How to Rank Well on Google? The 9 Most Common Mistakes

Ranking well on Google is the wish of everyone who owns a website… and a question my clients ask me all the time. Google SEO relies on a set of optimization steps that are often technical and not always easy to understand when you are not in the trade.

SEO Consultant in Nice since 2016, I have supported hundreds of clients in improving their online visibility.

Throughout my assignments, I have noticed that the same mistakes regularly hinder performance. That is why I chose to write this article: to guide you simply and effectively. Do you want to be well referenced on Google? Start by reviewing these 9 essential optimization steps.

How does referencing work?

To rank well on Google, you must first understand what SEO is. Natural referencing (SEO) is a set of webmarketing techniques to make a website compliant with Google’s recommendations.

The objective is to optimize a website so that it ranks as often as possible at the top of search results on a maximum of relevant user queries. This allows attracting a lot of qualified traffic automatically 24/7.

For me, referencing revolves around 4 major pillars:

• • Technical aspects

• • User experience

• • Content

• • Recommendations

To learn more, I refer you to my two other articles:

• • How does Google work?

• • The 4 major pillars of SEO

The 5 most frequent SEO mistakes

SEO MISTAKE No. 1: Too poor or insufficient content

Too often, my clients tell me they want a streamlined site, with little text. A simple site that goes straight to the point. In terms of user experience, this is an excellent idea. But for natural referencing, that’s another story…

Google feeds on content. The more material you provide, the more you give it what it expects. And the more chances you have of ranking well on Google. The search engine mainly uses words to position you in its results.

How to know the number of words to write?

Google has already communicated that word count in a page was not a criterion of its algorithm. From my experience, that is not entirely true. The proof: according to a study by Semrush:

« Long articles (over 7,000 words) get 4 times more traffic and 1.5 times more shares than articles of average length (900-1200 words). »

I am not telling you to write 7,000 words per page. The ideal word count for SEO content depends on the type of page, search intent, and competition on the targeted keyword.

In an increasingly competitive web, the optimization of each page will depend on competing pages. Observe the word count of competing pages, take an average, write a little more. Personally, each page I write must be 1000 words minimum, 300 to 500 words for product or category sheets.

A lot of words does not mean “unreadable”

What must be remembered is that “content” does not mean “large blocks of unreadable text”. With a good WordPress template, pages can be perfectly structured to keep a clear and pleasant rendering.

Take the homepage of my website: it contains 3014 words, and yet, the majority of the text is not immediately visible. It is stored in tabs, or slipped behind visuals. I found a balance between rich content and user experience.

Useful: Count the number of words on your pages with the WordCount Tools Chrome extension.

This is the most common SEO mistake I find on my clients’ websites. If you wish to rank well on Google, you’ll have to write a bit more.

What does a user do when they have finished reading a page? Generally, they leave because nothing else is offered.

Internal linking allows keeping the user on the website and having them navigate from page to page. The longer they stay on the site, the better for your SEO but also for your sales. It is also very good for Google because to visit your website, it goes through internal links.

Internal linking is one of the most important elements to be well referenced on Google.

Just like Wikipedia, create links between your pages to facilitate navigation for Google and users. Here are a few rules to respect:

• • Each page must receive 3 links from other internal pages (minimum).

• • Each page must make 3 links to other internal pages (minimum).

• • The link anchor (clickable text) must vary as much as possible.

• • It is good to add at least 2 external links per page to cite your sources.

• • Add related articles at the end of your blog posts

• • Remember to make internal links to your conversion pages.

To rank well on Google, add internal links.

SEO MISTAKE No. 4: Wrong choice of keywords

If you are looking to rank well on Google, keyword choice is a fundamental step. And yet, it is one of the mistakes I encounter most often in SEO audits.

What many sites do:

• • They target keywords that are too generic like “house”, “massage”, “insurance”…

• • They bet on ultra-competitive queries without having the authority to position themselves.

• • Or worse: they publish without any keyword strategy, hoping Google will figure it out on its own.

Result? Little visibility, few clicks, and especially: no targeted search intent.

What to do instead:

1. Target long-tail keywords

These are more precise expressions, like:

• • “stone house to renovate in Dordogne”

• • “relaxing massage for pregnant woman in Toulouse”

• • “car insurance for young driver without excess”

Less competition, but ultra qualified traffic.

2. Understand the intent behind each query

Google is no longer content with words: it analyzes search intent. Before writing content, ask yourself:

• • Does the person want to get informed?

• • Are they ready to buy?

• • Are they looking to compare?

Example: “buy cheap electric bike” ≠ “best electric bike 2025” ≠ “how to maintain an electric bike”

3. Use keyword research tools

• • Google Suggest (related searches)

• • Ubersuggest, Semrush, AnswerThePublic

• • Google Search Console (for keywords you already rank for)

For me, a good query is a query that is:

• Ultra targeted and relevant
• With a good search volume
• With little competition

To have this information, you need to use dedicated SEO tools.

MISTAKE No. 5: Indexed low-quality pages

Google relies on the quality of each page to determine the overall quality of a website. It’s like at school, your average in each subject determines your overall average.

Google works the same way, it will give a quality score to each page to give an average quality score to the whole site. This is what I determine during my SEO audits. In my report, you can find a Google Sheet with the quality score of each page based on identified internal errors.

My favorite SEO technique consists of increasing the overall quality score of a website. How to do it?

Initially, it is simply enough to remove from the Google index pages that have a bad score.

What is a low-quality page:

• • Pages not relevant to the site’s theme: legal notices, T&Cs, privacy policy…

• • Pages that contain very little text: photo/video gallery, capture form.

• • Inactive pages: inactive pages are pages that have received no traffic from Google over the last 3 months. You can find them in Google Analytics or Search Console.

• • Pages containing many technical errors: there, you must go through an SEO audit to identify these pages.

• • Orphan pages: these pages are not part of the site architecture. The user cannot find them because there is no internal link leading to these pages. Most of the time, these are forgotten pages or created automatically by a CMS.

Once the list of weak pages is complete, a choice must be made:

• Keep the page but block it from Google (no-index): for example, legal notices.
• Delete the page.
• Rework the page to improve its performance.
• Merge several similar pages.

If you want to be well referenced on Google, consider removing low-quality pages from the Google index.

MISTAKE No. 6: Poorly optimized title tags

The title tag is the most important tag for SEO. Generally speaking, the title tag or SEO title only appears in search results and in the search browser tab.

Your SEO title should be about 60 characters (or 568 pixels). You must utilize all necessary space to add as many keywords as possible.

For WordPress users, it is in your SEO plugin that you determine your Title tag.

Here are some recommendations for Title tag optimization:

• • User-oriented: the content must be clear and get straight to the point

• • Sexy: the content must be impactful and make people want to click

• • Optimized: the page’s main keyword must be there.

Remember to manually customize 100% of your Title tags.

MISTAKE No. 7: Non-optimized images

This is an optimization that I hate doing for my clients because it is very long and repetitive if you haven’t done it from the beginning.

Images are often neglected in SEO, yet they play a major role in visibility, loading speed, and user experience. A poorly optimized image can slow down your site, tank your referencing, and make you lose visitors.

The most common mistakes:

• Files too heavy (> 100 kb) which slow down display
• Absence of ALT tags (Google cannot “see” your images)
• Generic file names like IMG_1234.jpg
• Unsuitable format (e.g.: unnecessary PNGs for photos)

Good image optimization practices:

1. Resize images: Adapt the size to the actual display on your site. No need to use a 3000 px image if it displays at 800 px.
2. Compress files: Use tools like TinyPNG, ImageOptim or Squoosh to reduce weight without visible loss of quality.
3. Rename files intelligently Use descriptive and SEO-optimized names, for example: hiking-shoe-man-salomon.jpg and not DSC04567.jpg
4. Fill in ALT tags: Briefly describe the image with relevant keywords.
5. Use the right format: JPEG or WebP, avoid PNG format (except logo)

A well-optimized image can generate traffic from Google Images for you. And above all, it improves your overall SEO because Google values fast, accessible, and relevant pages.

MISTAKE No. 8: Site not secure in HTTPS

If your site is in HTTPS but the HTTP to HTTPS redirect is not configured, this can pose several SEO, technical, and user experience problems. Here are the main consequences:

• • Duplicate content: Google can index both http and https versions. This creates two versions of the same site, which can lead to duplicate content penalizing your natural referencing.

• • Backlinks pointing to the HTTP version do not benefit the HTTPS version if there is no 301 redirect.

• • Google doesn’t clearly know which version to prioritize.

• • Some users may land on the non-secure version (http://) and see a security warning depending on their browser.

• • This can harm the trust they place in your site.

The solution: set up a permanent 301 redirect between the HTTP version and the HTTPS version. You can do this easily via plugins, for example Secupress.

MISTAKE No. 9: Poorly configured (or non-existent) Google Business Profile

Many entrepreneurs neglect their Google Business Profile, when it is a powerful lever for local SEO.

A poorly filled profile – or worse, non-existent – causes you to lose visibility in Google Maps and local results, especially on mobile. If you are a merchant, health professional, or local service provider, this is a missed opportunity.

To fully take advantage of it, you must complete all information (address, hours, phone, website), add photos, collect customer reviews, and regularly publish updates. Google values active and well-informed profiles. Not doing so means leaving the spot to your competitors.

I wrote a guide on the subject which you can find here.

To summarize

To be well referenced on Google, having a beautiful site is not enough: you especially need a useful, fast, and content-rich site. By avoiding the frequent mistakes I just presented to you, you lay solid foundations to improve your visibility.

And if you don’t know where to start, I am here to guide you step by step. Your SEO deserves better than just a stroke of luck.