Are Google Sites still good for parasite SEO?
After the Core Update I can find many Google Sites indexed in search engines like Google, but they seem not to rank much higher and are replaced by good and original sites made by creators? What actually the affiliate marketers like me were using google sites for creating PBN (as a parasite) to drive traffic to affiliate offer or our money site where offers are displayed and they used to rank at top in SERPs mostly on google.com but after the March and June core update those sites are ranking on page 2 or 3, that is, they got tanked. My question is are you guys still using Google sites to rank affiliate CTA offers or adding smart links from CPA ad networks to those sites?
Indeed google sites are still working good for parasite SEO. If you want to build a PBN with google site you can do so, but right relevant content that converts into leads. You can add 3 to 4 paragraphs of helpful content and a button link which redirects user to the CTA affiliate campaign or your money site. Don’t use black hat techniques. I’ve seen people using such bad tactics see drop in ranking in SERP. You can also use google sites for covering long-tail keywords or keyterms related to your CTA offers.
Google sites rank quite well in SERP in both Google and Bing. I’ve even seen google sites getting mentioned in AI overviews on google itself. The important point is those are genuine sites not filled with marketing content. Always write helpful content that satisfies users intent of searching. Then only they’ll click on the hyperlink or button on goo-gle sites to go your landing page of affiliate offer.
Well, from my experience google sites are easy to get indexed in google and also in bing. but ranking has bit gone down. More helpful sites on similar topics are taking place on google page one. But you can optimize your google sites with relevant content, images, inforgraphic, and lead buttons or links that can convert well. Always use SEO best policies and webmaster guidelines to write great content.
If you want to rank on page 1 on google for your short or long tail keywords, then better get a custom .com domain name from registrar like The Online or godaddy or any other and also buy web hosting with cPanel and put up a wordpress blog. Now-a-days after google core updates I’m seeing google is ranking new sites by creators than sites used as PBN like google sites, medium blog, wordpress.com subdomain, or wix, weebly free sites, etc. created on subdomains or subfolder. Better own your own site and you can turn it like a small PBN too.
I too agree with this. While google sites are getting indexed in a day or two, the ranking for them is bit hit or miss. We can’t optimize them more with their default editor. Rather put a new blog on some cpanel shared hosting which offers one-click wordpress or even import your blogger/blogspot blog on your own custom domain. This way you can add more SEO plugins, even AI (GEO) plugins, and ofcourse build credibility around your domain and it starts ranking in 4-5 months on google for long tail keywords and take around an year to rank for short keywords. My own site started ranking high when I imported content from google sites to my own wordpress blog.
Someone asked me why google sites are used a parasite seo. well here is a detail answer:
Private Blog Site Networks (PBNs) stay one of the most discussed
yet effective devices in SEO. When used correctly, they can considerably boost search positions by supplying high-quality backlinks. Improper usage can lead to penalties from Google.