Google Sites

Table of Contents

About Google Sites 3

Access Google Sites 3

Google Site Home Page 3

Create a Site 4

Name your Site 4

Customize your Site 4

Choose a Theme 4

Background Image 5

Change Header Type 6

Working with Pages 6

Site Navigation 7

Adding Content 8

Edit Text 9

Edit Content/Sections 9

Collaborate 10

Real Time Edits 10

Preview and Publish 10

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Preview 10

Publish 11

Change URL 12

Unpublish 12

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About Google Sites
Google Sites allows you to easily build a website. Simply drag
content where you need it. Add content including videos, images,
presentations, documents, folders, and text. Quickly and securely
share it with an entire organization or the world.

Note: You can view the new Sites on most browsers on

computers and mobile devices. However, at this time, you can only
edit new Sites content on a computer using Chrome or the
Mozilla ® Firefox® browser.

Access Google Sites

To get to Sites from any Google page, click the app launcher at the
top right and click the Sites icon.

NOTE: The app launcher can be customized in terms of icon

location, so the location of your Docs icon may be in a different
spot in the list.

If you are using Sites for the first time, you may need to click the
More link at the bottom of the app launcher window.

Google Site Home Page

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Create a Site
• From the Sites homepage, click the Create new site icon on the lower
right

Note: All Sites files are stored in Drive.

Name your Site

When you create a new site, a file is added to Drive, just like other Drive files. Sites automatically saves
every change you make, but your site isn’t public until you publish it.

There are multiple parts of your site that will need to be named:

1. Site document name - Enter a unique name to keep track of your site. The site document
name is only visible to you
2. Site name - The site name appears in the header and in the web or mobile window title bar
after you publish the site.You need to have 2 or more pages in your website for your site name
to appear
3. Page title - Each page in your site has a title, which appears at the top of the page. The page
title also appears in the navigation menu

Customize your Site

Choose a custom look for your site.
Each theme includes a preset
background, color scheme, and font
selection, all of which can be
customized. If you decide you do not
like the theme you are using, you can
always change the theme after the site
is created.

Choose a Theme
• After your site is created, click the
Theme tab on the right
• Click a theme to apply it, and
select a color and Font style

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Background Image
Each them has a header background image. Do the following to change it:

• Hover over the header background image and click Change image
• In the Select images window, you can choose a new image in one of the following ways:
- Gallery
- By URL
- Search
- Your albums
- Google Drive
• Click Select

• (Optional) To go back to the original background image, click Reset

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Change Header Type
• Hover over the background image and click Header type
• Choose an option:
- Large banner
- Banner
- Title only

Working with Pages

1. Add Pages
- In the top-right corner, click Pages and click the Add page icon
- Name the page and click Done
2. Reorder or nest pages
- Drag a page up or down in the list to reorder it (the navigation will be in the same order as
the list)
- Drop a page on top of another page to nest it (nesting a page creates a drop down menu
item in the navigation)
- To un-nest a page, drag it to the bottom of the list
Note: You can only nest a page one level, and you can’t nest the page that’s set as the homepage

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3. Page Options
• In the Pages tab, hover over a page, click the icon on the right for more options including:
- Set as home page
- Rename page
- Create sub page
- Remove page from site (You can’t remove the page that’s set as your homepage)
- Hide from navigation

Site Navigation
By default, the navigation menu is at the top of your site.You can move the navigation menu to the left
side, but you need to have one or more pages on your site to change where it appears.

• Hover over the site name and click Navigation Settings

icon
• Choose Top navigation or Side navigation
• To see the Side navigation, click the Menu icon on the left

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Adding Content
• In the Pages tab on the right, select the page that you want to add content to
• Click the Insert tab
• Choose the content you want to add:
1. Text box - Add titles and text
2. Embed URL - Add photos, designs, and other images
3. Images - Add content directly from the web, such as music and videos
4. Upload - Upload photos, videos, PDFs, or other documents from your device
5. Component - Add a (horizontal) divider line to your page
6. Google Drive - Embed any file or the contents of a folder stored in Drive. If you make
changes to your files in Drive, the same changes automatically show in Sites
7. Google Embeds - Add YouTube videos (such as product trailers or company ads),
calendars (such as team or event calendars), and maps (such as office locations, event
directions, or custom maps)
8. Google Docs - Add anything from Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, or Charts to your site. Any
content you change in the source file will automatically update on your site
9. Double-click on the main area of the page to get a menu for adding content

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Edit Text
To edit text or page titles, just click the box and type. Or, from the toolbar above the text box, select
another option.

Edit Content/Sections
Each time you add content using the Insert option on the right, it’s added to a new or existing section.
Hover over a section to edit it.

• Background - Click the Style icon and

select a style.You can also select Image to
add a background image
• Delete - Click the Trash can icon
• Move a section - Simply click and drag a
section to move it where you want it
• Click the content inside of a section and
use the blue circles to resize it

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Collaborate
To share a site from Sites, click the Add editors icon.

Real Time Edits

When a site is shared, anyone with Can edit permissions can edit the site. Multiple people can edit a
site and the edits can be seen by everyone in real time.

Preview and Publish

Preview
If you’re viewing a site on a mobile device, the content automatically adjusts to fit the screen.You can
preview how your site appears on different devices.

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To preview your site, do the following:

• Click the Preview icon

• To see how your site will look on
different devices, choose an option on
the lower right:
- Phone
- Tablet
- Large screen
• Click the X to exit the preview
screen

Publish
When you publish your site for the first time, add a site name to complete the site URL.You can only use
letters, numbers, and dashes in the site name. The beginning of the URL includes your organization’s
domain and can’t be changed.

Publish your site for the first time:

- Click the Publish button at the top

- Add a name to the end of the URL (Certain terms, such as support and admin, can’t be used)
- (Optional) To include your site in search results, check the Allow my site to appear in search
results box. If you don’t use this option, some search engines might still find your site
- Click Publish.Visit your site's URL to confirm that your site published correctly

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Change URL
You can change your site’s URL anytime. However, if you do, bookmarks to the old URL will no longer
work.

• Click the Publish drop down arrow and choose Publish settings
• Enter a new URL
• Click Save

Unpublish
If you no longer want your site to be available online, you can unpublish it.You’ll still be able to access
and update your site content.You can also republish the site using the same URL or a different URL at
any time. If people try to visit your unpublished site, they’ll see an error message.

• Click the Publish drop down arrow and choose Unpublish

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