Get the best out of Google Sites

Yesterday, I posted my experiments about using Google Sites for SEO and collaboration. Today, I have come to the conclusion. You can read my Google Sites Experiment here.

I have made my conclusion and I want to share with you why Google Sites is good for collaboration, but may not be a good SEO tools.

First of all, let’s face the facts.

• Google Sites is owned by Google
• Google Sites is indexed fast. The new sites I created is indexed less than 24 hours.
• Google Sites doesn’t support Javascript and flash embedded code.
• Google Sites doesn’t allow custom Meta tag. So you can register that on Yahoo Site Explore or Bing Webmaster
• Google Sites doesn’t have root and shell access.
• Google Sites uses nofollow link to external sites other than Google’s sites (Ex. Blogspot.com)
• Google Sites integrates with Google DOC and other Google service (Ex. Google Map) very well
• Google Sites only gives your 100MB space

For people who are creating satellite sites for SEO purpose, Google Sites is not a good choice. It creates nofollow link automatically. Unless you are linking to blogger.com blog, you don’t gain any benefit on backlinks. However, you can still drive traffic to your sites, if you offer quality content.

Now. I have more many Google Sites created. Most of them are private sites for collaboration.

Here is how I get the best out of Google Sites:

• Share Google Calendar on the private sites with other members
• Collaborate and share documents
• Post private blog post and exchange ideas
• List To-Do for other members to follow
• Track schedule
• Create draft article for other members to review
• Share slide show and presentation

There is no need to use those 100MB disk space. You pretty much share photos on Picasa album, document on Google Doc and Video on YouTube. The 100MB is virtually too much!

I am hoping Google Sites can add more features and allow using Javascript. It will be nice to add Google Friend Connect and Facebook Integration.

After all, my experiment is over. I will be using Google Sites for collaboration only from now on.