Google Sites Pros and Cons of this Excellent FREE Website Builder

Google Sites pros and cons let's get to it [Music] what's up everybody my name is David website credit procom so I have on this channel a Google Sites tutorial that's doing really well now I mean the the YouTube guides have finally decided to give that video some attention and so I thought I would create a quick little follow-up video on the pros and cons of using Google Sites based on my experience of actually having a Google site for the last 30 days now my Google site is actually edge of david.com which used to be my really bad cringy WordPress blog I started back in 2010 long time ago and like all things that project just ran its course and it's time to just retire it and move on to better things but I decided to like okay let me try out Google Sites and see what this is all about and you know I really like Google Sites but there's a lot of things I don't like about it so let's get to it okay so here are some pros of Google Sites so Google Sites for starters is very beautiful and it works well on any mobile device now I actually got messages on my facebook page asking me what what theme am I using for my edge of datacom website and I was really surprised by that because it's like are you serious like I'm not even using WordPress I'm using Google Sites so I have to give props to a free website builder that does a great job of making a very beautiful site eat very easy to customize and it just looks great on any mobile device it's very responsive and so that's really a big Pro now yes I think Google Sites do look a little bit cookie cutter a little bit there are there are current at current aspects of the site where it's like after you've had a Google site you can be like oh that's a Google site for sure but in general people aren't that familiar with it so I think that cookie cutter nature of like the template style it's not that big of a deal because you still have a wide range of flexibility where you can create an impressive-looking web site overall and like for me personally like I think like Edgar David calm came out really why I think it looks really nice and like people think it looks so nice that they're like asking me like what theme am I using to power that web site and they're not even aware that I'm not using WordPress that it's just a free website builder from called google sites so that's the first pro the sites look excellent on mobile devices desktops etc the next Pro is that these google sites are perfect i would say for any about me style web site so they're perfect for any like 5 to 10 page web site and so you kind of know what i'm talking about if you just want to start some small website on a specific topic your intention is just like hey i just need a web site so i can link to it from like my facebook page instagram pinterest youtube channel whatever and i don't need it to be this complex thing then Google Sites is perfect for you especially if you want to create a lovely looking about me web site I think Google Sites is the best option for that instead of going with a web host and going with WordPress etc if you just need like some simple five page website I would say go with Google Sites because like you just need something out there in the world that people can find maybe subscribe to or just read a little and learn more about you like if you want to link say like a website in your YouTube description so that's why I think the second Pro of Google Sites is is that it's just good for very very small niche websites that are not aimed at making money or getting traffic or anything it's just really just an about me website just a small 510 page website Google Sites is perfect for that and the last Pro is that you can set up a a custom domain name and so that's great because you can just get away from that Google Sites sites that google slash your website you can actually have a custom domain name like edge of david.com for example or your website com that people can actually visit your website and then it's HTTPS which I love I don't have to deal with any type of SSL certificate I don't have to enable anything just right out of the gate after you set up your site you set up your custom domain name everything works right out of the box and you have to worry about anything and I know a reason I bring that up is because like for example hosting or comm is a very budget web host and they're very good but one thing they don't provide is that they don't manage the SSL certificate for you on the back end it's actually a little small service that they upsell are you on and so like you can get a web hosting for very very cheap but it's going to be HTTP you know like your website's not going to be secure you have to pay for the SSO certificate management what do I mean by that well SSL certificates require renewal every three months and it's a pain in the butt so you can do it yourself or your web posts can do it for you now with most web hosts like psy crown bluehost that are a little bit more expensive though just take care of the SSL certificate for you without you having to worry about it and so that's why I really like Google Sites because there are a lot of web posts out there who and also just free website builders for example where they like you can build a website but then it's not HTTP and for me that's a deal-breaker because if you ever want to put like a convertkit or MailChimp form or even at just a contact form on your website it's really bad to have people be submitting information through a form on your website that is unsecure because what HTTPS does is it encrypts your website and creeps encrypts any information that's flowing through your website that users put in and so that's why I for me it's a deal-breaker deal-breaker and also it's just like use your experience when you come visit a site that says not secure like people don't trust a website like that it's this very small detail but people just are so accustomed to seeing that little lock in the corner of a web browser that when they don't see it they're like what is that it's just a little hygiene thing where it's just somethings a little bit off with the website so for me that's something I really like about Google Sites is that it's HTTPS you can set up a custom domain name it all works rather box quickly and easily ok so now for some cons with Google Sites and there are quite a few so let's get to it so the first con is that you can't have naked domain names with your Google site and if you're like you have no idea what I'm talking about get your head out of the gutter I'm not talking about anything like that a naked domain name is basically website.com or HTTPS web site com that's a naked domain name naked because it doesn't have the W W in front okay and so you can't have your website BW you can't have your web site via HTTP web site grant procom it has to be HTTP to HTTPS ww-wha web site great procom and now for most people that's not a big issue particularly if you're just creating an about me web site for me personally it's like I don't care whatever aawww not known on WW who cares but again it's just a small thing to be aware of that you can't actually have naked domain names with Google Sites the next con is that Google Sites doesn't do redirections properly and so what I mean is that like if someone is trying to visit the naked domain name of your website they're going to hit a 404 page and it's going to hit a not found page because it just because the redirection doesn't work and that's a huge kind because if someone's trying to visit your website and they type in like website credit procom and then it redirects and then they go to https website credit procom if it's a Google site then it will just come up and say I can't find this site it's not not loading correctly etc so that's a huge issue for me because you what you want is that you want your just why you want your website to redirect brought properly so if someone tries to visit you know https website great procom it should just automatically redirect him to the WWF version or whatever the primary version of your site is so like if the primary version of your site is the naked domain in which it usually is if you have a wordpress powered website like so when someone site tries to type in WWE website com they are Mac you get sent to HTTPS your website com that's the way you want to work but with Google Sites it doesn't work like that again it's a small con because again Google Sites is ideal just for a personal website but again just something to be aware of another con is that the Google Sites version of your website is also available in addition to the custom domain name version so you basically have duplicate content have two websites you have your sites that Google I think it is slash your website name and then you also have your custom domain name that you set up so people can visit both in its duplicate content so again that's why I say that Google Sites is ideal for like an about me website where you're not trying to like make money or drive traffic etc and so that's just something to be aware of that I thought I didn't like personally it's like no I don't want people to be able to visit like Google Sites that Google edge of David and they come to if they find the content that's on edge of David calm basically I don't want to have a duplicate content out there in the world but again it's a free platform so that's just a big con to be aware of another con is that you don't have any specific control over your page titles what I mean by that is like yeah you can adjust the page title but the way the page title actually appears in the search engine is different because its basis it on what the menu option is if that makes sense and so like when you add a page to your menu and say like I have a page on my site and I talked about like the Sony X 3000 camera as a vlogging camera for example and so the page titles like the X 3000 is the vlogging camera of the god and then it's like the menu item in on my say is camera but if you do if you do a search for like the edge of David X 3000 camera etc it just comes the best camera that's like no it's like that's not the page title that's the menu title and so that's why I don't like because you can't change that there's no way there's no you don't have that control over the Meta Description like you do with WordPress where you can just jump into the Yoast SEO or rank math or whatever and then you have that specific control where you can change the way the page title looks for search engines in the Meta Description all that stuff you don't have any control over that stuff with Google Sites okay so again that's why I said bazillion times it's just friend about me web say small website five ten pages that you're not trying to make money from because we just don't have any control like over the Meta Description page titles etc you can just design a nice-looking website that's not really optimized at all for SEO so the next kind is that you have to have a home link on your website and I find that really annoying because most people know that they can click the logo to navigate back to the home page with Google Sites the way it's structured is that you have to basically set a home page whatever you set as the home page is going to be in the menu bar so like you have your home page and that's the you'll have your page you have one page that's set as the home page and then you have your other additional pages no problem and they all add gets added to the menu so you'll have something like home and then like about me contact etc and so you can change the home link you don't have to it doesn't have to say home you can change it to like subscribe or whatever you want to do I maybe make the home page like a page where people can just subscribe to an email opt-in form something like that but the issue is that whatever you have is the home page is going to exist and also the home page is going to like what you're gonna have like duplicate content so what I mean is like if say you set your home page is called home you're gonna have your website com slash home and your website com it's going to be two pages that are literally the same thing and you're gonna duplicate content and there's nothing you can do about you can't get rid of the home link you have to have a home link because that's what happens when you set a home page with Google Sites which I hate cuz it's like like re I already have like two pages that are exactly the same because the Google Sites version is available and then the custom main name version is available and now I have to have to duplicate pages on my website have to have the home page which can be found at your website comm and also your website comm slash home it's maddening I don't know why they have it set up like that but that's what you have to deal with and the last con is that you can't really monetize Google Sites in any ways you're not allowed for example like with blogger com you're able to basically set up it set it up with Adsense and magnetize it that way Google Sites you're not allowed to put Adsense or anything on it and so it's just a free platform so it's not there's no real monetization options available so again like a not a big deal if you're using Google Sites as intended but just something to be aware of alright guys that is it for this video if you enjoyed it consider subscribing hit that like button I'll see you next video bye bye [Music]

Channel: David Utke

Views: 109,238

Keywords: google sites, google sites pros and cons, google site, what is google sites, website creative pro

Id: BY5BeX0XE1Y

Length: 12min 1sec (721 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 30 2020