How to Create a FREE Website with Google Sites (Templates to Publish)

Getting Started with Google Sites

• 💡 You can create a website using Google Sites either from scratch or by selecting a pre-designed template.
• 🎯 For this tutorial, a Restaurant template is chosen and will be modified to suit a dessert store.
• 🔑 The Site Editor is comprised of three main components: the header, sections, and the footer.

Understanding Website Structure

• 🧠 The header typically includes titles, logos, and the navigation bar (navbar).
• 📌 Sections contain the main content of each page, such as text, images, and videos.
• 🚀 The footer usually holds contact information, FAQs, and additional links.
• ✅ Headers and footers are generally consistent across pages, while sections form the core of individual pages.

Customizing Your Site's Header and Navigation

• 🖼️ The header style can be changed to a title with a colored background or an image banner.
• 🔍 Image banners offer options to adjust for readability and anchor the image alignment.
• ⚙️ The pages tab allows for reordering pages, creating dropdowns, and adding custom links or full-page embeds.
• 🖱️ Pages can be made into dropdowns by dragging them over another page, while menu sections only provide a dropdown without a clickable page.

Adding and Modifying Content

• ➕ The insert panel is used to add elements and customize layouts.
• 🧱 Content blocks offer preset layouts for text and images, and individual elements can be placed freely.
• 🔗 Buttons can be added with a name and a link to an internal page or external URL.
• 📏 Dividers and spacers help adjust layout and spacing, while collapsible groups can be used for text or image boxes within a page.
• 📂 Google Drive embeds can be added directly, ensuring proper sharing permissions are set.
• ✏️ Elements can be modified by clicking on them; text can be edited, and images can be cropped or resized with an uncrop option.
• ⬆️ Section order and background images can be adjusted, with similar readability and anchor options for background images.
• 🗑️ Elements and sections can be deleted using the trash can icon.

Themes, Branding, and Publishing

• 🎨 The Themes tab allows selection of preset color schemes and font pairings, or the creation of a custom theme.
• 🏢 Custom themes can include a site name, logo, banner image, custom color schemes, and specific fonts for titles and body text.
• 👁️ A preview option is available to see how theme changes will look.
• 🌐 Once editing is complete, the site can be published using a free Google-provided domain or a custom domain.
• 🔄 Changes are automatically saved in Google Drive, and published sites can be managed, unpublished, or updated by comparing current changes with the live version.