Website Marketing

Submitting your site’s sitemap and URLs helps Google find and index it faster. This ensures that your website can be found in online search to organic search traffic as soon as possible. Letting Google’s crawler find it on its own can take months before your website gets indexed. Here’s an overview of what you need to do:

1. Launch your site.
2. Add Google Analytics code to the header of your website.
3. Connect Analytics and Search Console.
4. Submit your home page URL and sitemap.

This website marketing strategy is essential for every business, 100% free, and easy to do—so there’s no reason not to help your small business website get found in search faster.

Does your site provide a good user experience for mobile, desktop, and tablet users? Aim to make your website as user-friendly as possible, no matter what device is used. Over half of all Google searches (56.86%) are performed on mobile devices, so mobile-friendliness impacts your site’s search rankings.

The easiest way to test if your site is omni-device-friendly is to view it on various devices. If your website is currently not mobile-friendly, the solution could be switching to a fully responsive web content management system (CMS). For instance, leading site builders like Squarespace and GoDaddy have 100% responsive templates for different devices.

Even with an omni-device-friendly CMS and theme, it’s a good idea to test all of your site’s pages periodically. Make sure that you can easily navigate menus, fill out forms, search for products or services, complete an online transaction (for ecommerce websites), submit an application, and take any other important actions from mobile devices as well as desktops.

Slow-loading sites create a poor user experience, which is an important Google ranking factor, so they typically do not rank well in search. The larger a site grows, and the more functionality you add with plugins and third-party apps, the more likely it is to load slowly. To test your site’s speed, use one of the best site audit tools, like HubSpot’s free website grader, or get advanced technical data by analyzing any website URL with GTMetrix.

To reduce website load time, here are a few simple ways you can do yourself:

• Use a fast-loading content management system (CMS): If your website loads slowly, there may be problems with your CMS. Check out our flowchart on how to choose the best CMS and make sure the software is up to date.
• Compress images: Compress elements that take a long time to load, like large images. You can reduce the size of images with a tool like Compressor.io or a WordPress plugin like ShortPixel’s Image Optimizer. Or use a site builder like Wix, which automatically optimizes images.
• Remove unnecessary plugins: Plugins add important functionality but also take up storage space and add scripts that can slow your site down. Check your active plugins, extensions, and add-ons, and deactivate any you’re not using.
• Enable caching: Caches store site elements so when a visitor returns to your site, it loads faster. It may sound complicated, but there are a number of free WordPress plugins that enable caching, such as W3 Total Cache. (Or avoid the hassle altogether and use a site builder like Wix, which automatically enables caching.)
• Enable lazy loading: Fewer image loads equate to faster load times. With lazy loading, only the images within the visitor’s screen view load, and the others only load if and when the visitor scrolls to that point on a page. You can use a plugin like Lazy Load to enable lazy loading on WordPress or build a small business website on Squarespace, which adheres to Google’s standards for core web vitals.
• Use a content delivery network (CDN): The farther a site visitor is from the server’s physical location where the site’s files are stored, the slower it will load. Content delivery networks (CDN) like Cloudflare (often included free in web hosting plans) distribute files across multiple locations so no matter where visitors are, files can be loaded quickly.
• Choose a faster web host: If all else fails, consider upgrading to a dedicated server or moving your site to a web host that ensures fast website load times. To find a better service, learn more about the best web hosting companies.

Search engine optimization (SEO) involves different techniques of optimizing your website to help rank better on search engines. This is usually one of the initial steps of website marketing because it directly impacts your site’s visibility—making it more likely to get people to visit your website.