In this episode, Jules White shares the three biggest SEO and website mistakes she sees costing business owners time and money - the same things that come up again and again when she looks at people's websites and talks to them about their businesses.
Counting down from number three, Jules starts with overlooking what SEO and your website can really do for your business. She talks about the owners who pour their time into social media while their website does very little to explain what they do or help people buy - and why a steady stream of leads matters so much, especially for businesses whose clients get better and move on, like physios, counsellors and psychotherapists. When people are already searching, whether that's on Google, through a smart speaker or in a conversation with AI, showing up in search, maps and AI answers can bring the right clients in.
The second mistake is not having a clear message. Jules makes the case for simple, obvious language, so people don't have to burn mental calories working out how to buy from you. Could an 82-year-old or a 10-year-old understand what you do, who it's for and what to do next? She covers the curse of knowledge, using the words your customers actually use, and making sure there's a clear call to action above the fold.
The number one mistake is website structure. Jules explains how a proper heading hierarchy - one H1, then H2s, in a natural order - helps Google and the AI bots understand your pages, and how website builders can set you up to fail if you only ever use headings for styling. She also covers the details that sit under this same mistake: page titles and descriptions, image alt text, internal links with descriptive anchor text (not "read more"), a relevant external link or two, and mobile responsiveness - including why AI bots won't wait around for a slow site the way Google might. Best of all, you can check your own pages in minutes with a free browser plugin, and fix these things one at a time without rewriting your whole website.
Key Takeaways:
- The real cost of overlooking SEO: how a website that isn't working for you means missing a steady stream of leads from people who are already searching for what you do.
- Clarity helps people buy: why simple, customer-led language and a call to action above the fold make it easy to buy from you - and help Google understand your page too.
- Structure comes first: how a clean heading hierarchy (one H1, then H2s) helps the bots make sense of your pages.
- The details that add up: page titles and descriptions, image alt text, internal and external links, and mobile responsiveness - and why a slow site loses out with AI search.
- Small, fixable steps: these are foundations you can improve one at a time, not a full website rebuild.
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