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This post discusses everything you need to know about Google stacking. As you'll find out later, it's a great way to establish authority with the type of links you can create.
Link building is one of the best ways to rank your website on top of organic search. It's also one of the most complicated search engine optimization (SEO) processes to execute correctly.
This is because of the number of guidelines you must observe when building links. One wrong move could trigger Google's algorithm, plummeting your website rankings and eviscerating your organic traffic.
This post discusses what Google stacking is and why it's a safe way to build links as part of your authoritative SEO strategy.
What is Google Stacking?
Google stacking (also known as Google entity stacking) refers to building links to your website using Google properties.
To be clear, we're not talking about setting up a Google My Business and creating a YouTube video with a link to your site.
We're referring to properties that you can save in the folder of your Google Cloud, which include the following:
- Google Docs
- Google Sheets
- Google Maps (you may be interested in our guide to help boost your Google Maps ranking)
- Google Forms
- Google Slides
Using these properties, you can create digital real estate to help grow your online businesses using SEO tactics.
Why You Need a Google Stack for Your Online Business
Before we talk about how you can build a Google stack for your online business or website, you must know why you need to do this.
Below are the top reasons:
Leverage Google Properties for Link Building
Think of building a Google entity stack as on-page link building.
The beauty of on-page SEO is you have complete control over how you structure your website and its pages. To build content clusters, you can optimize your content for your target keywords and interlink related pages using a tool like Link Whisper.
This all helps increase your site's topical relevance and authority.
The same thing goes with your Google asset stack.
The best thing about Google authority stacking is the freedom to build backlinks the way you want. You're not at the mercy of site owners or editors who decide whether you can get a link from their site pointing to yours.
You can create content from the different Google entities about the same topic as your website. Then, by linking them together, you can create an information hub that is helpful to your intended audience.
It's also possible to create multiple Google stacks covering a different subtopic. You can then link different stacks to each other.
Ultimately, all your Google entity stacks should point back to your website. You can increase your domain authority faster by getting link juice from Google-owned properties (and also checking out these domain authority stacking strategies).
Diversify Content Strategy
Another benefit of Google stacking is to establish a content strategy outside of your website.
In this case, you want to reach out to other site owners for guest blogging opportunities. You can also partner with influential content creators in your industry. Both tactics enable you to broaden your online footprint to help spread awareness about your website.
But, as mentioned earlier, there are limits to how you can build your site's visibility with help from others.
For instance, you have to follow a site's editorial guidelines for them to approve your guest post.
And while not necessarily bad, this limits how you can write your content.
The same can be said when partnering with influencers. You may have established rigid guidelines for them to follow when promoting your brand on their channels.
As a result, you're restricting their artistic freedom, which made them famous in the first place.
When leveraging several Google platforms, you can leapfrog the above issues.
You have full control over what goes into your Google authority stack. This means you can create the best possible Google authority stacks pointing to your site without worrying about compromising your content.
Better Reputation Management
Reputation management is when brands collect and analyze the sentiment of online users about their products from different channels. The goal is to help improve the sentiment and turn it into a positive one.
Google stacking doesn't share the same definition of reputation management however it does share the same goal.
If you didn't know, Google indexes content published in the Google cloud stack. Here's an example:
Granted, I used a search operator to make the assets appear for the search terms on SERPs. But the fact that they're indexed means you can use the stack to appear on search results and fix your brand reputation.
In particular, you'll want to rank for keywords where your brand has received negative reviews from sites like Yelp.
You may have addressed all—if not most—of your shortcomings over the years, but you haven't convinced the same people to change their minds and edit their reviews.
Worse, some of these bad reviews may rank on search engine results pages (SERPs). These could scare prospects and potential clients away from your business, resulting in lost sales.
You can combat negative reviews by creating content on your site and ranking them on Google. And doing this on other Google properties allows you to expand your SEO initiative.
By ranking your stack for your target keywords, you can offset the negative results on search results, if not outrank and overpower them!
How to Stack Google Sites?
Ready to leverage Google assets to create your entity stack? Here's how to do it:
Sign Up for a Brand New Google Account
Click here to create a new Google account.
This allows search spiders to treat the Google stack you'll create from your new account as different from your existing Google properties associated with your site or brand.
As mentioned, you can create multiple stacks to expedite entity authority. For now, however, it's best to focus on building a stack first.
Then, monitor the results over time before you proceed with the next stack if the results are positive.
Create Google Drive Folders and Subfolders Using Your Keywords
First, you must plot out which keywords you want to optimize for each Google property.
As mentioned, optimize terms where people publish negative reviews about your brand.
Or consider choosing keywords with the strongest correlation with your homepage.
For instance, if you have a plumbing business, you want to create a stack targeting keywords about plumbing (learn more in our complete guide to plumbing SEO).
Let's say you don't have a keyword list yet. Head to your keyword tool to find the terms you want your homepage to rank.
Consider the services and locations you're serving in your research.
Using SEMrush, if you type "interior designer" in the search box (assuming you're offering interior design services), you'll see this list of keywords:
You should have at least four keywords to rank for your stack. For this example, let's choose "interior design styles" and "modern interior design" as two of your keywords.
Explain your keyword search by adding variables like location to unearth more keyword opportunities for your Google stack.
Next, use the keywords to create folders in your Google Drive. The first folder should be your niche (in this case, it's "interior design"). Inside it, use the keywords you researched for your subfolder names.
If you're creating a stack that links to your landing page, consider including your brand name in the folder, ex., best interior designers in Miami - [BRAND NAME]."
IMPORTANT: After creating the folders, make the folders available for public viewing.
This enables search spiders to crawl and index your assets to rank on search results.
Make the Assets
Go to each folder to create the assets using Google properties. Use the same keyword of the folder as the filename of each asset.
Treat the content you'll create for these assets as if you're publishing them on your site. You don't want Google spiders to pick up links pointing to your site from pages of poor quality.
Remember that you're not just writing articles (GDocs) for your entity stack. You're also creating forms (Google Forms), designing presentations (Google Slides), and more.
However, you can repurpose your article to turn them into the appropriate format for your Google apps. Just be creative, and present them in a way that still creates value to search spiders and your audience.
From the assets, link back to your site's homepage or a relevant page on your site. For instance, even a naked URL on a cell in Google Sheet should be good enough. The link signals you'll build here should help increase your website's authority.
After completing the content for the asset, make sure to Publish each one for the web.
This helps Google crawl the pages and index them for their appropriate keywords.
Create a Google Site that Interconnects Your Assets
To help make sense of the stacks you made, you can create a website for all of them using Google Sites.
It's a simple web page builder that lets you link or embeds the assets you created in your Google Drive in minutes.
The site you'll create here should help create an information hub about your target keyword. This allows you to interconnect pages optimized for the same keyword to help increase its topic relevance.
To begin, choose a pre-made template you want to build your site. If you want to customize the site from the ground up, start with a blank page.
Next, write some short copy optimized for the keyword of the stack you want to feature here. Then add the relevant assets on the page and customize the layout to achieve your desired look.
Also, add boilerplate pages like About Us, Contact, and others to make it look like a legitimate website. While this isn't the official website of your business, you should treat it as an extension of your brand. So, make the website as good as you can make it.
Once you have added everything, click Publish.
By default, people can access your site once it's live. That means search spiders can also make it appear on Google search results for its keyword.
Once you're done with the site, create another one for a different stack. Make the design and layout much different from the one you created earlier.
For inspiration, here's an example of a Google Site that coincidentally talks about entity stacking:
Share Your Stack to the World
Increase the visibility of your Google property stack by promoting it on social media.
You can even link or embed some of the assets in your site's blog posts. For instance, embed your Google Slides on a relevant post to help explain the topic much better.
By creating useful content in your Google stack's assets, you can leverage them to add more value to your site. At the same time, search spiders pick up the links your assets receive on your site and others.
All these signals and factors could help increase your assets' search rankings, thus boosting your stack's value.
Pros and Cons of Google Stack SEO
As you can see, building Google Cloud stacks for your website only benefits you in the long run.
However, you need to know some of its weaknesses as well. This lets you decide where to place Google stacking as part of your SEO strategy.
That said, below are its pros and cons:
Pros
- Easy to manage because you have the freedom to create content and build links that build brand authority.
- Very low risk of penalty since you're using Google properties to create the content. However, this doesn't mean you can abuse Google stacking and not expect pushback from Google.
Cons
- Google entity stacking works as if you're creating and managing a brand-new site on top of your existing one. You have to constantly create new assets if necessary and update existing ones to keep them fresh. As a result, it can be very time-consuming.
- The link signals created from Google stacks aren't as strong as links from third-party, authoritative sites.
Summary
Creating a Google Drive stack is something you should seriously consider in your SEO campaign.
At best, they should help complement your existing strategy so you can maximize your site's ability to rank on SERPs.
Following the tips above should help you get a head start.
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