Search-Optimised Websites: Mistakes That Cost Rankings
What to avoid when building a website for search: pages planned without searches, text hidden behind scripts, copied town pages and launch-day errors.
Quick answer
The costliest mistakes are made before launch: pages planned without checking what people search for, main text that appears only after scripts run, near-identical pages for each town, and old addresses dropped without redirects. On launch day, check that the site is open to Google, that every page has its own title and that forms and calls are counted. Bring SEO in while the list of pages is planned, not after the design is approved.
Most search problems of a new website are built in before launch, and they cost more to fix afterwards.
This article lists the mistakes we see most often when a business site is planned and built, and what to do instead.
It is written for the owner who commissions the site, not for the developer.
Where a term is technical, it is explained in the same place.
If you are rebuilding a site that already ranks, also read how to redesign without losing SEO: it covers the move itself in detail.
Mistake 1: Planning the Pages Without Looking at Searches
The list of pages is often drawn from how the company sees itself: About, Services, Contact.
Customers search for one service in one place, such as air conditioning repair in Larnaca or a family lawyer in Nicosia (two examples from Cyprus).
Give every service that people search for, and that you want to sell, its own page, and plan that list before the design starts.
A content brief for each page tells the writer and the designer what the page must answer.
Mistake 2: Main Text and Links That Appear Only After Scripts Run
Some sites send the browser an almost empty page and build the text with JavaScript, a programming language that runs in the browser.
Google can process JavaScript, but in stages, and its own guide says that rendering pages on the server or in advance is still a great idea, because it makes the site faster for users and for crawlers.
Links need the same care.
Google can only follow a link that is a normal HTML link with an address in it, so a menu that opens pages through a script alone can leave pages undiscovered.
A simple check: open a page, choose "View page source" in the browser and search for a sentence from the main text.
If it is not there, ask the developer why.
Mistake 3: A Copy of the Same Page for Every Town
Fifty pages that differ only in the town name do not help visitors, and Google's spam policies name the pattern: pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page are an example of doorway abuse.
Build a town page only where you have something real to say about that town: a base there, work done there, response times, local questions.
Otherwise one service page that lists your area is the honest choice.
Mistake 4: Two Pages Competing for the Same Search
When two pages answer the same question, for example "Web Design" and "Website Development", Google has to choose between them and often ranks neither well.
Search specialists call this cannibalisation.
Decide which page owns each main search, merge the other into it or give it a different job, and link the supporting pages to the main one.
A canonical tag, one line of code that names the preferred version of a page, helps with true duplicates but does not fix two pages written for the same purpose.
Mistake 5: Changing Addresses Without Redirects
A new site often gets new page addresses.
Without redirects, every old link from Google, from other sites and from customers' bookmarks ends on an error page, and what the old pages had earned in search is lost.
Map every old address to its new one before launch.
Google recommends permanent server-side redirects (301) from the old addresses to the new ones, and keeping them for as long as possible, generally at least a year.
Mistake 6: Launching With the Site Still Closed to Google
Test versions are usually hidden from Google, and the setting that hides them sometimes goes live with the new site.
Then nothing new is indexed, and nobody notices for weeks.
Two things are worth knowing.
Google says robots.txt, a file that tells crawlers where they may go, is not a way to keep a page out of Google: for that, use a noindex tag or a password.
A password on the test site is the safer choice, because it cannot be copied to the live site by mistake the way a tag can.
Mistake 7: Heavy Pages on Phones
Large photos, sliders and several chat or tracking scripts make pages slow on a phone, and slow pages lose visitors before they read a word.
Google measures loading, the response to a tap and visual stability with three Core Web Vitals, and says good results line up with what its ranking systems seek to reward.
A good result means the main content loads within 2.5 seconds, the page responds to a tap within 200 milliseconds and the layout barely moves while it loads (a shift score under 0.1).
Ask for these to be measured on a phone before launch, on the page types you use most (a service page, an article, the contact page).
Our article on Core Web Vitals explains each one.
Mistake 8: Two Languages on One Address
Some sites switch language, for example between Greek and English, with a button that swaps the text on the same address.
Google recommends a separate address for each language version rather than cookies or browser settings, and advises against redirecting visitors to another language automatically.
Give each language its own pages and connect them with hreflang tags, which tell Google which page is the translation of which.
Our guides to a multilingual website in Cyprus and to hreflang show how.
Mistake 9: No Measurement on Launch Day
If forms and calls are not counted from the first day, you cannot tell whether the new site works better than the old one.
Set up the counting before launch.
In Google Analytics 4, mark a sent form and a tap on the phone number as key events, Google's name for the actions that matter most to your business, and check that your cookie banner and the counting work together.
Checklist for Launch Week
Go through it on the live site, not only on the test version, on the day of the switch and again a week later.
- Every old address redirects to the right new page, checked against the list and not from memory.
- Every page you want found opens normally, has its own title and description, and carries no noindex tag. Google asks for a distinct title on each page and warns against vague ones such as "Home".
- robots.txt does not block the site, and the test version stays behind a password.
- The main text is in the page source, and menu links are normal links.
- Pages load quickly on a phone, measured on the page types you use most.
- Forms send, arrive in the right inbox and are counted, and the phone number can be tapped.
- The site is added to Google Search Console and its sitemap is submitted.
What to Consider for Website Content
Good content answers what a buyer asks before calling: who the service is for, what it costs or how the price is set, how long it takes and what happens after the first call.
Write for the questions your sales calls bring up, not only for keywords.
Write the text before the design is final, or at least know its length.
A design built around placeholder text often leaves no room for the answers that sell.
SEO works best as a rule from the first week of the project, not as a check after the design is approved.
Who Decides What in a Website Project
Most mistakes above happen in the gap between people.
Agree before the project starts who decides what.
| Decision | Who makes it | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Which pages exist and which search each one answers | The owner, with the SEO specialist | Sets what the site can be found for |
| Page addresses and redirects | The developer, approved by the SEO specialist | Protects what the old site earned |
| Text, prices and proof | The owner, with a writer | Only the business knows the facts |
| Speed and how pages are built | The developer | Affects every page at once |
| What counts as an enquiry | The owner, with whoever runs analytics | Shows whether the site pays |
Most of these mistakes cost nothing to avoid at the planning stage and a lot to repair after launch. In our Web Design and Development work, the page structure, redirects from old addresses, analytics and forms are part of the build: a site of 1–3 pages starts from €650 and a company site of 5–7 pages from €1,300, net plus VAT, and a standard site takes 4–8 weeks. For a site that is already live, start with a technical SEO audit.
Building or relaunching a site? Get an SEO review of your site structure and templates before launch.
Book a strategy consultationFrequently asked questions
What hurts SEO most in a new build?
Addresses changed without redirects, service pages that lose their text in the redesign, and a site left closed to Google at launch.
Should developers own SEO?
Developers make the site fast and readable for Google; the owner and the SEO specialist decide which pages exist and what they say. It works when they plan together from the start.
Are large drop-down menus bad for SEO?
Not by themselves. They become a problem when important pages are buried several levels deep, or when the menu links to hundreds of thin pages. Keep your main services one tap away.
What should you consider when developing website content?
The searches each page answers, the proof a buyer needs, what sets you apart, links to related pages and a clear way to get in touch, not only the word count.
How do I balance SEO and conversion rate optimisation?
Change the layout and the calls to action as much as you like, but keep the text that answers the search and the proof. Test one change at a time on the pages that bring enquiries.
When should SEO join the project?
While the site structure is planned and the content management system (CMS) is chosen, not after designs are approved.
