5 WordPress SEO mistakes that are silently killing your traffic
Most WordPress sites I audit are making the same mistakes. Here are the 5 I see over and over — and the fixes take less than an hour each.
1. No proper heading hierarchy
Your H1 should be your page title. H2s are sections. H3s are subsections. Most themes break this, and Google gets confused about what your page is actually about.
2. Bloated page speed from unoptimized images
If you're uploading 3MB PNGs straight from your camera, you're adding 2-4 seconds to load time. Every extra second costs you ~7% in conversions. Use WebP, lazy loading, and serve properly sized images.
3. Missing or duplicate meta descriptions
Yoast/RankMath will flag this, but most people ignore it. Each page needs a unique, compelling meta description under 160 characters. This is your ad copy in Google results.
4. Internal linking is an afterthought
Google discovers and ranks your pages through links. If your blog posts don't link to your service pages (and vice versa), you're leaving authority on the table.
5. Ignoring Core Web Vitals
CLS, LCP, INP — these aren't just metrics, they're ranking factors. Run your site through PageSpeed Insights right now and fix anything in red.
If any of these hit home, I do 1-on-1 website audits where I go through your entire site live and give you a prioritized fix list. No fluff, just the highest-impact changes to get more traffic and conversions.