Hey!

These are the most common mistakes I observe when auditing a website, or when analyzing BlogSEO’s database which contains thousands of crawled websites.

1. Poor internal linking & orphaned pages

Most websites I've audited that rank poorly have weak internal linking. It's one of the most overlooked parts of SEO.

Listing pages in your sitemap isn't enough (though still necessary). Google needs to understand how your pages relate to each other and which ones matter most. That comes from internal links, not just your sitemap. Two rules to follow:

• 3-click rule: Every important page should be reachable within 3 clicks from your homepage.
• No orphan pages: Pages with zero internal links are invisible to Google. Find them and fix them immediately (you can use tools like Screaming Frog or Semrush to crawl & audit your website if needed).

2. Buying Fiverr backlinks

"$15 for 3,300 backlinks" sounds like a cheat code.

It's really not. These links come from spammy directories, link farms, and PBNs (Private Blog Networks) that Google has already flagged. They're also completely random, a fitness blog linking to your SaaS makes zero sense. Google values contextual relevance. A backlink from an unrelated site is a red flag, not a ranking boost.

Best case: these links are ignored. Worst case: your site gets penalized.

As a rule of thumb, the best backlinks are the ones that actually bring traffic. If a link is on a page nobody visits, Google knows it's worthless. If a link drives real clicks from real people, Google treats it as a genuine signal of authority.

3. Scaling too fast: creating thousands of low quality pages with AI content

Programmatic SEO works. But you have to do it right.