Your Guide To Google Sites SEO

Google Sites is a free website builder that is easy to use, but which has some limitations for search engine optimization. If you plan to create a business or personal website with Google Sites, you should consider the pros and cons of this service. Find out everything you need to know about Google Sites SEO to have search engines index your website, make pages that rank higher in results and attract more traffic.

What Are the Basics of Google Sites SEO?

Google Sites has a simple interface for creating a website from scratch and offers a variety of templates. You can publish your website on the Google Sites domain for free or host your website on a paid custom domain for more SEO opportunities.

In a recent Q&A video, the coordinator of Google Search Relations explained why Google Sites is “not ideal for SEO purposes.” The search engine indexes public sites on this domain, but web addresses on public view can differ from the URLs that website creators see while logged into the service.

Sitemaps are another important factor for Google Sites SEO. The Google Search Console uses these lists of pages and content to crawl and index websites for inclusion in search results. Google Sites provided website creators with sitemaps until March 2021. Third-party tools are now the best way to generate sitemaps of Google Sites websites.

Is Google Sites Good for SEO?

Google Sites allows for essential SEO functionality. You can customize URLs, but you should always check public URLs before publishing pages. This service also supports providing alt text for images, creating meta tags for web pages and posting content that contains keywords.

Google Sites excels at designing responsive websites that perform well on mobile devices. This feature is crucial, given Google’s recent shift to mobile-first indexing for new websites.

Although Google Sites has some limitations, you can still pursue effective SEO strategies for websites on this service. Regularly posting high-quality content with keywords and links and getting authoritative backlinks can raise the ranking of your website in search engine results.

How Do I Increase SEO on a Google Site?

The first step towards boosting your SEO efforts is to make sure your website is public on the web. Open your website in Google Sites, click on the Share icon at the top and select “Public” from the drop-down list. After you save your settings, you can decide whether you want to use a third-party tool to create a sitemap to submit to Google Search Console.

Search Console manages web crawling and indexing for the Google search engine. This resource provides users with a URL Inspection Tool that shows the data Google gathers about pages on your website. You can also use Search Console to analyze clicks, impressions and current rankings on results pages.

One of the best ways to increase Google Sites SEO is to publish relevant content regularly. A monthly organic SEO plan from BKA Content ensures that the blog posts or pages on your website are fresh and unique. We perform high-quality keyword research and create content that site visitors find valuable. Scheduling posts makes it easy to stay on top of content refreshes, which helps pages on your website rise in search results.

Does Google Offer Free SEO Tools? 

In addition to Search Console, Google offers several free SEO tools that work with Google Sites. The following resources offer feedback about on-page SEO strategy or provide off-page SEO benefits:

• Google Analytics
• Google Mobile-Friendly Test
• Google PageSpeed Insights
• Google My Business

Google Analytics provides free audience, acquisition and behavior reports. You can connect this service with Google Sites to monitor the results of your SEO strategy.

Free performance tests are also useful for on-page SEO. Use the Google Mobile-Friendly Test to make sure your website is responsive. PageSpeed Insights assesses loading speeds and suggests ways to make your website load faster and rank higher.

If your Google Sites website is business-related, claiming a Google Business Profile can be an effective off-page SEO tactic. A listing in this online directory drives traffic to your website, and the service identifies relevant search keywords for use in content.

Tracking SEO Metrics

The best way to track SEO metrics on Google Sites is to connect Google Analytics to your website. Start by signing in to Google Analytics, navigating to “Admin,” selecting “Property” and then clicking “Property Settings.” Copy or make a note of your numeric Property ID.

Next, open the Google Sites website that you want to track, and click the gear icon in the top right. Select “Analytics,” and enter your Property ID. Slide the toggle to “Enable Analytics” for tracking Google Sites SEO metrics.

You can immediately view the Realtime report on Google Analytics. It can take 24 to 48 hours for this service to obtain past traffic and usage data records for your website. Google Analytics is only one of many free tools that you can use to track SEO metrics on Google Sites.

What Are Some Effective SEO Strategies for Google Sites?

Some of the most effective SEO strategies for Google Sites involve optimizing page titles and descriptions. You can also customize public URLs, alt tags and meta titles.

Organic content marketing is the best way to add value to your website. The content you post should contain titles, headings and subheadings. Headings should include a main target keyword and any secondary keywords for which you want to rank in search results.

BKA Content creates original blog posts, web pages and custom products for websites. We can also support these services with link-building and social media management. This means that content designed for pages of a Google Sites website includes quality links and leads to backlinks that can boost search engine positioning.

What Is the Best Approach to Your SEO Project?

Once you understand the parameters of SEO for Google Sites, you can make more informed website design and maintenance decisions. Some of the most important Google Sites SEO methods include setting your site to “public” and regularly publishing relevant content. Sign up for one of our blog writing packages to rank higher in search results.