How to create a Website in Google Sites for Free in 2020

Hi my name is fatha and welcome back to

the blog where we make educational

technology easy for you in today's blog

I'm going to answer that question.

Can you create a website for free????

and the answer is yes 😍😍😍😍😍😍

easy to create and that I can share out

to the world yes it's possible and in

today's blog we're going to do adjust

that so let's dive in.

 I'm going to walk you through

Google Sites and we're going to look at

the entire process of creating a website.

I'm going to look at the headers the

pages and all the little details that

you need to understand in order for us

to create a website together.

Now I highly encourage that you to open a new window and

together we're going to start creating our websites now

before you even get started there's a

couple of things you need to consider,

First of all who is going to be your audience 

why are you creating this?

website you need to think of their age

the demographics and also how they are

going to be accessing this website now

Google Sites is amazing and being

mobile-friendly but when you're

designing your website that's still very

important to keep that target audience

in mind in addition to this you're going

to have to decide what you're using the

website for is it going to be for

resources class materials or is it more

in a blog styled eportfolio format all

those things are possible with Google

Sites but it is going to require you to

commit some time now once you've

committed time into creating a website

it'll be very important to update the

website and since recently you are now

going to be able to even notify all the

viewers of your website when the website

was last updated this is going to give

them that sense that the website is

alive and new content is added regularly

now where do I begin there's a couple of

places where you can start you can type

in sites.google.com and that will allow

you to then create a new Google Sites

now Google Sites are files and these

files live in your Google Drive now that

means you can also use the app launcher

go to your Google Drive and create a

Google Sites file that way you can right

click and add a new Google Sites or

simply click on new Google Sites now the

first thing with any document is title

your document

let's give our website the name demo

website now we can do this at the top

now let's say that you'd like to do it

in your Google Drive same as with other

files simply right-click on the file and

then rename your file now this file name

will also appear on your title header

and we can change this later but for now

let's leave it at demo websites now this

file name will also become your website

name now these are not the same you we

have your file name at the top and our

website name is down below now let's go

ahead and give our website a name let's

call this my website you will now notice

your file name is still demo website but

your website has the name my website

Google Sites is as with any other Google

app very good for collaboration and

that's what we're going to do now

because you'll probably want to

collaborate with some of your colleagues

to create this amazing website now you

can find that in the top corner and

you'll see that same plus icon the plus

people so what we're going to do is

we're going to add some collaborators

now go ahead and click on that and then

we're going to add someone that is going

to get some editing privileges for our

website mind you this is not how you

share your website with the world this

is only for website editors so let's say

that you're creating a website for your

school you can add all your colleagues

to that and then they can add content

onto your websites this saves you time

and again it helps to keep the website

alive now as with any other file in

Google you can choose rather you want

someone to be an editor or a viewer now

this is where you set that up once

you've added your collaborators it's

time to start giving our website a

little bit of design now the biggest

design choices you will make are right

here and this is in your sidebar where

you're going to choose a theme now the

theme is going to decide which type of

foam so you're going to use and also

which overarching color you're going to

be using now you can add a custom color

but for now let's just stick to the

basics and let's choose our first theme

now they are limited in choice and the

fonts are limited in choice as well hope

this will be included in future updates

with Google Sites but for now we are

limited to these themes and these fonts

now we can add our own color and we can

use a hex code for that you will now see

your website has a different look and

overall feel and what we're going to do

now is hover over that title and we're

going to change this title into welcome

because this is our first page and it is

a welcome page so go ahead and type

welcome at the top and then we're going

to look at these different banner styles

now hovering over the actual banner will

give you an option to change the style

now we have four different styles we

have a very large banner we have a

header a smaller one or text only now

these can be different on different

pages now we can also add our own images

to these banners this is great when

you've got some really well-designed

images of yourself with a plain

background or you'd like to add your own

little background to this website it is

worth noting that you can also use

animated gif or gif files and this will

allow you to create a sense of animation

at the top I would highly recommend

exploring some cinemagraphs they will

make your website look alive and it adds

a personal touch to that website now if

you want to use your own image or gif

gif file then you simply hover over your

banner you find the change image and

then select upload this allows you to

upload your own image and it is now part

of Google Sites that's the top of our

website now let's scroll all the way

down and this is where we find the

footer

now the footer of Google Sites this is

the same across all pages this could be

used for a copyright notice or a simple

link to your social but you can change

the footer by simply clicking on that

plus add footer and then pasting in your

text or typing it manually you can add

images to the footer and links now you

will notice that this footer creates a

new horizontal block this is different

from the banner which is also a

horizontal block now as we add more

content to our Google Sites more

horizontal blocks are created these can

all be formatted in their own way

to do that you hover over one search

block and then at the left hand side you

can see that you can change the style we

have two different emphasis styles that

these depend on the theme you've chosen

and we can also upload an image here

again this can be a Jif or gif animated

file think carefully about which

emphasis styles to use and also where

you place them on your website because

as you scroll down these horizontal

blocks will become visible as your

visitors are on the website and we do

not want to distract from the actual

content on our websites let's add a logo

and favicon now our logo can be added at

the top left corner now in the top left

corner you'll see that there is an

option when you hover there that says as

logo but the logo will appear on every

page in the top corner of your website

this is where you can upload a file this

can be your own logo it can be a school

logo anything you'd like it to be I

would highly recommend that you create

your own logo you can use Google

drawings for that I'll leave some cards

that link to Google drawings tutorials

but if you've already got a logo go

ahead and upload that now we can also

add our own fav icon this is a little

icon that appears in your browser tab or

whenever you save your website in your

bookmarks and we can add that by

clicking on the three dots in the top

right corner once you've done that

you'll see that there's an option that

says add favicon simply click on that

upload a square-shaped

image and you're ready to go now you

will not see that favicon just yet

because it will only appear once your

website is published to the Internet at

the moment we're still editing so we can

only upload our favicon ready to go

but it will not be visible in our

preview but the last thing to do is to

decide where we want our menu do we want

to keep it at the top horizontal or do

we want to move it to the side and have

it as a vertical aligned menu this is

completely up to you and depends on the

sort of website you're trying to create

now let's move on to adding content and

pages to our website now before adding

pages I'd like you to really think about

how many pages you're adding because too

many pages will be distracting better to

limit the amount of pages and really

think about the content you're trying to

share

now once you know which pages to add

simply go to the sidebar where you have

a pages browser and that's where we're

going to click on that plus icon to add

pages as you're adding pages you will

also title these pages a new page will

be created in your workspace and you can

again set this up change the banner type

and start adding some titles now it is

worth noting that you can add sub pages

that is two ways of doing this now you

can either click on the plus icon create

a page and then drag and drop it on top

of another page you can also go to a

page that you would like to keep as a

parent page and then click on the three

dots next to it and click on add a sub

page this will create a page within that

page this will be reflected in your

navigation bar now let's say that you

want to create a page you want to link

to that page but you don't want the page

in your menu bar simple you can click on

the three dots and you can hide this

from your navigation you can still link

to it from outside sources or from on

another page but it will not appear in

your menu this is great for resource

pages or even private pages that you'd

like to share with some people but not

everyone now let's say that you've added

about four or five pages and you really

want to change the order they appear

well the same way that we can

drag-and-drop sub pages we can also drag

and drop our pages to appear in a

different order this is very handy when

you're trying to rearrange the pages

afterwards or when you've created all

your pages and now you're going to start

putting them into subcategories very

useful and very intuitive to simply

click drag and drop now let's say that

you have a youtube channel or a Twitter

and you want to put that into your menu

well you can also add external links now

again we're going to click on that plus

but this time we're not going to click

on a new page we're clicking on new link

this is an external link it could be any

link can be your YouTube channel and

then that link will be added to your

menu so for example you can have a menu

structure where you have your home and

then the second one is resources in

one of those sub resources is an

external link let's say that you no

longer need a page what can you do what

you can delete that page you can simply

click on the three dots and delete the

page mind you you can still restore this

but once you've moved on there is no way

of getting back to that page so I would

highly recommend that maybe you have a

page hidden from your navigation for a

couple of days maybe even weeks and if

you still don't need that page back then

you can go ahead and delete it now in

terms of setting up the actual content

on our page Google Sites makes it super

easy for us in our side menu there is an

insert menu and at the top of that menu

you'll see there's a number of layouts

now these layouts are templates we can

use for our websites so let's go ahead

and select the layouts and now we can

add content to this layouts you will see

there's a number of image placeholders

and we can simply click on those to

upload new images let's say that you

want to design the website from scratch

and you want to do everything yourself

no problem simply scroll down and you

will see all the different insert

options so let's go ahead and insert a

text box now and let's say that you want

to resize any of these elements this

could be a text button or image can we

do this yes we can we can simply click

on it and then any of these corner

points we can drag and drop it to

enlarge or minimize our elements you can

do this with images and you can do this

with texts mind you if you do it with

images there will be an automatic crop

but you can always reset that by simply

clicking on the undo crop button now why

do we want to resize well because it

makes it so much easier to move elements

around our page let's say that you've

added two images and a whole bunch of

text what can you do well you could

simply drag and drop any of those

elements and you can leave them either

above under or next to another elements

this is minimum effort and you can

always change it later now you will see

there's many other options here you've

got image carousels now that you can

insert you've got a divider that you can

use to break up the website but you can

also use these horizontal sections to

give your website a

design or a different feel you can even

leave an empty section with some empty

text and then give it an emphasis layout

to again add a personal touch to your

Google Sites now let's say that you have

an incredible amount of data or lots of

resources and you want to share all

these with people now you do not want to

create twenty pages and have them all in

the menu so what you can do is you can

create these twenty pages have them all

hidden from your menu and then we're

going to insert a table of contents now

where do we do that same menu insert

menu and then we find table of contents

this allows you to have all this

information on a websites whilst

remaining that clean look of the minimal

pages with still access to the resources

there are some limitations to Google

Sites and these are very obvious when

you're trying to change the font sizes

or font types or when you're trying to

add even more specified content like

specifically animated buttons or other

effects now in order to still do all

those things you can use embed HTML code

now I will write an entire blog on that

that you can watch or read in future, if you're happy with

standard buttons you can find those

buttons in the insert menu and again

that button will use that theme that

you've selected in order to have a color

or an effect now I really like using the

built in buttons to either a link to a

page or link out to another website you

can also link to anchors now what is an

anchor now an anchor is where you have a

long page with lots of different

subtitles and you want to link to one of

those subtitles but there is a

limitation here though if you are using

links to these anchors they will open up

in a separate tab

now if you want to link to an individual

anchor from your menu

you can do this as well now in order to

find these anchors you will have to go

into your preview window now once you've

created a website and you have your text

boxes and your titles all ready to go

simply open it up in the preview window

now as you scroll down and your hover

above one of those subtitles you will

see there is now a new icon that appears

this is a link icon and when you click

on that the anchor link will be copied

now when you paste this as a hyperlink

or within your menu structure or even

within a button this will link to the

subheading and it will automatically

scroll down the page to find that part

of the page that is relevant this is

great when you've got long pages with

lots of information and you want to link

to a specific part of that page now who

doesn't like video I love video If you  got

YouTube videos and you can put  YouTube

videos on to your Google Sites now how can

I do this well again there's two ways

that you can do this now the first way

you can do this is by going into your

insert side menu finding YouTube and

this will open up the insert menu now

there's only two options here you can

find a video by searching for it or you

can use one of your uploaded videos now

let's say that  you have multiple accounts and video is

uploaded with one and your website with

another well then you will have to go

and get that URL from YouTube once

you've got that URL you're not going to

use the insert menu you're going to

double click on your website that's

where you're going to paste that URL and

Google Sites will automatically

recognize it as a YouTube video and

embed that video now this is great when

you're embedding videos of other people

they will still get two views and they

remain the author of that video they get

proper credits and you can use their

content on your websites I'm thinking of

websites that are shared with students

and parents where you've got lots of

little videos two resources maybe even

songs and tutorials that are helpful to

them now what else can we embed well we

can insert a calendar we can insert a

Google Maps all these things are very

easy to do you can simply click on that

side menu and far

what you're trying to insert now let's

say that you've got a document and this

is a brainstorming document and you want

to just give access to that document on

your website in a centralized area

well that too is possible simply go to

insert from Drive and then find the

document or file that you would like to

have on your website you can then resize

this so that is very clear for people

and that they can read the contents

whenever that file is updated it will

automatically show the most up-to-date

version on your Google Sites now the way

Google Sites allows you to embed

external content is there's two ways you

can either use the URL of that content

or you can use an HTML code now if

you're not really too sure about HTML

code simply try using the URL and Google

Sites will try to read it it's only when

things get a little bit more complex

there we're going to use the HTML code

now we're talking about social profiles

like your Twitter stream or even some

Facebook streams they will actually

provide you with an embed HTML code that

you can paste into that box we still

have to publish our website though

because at the moment only collaborators

and us can see this website now in order

to publish your website you're going to

have to go to the top and first of all

you're going to want to preview your

website so go ahead and click on the I

icon and now we can preview our website

we can see what it looks like on large

displays tablet displays and even

smartphone displays now make sure that

you check every single page so that you

can get a feel of what your website will

look like at any tweaks necessary for it

to work on all three formats and then

you can exit this preview by clicking on

the X once everything looks the way you

want it to look and you're ready to go

live click on that big publish button

now you can go ahead and click on

publish and then you are able to publish

either to the entire world or a few

select people now let's say that you've

already published your website and

you've added some changes well what's

important that you keep pressing publish

after every change you've made it

automatically saved the changes into

your file

these do not go live until you click

publish that means that you see changes

collaborate to see changes but the rest

of the world only sees these changes

once you've hit that publish button

let's say that you want to take it

offline altogether whether you can

always unpublish your website as well

and then all we want is a custom domain

now in order for you to get a custom

domain there's a number of domain

providers I would highly recommend

looking at domains dot Google because

that is a very easy to use domain

provider they not only give you a domain

but they also automatically add domain

privacy to it now if you go to another

domain provider I highly recommend that

you also purchase the domain privacy

because that will keep all your contact

information and address hidden from the

rest of the world now in order to

connect your domain to your website

there are two big groups that will have

to use a different way of doing it now

if you're part of G suite for education

or G suite account then on how you connect it to AG suite

accounts however if you have a private

Google account and you've created your

Google Sites with a private Google

account you too can connect your domain

to your Google Sites the only thing is

you'll have to use a slightly different

technique to do that first thing click

on the three dots next to the publish

button and click on custom URL this is

where you can now type your custom URL

now don't think it you're ready yet

because you're not finished you still

have to do some work in the backend now

go ahead and tap anywhere outside of the

screen once it says custom URL assigned

the next step now is to point your

domain to that website now where do I do

this with your domain provider let's say

that you've used domains don't Google

com go there and then find the DNS

settings if you've used a different

provider same thing if you've used

GoDaddy login to GoDaddy and then find

your dns settings you're now going to

look for a custom resource and you're

going to add a custom resource again

this will look different depending on

which provider you've used but they all

use the same terminology that

custom resource you're going to add is a

www resource you're going to choose the

type C name so we have WWC name and then

this is going to point to GHS dr. Google

hosted comm so we have a www cname

pointing to GHS dot Google hosted comm

now once you've saved all these settings

it can take between let's say half an

hour maybe even up to 24 hours for

everything to begin working and that's

it you now have a custom domain you have

your own website and you're ready to

share it with the world I hope you found

this blog helpful dive in to that

comment section below and let me know do

you enjoy these long-form blog you

want to see more in depth trainings like

this and what app would you like me to

look at next

also what are you using Google Sites for

are you using it for resources students

portfolios maybe even your online resume

let me know I would love to start a

conversation down below but that was all

for this blog and

I will see you in the next one thank you for reading