Have you ever wondered how well Google Sites perform when it comes to search engine optimization? There’s some important news you should know. Recent updates from Google have confirmed something crucial about their website-building tool.
It turns out Google Sites might not be your best bet if you’re looking to maximize your SEO efforts. Luckily, there are several website-building platforms on the market that allow you to boost SEO.
Here are some reasons why Google Sites are not ideal for SEO and some alternative website-building platforms you can use for better SEO.
What Is Google Sites?
Google Sites is a tool that lets you create websites. It’s like a digital canvas where you can place texts, images, videos, and more. Google, the company we know for its top-notch search engine, launched Google Sites in 2008.
It was created to help people build their websites easily, even if they didn’t know much about designing or coding. The tool was updated in 2016 to make it even more user-friendly. Google Sites is part of Google’s suite of tools, which includes other popular ones like Google Docs and Google Sheets.
Now that you know what this platform provides, we’ll cover why Google Sites is not ideal for search engine optimization.
Limited Customization
Google Sites doesn’t give you much control over your website design. This lack of customization can limit your ability to optimize for search engine optimization. For better SEO, you need a platform that lets you tweak your site. Making changes that could help your site appear in search engine results is challenging without customization.
Inadequate Meta Tags
One of the major drawbacks of Google Sites is its limited capacity for optimizing meta tags. Meta tags play a crucial role in search engine recognition, acting as identifiers that help engines understand the content on a webpage. These tags can include keywords, descriptions, and other details about a webpage.
Unfortunately, Google Sites does not offer complete control over these essential elements. This limitation hampers the ability to refine your website for improved search engine visibility.
Lack of Blogging Capabilities
One aspect where Google Sites falls short is blogging. Blogging is an essential tool for boosting SEO. Regularly posting articles or blog posts can help your website rank higher in search results. This is because search engines like sites with fresh content.
But on Google Sites, you can’t have a blog. This means you miss out on an easy way to improve your SEO. That’s a significant disadvantage if you’re trying to get your website noticed.
No Support for SEO Plugins
Another downside of Google Sites is its lack of support for SEO plugins. SEO plugins can boost your website’s visibility by making your content look more attractive to search engines. These plugins help with keyword density, link building, and sitemaps.
But Google Sites doesn’t allow the use of these tools. So, it’s harder to improve your SEO on Google Sites compared to other platforms that let you use these helpful plugins.
As you can see, Google Sites comes up short in the search engine optimization department. Below are some website-building platforms that provide the tools you need to get your domain noticed.
WordPress Is a Great SEO Ally
WordPress is a popular website-building platform known worldwide. It’s very user-friendly and lets people create websites without knowing how to code. An impressive fact about WordPress is that it powers over 40% of all websites. This platform gives its users a lot of control and allows for deep customization.
What Makes WordPress an SEO Ally?
WordPress is a powerhouse when it comes to search engine optimization. Unlike Google Sites, WordPress offers plenty of flexibility and essential tools to boost your SEO game.
Let’s look at the reasons that make WordPress perfect for SEO.
- SEO Plugins: WordPress supports numerous SEO plugins like Yoast SEO, which help optimize your content for search engines.
- Meta Tags: WordPress allows complete control over meta tags. This will enable you to tailor descriptions and keywords for better search engine recognition.
- Blogging: WordPress is renowned for its robust blogging capabilities. This is a plus for SEO since search engines favor sites with fresh and relevant content.
- Customization: With WordPress, you have complete control over your site’s look and feel, which can help with SEO as you can easily modify your site per SEO requirements.
- Site Speed: WordPress sites are known for their speed. A faster site can improve your ranking on search result pages.
WordPress has a ton of website templates to choose from. This means you can create a unique business website that is SEO-friendly.
Optimizing for Success: The SEO Power of Shopify Websites
Shopify is another excellent website-building platform that can help with your SEO. It is a tool that enables you to make your online store. People around the world use Shopify to sell their products online. This platform makes it easy to set up a shop and start selling products immediately.
Shopify is a platform that brings SEO to the forefront. It has features that help your online store rank higher in search engine results.
Here are the reasons why Shopify is SEO-friendly:
- Integrated SEO Features: Shopify comes with built-in SEO features. These features help you add meta titles, descriptions, and custom URLs. This makes it easier to optimize your online store for search engines.
- Alt Tags for Images: Shopify lets you add alt tags to your images. Alt tags help search engines understand what your images are about. This can help your store rank higher in image searches.
- Mobile Optimization: Shopify themes are mobile-friendly. This is important because search engines like Google rank mobile-friendly sites higher. A mobile-friendly site also makes shopping easier for customers using their phones.
- Simple User Interface: Shopify is easy to use. However, to fully unlock the SEO potential of Shopify, you need professional assistance. This is where an experienced marketing agency like Small Business SEO comes in handy.
Using Shopify to build and manage your online store can make your SEO efforts more successful. It provides the tools you need to attract more customers to your store.
The Synergy Between Wix and SEO
Wix is a popular platform that many people use to build their websites. It was created by a company in Israel back in 2006. The people who started this company wanted to make it easier for anyone to create a website.
They thought that you shouldn’t have to know how to code to make a website. So, they worked hard to create a tool that was easy and fun to use.
Here’s why Wix is an excellent choice for enhancing your SEO:
- Sitemap Generation: Wix automatically generates a sitemap for your website. A sitemap is a file where you can list the web pages of your site to tell search engines about the organization of your site content.
- Constant Updates: Wix is known for its regular updates. These help ensure your website stays updated with the latest SEO practices.
- SEO Patterns: With Wix, you can set SEO patterns. These are sets of SEO settings that you can apply to specific types of pages on your website. This feature saves time and works to boost your SEO.
- Custom Meta Tags: Unlike Google Sites, Wix gives you full control over your meta tags. You can customize your meta titles and descriptions. This feature is vital in improving your site’s visibility on search engine results pages.
Professional SEO help will make optimizing your Wix website for search engine success much easier. Our team is standing by to help you accomplish your digital marketing goals.
Navigating the SEO Landscape with Squarespace
Squarespace is another big name in the world of website building. Many people across the globe use Squarespace to create their websites. Why is it so popular? Well, Squarespace makes it easy to build a website. It’s a platform that’s simple to use, but the websites it creates are top-notch.
Squarespace started in a university dorm room in 2003. A student named Anthony Casalena started the company. He wanted to make a tool to build his own website. But soon, he realized other people might find it helpful, too.
- Clean Code: Squarespace uses clean, simple code. This means search engines can easily read and understand your website’s content. The better a search engine can read your site, the higher your site can rank.
- Social Media Integration: Squarespace lets you connect your website to social media accounts. Posting something new on your website can automatically share a link on your social media. This brings more people to your site and can help with SEO.
- Blogging Functionality: Squarespace has excellent tools for blogging. You can easily add new posts and images. Blogging regularly helps keep your site fresh and interesting to search engines.
- Analytics: Squarespace has a powerful analytics tool. This tool lets you see how people find and use your website. With this information, you can change your site to help it appear better in search engine results.
There is no denying the power of a well-designed and well-optimized Squarespace website.
Embrace The Power of Search Engine Optimization
If you’re currently using Google Sites to power your business domain, it’s time to make changes. Using one of the SEO-friendly website-building platforms above is a much better option. We can help you optimize your new domain!