Google Sites

[Redfox]

Hi is anyone using google sites? how do you find it? Ive started building a site using google find it a little clunky but seems to be working out ok.

Be a while before I finish with it just messing around really as its free, but dont want to point my domain name to it if I decide its not for me and go somewhere else (Yep I know I can take my domain name anywhere I choose).

Might even make the site live when finished as its free and take out a subscription on another one as I have 3 domain names.

Anyone like dislike it? got bookings through it? As a footnote I have read a lot about pointing other domain names to one site, some say its not such a good idea Google picks up on it and does not like it. Parking domains is the term but I might be wrong.

Rob

[Alex Chapman]

Hi is anyone using google sites?

We use it for both our vacation rental web sites.

• Beech Mountain Bliss Vacation Rental
  Sunset Beach Bliss Vacation Rental

how do you find it?

In general it makes building/editing the site quite straightforward. The gadgets for google calendar, google maps, google docs and picasaweb make adding availability calendars, maps, contact forms and photo slideshows quite straightforward. Some of the limitations are that you cannot add javascript, and certain html and styles will get stripped out by the editor.

got bookings through it?

Yes. We've run both our vacation rental web sites on it for 3 years. 12% of our bookings for one property and 8% for the other have come through the web site. I mention this in this article on Setting up a Vacation Rental Website.

I have read a lot about pointing other domain names to one site, some say its not such a good idea Google picks up on it and does not like it.

Generally the concern is that it looks like your content is duplicated at two sites. When you park the domain, visitors looking at myncvrhome.com and my-nc-vacation-rental.com see identical content. Instead of "parking" the domain, using domain forwarding seems to be preferred. With domain forwarding, a visitor going to my-nc-vacation rental.com would be 301 redirected to myncvrhome.com. Google sees that the content is in just one "place".

[peacefulpakefield]

I'm quite a newbie at holiday rentals but have been fairly full since opening in July. Many from the www.peacefulpakefield.co.uk

It takes a while to get used to it and I'm learning but its free and versatile. If you have some time give it a try.