The Biggest SEO Mistakes People Make When Building Their Own Website
Building a website is an exciting venture, whether you’re launching a new business, showcasing your portfolio, or creating a blog. But no matter how visually stunning your website is, it won’t succeed if people can’t find it. That’s where Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) comes in.
Unfortunately, many people make critical SEO mistakes when building their own websites, resulting in poor rankings, low traffic, and missed opportunities. In this blog post, we’ll highlight the biggest SEO mistakes to avoid and provide actionable tips to set your website up for success.
1. Ignoring Mobile Responsiveness
The Mistake: With over 60% of internet traffic coming from mobile devices, having a mobile-friendly website isn’t just an option—it’s essential. Many website builders focus on desktop designs and neglect to optimise for smaller screens, leading to poor user experiences and lower rankings.
Why It’s a Problem: Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning it prioritises the mobile version of your website when determining rankings. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re losing out on traffic and rankings.
How to Fix It:
Choose a responsive design that adjusts automatically for different screen sizes.
Test your site on multiple devices to ensure it looks and functions well.
Use tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to check for issues.
2. Not Optimising for the Right Keywords
The Mistake: Many website owners either skip keyword research altogether or target overly broad terms. For example, a bakery might target “bread” instead of “artisan sourdough bread in London.”
Why It’s a Problem: Targeting the wrong keywords can result in low-quality traffic or make it nearly impossible to rank against established competitors.
How to Fix It:
Use tools like to identify keywords with high search volume and low competition.
Focus on long-tail keywords that are more specific and intent-driven.
Incorporate keywords naturally into your content, meta descriptions, and headers.
3. Overlooking Page Load Speed
The Mistake: A slow website frustrates visitors and drives them away. Worse, Google penalises slow-loading sites, making page speed a critical ranking factor.
Why It’s a Problem: For every additional second it takes your site to load, you risk losing 7% of conversions and a significant portion of your audience.
How to Fix It:
Compress images using tools like TinyPNG or ImageOptim.
Enable browser caching and use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) like Cloudflare.
Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to identify and fix speed-related issues.
4. Forgetting to Set Up Meta Titles and Descriptions
The Mistake: Meta titles and descriptions are the snippets that appear in search engine results, but many DIY website builders leave them blank or auto-generate them.
Why It’s a Problem: Without optimised meta tags, your website won’t clearly communicate its purpose to search engines or entice users to click on your results.
How to Fix It:
Write unique meta titles (under 60 characters) and descriptions (under 155 characters) for each page.
Include primary keywords naturally within these tags.
Make your descriptions compelling to encourage clicks.
5. Neglecting Internal Linking
The Mistake: Some website owners focus solely on external backlinks and forget about internal linking. This makes it harder for search engines to crawl and index their site effectively.
Why It’s a Problem: Internal links help establish a hierarchy for your content and distribute link equity across your site. Without them, key pages might not rank as well as they should.
How to Fix It:
Link to relevant pages within your own site whenever appropriate.
Use keyword-rich anchor text for internal links.
Avoid excessive linking, which can confuse users and search engines.
6. Publishing Thin or Duplicate Content
The Mistake: Some website owners rush to fill their site with content, leading to short, low-quality pages or copying content from other sources.
Why It’s a Problem: Google values unique, high-quality content and penalises sites with duplicate or thin pages. This can severely impact your rankings.
How to Fix It:
Aim for at least 800–1,500 words of in-depth content per page.
Avoid copying text from other sites—rewrite it to add your unique perspective.
Regularly update old content to keep it relevant.
7. Skipping Image Optimisation
The Mistake: Images are often uploaded without proper naming, alt text, or compression. This not only slows down your site but also misses an opportunity to improve SEO.
Why It’s a Problem: Search engines can’t “see” images, so without alt text, they don’t know what the images represent. Additionally, large, uncompressed images can hurt page speed.
How to Fix It:
Use descriptive, keyword-rich file names (e.g., “artisan-bread-london.jpg”).
Add alt text that describes the image in 1–2 sentences.
Compress images before uploading to maintain quality while reducing file size.
8. Not Setting Up Google Analytics and Search Console
The Mistake: Many DIY website owners launch their site without tracking tools in place, leaving them in the dark about their performance.
Why It’s a Problem: Without analytics, you can’t measure traffic, user behaviour, or the success of your SEO efforts.
How to Fix It:
Set up Google Analytics to monitor traffic, bounce rates, and conversions.
Use Google Search Console to track rankings, fix errors, and submit your sitemap.
9. Using a Poor URL Structure
The Mistake: Default URLs like www.example.com/page1 or overly complex URLs like www.example.com/p=1234 confuse both users and search engines.
Why It’s a Problem: Clean, descriptive URLs improve click-through rates and help search engines understand your content.
How to Fix It:
Use simple, keyword-rich URLs (e.g., www.example.com/seo-tips).
Avoid unnecessary numbers, symbols, or long strings.
10. Failing to Secure the Website (HTTPS)
The Mistake: Some DIY builders skip purchasing an SSL certificate, leaving their site with an HTTP prefix instead of HTTPS.
Why It’s a Problem: Google prioritises secure sites in its rankings. Additionally, browsers often flag non-HTTPS sites as “not secure,” deterring visitors.
How to Fix It:
Purchase an SSL certificate through your hosting provider or use free tools like Let’s Encrypt.
Ensure your entire site is served over HTTPS.
Conclusion: Avoid These Mistakes to Build an SEO-Friendly Website
Creating your own website can be incredibly rewarding, but overlooking SEO can hinder your success. By avoiding these common mistakes—like neglecting mobile responsiveness, skipping keyword research, or failing to optimise page speed—you can build a site that not only looks great but also ranks well in search engines.
Remember, SEO is an ongoing process. As your site grows, continue to optimise, track performance, and refine your strategy to achieve long-term success.
Need help with your website’s SEO? Contact EMS today for expert guidance and support to get your site ranking and thriving!