Looking back at my own early mistakes (and ones I see constantly from newer webmasters), here are the ones that come up again and again.
Ignoring page speed until traffic plateaus, then scrambling to fix it.
Trying to rank for broad, competitive keywords instead of specific long-tail phrases early on.
Publishing thin content just to hit a posting schedule, instead of fewer, more useful posts.
No backup strategy until something breaks and there's nothing to restore from.
Installing too many plugins/scripts without checking their impact on speed or security.
Not tracking anything — no analytics, no goals, no idea what's actually working.
Buying cheap backlinks that end up doing more harm than good.
What's the mistake that cost you the most time (or money) early on?
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