Tips and tricks to create your own website in a couple of minutes with Google

google sites create web tutorial

Creating a website today is easier than ever. On the Internet there are many options that allow us to create web pages in a relatively simple way. The problem is that most options require a monthly payment, beyond the cost of the domain and hosting. What you probably did not know is that Google, or rather, Google Drive, has its own website builder in the purest Wix style . The advantage of this option is that it is completely free and does not require any type of payment, as we will see below.

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So you can create a web page with Google Drive

Drag and drop, that is the philosophy of Google Sites, the creator of Google that allows us to design web pages with a simple click of the mouse. To access this configurator we will have to go to our Google Drive account, which we can access from the following link:

  • drive.google.com

Once inside, we will click on the New button and then on More . Within this section we will find the Google Sites option. Now the web will enable a whole configurator that we can customize to our liking.

create web page google sites drive 1

The configurator in question has a multitude of web elements that allow us to modify the appearance of the page. Text boxes, image carousels, dividers, buttons, maps, calendars, forms, charts, YouTube videos, indexes, hidden text, and even HTML, Javascript and PHP code . In short, any web element that occurs to us.

As for how the configurator works, the Google Sites interface is based on a matrix with different areas , that is, we will not be able to drag the elements at will. The interface in question has different rows and columns where we will have to insert the different elements. For each row, there are 12 columns where we can enter any object that occurs to us, an object that we can also resize to our liking . Of course, we will not be able to jump to other rows if we have not entered an element in the previous row. In other words, we will have to design the web page in a staggered way.

It is worth saying that this matrix can be modified at will in the Designs section in the side bar of the configurator . By default, the tool has several options that allow us to alter the rows and columns of the matrix in our opinion.

How to add pages to my Google Sites web page

We have already created the main page of our website. To add different pages within the web (Contact, Who we are, Legal information, Blog ...) we will go to the toolbox on the right hand side and click on Pages. Now we just have to click on the Create button to add a new page to the site . The web will automatically add the page to the navigation menu on the top page.

Tips and tricks to create your own website in a couple of minutes with Google 1

Once we have created the page, the configurator will allow us to duplicate it, mark it as the main page, create small subpages or even hide it from navigation. We can also change the properties of the page to assign a custom URL instead of the address that Google assigns automatically. The possibilities in this regard are diverse.

How to change the theme of my website in Google Sites

Beyond the design possibilities of Google Sites, the interesting thing about this tool is that it has dozens of preset themes . In this way, we can choose a root theme to create the design of our website from the design of the template.

change theme google sites

To access the theme store we can click on the pop-up message that will appear at the bottom of the configurator or in the Themes section in the side menu. From this same menu we can also change the colors of the page, as well as the type of font or the size of the font.

How to insert brand logos and favicon

Google Sites also allows us to enter brand logos and favicon, the icon that appears in the browser to identify our website. The process is very simple: just click on the gear wheel in the upper right corner and then on Brand Images . Now the page will allow us to upload our own logo and icon to create a custom brand logo and favicon.

I have already designed my website, how can I associate a domain with it?

By default, Google will publish our website with the address sites.google.com/webpagename. To assign it its own domain we will have to click on the previous gear, specifically on custom URLs .

create web page google sites drive 4

Now we only have to write the name of the domain that we want to associate with the web. Before publishing the web, the ideal is to change the URL of each page to ensure that all pages have the correct domain . We can do it from the sidebar itself in the Pages section.

Can I associate Google Analytics with my Google Sites page?

The truth is that yes. In fact, it is much simpler than doing it on a conventional web page, as it integrates directly with Google services. Again we will have to click on the gear wheel in the right corner . Then, we will click on the Analysis section.

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Inside the corresponding box we will have to enter the Analytics tracking code , which we can generate from the Google tool itself. To enable data analysis, we will enable the homonymous tab at the bottom of the box.

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