3 SEO Mistakes That Are Hurting Your Rankings — and 3 Ways to Solve Them

Key Points

• Duplicate content harms rankings because search engines favor unique, high-quality pages; use similarity-checking software to ensure all content is original before publishing.
• Keyword cannibalization happens when multiple pages compete for the same terms, diluting their impact; merge or consolidate overlapping pages to boost overall ranking.
• Ongoing, high-quality content creation is crucial—publish new, SEO-optimized articles regularly and consider hiring technical writers or copyeditors to maintain accuracy and relevance.
• Target niche keywords and high-authority backlinks by focusing on lower-volume, highly relevant search terms and securing links from reputable sites to accelerate ranking improvements.

SEO is essential to boosting your company's online presence and generating leads. When done right, SEO can be an incredibly effective strategy for growth. It can increase traffic to your site and generate more conversions than conventional marketing. That said, many businesses are unaware of just how many factors can detract from their SEO efforts. If you feel as though you've been doing everything right but have yet to see concrete results, this article is for you.

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SEO mistakes that can hurt your rankings

SEO is not exactly straightforward. There are multiple ways to achieve a better page ranking. However, this also means there are multiple ways to prevent a page from ranking. The following are common SEO errors that can be fixed quite easily… so long as you catch them:

Publishing duplicate content

Some businesses make the mistake of creating new content optimized for certain keywords by duplicating pre-existing content and simply changing a few words. Search engines will not rank pages like this, as their ranking systems are designed to give preference to unique, high-quality content. The best way to avoid duplicate content is by running all website content through similarity checking software before publishing it. This is especially important for websites with multiple pages on the same topic.

Failing to address keyword cannibalization

Keyword cannibalization happens when two or more pages on a website target the same keywords. This causes the pages to compete with each other in search results and prevents them from achieving a high ranking. Merging competing pages is an effective way of addressing this issue. For example, if your website has a page on "massage therapy" and a page on "massage treatment," you may want to combine the pages into a single publication to prevent them from "cannibalizing" each other.

Abandoning content creation

SEO is an ongoing effort. It's not a one-time project that you can implement and be done with. While certain optimizations, like improving page structure, are permanent, you need to publish new, SEO-optimized content on a regular basis to increase organic traffic. Businesses that choose to work with an SEO agency often set a monthly quota for website articles and product pages. That way, they have a consistent goal to work toward.

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Strategies that can boost your SEO campaign

A successful campaign should invest in on-site, off-site, technical and content-related aspects of SEO, which all play an important role in building the authority of your site. Here are some of the most overlooked strategies in SEO:

Improving the quality of your content

While technical SEO is an essential ingredient in boosting your rankings, you are not going to get the results you want without investing in your content. Search engines like Google and their ranking systems prioritize reliable, relevant content that is helpful to readers. This means that everything you publish on your website should be accurate, easy to read and tailored to the search intent of your target audience. If your business operates in a highly specialized sector, hiring a technical writer is a good way to ensure the quality of your content. You can also elevate your blog posts, product pages and service pages by hiring a copyeditor.

Targeting relevant keywords with lower search volume

Only going after generic keywords with high search volume is one of the biggest mistakes you can make in SEO. Although keywords with high search volume have the potential to generate a large amount of leads, these search terms are highly competitive and often take time to rank. By targeting niche keywords that are relevant to your business, you are more likely to rank and attract a highly specific set of customers. To illustrate this point, let's say you run a catering business. Instead of optimizing your content for a generic keyword like "best catering service," you decide to target a more detailed query with lower search volume, like "catering service for children's birthday parties." Using this approach, you have a greater chance of achieving a high page ranking and attracting the right customers.

Prioritizing high-quality backlinks

Contrary to popular belief, not all backlinks are created equal. Getting backlinks from websites with high domain authority and a lower number of outgoing links will do more for your rankings than hitting up sites with low authority and hundreds of outgoing links. Effective strategies for landing high-quality backlinks include writing guest posts for other websites, creating content that other websites are likely to link to, and cold emailing other websites requesting a backlink to replace a broken link.

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Increase your organic traffic with smarter SEO

Creating an effective SEO campaign means identifying areas that need improvement and embracing strategies targeting different factors that influence search engines' ranking systems. A good campaign takes into account the importance of each type of search optimization and invests in it accordingly. Whether you own a small e-commerce business or a large enterprise with multiple locations, SEO is essential to growing your consumer base, and the more you put into it, the more you will get out of it.