What is the common mistake in the provided PHP code that leads to the error message?

The common mistake in the provided PHP code is the incorrect use of the concatenation operator. The period (.) is used for concatenating strings in PHP, not the plus sign (+). This leads to a syntax error and the error message "Unexpected '+'". To fix this issue, simply replace the plus sign (+) with the period (.) for concatenating the strings in the echo statement.

<?php
$name = "John";
echo "Hello, " . $name . "!"; // Correct concatenation using the period (.)
?>