they go? What questions are they answering? Your goal should be to create a piece of content that is more comprehensive, more detailed, and more helpful than what is currently ranking. This is often referred to as the “Skyscraper Technique.”
• Demonstrate E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness):
  • Experience: Share real-world stories, case studies, or first-hand accounts. If you’re reviewing a product, show that you’ve actually used it.
  • Expertise: Have the content written or reviewed by a genuine subject matter expert. Include author bios that showcase credentials and experience.
  • Authoritativeness: Build authority by citing credible sources, linking out to authoritative studies, and earning backlinks from other respected sites in your industry.
  • Trustworthiness: Be transparent. Have clear contact information, privacy policies, and, for e-commerce, secure payment systems.
• Use AI as a Tool, Not a Crutch: Use AI to generate outlines, brainstorm ideas, overcome writer’s block, or simplify complex topics. But the final product must be heavily edited and infused with your brand’s unique voice, perspective, and human experience. Fact-check every claim an AI makes.
• Conduct a Content Audit to Find and Improve Thin Content:
  1. Identify: Use Google Analytics to find pages with low traffic, high bounce rates, and low time on page. Use a crawler like Screaming Frog to find pages with a low word count (you can set a threshold, e.g., under 500 words).
  2. Analyze: For each identified page, decide on a course of action.
  3. Improve: If the page targets a valuable keyword but is thin, the best option is to significantly rewrite and expand it. Add more detail, images, data, expert quotes, and practical examples.
  4. Consolidate: If you have several thin pages on very similar topics, merge them into one comprehensive “pillar” page and 301 redirect the old URLs, as discussed in the keyword cannibalization section.
  5. Prune: If the page has no traffic, no backlinks, and targets a keyword with no business value, the best course of action may be to delete it and let it 404 (or 410), or redirect it to a closely related category page. Pruning low-quality content can sometimes lead to a site-wide quality boost in Google’s eyes.

Creating high-quality content is a long-term investment, but it’s the most sustainable way to succeed in SEO. It builds trust with your audience and sends powerful positive signals to search engines.

Mistake #7: Not Optimizing Images

Images are a critical part of the user experience, breaking up text and making content more engaging and understandable. However, from an on-page SEO perspective, they can be a double-edged sword. If not properly optimized, images can drastically slow down your page load speed and represent a massive missed opportunity for additional search traffic from Google Images.

The most common image optimization mistakes include:

• Uploading Oversized Image Files: This is the number one culprit for slow-loading pages. A user uploading a 5 MB, 4000×3000 pixel photo straight from their digital camera to a blog post that only needs to display it at 800×600 pixels is forcing every visitor to download an unnecessarily huge file.
• Using Generic or Unhelpful File Names: An image file named IMG_8754.jpg tells a search engine nothing about the image’s content.
• Ignoring Alt Text: The “alt” attribute (alternative text) is an HTML attribute added to an image tag. Its primary purpose is accessibility—it’s what screen readers read aloud to visually impaired users. It’s also what search engines use to understand the content of an image. Leaving it blank is a major mistake.
• Stuffing Keywords into Alt Text: Alt text should be descriptive, not a list of keywords. alt="red widget cheap red widgets buy red widgets" is bad practice.
• Using the Wrong File Format: Using a PNG for a large photographic image when a JPG would be a much smaller file, or using a JPG for a logo with transparency when a PNG or SVG would be better.
• Not Using Responsive Images: Serving the same large desktop image to mobile users on slower connections, instead of providing different sizes for different viewports.

How to Fix This Mistake:

A comprehensive image optimization strategy addresses file size, file names, alt text, and modern web standards.

• Resize and Compress Images Before Uploading:
  • Resize: Before you upload an image, determine the maximum size it will be displayed at on your website and resize it to those dimensions using an image editor like Photoshop, GIMP (free), or a simple online tool. There’s no reason to upload a 4000px wide image if your content area is only 800px wide.
  • Compress: After resizing, compress the image to reduce file size without a significant loss in quality. Tools like TinyPNG/TinyJPG, ImageOptim, or Squoosh (by Google) are excellent for this. The goal is to get image files well under 100 KB whenever possible. For an even more automated solution, use a CMS plugin like Smush (WordPress) or an image CDN (e.g., Cloudinary) that automatically compresses and resizes images.
• Write Descriptive, Keyword-Rich File Names: Before uploading, rename your image file to be descriptive and use hyphens to separate words. Instead of IMG_8754.jpg, use blue-suede-running-shoes.jpg. This provides context to search engines.
• Craft Perfect Alt Text:
  • Be Descriptive and Specific: Describe what is in the image as if you were explaining it to someone who can’t see it. alt="A man with a grey beard wearing a red flannel shirt chopping wood with an axe in a snowy forest."
  • Incorporate a Keyword Naturally: If it makes sense and doesn’t sound forced, include your target keyword. For a page about dog training, an image of a person teaching a puppy to sit could have alt="Golden retriever puppy learning to sit during a dog training session."
  • Keep it Concise: While there’s no hard limit, try to keep it under about 125 characters.
• Choose the Right File Format:
  • JPEG: Best for photographs and images with complex color gradients. It offers a great balance of quality and file size.
  • PNG: Use when you need a transparent background (like for logos) or for simple graphics with limited colors.
  • WebP: A modern format developed by Google that provides superior compression for both lossy and lossless images. It’s now widely supported by browsers and is often the best choice for both photos and graphics.
  • SVG: A vector format, perfect for logos, icons, and simple illustrations. SVGs are resolution-independent (they look sharp at any size) and often have very small file sizes.
• Implement Lazy Loading: Lazy loading is a technique where images outside of the initial viewport (the visible part of the screen) are not loaded until the user scrolls down to them. This dramatically improves the initial page load time. Most modern CMS platforms and caching plugins offer this feature with a simple checkbox.
• Provide an Image Sitemap: For image-heavy sites (like photography portfolios or e-commerce stores), creating and submitting an image sitemap to Google Search Console can help Google discover and index all of your visual content more effectively.

Proper image optimization directly impacts two key areas: it improves Core Web Vitals (especially Largest Contentful Paint) by speeding up your site, and it opens up a new channel for organic traffic through image search. It is a technical but highly impactful part of on-page SEO.

Mistake #8: Poor Internal Linking Strategy

Internal links are hyperlinks that point from one page on your website to another page on the same website. A well-thought-out internal linking strategy is one of the most powerful and underutilized on-page SEO tactics. It helps search engines understand your site’s structure, establishes a hierarchy of information, and, most importantly, distributes “link equity” (or “PageRank”) throughout your site.

Common internal linking mistakes include:

• Orphaned Pages: These are pages that have no internal links pointing to them. If you don’t link to a page from anywhere else on your site, it’s very difficult for users and search engine crawlers to find it. It’s essentially floating in space, and Google will likely consider it unimportant.
• Using Generic Anchor Text: Anchor text is the clickable text in a hyperlink. Using generic, uninformative anchor text like “click here,” “read more,” or “learn more” is a huge wasted opportunity. It tells search engines nothing about the topic of the page you are linking to.
• Excessive Linking in a Single Block: While there’s no hard rule, cramming dozens of links into a “link block” or a single paragraph can look spammy and overwhelm the user. Links should appear naturally within the flow of the content.
• Only Linking to Top-Level Pages: Many sites make the mistake of only linking from blog posts back to their homepage or main service pages. They fail to link contextually to other relevant blog posts or deeper product pages.
• Using “Nofollow” Attributes Incorrectly: The rel="nofollow" attribute tells search engines not to pass any link equity through a link. While it has its uses (e.g., for user-generated content or paid links), you should almost never use it for your own internal links. You want to pass authority between your own pages.

How to Fix This Mistake:

Think like an architect building a city. Your most important pages are major hubs, and your internal links are the roads connecting everything, ensuring a smooth flow of traffic and resources.

• Create a Logical Site Structure: Your strategy should start with a pyramid-like structure. Your homepage is at the top. Below that are your main category or service pages. Below those are your individual sub-category pages, product pages, or blog posts. Links should flow down this hierarchy and also across it (from one blog post to another).
• Use Keyword-Rich, Descriptive Anchor Text: This is the most crucial part. The anchor text should accurately describe the page you are linking to and, when possible, contain the target keyword of that destination page. Instead of “For more information on our services, click here,” use “Learn more about our expert on-page SEO services.” This sends a powerful signal to Google that the linked page is about “on-page SEO services.”
• Link Contextually within Your Content: The best internal links are those placed naturally within the body of your content. As you write a new blog post, look for opportunities to link to older, relevant content on your site. For example, in an article about “image optimization,” when you mention page speed, you should link to your more comprehensive article on “improving Core Web Vitals.” This helps users discover more of your content and builds topical relevance.
• Build “Topic Clusters” or “Pillar Pages”: This is an advanced internal linking strategy. You create a long, comprehensive “pillar page” on a broad topic (e.g., “Content Marketing”). Then, you create multiple, more specific “cluster” articles on sub-topics (e.g., “How to Write a Blog Post,” “Content Promotion Strategies,” “Measuring Content ROI”). You then link heavily from each cluster page back to the main pillar page, and the pillar page links out to all the cluster pages. This creates a powerful, interlinked hub of content that signals deep expertise on the topic to Google.
• Fix Orphaned Pages: Use a site crawler (Screaming Frog is excellent for this) to find pages with zero or very few “inlinks.” Once identified, go through your existing relevant content and find logical places to add links to these orphaned pages.
• Audit and Update Links in Old Content: Don’t just “set and forget” your links. As you publish new content, go back to your relevant older posts and add internal links to the new articles. This helps the new content get indexed faster and starts passing authority to it immediately.

A deliberate internal linking strategy guides users to more relevant content, increasing engagement and time on site. For search engines, it clarifies relationships between your pages, distributes authority, and ultimately helps your most important pages rank higher.