As you plan your resolutions for the year ahead, here’s one worth adding to your list: optimising your SEO! If improving your website’s visibility has been on the back of your mind for a while, now is the perfect time to make it a priority. Every business wants its website to be easily discoverable without relying solely on ad spend—and SEO is the key to achieving that.

We understand that keeping up with the ever-evolving SEO landscape can take time and effort. Mistakes in your strategy can hurt your search engine rankings and even risk penalties from Google. In this blog post, we’ll explore common SEO mistakes to watch out for in 2025 and share actionable tips to help you avoid them. With the right approach, you can stay ahead of your competitors, deliver an exceptional user experience, and achieve sustainable growth.

Lack of an SEO strategy

At D24, we believe the primary reason many businesses fail is the lack of a solid SEO strategy. Without a clear roadmap, it’s challenging to focus on the key aspects that drive better search engine rankings. In the world of SEO, content is king—making a strong content marketing strategy essential for attracting and engaging your target audience.

Our process begins with understanding what your audience is searching for—an essential first step. By doing this we conduct in-depth keyword research to guide your content creation efforts. This ensures that your content focuses on relevant topics that potential customers are actively searching for, including local SEO terms tailored to your area. By doing so, we enhance your site’s visibility and attract the right audience to your business.

Next, we want to create content that aligns with user search intent, based on the insights gathered during keyword research. Whether your audience is looking for information, products, or services, we create content that delivers exactly what they need.

Consistency is key to an SEO strategy. By prioritising a regular publishing schedule, and ensuring fresh, high-quality content is continually released. This not only keeps your audience engaged but also signals to search engines that your website is active and relevant.

Lack of quality content on the site

Another key to an SEO strategy aside from consistency, is quality. Low-quality content fails to engage readers, leading to reduced dwell time and increased bounce rates—both of which harm your SEO performance. Additionally, content that lacks value can diminish trust in your brand, making it harder to build a loyal audience or customer base. To keep visitors engaged and encourage them to stay on your site, investing in high-quality content creation is vital.

While AI tools can efficiently generate content, human input is crucial! As we know, AI has its limitations—it can’t conduct original research, provide personal insights, or deliver meaningful opinions. Instead, use AI to identify content gaps and emerging trends, then fill those gaps with well-researched, high-quality material that gives value to your audience.

Tools like Screaming Frog can be invaluable for identifying thin or underperforming content that needs improvement. Creating impactful content starts with understanding your target audience. Tailor your material to address their needs, answer their questions, and offer solutions to their problems. Using insights from our keyword research, we can better understand user search intent and ensure that your content aligns with what they’re looking for.

Finally, track key metrics like engagement rates, conversion rates, and social sharing data to evaluate what’s working and what isn’t. Use these insights to refine your strategy, continually improving your approach to attract, engage, and convert your target audience effectively.

Publishing copied content

Copying content from another website and publishing it on your own can result in penalties under Google’s algorithm. Google actively lowers the rankings of websites that feature low-quality or duplicate content. To achieve higher rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs), we strongly recommend creating original, high-quality content for your website.

Original content not only helps boost your rankings but also establishes your authority in your niche. By consistently producing valuable and unique content, you build trust with your website users, making them more likely to rely on your insights or purchase your products and services. Additionally, incorporating the targeted keywords into your content can significantly enhance your rankings and drive traffic to your site.

It’s also important to avoid duplicating content within your own website—a common issue for brands and marketers. Duplicate content includes identical or very similar pieces that exist in multiple locations on the same site, whether it’s an exact copy or slightly rewritten. Google penalises this practice as well, making it a critical area to address. To protect your rankings and credibility, ensure all your website content is unique and optimised for your audience.

Missing quality links on the website

Links pointing to your website from another website can significantly influence your ranking. Search engines give more weight to links from sites that are considered trusted and authoritative so getting good links is essential. They are essentially votes of confidence from other websites, which indicates that your website is reputable and trustworthy.

However, not all backlinks are created equal. A backlink from a low-quality website can negatively affect your site’s credibility and authority. 

Skipping meta tags

When it comes to on-page SEO, meta tags play a crucial role. Simply optimising your content with target keywords may not be enough to ensure it ranks on search engine results pages (SERPs). Search engine crawlers evaluate meta tags as they index your site, and neglecting these elements can significantly lower your chances of ranking well.

Title tags are the most important meta tags because they directly influence your SERP rankings and are prominently displayed to users browsing the internet. A well-crafted title tag can improve visibility and attract clicks, making it a vital component of your SEO strategy.

The meta description, while not a ranking factor, remains critical because it provides users with a brief summary of your webpage. Well-optimised meta descriptions can improve your click-through rate (CTR) by making your search results more appealing. Including the primary keyword near the beginning of your meta title and description enhances search visibility and captures user attention.

When optimising your meta tags, focus on creating unique title tags, compelling meta descriptions, and incorporating relevant keywords. Meta descriptions should accurately reflect the page content to attract users and encourage engagement. Additionally, adhere to the recommended character limits for optimal display in search results.

• Keep Meta titles between 50–60 characters (including spaces) to ensure they’re not truncated.
• Aim for 155–160 characters for Meta descriptions. Though Google may display extended versions depending on the user’s search query.

By optimising page elements such as titles, meta descriptions, and headings with keywords, while keeping the text user-friendly, you can significantly enhance your site’s visibility and performance on SERPs.

While there are countless elements to consider in your SEO strategy, avoiding these common mistakes is a great place to start. By implementing best practices and staying consistent, you’ll significantly increase your website’s chances of ranking higher, driving more traffic, and converting visitors into loyal customers.

Let’s stick to our 2025 resolutions and make SEO success one of them. The rewards of a well-optimised strategy await—better visibility, stronger engagement, and lasting growth for your business.