Most business owners I speak to are not completely ignoring SEO. They’re trying. They have a website, maybe a blog, possibly a Google Business Profile. They’re doing something.
But doing something is not always the same as doing the right things. And sometimes, the things we are doing are actually working against us.
After years of working with service-based businesses across Australia on their SEO, I see the same mistakes come up time and again. Here are the five most common ones, and what to do instead.
Mistake 1: Ignoring your Google Business Profile
This one is so common it almost hurts. You set up a Google Business Profile when your business launched, filled in your address and phone number, and then never touched it again.
Here’s the thing: a neglected GBP is one of the biggest missed opportunities in local SEO. Your profile needs to be:
- Completely filled out (every single section)
- Regularly updated with posts, photos, and accurate information
- Stacked with genuine, recent reviews
Google uses your GBP to decide whether to show your business in local search results. An incomplete, inactive profile sends a signal that your business might not be worth surfacing.
The fix: Block out an hour this week and work through your Google Business Profile properly.
Mistake 2: Targeting keywords nobody is searching for
Keywords are the words and phrases your potential clients type into Google when they are looking for what you offer. The mistake many business owners make is guessing at what those phrases might be — and often guessing wrong.
For example: you might be optimising your website for “personal development services,” when your ideal clients are actually searching for “life coach for women” or “business coach for female entrepreneurs.” Same concept, very different search volume.
The other common mistake is targeting keywords that are far too competitive. If you are a brand new website trying to rank for “SEO Australia,” you are competing with companies who have been publishing content and building authority for years. You are unlikely to win.
The fix: Use free tools like Google’s “People Also Ask” and Google Search Console to find out what your audience is actually searching for. Focus on specific, niche phrases that are relevant to your exact offer and your location.
Mistake 3: Publishing content without a strategy
Blogging is a fantastic SEO tool. But blogging without strategy is just writing into the void.
I see a lot of service business websites with blogs full of posts that have no SEO value: personal updates, re-shares of other people’s content, posts that are not answering any question a potential client would actually search for.
Every blog post you write should be intentionally targeting a search term your ideal client is using. It should be structured well, written with that person in mind, and connected to your other content through internal links.
The fix: Before you write your next post, ask yourself: what is the specific question or problem this post is solving? What keywords am I targeting? Where does this post sit in my content strategy? If you cannot answer those questions, take a step back and start with strategy first.
Mistake 4: A website that Google (and clients) struggle to use
All the keyword research and content in the world will not help you if your website is slow, hard to navigate, or does not work properly on a phone.
Google takes “page experience” very seriously. That includes:
- Page load speed (how quickly your pages appear)
- Mobile-friendliness (how your site displays on a smartphone)
- Core Web Vitals (a set of technical performance metrics Google measures)
- Security (your site should have an SSL certificate — that little padlock in the browser bar)
Beyond rankings, a poor website experience means higher bounce rates — people leave before they take any action. You could be getting traffic from Google and still not converting it into enquiries because the website itself is letting you down.
The fix: Run your website through Google PageSpeed Insights (free) to get a baseline score and specific recommendations. If your site is consistently slow or not mobile-friendly, it may be worth investing in a website refresh.
Mistake 5: Expecting results too quickly — then giving up
This might be the most damaging mistake of all, because it stops people from ever experiencing what consistent SEO can actually do.
SEO takes time. It is not a switch you flick. Most websites start to see meaningful movement in their rankings within three to six months of consistent effort. New websites or highly competitive niches can take longer.
The business owners who see the best results from SEO are the ones who commit to it for the long haul. They publish consistently, they improve their website gradually, they build their Google Business Profile over time. And then one day, they check their traffic stats and realise their website is bringing in warm leads every week without any extra effort on their part.
That kind of result does not happen overnight. But it does happen.
The fix: Set realistic expectations and track the right metrics. Instead of obsessing over your ranking for one keyword, watch your organic traffic over time in Google Analytics. Look for the trend — is it heading in the right direction?
