Google Sites SEO Guide 🚀

This guide will help you optimise Google Sites for search engines. You don’t need to implement everything, just work through the ones that are most relevant or important for your site.

Here's what's covered in this Google Sites SEO guide:

I've tried to keep this page limited to the key, actionable points. Where I think more information is useful (for later reading maybe), I will write it up and link to it (coming soon). Google Sites does limit some of the more advanced techniques, but there's still plenty you can do to improve your ranking in search engines. If you think I've missed something please tell me 🙏

I have learnt the following things about SEO:

• SEO takes time. it won't happen overnight

• SEO is a big topic. Read around and check other SEO resources

• There is no 'one thing'. SEO is a combination of techniques that combine to improve your ranking

• There is no fast track. No matter what anyone tells you, there is not shortcut to page one of Google

• You're only as good as your content. If your content is poor, you're going to struggle

• Be realistic. If you're in a crowded space it's gonna be hard to stand apart from everyone else

Start by focusing on the basics—make sure your website is correctly indexed and you understand how your audience finds your content. These initial steps will give you the direction and confidence to move forward with more advanced SEO techniques.

Once you've created your Google Sites website you need to publish it and make it public so people can find it on the web. Without this, your website is invisible to anyone other than yourself (or anyone you've specifically given access to). This setting ensures that anyone on the internet can find and access your site. Follow these steps to make your Google Site public.

Google Search Console helps you monitor your website’s performance on Google. Setting it up allows you to track your indexing status, see search queries, and receive alerts on issues affecting your site.

Google Analytics provides detailed data about your website traffic, user behaviour, and conversions. This tool is essential for measuring the impact of your SEO efforts and identifying opportunities for improvement. Even if you're not intending to turbo-boost your SEO, it's still kinda cool to see how many people visit your site, where they come from and what they're looking at. 

Understanding your target market is the backbone of successful SEO. Focus your efforts on the demographic that will most benefit from your content and services.

Why are you creating a website? Who do you want to visit your website and what key search terms they might use to find the content they need? Key search terms are important because they help you attract the audience you are trying to appeal to. 

By way of example, this website is about Google Sites SEO, and it's a checklist, so the search terms my audience would use are likely to be:

• "Google Sites SEO"

• "SEO guide for Google Sites"

• "Google Sites SEO guide"

• "SEO guide"

• "Google Sites SEO free"

High-quality, relevant content is the foundation of successful SEO. Now read that sentence again.

Search engines prioritise sites that consistently deliver useful, valuable information, so focus on creating authentic content that meets the needs of your audience and answers their questions comprehensively.

I use a number of tools and references to help improve the quality of my content:

• Hemingway helps you write more concisely. And it's free ⭐

• Grammarly helps you write betterly

• Strunk and White's classic writing style guide is just a good thing to check every now and then

• Check spelling with https://datayze.com/website-spell-checker 

• Another spell checker https://www.spl.ing/spellcheck ⭐

A table of contents in Google Sites helps readers find content on a page, especially when there's a lot of content. The table of contents feature is built into Google Sites and will automatically update as the page content changes:

A well-structured URL which includes your target keyword improves your ranking potential and makes your link more clickable. 

Short URLs rank better and are more user-friendly. Aim for concise, readable URLs that still reflect the content of the page. Avoid using unnecessary words or special characters, and keep the URL relevant by including only essential keywords.

URL's on this website are:

Unlike pure HTML and many other sitebuilders, in Google Sites you only get three header types to play with:

• Title: Equivalent to the H1 html tag

• Heading: Equivalent to the H2 html tag

• Sub-heading: Equivalent to a H3 html tag

Titles and Headers provide structure to your content, and using keywords in them helps search engines understand your site structure, page content hierarchy and focus. The basic rule of thumb is, 

1. Have one title per page, usually at the top explaining what the page is about. Include an appropriate keyword. 

2. Headings should be used to organise sections of content. 

3. Sub-headings are used to indicate focused topics within the structure of a page.

 If you look at this website, I have used the following structure (snipped example):

It’s no secret that high-quality images improve your content. Optimised images improve load times and absolutely contribute to SEO. Google Sites will compress images you upload by default, but it doesn't hurt to do the legwork yourself and minimise the amount of chopping Google Sites has to do for you. Remember these points for each image on your site:

Button links and CTAs in Google Sites can improve click-through rates. Some basic guidelines can really enhance the user engagement on your site and interaction with your content:

• Buttons in Google Sites use the "Normal" font style. Ensure your font is legible and easy to read on any sized device

• Placing the button within a contextual location on your site can boost engagement and relevance for users

• Use clear, meaningful, action-oriented language.

You can add links across your Google Site by using the 'insert link' feature. Links from page to page within your website are called 'internal links'. Internal links help distribute page authority across your website and improve user navigation. There are lots of benefits to internally linking across your site:

• Improved crawlability and indexing: Internal links guide search engine crawlers through your website, so when Google crawls your site, internal links help it discover and index more pages efficiently

• Better user experience (UX): A well-planned internal linking structure allows users to navigate a website easily, find relevant content, and stay engaged longer

• Targeted keyword optimisation: Anchor text in internal links can help signal relevance for specific keywords to search engines

• Supports content hierarchy and topical relevance: Internal links help create a logical structure, connecting related content and building topic 'clusters' across your website

Linking to authoritative external sites enhances your content’s credibility and helps search engines better understand the context of your topic and content. They're also beneficial for SEO:

Creating a Google Business Profile allows you to advertise your business directly on Google maps and it's a simple way to boost your website's visibility and reach. It's also really good for local SEO. The main benefits are:

• Enhanced local search presence: With a Google Business Profile, your business is more likely to appear in local search results and on Google Maps, helping you connect with nearby customers

• Trust: A verified profile gives potential clients confidence, and provides key information like business hours, location, contact details, and customer reviews—all directly on Google

• Increased traffic: Linking your website to your profile means more people find you when searching for relevant services or products

• Free marketing: A Google Business Profile costs nothing but will add marketing value

Advertising your small business on reputable UK business indexes can significantly enhance your visibility and reach, especially if you link back to your website. Here are some of the best UK business directories to consider:

• Yell.com

• Thomson Local

• Scoot

• FreeIndex

• 192.com

• MisterWhat

• Cylex UK

• Checkatrade

• Trustatrader

When developing a website for a commercial client I always ask them to register on business indexes, and include a link back to their website. I also take pains to insist they check their contact details are accurate. (Seriously, you wouldn't believe).

Redirecting the naked version of your domain (the non-www version) to the www version is good for SEO when done correctly. Here’s why and when they’re effective:

• Consolidating authority: Redirecting old domains or URLs to your main domain consolidates authority and avoids splitting search engine ranking signals, which can strengthen your primary site’s SEO

• Preserving backlinks: If an old domain or URL has valuable backlinks, a proper redirect (such as a 301 redirect) transfers most of the link equity to the new page, helping maintain your ranking and authority

• Improves user experience: Redirects ensure users land on the right page even if they’ve bookmarked an old link, improving user experience and decreasing bounce rates, both of which are favorable for SEO

Crawl errors appear when the Googlebot cannot access the page of the website. This happens because of the errors in the server settings, CMS failures, changes in the URL structure, and other reasons. Errors can affect the website ranking in search results, as well as the users' attitude to the resource.

Broken links harm user experience and SEO rankings. Check your site regularly for broken links and fix them to maintain a healthy, user-friendly site, as links can break without you changing anything on your own website

There are a host of free tools you can use to find (then fix) broken links:

Run a Google crawl simulation to understand how your content appears to search engines. This insight helps you identify missing elements or areas that need optimisation.

Personally, I don't usually create an XML sitemap and submit to Google Search Console. Mainly because I update my sites regulatory and this would be a major pain in the bum. But, never say never. If you're creating a fairly static site I see no disadvantage to creating and submitting a sitemap to Search Console for Google Sites. 

An FAQ page not only answers customer questions but also optimises your website for better search visibility, making it a valuable addition to any SEO strategy. 

In essence, an FAQ page is you answering questions that other people might ask you about you product or service. You can phrase the questions using your main keywords and using some of the 'auto suggestions' and 'other people searched for' terms that Google provides in it's search and results pages.

Your Google Business Profile is more than just a business card on Google. You should incorporate it into your content calendar and update it regularly.  Keeping your profile current encourages more interactions with potential customers, which can positively impact your overall search rankings. 

In addition to essential information like location, phone number and address, did you know you could also create other types of content such as:

• Offers and events

• Respond to reviews

• Frequent asked questions

• Pictures and descriptions of products and services

• Request a quote