It is safe to say that Google has done a lot to mould the internet as we know it. Their rules for how to rank websites on search results has led to the booming industry of search engine optimization. They have control over YouTube, the largest video repository openly available to anyone for free. Of course, their search engines and YouTube are both absolutely riddled with advertisements and promoted content. But hey, they are Google. They can do anything they want to, right?
So what is the best way to consider their website creation platform? Now, you can go through the entire process of creating, launching, and managing a website through a tool called Google Sites. All because Google makes it does not mean it is automatically going to work for you. Remember, the company put a lot of eggs in both the Google+ and Google Glass.
The best way to look at it will be to compare it to what is arguably the industry standard: WordPress. WordPress has been around for nearly two decades and has a huge community behind it. So with Google’s resources, how does it stand up?
Google Sites Vs WordPress
Google Sites is known to be simpler. If you are brand new to the game, you might find an easier time getting started with it than WordPress. However, if you are more interested in the long game, then WordPress is better suited for your needs.
WordPress has more features and customization options. It is much easier to make the website you imagine when using WordPress. The learning curve looks steep from the first look. However, with such a large community for support videos and guides, you can see quickly that WordPress follows a user-friendly design.
The core discussion between Google Sites and WordPress is a choice between convenience and customization. By nature, the more choices you have, the more complicated something becomes. So it makes sense that Google Sites gives you fewer options to simplify the experience of building a website.
Google Sites Problems
Google Sites has a few problems that are not present with WordPress. The biggest issue is that it not open-source. The coding for the service is hidden, so only Google really knows how to create any extra features or add-ons.
WordPress is open-source. By its very nature, it is meant for the community to build new features to share. Many of these are free. The best of them cost money and come with updates and maintenance. Even though the more premium themes and plugins can cost you some money, you have the choice to buy them or not. You are not stuck with any specific choice. You decide what plugins to use, when to use them, and how.
Themes
There are countless websites available online. It is more important than ever to do whatever it takes to stand out. One of the most obvious ways is by having a site that looks unique. Even though there are design standards your site will share with others, you want people to be able to recognize your website by sight alone.
WordPress has more themes than you can realistically try by yourself. There are so many that the options are often split into categories, sub-categories, and tags. Whatever niche you are interested in will likely have a theme that will help. Google Sites, on the other hand, only has a handful. They are suited just fine for their categories, but there just is not much to pick from.
Another issue comes with customization. WordPress gives you a lot of control in how you use and change your themes. If you feel like one theme does not give you enough control, you can shop around for one that does. There are many options that are specifically designed to make sure you can build a website design that is perfect for you. On the other hand, Google Sites restricts your site design. There is unfortunately not much you can change about the look and layout of your site.
Security
You would think having the backing of a site like Google would give plenty of resources to combat security breaches. Unfortunately, this status puts a pretty big target on the service. Since Google provides so many different free services that link together, hackers can look for the weakest link. They only need one of those services to have an opening for them to get access to accounts that use any other Google tool. The fact that they are such a large company does not automatically stop cybercriminals from phishing Google’s tools.
WordPress sticks to the website creation game. And since they give you the freedom to pick your own third-party plugins and themes, there is not a situation where hackers can look for the weakest link with WordPress. The CMS itself is solid. Aside from that, the rest of the security is up to you. Being smart about your choices for plugins and such will go a long way to keeping you safer.
SEO for Google Sites Vs WordPress
It seems like this should be easy. Google pretty much defines the standard for SEO. Their websites should be perfect. However, there is more to it than that. A huge portion of SEO depends on the content of the site. That means it depends on you knowing what you are doing.
The prime difference between Google Sites and WordPress in regard to SEO is in support. WordPress has a few plugins that take the role of coaching you through best SEO practices. Yoast, for example, will help make sure every post you make fits the accepted standards for SEO. And for premium versions, it can help you with keyword research. When it comes to SEO, it is easy to feel lost. And the worst thing you can do is just ignore it.
Final Thoughts
It is safe to say that Google’s place on the internet is not going to change any time soon. Even if the comparison of Google Sites vs WordPress does not go their way, their status will not change much. They will still be the trendsetter everyone goes to in order to find the websites they want to see.
But that does not mean every product and tool they have will work for you. It is a big world, and there are many options for everything you do. It is natural to want more control over how you build your website. If that is the case for you, then Google Sites might not be your best bet. Instead, you might be looking at making a site with WordPress.
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