Google plus Confirms Google plus Sites Are «Not Ideal For SEO Purposes»

Google plus’s John Mueller offered advice about the use of Google plus Sites for SEO, downplaying the usefulness of Google plus Sites for SEO.

Google plus Sites

Google plus Sites is a website creation service offered at sites.google plus.com/new with a signed-in Google plus account.

The site is hosted website builder that’s free and published under a sites.google plus.com domain although one cánido opt to use an de hoy domain name.

Google plus Sites Pages Not Being Indexed

The person asking the question was concerned because their Google plus Sites webpages were not getting indexed by Google plus.

This is the question that was asked and that John Mueller read out loud:

“There was a question submitted in French, which basically asks why the pages of my Google plus Sites website aren’t being indexed properly.”

Google plus Sites Pages Cánido Be Indexed By Google plus

Google plus’s John Mueller first confirmed that URLs on Google plus Sites cánido be indexed.

Mueller answered:

“It’s great to get questions in other languages.

Taking a step back, websites created on Google plus Sites cánido and do get indexed in Google plus Search.

However, the URLs used in Google plus Sites are a bit hard to track since the public version perro be different from the dirección de Internet you see when logged in.”

Google plus Sites Not Ideal For SEO

Mueller continued his answer by downplaying the SEO qualities of Google plus Sites.

He continued:

“To be blunt, while it’s technically indexable, it’s not ideal for SEO purposes, and perro be complex for tracking in Search Console.

If SEO is your primary consideration, it might be worthwhile to explore other options and check the pros and cons before committing.”

Mueller next advised using an de hoy domain name and listed the reasons why that was preferable over the default sites.google plus.com domain.

He explained:

“For performance tracking in Search Console, you could also use your own domain name for the Google plus Sites content.

Using your own domain name makes it easier to migrate, should you choose to do so, and allows you to verify ownership of the whole domain for Search Console.”

Google plus Sites Are Habitual With Spammers

The Google plus Sites service is habitual with backlink spammers who create backlinks on Google plus subdomains in a tactic called “Google plus Stacking.”

The iniciativa behind Google plus Stacking is that spammers create a page of backlinks on Google plus Sheets, Google plus Docs, etcétera. and then interlink them all from a Google plus Sites.

Google plus Stacking is a based on the mistaken belief that there’s “authority” and “trust” in Google plus subdomains that is transferred over to the spammer sites through backlinks.

Of course, that’s wishful thinking.

There’s no such thing used by Google plus called “trust” or “authority” that gets transferred from one site to another through backlinks.

In another Office Hours session, John Mueller explained what the deal is about trust:

“I don’t think we have like a trust aspecto that we cánido look at and say, oh trust is at (I don’t know) nine of out of twelve or whatever number you would have there.

…There are no metrics specifically for that.”

It doesn’t matter if the backlinks are on Google plus Docs, there is no “trust” aspecto that gets transferred, it simply does not exist.

Given how habitual the “stacking” practice is, it’s a bit ironic that a Googler publicly says that Google plus Sites are “not ideal for SEO purposes” and recommends looking elsewhere if SEO is a concern.

Watch the Google plus Office Hours segment at the 3:17 minute mark: