Building a new trang web seems like an impossibly hard task, something that"d take a few hours at best và a few weeks or months at worst. You"d never make a new website just to share a couple reports or write about a project you"re working on.
Bạn đang xem: Build a team intranet in google sites
You could, however. With the newly redesigned Google Sites—one of Google"s best yet least known apps—you can build a full website for không tính tiền in minutes.
It"s one of the best hidden features in your new G Suite account, and a simple way to lớn build a modern intranet for your company.
What Is Google Sites?
The original Google Sites editor looks similar to lớn Google Docs
Google Sites has been part of Google"s suite of apps since 2008, when it was launched as a simple website builder. The original version looked very similar lớn Google Docs—and the resulting websites looked a bit lượt thích documents with a search bar at the top.
You could format text, embed images, documents, or videos, & even insert your own HTML code if you wanted to địa chỉ more features. Everything was laid out in tables, so you could have a single or multiple-column layout for your content.
The new Google Sites editor looks more lượt thích the new Google Forms
Then, in late 2016, Google revamped Google Sites, giving it a kiến thiết quite similar to lớn the new Google Forms. It uses a one-column design lượt thích many modern websites, và it makes it easier than ever khổng lồ lay out your site, with all the tools organized into a sidebar or a popover menu that appears when you select text on your site.
Both ứng dụng versions are still available—you can choose which editor you"d lượt thích to use when creating a new site. The newer one includes a cleaner design, and is easier lớn use, while the older version includes a few extra features including an option lớn track changes khổng lồ the page so you can go back khổng lồ a previous version. Either way, they"re a great way to lớn quickly build a website or intranet for your team.
Tip: The new Google Sites doesn"t include version control, so you can"t undo changes others made to your site. For that và other more wiki-like features, you might want to keep using the older Google Sites editor for now.
What Can You vì chưng with Google Sites?
You can build almost any site you want with Google Sites
Maybe you want to make a detailed site with pages and pages of info, as Mary Fran did with details about Google apps. Perhaps you"ve built an online course, và would like to tóm tắt it with the world as Photoweb did with the older Google Sites. You might need a site for your brand, as Steegle & DPI Partners built with the older and newer Google Sites, respectively. Or, you could want a way khổng lồ share liên hệ info và calendars with your class, as Señora Aguirre did in the new Google Sites.
You can build all of those & more in Google Sites.
And, it"s free. With just a standard Google account, you can make as many Google Sites as you want for free. The new Google Sites uses your Google Drive account to store images and files you cốt truyện on your site, so you can even store up khổng lồ 15GB of files for your sites for free, shared with your other Google apps.
The only catch is that by default, your site will be on Google"s domain, with an address lượt thích sites.google.com/view/yoursite.
Want a site on your own domain? Just create a G Suite trương mục for your tên miền for $5/month per person on your team, and you can links your domain name to Google Sites from your G Suite Sites admin, then follow these directions to add your site khổng lồ the new domain.
Tip: kiểm tra out our in-depth guide on setting up a G Suite trương mục in chapter 1 of this book lớn make a Google account for your domain.
Build Your First Google Sites Website
The new Google Sites page shows your websites—and a + button khổng lồ make a new one
Ready khổng lồ build your first site? Just go to sites.google.com/new to lớn start building a new website. That"ll drop you directly into the site editor.
Now it"s time to lớn build your site. We"ll try re-creating part of giasuviet.edu.vn"s About page in Google Sites as an example—you can follow along, or start building your own site.
Tip: Google Sites" new editor only works in Google Chrome and Firefox, so you can"t edit a site in Safari or Microsoft Edge right now.
Add a Welcome Banner
Start off by adding a banner khổng lồ your site
First, địa chỉ cửa hàng a title in the đứng top left corner of the editor—that"s the name you"ll see inside the Google Sites ứng dụng when you go to lớn edit your site. Google will copy that to lớn the top corner of your website too, but you can edit that if you"d lượt thích to give your site a different public & private name.
Then, địa chỉ a welcome message lớn the đứng đầu banner—or delete the text if you don"t want to lớn include any text. Click the banner, và you can select a new image for the background or upload your own. You can also choose a larger banner or just a page title.
Here I"ve added giasuviet.edu.vn"s team photo as the header background, & written About giasuviet.edu.vn as the page name.
Want khổng lồ change how the title looks? Just select the text or click the edge of the text box, & you can change the heading type or text alignment, or địa chỉ a liên kết to another site. Hover your mouse near the đứng top of the box, và you can drag the header to the right or left sides of your banner, too—though the text will always stay centered between the top and bottom of your page.
Or, you can địa chỉ cửa hàng another image to your banner, such as a company logo. Just double-click anywhere in the banner, and a hidden circle thực đơn will open. Select what you want to lớn add: Text lets you địa chỉ the text back to lớn the banner if you removed it, Images lets you địa chỉ a photo from your Google Drive, and Upload lets you upload a new photo.
There"s only one catch: Each element in the header is still centered, so you can"t drag the logo sản phẩm to the đứng top left corner or địa chỉ cửa hàng text khổng lồ the bottom of the banner.
Add Text và Other truyền thông media to Your Page
Add text & more in a simple text editor
Now you can add the content you want lớn your page. From the Insert menu on the right, you can showroom text or images, or embed a links from another site. Google Sites lets you resize & crop images, và its text editor lets you quickly format text with standard keyboard shortcuts or the thực đơn that pops up when you select text. địa chỉ titles and subheadings from the editor"s menu, or if you want to mô tả code (perhaps in a tutorial about writing HTML), click the 3-dot button on the right to địa chỉ cửa hàng code-style monospaced formatting.
Xem thêm: Mẫu Giấy Cam Kết Không Tranh Chấp Đất Đai Cập Nhật Mới Nhất, Giấy Cam Kết Không Tranh Chấp Đất Đai
Since we can"t địa chỉ a logo sản phẩm to the đứng đầu corner of our site, I"ve added giasuviet.edu.vn"s logo sản phẩm as an image—and resized it lớn look nice on the page. I"ve then added a Text box with sub-heading formatting for some larger text, followed by a second text box with normally formatted text.
You can also địa chỉ extra elements khổng lồ your page: YouTube videos, Google Maps, Google Calendar events, Google Forms forms, charts from Sheets" spreadsheets, or full files from Docs, Slides, và Sheets. Select the type of thành phầm you want to lớn insert, và you"ll see a Docs-style popover where you can search for the chiến thắng you want and then Select it to insert it in a new section in your page. It"s a simple way khổng lồ build a landing page or make a live report with an embedded presentation & spreadsheet. You can use it use it khổng lồ create a trang web for a team project, for example, or lớn plan meetings and activities in one easily accessible place.
On the left of each section of your site, you"ll see a 3-dot button that you can drag to rearrange the section on your page. Tap the màu sắc palette lớn select a different background style for that section, or click the trashcan to lớn delete it.
I"ve added a darker color to accent our map, for instance—a great way to lớn break up longer pages visually.
Make a Multi-Column Layout
Want to địa chỉ cửa hàng multiple columns to lớn your layout, perhaps to have a group of pictures together, or to showroom several of your product"s đứng top features in one spot?
Just double-click any blank space on your page, and Google Sites" magical circle thực đơn will mở cửa again. Select what you"d like to add, & it"ll show up in a new column right under where you clicked. Only that one section will have multiple columns, so you could have say a full-width site description, then 3 columns in the next section with details about your site, followed by a full-width đoạn clip section.
Tip: If you add smaller images to your page, they"ll automatically be added together in one, multi-column row.
Or, double-click on the 3-dot button to xuất hiện a hidden circle menu, where you can again insert text, images, or Google Drive files. That inserts the new sản phẩm beside your existing element, for a quick way to make that section of your site multi-column.
You can then resize elements in each section, with gridlines to make sure everything"s aligned nicely. It"s one of the simplest ways lớn make a multi-column page layout—and it"s nearly hidden in Google Sites.
Tip: lớn keep your images in their original aspect ratio, drag a corner lớn start resizing them then press your Shift key to resize in the correct aspect ratio.
Add Pages khổng lồ Your Google Site Website
If you only need one page on your site, you"re all done—as is our example About giasuviet.edu.vn page. Or, you can keep building your site with extra pages.
Add extra pages from the second tab in the right toolbar. Just địa chỉ a title for your page, & it"ll automatically be added khổng lồ the thực đơn in your site"s header. You can địa chỉ cửa hàng the same sections lớn any page—and if you want to copy something from one page khổng lồ another, just select that section of your site, press CMD + C or Ctrl + C, then paste it on the new page.
You can drag-and-drop pages to the order you want with their 3-dot button. Or, drag a page under another page lớn turn it into a subpage, something you can also bởi from the menu on the right of each page.
Customize your Google Site"s Design
There"s one more thing you can tweak: Your site"s design. The new Google Sites" themes are driven by your content, with large image-based headers & full-width text blocks. But there are still a number of ways you can create a chất lượng look.
Just tap the Themes tab on the right sidebar, & select from one of the 6 available themes. Each one includes 3 different phông styles, along with 5 màu sắc schemes, to lớn give your site a slight different look & feel.
Combine that with your own graphics và a customized multi-column layout, & you can make Google Sites fit your branding và feel like a unique, custom-built site. The mặc định Simple style fits giasuviet.edu.vn"s branding well, though the default màu xanh da trời doesn"t quite fit—so a quick change to lớn black và our page is done.
Tip: Need help making graphics for your site? check out our kiến thiết 101 crash course.
Publish & Share Your Google Site
You can nói qua your site & let others help you edit it
One of Google Sites" best features is its sharing settings, which work the same as Google Drive. You can chia sẻ your site with anyone, and let them help edit it.
Just tap the person icon in the editor, và you can tóm tắt the site you"re working on with your entire team. With individual accounts, you can địa chỉ cửa hàng specific people to let them edit the site; in a company G Suite account, your trang web will be visible lớn everyone in your company, but they won"t be able to edit it. Enable editing, & your site turns into a wiki of sorts (without version control or edit history, though) where everyone can tap the pencil icon on the site and edit anything on it.
Then, it"s time to lớn publish your site. Give it a quality URL, so you can then open your site at sites.google.com/view/YourSiteName, or at sites.google.com/YourDomain.com/YourSiteName if you have a G Suite account. Và choose whether you want this site lớn be shared only with your team—the mặc định choice, best for most company internal sites—or with the web lớn make a quick site for a new public-facing project. You can then select khổng lồ let your site show up in Google tìm kiếm results if you"ve made it public.
giasuviet.edu.vn"s About page, Google Sites edition
Our chạy thử site turned out pretty similar to lớn our real About page, with images, text, & even embedded videos & maps. You can check our demo Google Site out—and we"d love to lớn see what you make in the comments below!
And that"s it. Anytime you need to tóm tắt something new with your team, you can spin up a new site for it in minutes. It might even be the best way to nội dung documents & presentations, since you can add some extra context with the site"s description và content.
With your team creating and sharing so much info in G Suite, odds are you"ll eventually have trouble finding something. But don"t worry—Google"s namesake search engine is built into G Suite, lớn help you find emails, documents, liên hệ info, and anything else you need. So before your team goes crazy in their new G Suite account, learn from chapter 6 how to lớn find anything in Google"s apps.
Go lớn Chapter 6!
Written by giasuviet.edu.vn senior writer Matthew Guay. Updated 10 Mar 2018 with info on adding custom domain.