Natural referencing (SEO) is constantly evolving, and bad practices can have a major impact on your site's visibility. In 2025, Google still favors user experience, content quality and technical performance.
In this article, discover common SEO mistakes and how to avoid them to improve your Google ranking.
1. Neglecting the user experience (UX)
Google favours sites that offer seamless user experience. A poor UX leads to a high bounce ratewhich has a negative impact on your SEO.
🚨 Common mistakes :
🔴 Too slow a site.
🔴 A non-responsive design (not mobile-friendly).
🔴 Confusing or overly complex navigation.
✅ Solutions :
✔️ Improve loading speed (Google PageSpeed InsightsWeb Core Vitals).
✔️ Choose a design mobile-friendly.
✔️ Simplify navigation with a clear, intuitive structure.
2. Ignoring the importance of quality content
Visit content is always the pillar of SEO. Poorly optimized or low-quality content will be penalized by Google.
🚨 Common mistakes :
🔴 Content duplication (Duplicate Content).
🔴 Articles too short or without added value.
🔴 Poor structuring (absence of H1, H2, H3...).
✅ Solutions :
✔️ Write content long, relevant and optimized for users.
✔️ Avoid plagiarism and use original materials. unique content.
✔️ Structure your articles with clear titles and subtitles (H1, H2, H3).
3. Poor keyword optimization
The era of keyword stuffing is a thing of the past. Google favors a natural and relevant requests.
🚨 Common mistakes :
🔴 Overoptimization of keywords (Keyword Stuffing).
🔴 Choose keywords that are too generic or too competitive.
🔴 Lack of strategic keywords in SEO tags (title, meta-description, H1...).
✅ Solutions :
✔️ Integrate keywords naturally into your content.
✔️ Use keywords long tail to attract more qualified traffic.
✔️ Optimize SEO tags (title, meta-description, image ALT...).
4. Neglecting technical SEO
Visit Technical SEO is crucial to ensuring good SEO and optimal indexing on Google.
🚨 Common mistakes :
🔴 No file robots.txt or sitemap.xml.
🔴 Indexing problems (pages not indexed).
🔴 Non-optimized URLs (too long or incomprehensible).
✅ Solutions :
✔️ Check indexing with Google Search Console.
✔️ Create a sitemap.xml and a robots.txt file properly configured.
✔️ Use Short, readable URLs with relevant keywords.
5. Do not optimize images
Poorly optimized images slow down your site and harm your SEO.
🚨 Common mistakes :
🔴 Images too heavy, slowing down loading.
🔴 No ALT attribute (alternative text).
🔴 Wrong aspect ratio.
✅ Solutions :
✔️ Compress your images without losing quality (use TinyPNG or WebP).
✔️ Add ALT tags to improve accessibility and SEO.
✔️ Prefer formats WebP or JPEG instead of PNG.
6. No backlink strategy
Visit backlinks remain a key criterion for Google rankings. A profile of toxic links may penalize your site.
🚨 Common mistakes :
🔴 Buy low-quality backlinks (Black Hat SEO).
🔴 Not getting enough inbound links.
🔴 Broken or poor quality links.
✅ Solutions :
✔️ Get links from authority sites in your field.
✔️ Use netlinking strategies (guest blogging, partnerships, quality directories).
✔️ Check and correct broken links with tools such as Ahrefs or SEMrush.
7. Forget local SEO
If you're targeting a local audience, ignore local referencing can harm your visibility.
🚨 Common mistakes :
🔴 Do not optimize your Google My Business listing.
🔴 Do not include local keywords in its content.
🔴 No customer reviews.
✅ Solutions :
✔️ Create and optimize your Google My Business listing.
✔️ Add local keywords in your titles and descriptions.
✔️ Encourage customers to leave positive feedback.
8. Neglect regular content updates
A site with obsolete content loses credibility and SEO.
🚨 Common mistakes :
🔴 Old and out-of-date articles.
🔴 Wrong or outdated information.
🔴 Broken internal and external links.
✅ Solutions :
✔️ Update your articles regularly with the latest information.
✔️ Correct dead links and replace them with reliable sources.
✔️ Add new content to improve your ranking.
9. Ignore performance analysis and monitoring
Without monitoring, it's difficult to improve your SEO and measure the effectiveness of your actions.
🚨 Common mistakes :
🔴 Do not use Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
🔴 Do not follow the evolution of keywords and traffic.
🔴 No analysis of conversion rate.
✅ Solutions :
✔️ Use Google Analytics and Search Console to track your performance.
✔️ Analyze your keywords and rankings with SEMrush or Ahrefs.
✔️ Regularly test and adjust your SEO strategy.
Conclusion
In 2025, SEO is based on transparent, user-oriented practices. To succeed :
📌 Improve user experience and site speed.
📌 Produce unique, optimized content.
📌 Take care of your netlinking and technical SEO.
📌 Optimize your local SEO for Google Maps.
📌 Regularly monitor your SEO performance.
💡 Need a SEO support made-to-measure? Webiphi helps you optimize your site and improve your Google ranking. Contact us today!
