SEO helps you get free and organic traffic from search results on search engines. Avoid these 3 common SEO mistakes to ensure you get the best rankings for your keywords.

IE 351: 3 Most Common SEO Mistakes to Avoid with Mariah Liszewski

Mariah Liszewski is an SEO consultant and visibility strategist for online business owners at Mariah Magazine with seven years experience.

She helps business owners get found on Google by implementing an SEO strategy that feels both doable and aligned.

She is a firm believer in showing up on Google, increasing your visibility, and growing your business doesn’t have to be as difficult and overwhelming as everyone makes it.

Find her on YouTube.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It means that your website is optimized and put together to show in search results, like Google, for example.

SEO helps you get free and organic traffic from search results on search engines. When you optimize your website, it helps you on all of the search engines, Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

It is similar to YouTube.  When you optimize a video for YouTube SEO, it allows the search engine to show your results.

The reason why most SEO professionals talk about Google is because they currently have the best SEO results.

Bing has recently acquired ChatGPT so they will be climbing the ladder soon. SEO is compared to the paid results that are typically shown for paid ads on Google.

Google ads and SEO are not the same.  They use different strategies.

Paid ads are clicked about 25% of the time.  That means that 75% of the time, people are clicking on organic search results.

To be found organically in the search results, you use SEO.

Some industries, such as lawyers, have higher Google ad click rates.

We have been intrinsically trained not to click on those ads because they are not usually the best solution to our problem.

SEO is important because your audience is already looking for the solutions that you offer.

SEO is how Google recommends you and your website as the solution.

There are unlimited, easy ways to grow a business online through marketing.

SEO is one of the only website traffic strategies that give you long-term results with both social media and paid ads, including Google ads or Meta ads.

When you stop paying for those, you lose traffic.  If you do SEO correctly, it continues to build on itself.

When you use SEO, you show up in a space where people are already searching for the problems you help them solve.

It is like a magnet to your people when you know how to do it right.

People get scared by it when they don’t understand the part about being aligned with the content they create.

More people are getting nervous with the chatter about AI (artificial intelligence) and how that is going to affect us.

How do search engines actually work?

Both Pinterest and YouTube are examples of search engines. Google and search engines are kind of interchangeable but we will address this from a Google perspective.

Google has robots (or bots) that go through and crawl the web. They take note of websites, pages, and the content that is on the pages.

One point of confusion that needs to be clarified is that pages show up on Google. Websites do not. It is on a page-by-page basis.

This means that your home page, your services page, or a blog post that shows up.

These bots go through and scan every page for content so they can organize the main idea of each page and put it into Google’s index. Google’s index is a really big filing cabinet.

When you search Google, it goes into the filing cabinet and tries to pull out and show you the results that best match what you searched for.

When Google searches your site, it is looking for context clues; AKA “Keywords.”

Therefore, we want to put the keywords in spots where Google is going to look and then Google takes note of that and tries to put you in the filing cabinet.

The question is often asked, “If a website hasn’t focused on SEO, does that mean they are not in the filing cabinet?”.

Since Google has to have something to put in the filing cabinet, you are still in there but it is probably for something irrelevant to what you want to be found for.

When you do not focus on SEO, the bots focus on random words and try to figure out what your pages are about and then organize them based on the random facts it finds.

Sometimes, people will get found for a post topic that will trigger Google to rank them in that category when they want to be known for something different.

How would you switch your Google category?

This is based on how you shift the content based on the perspective itself.

Go back into your content, address the problem, and then give the solution to the problem.

If you are on page one of Google, then Google sees you as the best solution to the problem.

You need to use SEO to ensure that you are the best solution to the problem.

Update your content to offer different solutions to your audience.

Just make sure that you are targeting the right keywords and putting them in the right places so that Google bots get context clues.

Google is updating its algorithm to offer different solutions to the same problem.

SEO is not a box you need to fit yourself in. It is the perfect bridge for brilliant people to share their message and get it to the people who need that message the most.

It is important to understand that you also need to show your own perspective, voice, and personality to draw people into content.

Google is beginning to shift a bit to show those who personalize their content, share their story, and draw the audience in.

The ultimate goal is for people to like you and get on your email list.

As AI (artificial intelligence) evolves, it is important to understand that it is just an evolution.

The old way of doing SEO, hiring an agency without understanding what they are doing, is dying. Corporate marketing is still holding on to this method.

Business owners and entrepreneurs are on the front end of a new method and can do things differently.

AI is great for getting an outline and creating content without having to look at a blank page.

Google has already announced that if you have content generated by AI, you are not going to rank.

You can use AI to create a blog post but it is important to rework it in your own words so that it sounds different.

You will not be able to regurgitate the same things others are putting out and get away with it.

Google is beginning to emphasize the importance of setting yourself apart on why you have authority and how you can connect with the audience.

AI makes SEO more accessible because it can write a blog post for you and then you can spend an hour beefing it up and adding your personality to it.

What are the 3 most common SEO mistakes?

The first SEO mistake is to be scared of AI.  You do not need to be scared of it.

Use AI to continue to improve on what you can create because it will save you time.

The second mistake people make is failing to set up their Google search console.

Most people are aware of Google Analytics which shows how people are using your website, where traffic is coming from, and other great marketing tools.

Google search console is how Google sees your site. By having that setup, you can see what keywords Google is showing for you.

This is free to do for the primary website owner with the search console.

You only have to pay for results if you want to see what other businesses are doing.

Google is continually scanning your website to see if you are still in the right filing cabinet.

If Google finds an error, it will show you the error in the search console.

Go ahead and set up the Google search console so that when you are ready to hire a marketing person or SEO consultant, you will have collected the data for them to work with.

It is easy to use and enables you to analyze your data until you are ready for the next bigger tool.

Watch Mariah’s tutorials about setting up your Google Console Here.

The third SEO mistake people are making is not understanding keywords.

Keywords are the middleman to connect your website with the people that are searching for it.

People think that a keyword is only one or two words. The term “keyword” is misleading because it is the entire string of words that compile your search.

This could be a phrase, also known as a “long tail keyword” or a “query. Using only one word is not specific enough.

The more specific you can get with a keyword, the less likely it is that a person will search for it but it is more likely for the person to convert to a customer.

Here is an example. If you need new shoes for your dress, you should not go to Google and type in “shoes.”

That would give you terrible results. Instead, you would type “black, high-heeled, open-toed shoes.”

That would be very specific in the buying journey because it would bring you to what you want and where you can purchase it. It will convert better.

The other important thing to consider is the intent.

When you type in something super specific, you can be a lot more clear about what information you are showing, which is the best solution to the problem. This helps people convert.

If you are not specific enough, you will not become the best solution for the problem you are trying to solve. SEO is not too competitive.

You just need to understand how keywords work and how to infuse them into your website correctly.

You can find a gap in the market and reframe what a keyword is to be extremely beneficial.

Knowing what to use for your terms is important. What are people searching for to find your products?

You may not rank for the huge volume words but if you can find smaller, multiple-word strings, you may be able to rank for those keywords.

What is the most difficult part of SEO?

The most difficult part of SEO is staying focused.

When you start doing keyword research, you can be motivated and inspired because there are unlimited possibilities. The hardest thing is prioritizing what is important.

When you combine unlimited possibilities with the fact that Google judges your website on over 200 factors, it is hard to know what to prioritize.

You need to find the gaps in the market. Your SEO does not have to be perfect.

The key to getting on page 1 is not only to be the best solution to the problem but also to relay that you are the best solution on Google.

To be the best solution means you have to be better than the people on page 1, who differ based on the keyword you are trying to target.

You will need to do better to be very specific and prioritize. You also need to use the resources that you already have.

It is attainable, accessible, and approachable. You can balance the unlimited possibilities by prioritizing.

Just know that the past way of doing SEO is not necessarily the best and most current way of doing it.

When you don’t understand it and then throw money at an agency to do it for you, you have no way of knowing that it has been improved or you might become a victim of scare tactics agencies use to threaten you.

SEO Roadmap

The Ultimate SEO Roadmap breaks things down in an easy-to-understand way and shows you what SEO is, why it is important, and how search engines work.

It includes a 6-step process to improve your SEO, get your content on Google, and increase your website traffic to skyrocket your sales.

It will help you discover why you’re not getting the results you want and 3 tasks you can start doing TODAY to help you improve your SEO & get on Google’s good side.

Action Steps:

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