How to Set Up a Free Website Using Google Sites
When Google began as a small search engine project, called BackRub, in 1995, its founders probably never imagined its eventual reach. In 2011, Google does just about everything; the search engine remains, but new features launch almost daily, including Google Earth, translation software, and the free Web hosting and website design platform called Google Sites. Google Sites are simple pages that don't require any programming knowledge to use.
- Difficulty:
- Easy
Instructions
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1
Sign up for a Google account if you don't already have one. All of Google's components, from Google Reader to Google+, require a login and password. It's free to sign up, and your Google account is used for all Google activities.
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2
Open a new browser window and go to sites.google.com. Click on the "Create Site" to launch the site-creating wizard, which walks you through the basics of setting up your new website. Choose a template from the choices presented, or click on "Browse the gallery" to choose a different theme for your site. These templates are especially helpful for people who don't know how to manipulate style sheets, because a style sheet is automatically applied to all of your pages. Instead of a pre-designed template, you can select "Blank template" and choose a theme, which just controls the colors of your site.
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Type the name of your site into "Name your Site" and note your site's URL, which appears as "sites.google.com/site/yourname." Click "Create Site" to create your website. You can change all of the site settings later, including its appearance, so don't worry if you haven't found a template that looks exactly like you want.
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Click "Create Page" to add a new page of content to your site. Choose which type of page this will be -- a Web page, announcement, file post or list -- then type the name of the page. You can choose its level too; as you add pages to your Google site, you must use specific groups of content so that the site can organize your content into menus.
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Click "More actions" on your site's homepage to modify your settings, change your theme or adjust the permission on your pages. Click "Edit sidebar" -- on the left or right, depending on which template you chose -- to change the menu on your page. After you've created a few pages, browse to a page you want to modify and click "Edit Page."
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