Though not a lot has happened with Sites, the recent redesign of Google services means this tool is an option too. It is easy to set up and offers more design control than other free tools.
User interface
You don’t need to do much sign up to get started. If you have a Gmail account, you are already set up- the tool is available for any existing account, and it may surprise you if your Google Site already exists with your name. The interface doesn’t change much since the last time I tested it; if anything, there is less on there now.
The homepage for sites is much simpler than it was back in 2008. Instead of offering a video tutorial, tabs for example sites and How It Works, there’s just an option to Create Site. Once you’re inside the editing interface, you choose between new or old interfaces and the new one features non-text icon buttons in a simple gray and black color.
You can now create sites from a single button, which are simpler to maintain, and secure thanks to Chrome’s Captcha protection.
Google Sites lets you create different templates and themes, depending on the layout that you want. Google Sites provides a decent collection of templates to choose from, with more diverse web design. Webs or Homestead is a better option for templates if you’re looking for more options.
Sites is worse at editing than its competitors. After you create your page you can’t edit anything until you press “pencil” button and even then not much of the page is editable. Webs has a more intuitive interface that lets you easily drag and drop options, rather than click a pencil icon.
Customizing Your Website
You can generate a higher quality website with an installed site designer, or use blog entrepreneurs to create a blog post. If you’re not ready to start your own company, Geekbot and Copymatic are two low priced solutions for generating content that’s similar quality to that written by a human.
At first, you’ll only be able to view the template you chose. But don’t worry; you can edit the page by clicking on the Edit Page pencil button and start to type or paste content. If you scroll over the top toolbar, there are other options such as Create page and More that can hide another 11 more choices such as Print and Change Template.
When I didn’t find a way to edit the photo, I realized that I have to go to the site’s settings. After clicking on More and scrolling down to see Manage Site, I had access to an option for managing images.
Table formatting is easy and standard, with a well-stocked dialog category for widgets.
With sites, you can easily add new pages and switch templates without losing site content. This is different from homestead because you could specify the type of page you are creating.
With GigPress, you can add new pages to your site tree or list. Unlike Homestead, where you can rearrange the position of each page on the website, Muse only displays all the pages in one list.
Google Sites – it’s free and easy to customize
Google Chrome offers a variety of Gadgets from both Google and third-party developers that make it easy to insert news, finance, tools, and tech widgets into your webpages. You’ll need to be careful when adding Gadgets to your webpage, as not all gadgets are vetted by Google.
You can choose from five sizes for your slideshow, from small to extra-extra large. You also get Google Docs and videos in this section, with downloads up to 20MB. However, it doesn’t have features like custom transitions or formatting that you would find on Webs, Homestead, or Adobe Muse. Business programmers can add Web macros but the casual site builder will not be able to take advantage of these.
You can see and edit the HTML for your page, just the parts that you entered, not the template. There is no option for HTML in the Insert menu but if you insert a Text Box, an HTML option lets you enter code there. But even standard YouTube embed code didn’t display normally: There was a rectangle titled YouTube video, but no thumbnail or player. No other site builder had any problem displaying YouTube embed code. Of course, I could have just used Sites’ specific YouTube choice but I wanted to test the standard embed code.
Adding AdSense ads to your site will result in a check amounting to any click-throughs of the ads. To be approved by Google, you must complete a process which includes agreement not to click on your own ads or sell any products which are classified as pornographic.
To measure and dissect site traffic, Google analytics is a little bit of a pain to implement. You have to search an external blog to figure out how to do it. And you can’t see your traffic analytics webpage integration analysis in the Google Sites interface or management menus.
What is Google Sites, And Why Would You Use It?
Google Sites is designed for people new to the field of website development who want a way to create their own website. However, run-of-the-mill features and design restrictions make it difficult for small businesses looking to differentiate themselves from competitors.