Google Sites Website Builder Review (2024)

When it comes to DIY website creation, the modern web design market has multiple services to offer both to beginners and industry pros. The platforms differ in terms of applicability, customizability, integrated feature set, pricing and other essential parameters. Google Sites is one of the simplest web building solutions to try.

What Is Google Sites?

Google Sites – is a free and easy to use website builder. It works well for small personal and educational projects. The service does not have eCommerce tools, and it generally lacks functionality, when it comes to completing business tasks. The major Google Sites application niche is fast development of information pages.

The website builder is closely related to other Google products. If you have a Google account, then you can instantly access the Google Sites dashboard to create an unlimited number of websites. The system has quickly become a popular platform for creating intranets and school sites. If you need a more complex website like an online store or a blog, for example, it doesn’t make sense to look for the required functionality here. The software is mostly used to launch simple websites for everyday use. Its interface is very similar to Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides – other platforms to work with content.

In June 2017 Google announced Websites with Google My Business – a separate service within the business section, which allows creating a free website for the company, registered in Google My Business. From now on, business users can create a company’s website inside their google account. Nothing special, the interface is almost the same as classic Google Sites. This version, however, lacks most useful business tools.

Google Sites is not the most powerful website builder. The best website builders available in our rating notably prevail over Google Sites in terms of functionality. However, it is quite possible that they will be useful for completing your specific task. This review will help you evaluate the functionality and convenience of the service.

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Google Sites: Pros and Cons

The major Google Sites advantage is its free nature. This is a great option for users who need to quickly set up a simple info page without any financial investment. The fact that the website builder is provided by Google and deeply integrates with its ecosystem also makes quite a good impression.

You start encountering disadvantages when you try creating projects that are more complicated than a resume or a portfolio. A project launched with Google Sites is infinitely far from websites created with other website builders in terms of functionality. The same result can generally be achieved when working in Documents or Slides. The only difference is that Google Sites offers a bit more convenient navigation and allows connecting your own domain.

What Is Google Sites Used for?

Google Sites works well for users who need to quickly create a page with an event announcement, presentation, training materials, questionnaires. The platform is a nice pick for personal and educational purposes. You won’t be able to launch an eCommerce project with this website builder.

You don’t need any special skills to create a website with Google Sites. If you have worked with other Google services (like Docs, Slides or Sheets), you will instantly master the interface of the website builder.

You just need a browser to work with the website builder. Projects can be viewed on any device (quality performance is guaranteed only on current and previous versions of Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox browsers), while editing them is possible on desktop computers only. The service requires Chrome 24.0 and higher or the latest Firefox version to work correctly. Additionally, JavaScript and cookies must be enabled in your browser settings.

The platform can be partly interesting for creating personal projects, pages of non-profit organizations (schools, kindergartens etc.), official pages of social groups, small portfolios, business cards and landing pages (if you invest some effort, of course). The main problem is commercial forms integration (feedback and callback forms, online chats etc., as they will mostly work incorrectly or they won’t work at all).

Ease of Use

Google Sites interface resembles that of other Google services used for content creation and management. For example, if you use Google Docs, you will immediately recognize the dashboard – the same template gallery and project list.

The website is configured in a visual editor with drag-and-drop support. You simply drag sections and elements, arranging them to create the desired web page structure. You won’t be able to deeply customize the design here – editing tools are limited. The good news is that you don’t have to bother about spoiling the selected template – all elements are automatically arranged on the grid, indents and sizes are adjusted.

You can assemble a website with Google Sites in a few hours, and sometimes in a few minutes (if this is a simple one page project). Special skills are not required. If you know how to work with other Google services and have created a presentation at least once, you will feel confident when working in the Google Sites visual editor.

Steps to Get Started

Google Sites requires a Google account. Right after the sign up process, you will be redirected to the dashboard. Afterwards, you will be able to choose from two options: either to create a website from scratch or use a ready-made template.

If you wish to build an interface from scratch, click the “Blank” template in the gallery. However, we recommend choosing a more or less suitable niche template for the start – it will help you understand the way the interface of each individual page is built.

If you have selected an option to create a project from scratch, it will be labeled as the “Untitled Site”. If you have picked a template, then it will have a standard title – for example, “Portfolio”. To edit the project name, click the line with the title and enter your own variant.

The website is ready. You just need to fill it with content and publish.

The second option to set up a website is to use the Google Drive menu. Just activate the following buttons: “Create” -> “More” -> “Google Sites”. You will immediately be redirected to the website builder – as if you started a project from scratch.

Website Editing

As soon as you create a website, you will be taken to the visual editor. It has a very simple structure: a workspace that displays all edits in the real time mode, and a control panel with three tabs.

1. “Insert” – a catalog of blocks and elements that make up the website interface.

There are “Content Blocks” (formerly “Layouts”) – the ready-made section schemes, which come with images and text blocks. You can choose such a layout and flexibly customize its design: swap elements, remove unnecessary or add missing items, update size and position, replace all elements with other items.

You don’t have to obligatorily use ready-made sections. Instead, you can create the interface from separate elements. They can also be flexibly combined. For example, you can add a text field, and then insert an image next to it and add a button.

2. “Pages” — the place where you can add pages and links. They are instantly displayed in the website navigation bar by default.

You can set up any page as the main one, create a complete copy of it, change the address, add a subpage, delete a page etc.

3. “Themes” — website design options. There are several presets in the editor, where you can edit the background color and font style.

The edits are saved automatically. You can undo and redo actions. The website builder independently maintains a version history, in which all the edits are tracked. This allows quickly restoring the previous project version, if required.

Google Sites supports project collaboration. You can invite other users by email or create a link with the opportunity of draft editing.

Publishing

Before you publish a website, make sure it is complete. The easiest way to do this is to use the preview feature. There are three modes: desktop, tablet and smartphone. Check if all interface elements are displayed correctly.

To make the website public, click the “Publish” button. You will see a window, where you should enter a web address. Mind that you only need to add the end part of the address – for example, superbwebsitebuilders. The full address will look like https://sites.google.com/view/superbwebsitebuilders.

The public address may already be taken.

You can also connect your own domain to the website. It is linked in the settings, but you initially need to confirm the ownership and update the domain data on the registrar’s website.

1. Open the verification page in the Google Webmaster Center.
2. Select a site from the list or click the “Add resource” button and specify the domain you want to connect to the website.
3. Verify domain ownership in any convenient way (this can be creating a text record like “google-site-verification=D2waTcMBZttWqua3yhdjYeuxyI6yG81YUM1qNghnDpY” or a CNAME record with the “ii4beubcgckl.www.YOUR-SITE.com.” label and the target host “gv-URL -KEY-TO-GOOGLE.dv.googlehosted.com”).
4. Go to your personal account on the registrar’s website.
5. Create a CNAME record.
6. Enter www. subdomain.
7. Specify ghs.googlehosted.com to set up redirects.

Having confirmed your domain ownership and having enabled redirects, return to the Google Sites editor. Click the gear button to get a list of settings. Go to the “Custom Domains” tab and enter your domain.

When publishing a site, you can also configure its accessibility. For example, you can invite other people by email so they could see the website and make edits.

Google Sites also allows using invitations links with different permissions. You can grant access to the draft with editing rights or make the published website available by link only.

Another useful feature is indexing management. You can exclude the website from search results when publishing it. This feature ensures that the content from the pages will not be indexed by the search engines.

Features and Flexibility

Google Sites does not have as many features as other website builders. However, its functionality will be enough to launch simple web projects.

Integration with Google Services

You can quickly embed files from Google Drive, Spreadsheets and Slides created with Google services, YouTube videos to websites. Analytics and webmaster tools are connected in one click. You can also invite other authors to develop the website using Gmail contacts.

Other popular Google Forms features are worth separate attention:

• Apart from simple fields for collecting contact info, you can also select dates, accept files (they will be available in your Google Drive), offer multiple options from a list or from a grid of elements etc.;
• It is possible to organize testing with questions/answers import. A progress bar can be provided for testing;
• Answer options can be mixed with each other, so the tool is suitable even for organizing the educational process or for creating small quizzes. Responses can be linked to scoring and final grading;
• The answers history can be saved (by default they are saved in the Google Spreadsheet – either an existing one or a new sheet created specifically for a certain form) or uploaded (to a CSV file). Likewise, it is possible to send the results to respondents here;
• You can turn on prompt notifications about the availability of completed forms;
• Google Forms integrates with external applications, so their functionality can be extended. For example, it is possible to add a countdown timer, value calculation (online calculator), additional fields to accept orders in online stores etc.;
• You can use Google Apps Script (script and web app editor) as an internal tool for complex calculations.

Other Google tools to work with content are also worth separate attention: Spreadsheets (allow you to make interactive calculations, show summary data, insert charts etc.), Documents (ideal for complex text elements: CVs, letters, brochures etc.) and Slides (interactive slideshows with a complex structure, which can be launched automatically or with a click).

As far as Google Live Chat cannot be integrated with a website (it only supports cooperation via invitations, while third-party users cannot join the project without a Gmail account), you can use Google Meet as an alternative. You just need to create a button on a website with a link to a group meeting that will look like https://meet.google.com/here-url-meetings.

Google Meet can work with video and audio. It also has a built-in chat and integration with Tasks and Calendar. A new user, however, can join the discussion only after the admin approval.

A more convenient and simpler alternative that does not imply Google services application is to insert a link to your favorite messenger or to a web page in a social network.

Teamwork

There are two ways to create a team – either by using individual email invitations or by linking to a draft with editing rights. When choosing the second method, you need to be careful – everyone who has a link will receive an unlimited right to make edits.

Website History and Backups

Website versions are saved automatically, displaying the edit date and highlighting differences. You can also manually save a website copy on Google Drive or send it to other users.

If required, the website can be transferred to other GoogleDrive users (“Open access”, add the required user, select the “Owner” option in the “Access levels” section, opposite the chosen user).

Image Library

When creating a website, you need many images – both content and background. You can upload them from your computer, choose from the built-in gallery, add from Google Drive, search via Google, and insert direct links to third-party resources.

Google Photos service, however, is worth special attention. It used to be an unlimited storage for all your smartphone and PC images. Photos are available in a separate section for quick insertion. Using the built-in search option, you can find objects detected by Google’s artificial intelligence in pictures. For example, it is enough to type the word “sand” and the algorithm will find not only all photos with the sand background, but also advertisem*nts regarding sand sale, if you have saved them in the gallery.

Images are analyzed by a special tool after insertion. The algorithm corrects the text clarity against their background, if required. You can change the picture linking related to the block inside which it is used: left/right/top, bottom/center, stretch.

Google Sites SEO Features

The website builder does not imply special fields for direct specification of Title and Description meta tags.

However, tags are generated automatically by the following masks:

• Title – “Site name – Page name” (taken from the web age structure).
• Description – “Page title” (indicated in the top banner). It is also the first H1 heading.

The friendly URL feature is implemented only by manual URL indication (in the settings of the selected page).

Sitemap and Robots.txt file access are unavailable here.

Generally, there are no serious complaints regarding SEO parameters. Web pages load very fast. They are adapted for mobile devices by default and work with the secure HTTPS protocol (there is no need to additionally configure something here).

Analytics Integration

Google Sites works with Google Analytics only. Integration is as simple as possible – you need to provide your tracking ID.

“Website settings” –> “Analytics” section –> input field for the tracking ID –> “Enable statistics collection” checkbox.

You can find out your tracking ID in your Google Analytics account, it will look like UA-XXXXXX-X or G-XXXXXXX.

Google Sites Templates

The new Google Sites version has 6 themes and around two dozen niche templates for a quick start. There is a blank theme for experienced users (to start a website from scratch). Ready-made designs are divided into 4 categories: “Personal”, “Work”, “Education” and “Small Business”. There is nothing special about the templates – this is a more or less appropriate web page structure with content samples.

The classic software version had more templates. However, this doesn’t matter because you currently cannot create and publish web pages in the old version of the editor.

The capabilities of the Google Sites visual editor are notably limited. You can add and remove sections/categories on each page, change the background, color scheme and font style. You have an opportunity to choose from pre-installed sets only, which does not contribute to deep customization as well. As a result, the websites look similar.

All elements you can add to the web page are available in the “Insert” tab. These include:

• content blocks (formerly known as layouts) – ready-made sections with several elements inside (this is usually a combination of text and photo);
• images;
• collapsible groups;
• page title;
• image carousel;
• button, separator, placeholder;
• YouTube video;
• calendar with selected dates;
• marks on the map;
• Documents, Slides, Sheets, Forms, and Charts – this is the content from other Google services;
• Google Drive files.

There is also the “Embed” feature that allows adding content via URL or as external HTML code. Its use lets you connect third-party applications – for example, you can add a video from a social network or a widget with social buttons.

An important aspect that is worth considering here is that the ready-made widget will be embedded in the regular Google Sites container. Therefore, it will not be possible to add floating buttons for online consultants, heavy scripts etc. These elements will be loaded for a long time and will eventually be crookedly displayed (as a part of other page blocks only).

Several design options are available in the “Settings” menu. For example, you can specify the location of the main menu (top or side) in the “Navigation” tab as well as choose its color from the available presets. Website logo (if you have not previously set your own logo in the template settings) and favicon are loaded in the “Brand Images” tab. The “Notification Banner” tab allows configuring banner display above the website content. This is where you can pick the color of the pop-up window, write a message, add a link as well as indicate where to display it – only on the homepage or in all website sections. This block can be used to display a notification about the use of cookies or about accepting the rules of website use.

Template Creation and Design Customization

You can centrally manage the key aspects of your website design. To do this, reach the “Themes” tab and complete the following steps:

• create your own design (you can customize color palettes in detail, upload your logo and top banner image, redefine fonts for titles and headings, for body text etc. – up to the density of elements and indents between lines);
• choose one of the ready-made themes (there are currently only 6 of them here);
• import a template from any of your other websites.

There are 3 presets (3 style options) in the theme settings. To diversify the design of individual blocks, you can alternate between these presets. Just select the required section and choose the appropriate style in the design settings.

Widget or HTML Code Integration

The classic Google Sites version had widgets for quick connection of third-party services. They are not available in the new version, but the developers have added an HTML code embedding option. This allows adding integration with any service that supports embedding via hyper-markup to the website.

The “Embed” feature makes it possible to add content via URL or code. With its help, you can connect third-party applications – for example, add a video from a social network or a widget with social buttons.

However, there are limitations here:

• The integrated code is checked every time the page is loaded (the process can take a long time compared to loading the rest of the content).
• The inserted code is displayed only within the selected block, that is, you won’t be able to launch, for example, an online chat that works on top of the page, or floating callback buttons. They will be connected to the block the code was embedded in (they will move along with the web page scrolling).

Work with Website and Pages

You can manage your website structure in the “Pages” tab. Web pages can be duplicated, deleted, set as the homepage or hidden from the navigation bar.

It is possible to set your URL (slug) in the settings of a particular page – similarly to manual control of friendly URLs. Additionally, you can specify the title (it is required to form the Title meta tag, the title in the page header will be used for the Description tag).

The service supports a hierarchical structure – to do this, select the “Add subpage” point in the menu.

The new Google Sites version allows for ip to 5 nesting levels (the old software version didn’t have any restrictions at all).

Mobile Optimization

The new Google Sites version looks great on mobile screens. All blocks in the website builder are responsive, you won’t have to edit anything separately.

If you have used third-party content, for example, by inserting your own HTML code, then these elements will be included in special blocks. If the widget does not fit the width of your screen, then it will be cropped along the block borders.

To notice potential shortcomings, you can activate the preview mode and switch between different types of devices: PC, tablet and smartphone. Google Sites does not have any special settings for different screen resolutions. That is, you won’t be able to hide a certain block on specific types of devices. This is not to mention the design change or functionality of separate blocks with regard to the provided screen resolutions.

Tech Support

Google Sites does not have a support team you can contact by phone or via the live chat to find out how to delete a website or redesign pages. You will have to handle these issues independently. You can use the knowledge base available in the “Help” section as a support option.

The tutorials catalog lets you find out more about how to create and edit a website, customize the design, add widgets and scripts, assign your own URL, use analytics tools. There is a list of common errors and ways to eliminate them under each instruction. There is a search bar that finds relevant articles by keywords, thus, letting you navigate the knowledge base.

If you have encountered a problem with website performance or an obvious problem with the Google service, you can report it using a special “Report a problem” link. An online form will offer to save a screenshot and to write your own review.

How Much Does Google Sites Cost?

Google Sites is a free service. It also has a premium version available via the purchase of Google Workspace access. The business version unveils the same features as the free one. The advantages of a commercial subscription include: priority access to updates and a range of specific business tools (extended cloud storage, corporate mail on your own domain, video meetings for a large number of participants, a special version of the cloud search engine etc.). Frankly speaking, Google Sites comes as one of simple add-ons on the Google Workspace business plan.

Google Website Builder for Small Business

Along with educational and informational projects, Google website builder may be used for small business projects. As a free and easy-to-use tool, it allows entrepreneurs to set up a basic website in a matter of minutes.

To get started, you’ll need to create a Google My Business account with the major business-related information. As soon as you set up the account, you will be able to access the website builder to start working on your project.

The system makes it possible to upload company photos, text and other content to your project. It grants access to customizable and responsive templates that can be tailored as required to fit your business style and branding. Mind, however, that the choice of themes is quite limited here, while the designs all have similar layout. This means that all business projects started with the software will look nearly the same.

Google Sites integrates with other Google tools like Google Maps, Google Calendar, Google Drive and Google Analytics to help track your online presence, watch statistics, schedule business events/meetings and improve SEO positions.

A real highlight of the system is its applicability for simple collaboration with team members or outside contributors. This is a smart solution for small businesses with multiple employees or freelancers working on the project development.

Finally, Google Sites is free to use. So, if your business is on a tight budget, using the website builder really makes sense.

Google Sites for eCommerce

Google Sites is not the best choice for eCommerce project creation. If you need a complex full-featured online store, then don’t even try using the software to get started. It won’t work out anyway. This is because the website builder does not have built-in eCommerce features like payment/order processing tools or integrated shopping cart, for example.

To set up a small online store, you will have to integrate third-party eCommerce platforms or payment processors like PayPal. This is the only way to enable online sales.

Additionally, you can pick any of the available customizable designs to create a layout for your online store. However, Google Sites themes are not created for eCommerce projects. It’s up to you to ensure that your web store design and branding are consistent with your business specialization.

Safety is the next issue to consider. It goes without saying that online stores must be secure to protect customer data, confidentiality and payment details. While Google Sites does offer HTTPS security, you will have to pick a trusted payment processor compliant with data privacy regulations.

Thus, it is important to carefully consider your eCommerce requirements before deciding whether to use Google Sites for your web store creation or not.

Is Google Sites a Good Website Builder?

Google Sites makes it possible to create the projects available in the list of topics: student portfolios, specialist CVs, training course pages or team pages. We can’t recommend it for the development of full-featured business websites you plan to launch to boost your company reputation and generate profit.

The website builder won’t work for complex tasks as well – it is inconvenient even to publish news with it, because you have to manually add all the necessary interface elements every time. If your project goes beyond the above listed limits, then Google Sites won’t be the best option – its toolset is too limited. It will be much more efficient to choose another website builder, even if it is paid. Fortunately, there are so many feature-richer alternatives out there.

Even deep integration with Google services does not change the situation. Yes, it’s cool when you can insert a table or presentation in one click or save a website copy on Google Drive, but other services also let you do that quickly and conveniently. Thus, the Google Sites application sphere is very limited. This, however, does not mean that the service is completely useless – there will certainly be users, who will be satisfied with its capabilities.