Web + Wins #17 Get Your Site Into Google
Takeover 1/4 by Jade Pruett, HelloSEO + MetaMonster
This Week's Update
Hi, I'm Jade! Dana handed me the keys to the newsletter for August, and I'm honored she trusted me with this space she's built.
I run HelloSEO, an SEO agency that works exclusively with therapists and therapy practices. I have called Columbia home for the past 4 years, and it has proven to be an amazing place to build a small business.
I'm also a cofounder of MetaMonster, an SEO tool that helps web designers and marketing agencies bring their SEO in-house.
I am excited to share some quick and easy web wins to take your SEO to the next level. Over the next few weeks, we will cover sitemap submission, showing up in AI search, backlink acquisition, and the importance of on-page copy.
First up, a very easy and often forgotten task that can have a huge impact on your SEO: submitting your sitemap to Google Search Console.
Get a Web Win: Submit Your Sitemap to Google Search Console
Google is good, but it's not magic. It can't index a page it doesn't know about. Lucky for us, there is an easy and free way to literally hand Google a map on your website.
A sitemap is a file that lists all the pages on your website, basically a table of contents for Google. When you submit it to Google Search Console, you're not waiting for Google to stumble across your pages. You're saying: here's everything, please index it.
For a new site or a recently redesigned one, this matters a lot. Without a submitted sitemap, some of your pages might not show up in search for weeks. Or ever.
Here's how to do it:
Find your sitemap. If your site is on WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, or most modern platforms, it already exists, usually at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. Paste that URL in your browser and check.
Open Google Search Console. If you're not set up there yet, that's step zero. Visit this URL to get started: https://search.google.com/search-console/
Go to Sitemaps in the left sidebar, paste in your sitemap URL, and hit Submit.
That's it. Google will confirm it received the sitemap and start working through it.
Submitting your sitemap won't shoot you to page one overnight. But it gets your site in the game, and that's where it has to start.
Convo Corner: Will Weatherly
I won’t lie, when I first met Will back in 2023, I thought he was my biggest competition in Columbia. A few months later, we were both speaking at a small conference, and somewhere between sessions we went from competitors to collaborators.
That's how it usually works in a city like Columbia. There are only so many businesses, and the agencies willing to actually talk to each other tend to win more than the ones hoarding their cards.
Will is the founder ofDigital Done Smart, a marketing agency built around making data-driven decisions. He's originally from Columbia, now based in Charleston, and he does paid media the right way. That means he'll tell you to your face if you're not ready for ads yet. I've tried to hire him multiple times (for HelloSEO and MetaMonster.) He keeps turning me down, which honestly just makes me respect him more.
Connect with Will on LinkedIn!
Let's Talk
Want more free SEO tips? Submit an SEO Report Card on my website, and I’ll make you a video going over your current SEO and how you can improve it!
Get your free SEO Report Card here!
– Jade
