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Tag: Google

  • WordPress vs Google Sites (2023) — Comparing The Differences

    Interestingly enough, Google has two different website hosting options. Blogger, which is a direct competitor to WordPress.com more than WordPress.org, is focused on publishing content, and Google Sites, which is a more direct alternative to sites such as Wix and WordPress.org, where you build a website based on a project or a portfolio or even an event. When looking at WordPress vs Google Sites, we have to take into account that Sites is definitely an alternative to the CMS (content management system) elements you get in WordPress.

    WordPress hosts are plentiful, but there are a few, such as Cloudways and SiteGround, that offer awesome features at a very reasonable price. In this article, we’ll take a head-to-head look at WordPress and Google Sites, breaking down their intended users, customization features, ease of use, SEO, flexibility, and extensibility.

    WordPress vs Google Sites: Who Are They For?

    WordPress is for everyone. Really. It has elements that work for just about everybody with every kind of site. If you need an event site, there are events calendar plugins that help you run it. If you want a blog site, that’s what the platform is based on. E-commerce? WooCommerce has you covered. As the platform has evolved into a full content management system, so too has the demographic the software can appeal to. You can run simple, single-page websites as well as major sites with hundreds/thousands of pages that get millions of hits. It scales well, too.

    However, the downside to this is that it requires a bit of initial learning from users and then tweaking to make sure that the site looks and performs the way you want it to.

    Google Sites, too, is aimed at everyone simply by the fact that it’s an included part of the Google family of apps. However, rather than being aimed at everyone for everything, it’s aimed at everyone who needs a simple website for anything at all. When you set things up initially, you will choose a template and type of site (or a blank one), which then turns into a simple front-end page builder where you enter your own information.

    The customization and flexibility in Google Sites vs. that from WordPress aren’t great. However, the simplicity and lightweight efficiency that comes from the service make it a great option for anyone who needs a one-off website or a simple, static web presence.

    Which Is Best For Customization?

    One of the elements that nearly every website owner gets caught up with is site customization. Finding just the right layout, the right design, and the right color palette is imperative to website success. However, depth and ease of customization vary by platform, and the need for those varies from site to site. Both WordPress and Google Sites offer customization only in different ways. Depending on the kind of site you’re building, either one could fit the bill.

    WordPress

    WordPress is all about customization. With its entire structure being based on extensibility through plugins and themes, you really have endless choices for your sites. That can be a little overwhelming, too. Is Divi the best theme? What are the best page builder and SEO plugins? Which security plugin works the best? Do I even need one?

    plugins

    There are so many options for every single kind of feature that you may have a hard time choosing. That’s okay. While there is definitely a learning curve here, it’s hard to make a bad decision. The cream definitely rises to the top on the WordPress.org plugin and theme repositories, and anything you need to add to your site should be able to be found at the top of most simple searches.

    If you’re a coder, you can dig in even further by altering and adding to the PHP, HTML, and JavaScript in the WP core files. If not, again…don’t worry. That’s what plugin and theme developers do. No matter what you want your site to look like, there’s a tool for that. And no matter what you want your site to do, there’s a tool for that, too.

    It just might take a little research and trial and error to get the exact right fit for what you’re trying to make.

    Google Sites

    Sites, on the other hand, is a straightforward tool that doesn’t have nearly the depth of customization that WordPress does. What it does offer in customization, though, is simplicity and ease of use. If you know what kind of site you’re going to build, you have a choice of templates for your site. They are basic foundations but professionally designed.

    sites templates

    Whichever one you choose, the customization options are directly in front of you. A page builder loads and all of the options that you get are visible from the start. In general, these are aesthetic and design choices, meaning that you won’t be able to add features and utilities as you do with WordPress.

    google sites event page

    As you can see in the image above, the interface is clean and easy to use. You can add text boxes, dividers, buttons, images, and so on. Each of these has its own customization options. Some, such as text boxes, only have basic formatting (bold, italics, alignment, etc.), while others, like the header and navigation, get a more diverse range.

    google sites vs wordpress

    You can add Google Analytics for tracking, a custom domain (from anywhere and not just from Google Domains), and various brand logos, etc. Additionally, you simply drag and drop different elements along the page to design them. Google Sites provides a grid for you to follow. So while you can’t place them anywhere on the page, Sites makes sure you can place them where it works.

    WordPress Google
    Customization 🥇 Winner
    WordPress is designed to be customizable. It’s expansive plugin library has something for almost everyone.     		Google sites is a bare bones platform, making it simple to use but difficult to customize.
    Choose WordPress Choose Google

    Which Platform Is Easier To Use?

    When picking a website platform, your level of expertise matters. If you’re a new site owner, Google Sites’ simplicity is probably going to be a big draw over having to learn WordPress. WordPress has made large strides in making itself more new-user-friendly than ever. But it has plenty of holdovers from the old days that let the platform’s age shine through.

    WordPress

    Simply logging in and looking at the WordPress dashboard is a lot for a new user. Seeing all the menu items in the sidebar and the widgets on the main page is a ton of information to absorb. Often, this alone can paralyze a user because they may not know where to even begin.

    wordpress dashboard vs google sites

    Using WordPress itself isn’t that hard. In fact, it’s pretty intuitive. Once you learn how. Learning where the options and settings are located can take some time. The learning curve is moderately steep, especially when you consider the number of customization options, as we mentioned above. Adding in and customizing each theme is different, as are plugins.

    However, outside of those, the actual site editing and post creation are pretty easy. Especially with the new Gutenberg editor introduced in WordPress 5.0.

    wordpress block editor

    Users can add any blocks or elements they want, such as row blocks, stack blocks, and even block patterns. Plus, you can adjust the options for each one individually and publish with all the information right at their fingertips. Context menus are easy to navigate. And a simple search of the blocks when you add them gets you right to where you need to be quickly.

    As we said, WordPress itself is fairly easy to use. Once you learn it. Before that, you may feel overwhelmed. But the learning curve is definitely worth the power that you get from the platform.

    Google Sites

    On the other hand, Google Sites has almost no learning curve. It’s almost a flat line. No curve at all, really. Google Sites is simple and easy to use from out of the gate. The downside to having such a flat learning curve is that the power and overall options that you get are significantly limited. Especially when looking at Google Sites vs. WordPress.

    google sites vs wordpress ease of use

    Using Google Sites is a cinch. To the right, you have a sidebar with simple options such as New Page or New Link, or Make Homepage. You can make any page a subpage of any other, remove it from the header navigation, or make a copy of it.

    In addition, the elements have a simple, radial context menu with all the options available if you double-click on them. It pops up, letting you upload media, add Google Drive media, embed, adjust text, and add images.

    All of this is incredibly easy to use. And it works intuitively that you probably won’t need documentation to figure it out. Building and editing on Google Sites with no previous knowledge of the platform might have been the most intuitive experience of any interface we’ve used.

    If you’re looking for a website that you can create, edit, and launch, kind of like making and publishing a slideshow deck, Google Sites is fantastic.

    WordPress Google
    Ease of Use WordPress takes a bit of time to get used to, do to the wide range of functions available. 🥇 Winner
    Google sites is incredibly straightforward and easy to use. It is limited in terms of options though.
    Choose WordPress Choose Google

    SEO, Flexibility, and Extensibility

    Digging in under the hood of these platforms, we want to take a look at what they offer in terms of everyday use and utility for site owners. Can your site be expanded, and how can you optimize it for search rankings? Let’s take a look at how WordPress and Google Sites stack up to one another.

    WordPress

    As we mentioned above, WordPress is customizable and flexible enough to run any kind of website you need. From e-commerce to a blog to a learning management system (LMS) or membership site. The tools available within the CMS are powerful, and with the plugin ecosystem, the options are limitless.

    For SEO, WordPress can’t be beaten. Yoast SEO, Rank Math, Squirrly, and others provide absolutely amazing options so that you can edit your metadata, schema, and HTML site maps to get the best results from the web crawlers. If you’re making regular content that needs updating and adjustment to place high in the search rankings for organic discovery, WordPress is the clear winner.

    Google Sites

    On Google Sites, you’re limited to a powerful, static site builder without a plugin ecosystem. You do, however, but you do have access to the entire Google Suite of products that tie directly into it. Google Sites itself can’t be used as a publishing platform for a blog, but it can be linked to your Blogger account. You can’t run an e-commerce shop from Google Sites, but you can embed the code for a Shopify page in there. For straightforward websites, Google Sites is great. If you need something more complicated and feature-rich, look elsewhere.

    In terms of SEO, Google Sites is a letdown. Despite being a Google product, the metadata and SEO options are simply not there. If you are going to rely on organic search as the lifeblood of your site, Google Sites isn’t the platform for you. However, the sites you make are amazing for pages that will be distributed to a limited audience and/or direct traffic. Internal company websites, community updates, information, and even product or brand information pages are a perfect fit for Google Sites.

    WordPress Google
    SEO, Flexibility, Extensibility 🥇 Winner
    WordPress has solutions for all sorts of plugins to maximize SEO, and provide your website with any tools it needs.     		Google is limited to a static site builder and G-Suite products.
    Choose WordPress Choose Google

    WordPress vs Google Sites: Which One Is Better?

    Both WordPress and Google Sites are targeting two entirely different audiences. Here’s a rundown of how the features we have compared so far stack up.

    WordPress Google
    Customization 🥇 Winner
    WordPress is designed to be customizable. It’s expansive plugin library has something for almost everyone.     		Google sites is a bare bones platform, making it simple to use but difficult to customize.
    Ease of Use WordPress takes a bit of time to get used to, do to the wide range of functions available. 🥇 Winner
    Google sites is incredibly straightforward and easy to use. It is limited in terms of options though.
    SEO, Flexibility, Extensibility 🥇 Winner
    WordPress has solutions for all sorts of plugins to maximize SEO, and provide your website with any tools it needs.     		Google is limited to a static site builder and G-Suite products.
    Choose WordPress Choose Google

    WordPress is Best For Most People

    WordPress is the tool for most people simply because it’s a more robust platform that has more extensibility through plugins and themes. You can do anything you want with WordPress, but you have to give yourself the time to learn it. Then tweak it. Then set it up. Whether you’re a coder or a new website owner, you can absolutely get WordPress to do what you need. The tools are out there, and the support and documentation are, too. You have to put in the work to learn it and make the jack-of-all-trades do the work you need it to do.

    Google Sites is Good for Quick Sites

    Google Sites is an amazing platform for simple sites that need to be up quickly without any hassle. If you have no website experience whatsoever, Google Sites is perfect because it is intuitive and easy to use. You can have a website set up in well under an hour, even if you have never done anything like that before. The downside is that it’s not a very extensible or powerful platform, and you can hit its limitations quickly if you want to grow the site into something more grandiose. However, for what it is and who it targets, Google Sites is a strong tool that does exactly what it means to.

    Are There Other Choices To Consider?

    When it comes to building a website, there is no shortage of choices. We have reviewed and compared just about every website building solution under the sun and summarized our findings here. Recently we reviewed WordPress vs Blogger, which is worth a look.

    The Best Way To Get Started With WordPress

    Are you thinking about using WordPress? We think that’s a great choice! WordPress gives you the freedom to create just about anything. But where do you even start? Here’s a quick guide:

    1. Hosting: You’ll want a great host, that’s key. We recommend SiteGround and Pressable.
    2. Theme: We recommend our very own Divi Theme. It’s the most popular theme in the world for a reason!
    3. Security: Keep your website secure with iThemes Security.
    4. SEO: Make sure your website is optimized for search engines using Rank Math.
    5. Backups: In case disaster strikes, you’ll want to use BackupBuddy to keep regular backups of your data.
    6. Performance: Nothing is worse than a slow website. Keep your website running fast with WP Rocket.

    That’s it! You have assembled the ultimate WordPress toolkit and you are ready to build a successful website.

    The post WordPress vs Google Sites (2023) — Comparing The Differences appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

  • Google Rolls Out December 2022 “Helpful Content” Update

    Google is in the process of rolling out its December 2022 “helpful content” system update, which started on the 5th and is becoming more visible in search results. The company estimates it will take approximately two weeks to fully roll out.

    The helpful content system generates a signal that is used by Google’s automated ranking systems to provide people with what it deems to be more original and helpful content “written by people, for people” in search results. This particular update improves the system’s classifier and works across content in all languages.

    The system was designed to reward content where Google determines that visitors have had a satisfying experience and, conversely, where visitors do not find what they are looking for, the content will not perform as well. This is distilled into a site-wide signal where Google’s systems automatically identify “content that seems to have little value, low-added value or is otherwise not particularly helpful to those doing searches.”

    If Google finds relatively high amounts of unhelpful content on a site, the rest of the site’s content is not as likely to perform well in Search. With this application of the system, unhelpful content is like a poison for the rest of the website. Google said removing it could boost the rankings for the rest of the site’s content. It can take months for Google to reclassify a site’s content as helpful after unhelpful content has been removed.

    Google published more information on how the classifier works and what it means for rankings:

    This classifier process is entirely automated, using a machine-learning model. It works globally across all languages. It is not a manual action nor a spam action. Instead, it’s just one of many signals Google evaluates to rank content.

    This means that some people-first content on sites classified as having unhelpful content could still rank well, if there are other signals identifying that people-first content as helpful and relevant to a query. The signal is also weighted; sites with lots of unhelpful content may notice a stronger effect.

    This is the first major update to helpful content since August 2022. At that time Google encouraged site owners to focus on creating “people-first content,” as opposed to search engine-first content. Site owners are encouraged to reference Google’s guide to “Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content,” which includes dozens of questions for evaluating whether content will be deemed helpful or not.

  • UK Publishers File £13.6 Billion Lawsuit Against Google Alleging Market Abuse

    A group of 130,000 businesses publishing around 1,750,000 websites and applications in the UK have filed a lawsuit against Google and its parent company, Alphabet. The claim is being managed by law firms Humphries Kerstetter and Geradin Partners, who allege that “Google abused its dominant position in the market for online advertising, earning super-profits for itself at the expense of the tens of thousands of publishers of websites and mobile apps in the UK.”

    The firms’ economic analysis of Google’s alleged anti-competitive behavior suggests that some companies may have had advertising revenues reduced by 40%. Although Google has been the subject of multiple regulatory investigations in the EU, UK, and USA, resulting in a €220m fine from French competition authorities, this claim aims to compensate publishers and recover losses through a competition class action lawsuit.

    A statement published by Humphries Kerstetter details the focus of their investigations:

    These competition investigations all focus on the same core facts. Google dominates the markets for ad tech services in the UK and across the world controlling up to 90% of the market in certain sectors. This allows Google to dictate terms, control pricing and, in some scenarios, enables it to favour its own platforms in the process by which advertisements are selected to be published.

    The allegations of the competition claim are similar to the complaint brought by the US Department of Justice that alleges Google used AMP to impede header bidding and throttle the load time of non-AMP ads.

    “The marketplace for online advertising is sophisticated, technical and highly automated,” Claudio Pollack, who is heading the UK publishers’ competition claim, said. “Advertising is sold in a fraction of a second in a process which is designed to match the product being advertised with the profile of an individual visiting a website. Third party platforms operate on both sides of the marketplace matching supply with demand and – in an ideal world – ensuring the market operates efficiently and effectively. Unfortunately, it is now well established that this market has developed in a way that is primarily serving Google.”

    A separate multi-billion Euro claim will be running in parallel in the EU, handled by a Dutch law firm in cooperation with Geradin Partners. They are seeking compensation for the alleged damage to small, local publishers who have struggled to stay afloat amid decreased advertising revenue.

    “While the value of the claim we are bringing is substantial, we believe this matter is about much more than money,” Geradin Partners founding partner Professor Geradin said. “For years Google has been denying companies in the UK and Europe and beyond, including the local press and the publishers of community focused websites, the chance to earn a proper income by way of advertising. As well as bringing Google to account the parties who have lost out need proper compensation, something a CAT claim can achieve at no cost to those parties.”