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6 Big Mistakes That SEO Rookies Make by John Lincoln #307
SEO rookies most often fail by ignoring knowledge gaps, avoiding bad numbers, chasing wrong priorities, sticking rigidly to contracts, waiting too long for help, and treating clients as disposable rather than permanent relationships.
Key takeaways
- SEO requires constant education because algorithms, title tags, and requirements change all the time.
- Never dance around bad analytics numbers. Understand why they are bad, then address the client directly.
- Avoid ranking only easy keywords if those pages do not drive profit or top-line growth.
- If a bigger site issue emerges mid-campaign, reprioritize and communicate the change to the client.
- After about 90 days of SEO work, you should begin to see ranking movement. If not, seek experienced help.
you'll find that any technical discipline requires constant education that's possibly truer of SEO than any other business
About this episode
When you’re new to search engine optimization, you are going to make more mistakes than a seasoned pro. It is a complicated line of work, and you really cannot be good until you have significant experience. Here are the six biggest mistakes that SEO newbies make and how to avoid them.
Questions this episode answers
What is the biggest mistake SEO rookies make according to John Lincoln?
The first mistake is not knowing what they do not know. Any technical discipline requires constant education, and this is especially true in SEO because algorithms, Google requirements, and best practices like responsive design change all the time. Staying current is essential.
How long should it take to see results from SEO work?
According to the episode, SEO efforts should produce noticeable movement within six months. The hosts suggest that after about 90 days you should begin to see ranking pops. If there is no movement at all after a few months, it is time to bring in a more experienced SEO professional.
Should SEO professionals always follow the contract exactly?
No. The episode explains that if a bigger issue is discovered during a campaign, like stolen content or a penalty problem, you should reprioritize and fix that first. Communicating the change to the client and explaining the value of the adjustment is more important than sticking to the original contract line by line.
Why is treating a client as forever important in SEO?
The article argues that few things in professional SEO life are more valuable than a client. The hosts agree but add that you should make reasonable sacrifices, communicate openly, and avoid dedicating so many resources to one client that your other clients suffer or your business becomes unprofitable.
In their words
although good SEO takes time, it shouldn't take forever. Your efforts to boost the rank of a web page should be noticeable within six months, depending on the page and the keyword you're trying to rank.
Host
I'd rather be getting a thousand visits from a thousand different keywords than a thousand visits from one.
Host
Terms defined in this episode
- Panda algorithm
- A Google algorithm focused on content quality. The episode explains it was incorporated into the core algorithm, meaning it runs continuously rather than in periodic refreshes, so thin or duplicate content is evaluated every time a site is indexed.
- low hanging fruit
- Keywords or pages that can be ranked with minimal effort and resources. The hosts recommend pursuing these alongside harder targets because early wins build momentum and the ranked pages can pass link juice to underperforming pages.
- ghost referrals
- Spam or fake traffic sources that inflate analytics data, skew bounce rates, and distort conversion figures. Filtering these out is necessary before drawing conclusions from bad numbers.
- thin content
- Pages with little substantive content that Panda targets negatively. The hosts advise removing or improving thin pages and eliminating duplicate content as a top priority now that Panda is part of the core algorithm.
Full transcript is being added.
This episode answers
Matthew Bertram
AI keynote speaker · Owner & CEO, EWR Digital · President, ModalPoint
Matthew Bertram is an AI keynote speaker, creator of DIG™ (Digital Information Governance), and owner and CEO of EWR Digital. He helps energy and industrial leaders win visibility in AI search (GEO and AEO), is President of ModalPoint and CMO of the Oil & Gas Global Network, hosts The Best SEO Podcast, and has authored eight books including LLM Visibility. More about Matthew Bertram.
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