Google Workspace: Sites

Sites allows anyone to create simple web sites

You can access Sites by going to sites.google.com/new or you will see your Sites in your Drive. The link sites.google.com without the /new takes you to the old Sites website which is being decommissioned and will become out of service at the end of 2021. You’ll know the difference between the two as the old Sites looks old and the new Sites looks modern and fresh.

To start off, if you want an example of how to best use Google Sites, check out the Glyn Library site. Occasionally the Library offer intro sessions on Sites to go through basics and to help staff understand it so it’s worth keeping an eye out on their emails.

Google Sites Policy

You can create a new site from either Google Drive or from Google Sites.

In Drive, you can click the + New button in the top left corner.

In Sites, there is a + icon in the bottom right corner of the screen that you can click.

Create a site

Before we go in to the basics of Sites, we must make sure you are aware of the Google Sites Policy. All staff must adhere to this policy when creating a site. You can find it here – Google Sites Policy.

Name, Header, Title & Theme

There are a few things to set up before you start adding content to your site, starting with the titles, header and names for the site as well as the theme which sets the overall style.

Site name, public – The name of the site that anyone viewing the site will see. Can be set to a small image such as a logo. Logo files can be in .jpg, .png, or .gif format. For best results, the logo height should be at least 112 px.

Site name, Drive – The name of the site so you can find it in Google Drive.

Home page title – The main title on the home page of your site.

Header type – 4 options. Cover (image only), Large banner (Large image with title), Banner (Default, medium sized image with title) and Title only (no image).

Background image – Set a background image for your header.

Theme – 6 themes to pick from to change style of site. Can change font style and colours within each theme.

Create a Note

There are three different types of pages in Sites. Information on each one is below:

Home Page – The main page of the website, normally the first page users see. First button on main menu.

Page – Add more pages for more content. Additional pages are shown in the main menu.

Subpage – Nested below other pages. Will appear as drop down options when mouse is hovered on the main menu. Perfect to group multiple pages about similar topics together.

The example here from the Library page shows each of the three types of pages. The main ‘Home’ page is the first page in the menu, the Library FAQs is the ‘Page’ and the others are the ‘Subpages’ that only appear if you hover your mouse over the Library FAQs page link.

Changing the navigation

Once you’ve added a page or two to the site, you can change the position of the navigation menu. There are two options for this, Top or Side. After adding a site, hover your mouse to the left of your site name and click the little cog icon then select your preferred option.

An example of the two options and how to change them is below:

Content

At the time of writing there are 14 different types of content you can add and two different ways to add some of them.

The first 4 items can be added by double clicking on a blank space in your site which will bring up a content wheel. Alternatively, you can use the Insert tab to select the content from a list.

Here is a list of the types of content you can add:

Text box – Add titles and text.

Embed – Add content directly from the web, such as videos or music. Requires embed code.

Images - Add images from Drive, Google Image Search, a URL or upload from your computer.

From Drive – Embed any file (From Drive) 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.

Button – Add a button and set a custom link to anywhere on the web or in your site.

Divider – Add a horizontal divider line to your page.

YouTube – Embed a YouTube video in to your site. Opens a YouTube search box.

Calendar – Embed a calendar such as your team or the college calendar.

Map – Add maps to your site such as an event or office location or a custom map you can create at mymaps.google.com..

Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, Charts – Add any content directly from your Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms or Charts files. Anything you change in the original files will be updated automatically on your site

Preview, Share & Publish

Here is a list of the types of content you can add:

Text box – Add titles and text.

Embed – Add content directly from the web, such as videos or music. Requires embed code.

Images - Add images from Drive, Google Image Search, a URL or upload from your computer.

From Drive – Embed any file (From Drive) 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.

Button – Add a button and set a custom link to anywhere on the web or in your site.

Divider – Add a horizontal divider line to your page.

YouTube – Embed a YouTube video in to your site. Opens a YouTube search box.

Calendar – Embed a calendar such as your team or the college calendar.

Map – Add maps to your site such as an event or office location or a custom map you can create at mymaps.google.com..

Unpublish

If you no longer want your site to be available online, you can unpublish it. You can still 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.

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