# The SEO mistakes small product sites actually make

Most small sites are not held back by anything clever. They are blocked from the index, split across two pages that fight, or writing for searches nobody makes. Here are twenty mistakes, with the check for each and the fix.

Updated 2026-09-15 · Source: https://porteur.ai/guides/common-seo-mistakes

## How to use this list

Work down it in order. The first group stops pages existing in Google at all, so nothing below it matters until those are clear.

Each row gives the check and the fix. The checks use Search Console, your browser and the page source, because those are free and they are what Google actually sees.

## Group one: blocked from the index

| Mistake | The check | The fix |
| --- | --- | --- |
| A noindex tag shipped from staging | View source on the home page and a deep page, search for meta name="robots" | Remove it from the production template, then inspect the URL again |
| Disallow: / left in robots.txt | Open yourproduct.com/robots.txt | Remove the rule. A disallow stops the crawl, so Google cannot even read a noindex behind it |
| An X-Robots-Tag header nobody knows about | Browser dev tools, Network tab, read the response headers | Remove it at the server or the edge for public paths |
| A canonical pointing at another host | URL Inspection: compare the user-declared canonical with the Google-selected one | Point the canonical at the page itself, one per page |
| The site is new and has no links at all | Search site:yourproduct.com and check the Links report | Add one real link from a profile you control, then submit the sitemap |

> A page blocked in robots.txt can still be indexed as a bare URL when other sites link to it. Allow the crawl and use noindex when a page must stay out.

## Group two: pages that fight each other

| Mistake | The check | The fix |
| --- | --- | --- |
| One page per keyword variant | Performance report, filter a query, look at the Pages tab | Merge them into one page and redirect the weaker URL |
| Two pages trading places on one search | Compare the pages tab for a query week to week | Decide which page owns the search, then rewrite the other for a different question |
| The same content on /feature and /features/feature | Crawl the site, or search site:yourproduct.com for the duplicate title | Pick one URL, redirect the other, fix the internal links |
| Tag or category archives with one item each | Look at what is indexed under /tags/ or /category/ | Noindex the thin archives and keep them for people, or delete them |

This group is worth an hour more than any technical fix. Two half-pages on one subject rank worse than one page that answers it.

## Group three: titles and snippets that waste the impression

| Mistake | The check | The fix |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The title says the brand twice | Read your titles in the Performance report or a crawl | One brand mention, at the end, or none on deep pages |
| Every page shares one description | Crawl and sort by description | One description per page, 120 to 155 characters, a promise not a tease |
| Titles longer than the result shows | Aim for about 60 characters and check in a snippet preview | Put the search near the front so it survives the cut |
| The title and the h1 say different things | Compare them on ten pages | Say the same thing twice, in the page's own words |

The pattern to look for is a page with many impressions and almost no clicks. Google shows it, people read the title, and they choose something else. That is a title problem, not a ranking problem.

## Group four: content nobody searches for

| Mistake | The check | The fix |
| --- | --- | --- |
| A blog of company news | Filter the Performance report to /blog/ and read the impressions | Write pages that answer searches, and keep the news for the changelog |
| Pages written from ideas, not from results pages | Search the target query and compare what ranks with what you wrote | Read the results page first, then write for the intent it shows |
| A page family generated from a template | Ask whether each page holds data, a method or an answer of its own | Cut the ones that do not. Google's spam policies call the rest scaled content abuse |
| No page for the searches that convert | Look for 'alternatives', 'vs' and 'best' queries in your category | Write the comparison and alternatives pages before the tenth blog post |

## Group five: work that stops

| Mistake | The check | The fix |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pages published and never touched again | Sort pages by clicks lost against the previous period | Refresh the facts and the date on the pages that are falling |
| A launch nobody heard about | Search your brand in quotes and count the mentions | List the product where your buyers already read, one place a week |
| Nothing measured, so nothing learned | Open Search Console. If you have not this month, that is the answer | Ten minutes a week: what fell, what rose, one page fixed |

Two of these three are not technical at all, and they are the ones that decide whether a small site grows.

## The mistakes that are not mistakes

Half of what founders worry about does not matter, and worrying about it costs the hour that would have fixed something real.

- Keyword density and the meta keywords tag: Google has said neither counts.
- A single 'domain authority' score: that is a tool's model, not a Google metric.
- Word count as a target: Google has said there is no number that ranks.
- Social shares as a direct ranking signal: not confirmed, and not a lever you can pull.
- A Lighthouse score of 100: the field data at the Good thresholds is what page experience reads.
- Every 404 on the site: a 404 for a page that should not exist is correct.

> The order that pays: be indexable, be one page per topic, be clickable in the result, be worth linking to. Everything else is tuning.

## Questions

### What is the single most common SEO mistake on a small site?

A page that cannot be indexed, usually a noindex tag or a robots.txt rule left over from staging. It costs nothing to check and it stops everything else from working.

### How do I know if two of my pages are competing?

Open the Performance report, filter to the query, then switch to the Pages tab. If two of your URLs appear for it and both sit mid-page, you have split one topic across two pages.

### Are keyword density and meta keywords still mistakes?

They are not mistakes to avoid so much as work not to do. Google has said keyword density is not a thing it measures and the meta keywords tag is ignored. Write for the reader and use the words they search.

### Should I delete old pages that get no traffic?

Only after checking links and past clicks. A page with links or a purpose is refreshed or merged. A page with no clicks, no links and no purpose for a year can go, with a 410 or a redirect to the nearest equivalent.

### How often should I run through this list?

The first group when you deploy something structural, the rest once a quarter. Most of the items stay fixed once you fix them.

## Read next

- [Technical SEO checklist for a small site](https://porteur.ai/guides/technical-seo-checklist): Run these 20 technical SEO checks, in order. Each shows how to check it free and what fixed looks like for a site under 1,000 pages.
- [An SEO audit checklist for a small site: forty checks in order](https://porteur.ai/guides/seo-audit-checklist): Run these forty SEO checks in order on a small site. The tool to use, what a fail looks like, and what to fix next, in plain steps.
- [Keyword cannibalization: two pages, one search, and how to fix it](https://porteur.ai/guides/keyword-cannibalization): Two pages ranking for one query cost you clicks. See it in Search Console, pick a winner, merge or canonicalise, and know when to keep both.
- [Pages Google shows and nobody clicks: a title problem, not a page problem](https://porteur.ai/guides/pages-shown-but-never-clicked): If a page gets impressions but no clicks, read its queries and position. On page one, rewrite the title. Past page one, change targeting first.
- [Why your website is not showing up on Google, and the checks in order](https://porteur.ai/guides/why-is-my-website-not-showing-up-on-google): Run these checks, in order, to find why your site is missing from Google, then fix each cause in minutes. With worked examples on yourproduct.com.
- [How to refresh a page that lost its traffic](https://porteur.ai/guides/content-refresh): Find why a page lost clicks, refresh what searchers want now, and measure the result. Keep the same URL, update facts, sections, links and date.
- [Thin content](https://porteur.ai/glossary/thin-content): Thin content is a page with little value of its own. See why it drags a small site, how to spot it, and how to expand, merge or remove.

Paste your URL and the free check reads your site the way a crawler does, in about thirty seconds, and names the three mistakes costing you most. Free check: https://porteur.ai/