What are the most common mistakes and obstacles in on-page SEO to ranking websites in Google’s SERPs?

Here are the most frequent pitfalls and mistakes occurring with on-page SEO that may harm ranking of your website, or prevent it from climbing to the top of Google’s SERPs as it actually deserves. In the following short checklist, I tried to summarize the very basics of website SEO audit for you to run a quick spot-check procedure and take necessary action. Ultimately, that should help you determine whether something is already wrong or can probably hold back your overall performance in organic SEO & top ranking website positioning in Google’s relevant search listings. That being said, let’s have a deep-delve in some greater detail.

Top Frequent Mistakes in On-Page SEO: Ranking Website as You Deserve

Wrong/Inaccurate Keyword Targeting

Of course, it may seem like a no-brainer, but choosing faulty core keywords for the primary content targeting – is among the most frequent mistakes occurring in on-page SEO when ranking websites actually appears to be a misaligned process (i.e., handled without a sufficiently strong focus on the user intent behind the search). Put simply, identifying a potentially winning balance between a sufficiently high search volumes and their current level of keyword competition is something truly intuitive. In other words, you should never focus on the keywords which won’t actually result in greater sales or leads. But how to make sure you’ve chosen the right targets? Here are two basic methods to check that:

• Running in-depth keyword research, backed with a competitive analysis of your most successful niche opponents. Ultimately, to readily employ the best findings seen for the web copy and the rest of key on-page elements of your competitors. Doing so, I recommend using one of these use-proven analytical tools, such as Moz’s Open Site Explorer (Moz), Semalt Website Analyzer (Semalt), or SEO Spider (Screaming Frog).
• Another way of getting a big picture of your keyword competition, weighed against the real-life performance of your main target keywords – is testing every potentially winning search term with paid search (otherwise, Pay-Per-Click ads). All you need is avoid taking top relevant single keywords (mainly due to their too high competition), to focus more on their long-tail variations, which are really specific to your potential clients/buyers. Experiment with bids, run A/B testing, in line with tracking your real-time keyword-related metrics via Google Analytics – and you will get the right understanding on what keywords MUST be kept for sure, and which search terms should be probably thrown away or at least shelved for the moment.

Creating Low-Quality Content Body

Any boring plain-text writings will never help you stand out of the search competition. Therefore, the only reasonable way to move yourself closer to Google’s top results is to create a really amazing content that would engage the maximum number of target users. Consider revamping some of your plain-text on-page content into something definitely noticing, such as Custom Graphics, Eye-Catching Spreadsheets, Intriguing Top Lists, Real Case Studied, Video Tutorials/Guides/Reviews, and arguably anything else that would be genuinely worth sharing, mentioning, reposting, or linking to you.

Incomplete/Faulty On-Page Optimization

• Missing Meta Descriptions, Title Tags, or Image ALT Tags (and their well-optimized Filenames too).
• Skipping Internal Links or misusing their Keyword-Rich Link Text Anchors.
• Careless usage of exact-match keyword Link Anchors (I personally recommend eliminating them at all).
• Not using a correct Heading/Subheading structure needed for clean & clear separation and visually appealing look of your web copy/content body. And don't get anything confused with your Page Title Tags.
• Lack of sufficiently fast PageSpeed, or net positive Mobile-Friendly UX.
• Generally poor optimization for enough strong Call-to-Action (i.e., lack of readily engaging buttons, keyword-rich clickable banners/inbound links, etc.).