ARCHIVED
How to Create a Website With Google Sites and Connect it to a Google Domain (Non-Workspace Accounts Only)
Disclaimers
This article has now been archived as Google Domains no longer exists as a service.
This article is intended for people who are new to creating websites and managing domains.
This method does not work if your account uses Google Workspace. Please see Additional Resources to find a working method for Google Workspace.
Creating Your Site
Go to www.sites.new on a computer to create a new Google Site. If you've already created one, you can use that instead.
You can see all of your sites at sites.google.com.
Buying Your Domain
Go to domains.google.com and search for the domain(s) you'd like to buy. The prices start at around £10 a year and they also come with email forwarding support and the ability to use subdomains, which means you can receive emails sent to mail@example.com and host more than one website from the same domain. Once you've found the domain(s) you want to buy, add them to your basket and check out. Once you've bought the domain(s), you're ready to move on to the next step.
Connecting Your Site to Your Domain
Click the settings button ⚙️ at the top of the Google Sites editor.
Click "Custom domains".
Click "Start setup".
Click "Select a domain from Google Domains".
Here you'll see 2 boxes that you need to fill out.
In the first box, you can choose which subdomain you want your website to be viewable on. The default is "www" but you can change it to anything you'd like. The 2nd box will show the domain that you're connecting the website to. If you only own one domain with Google Domains, you can leave that as it is. Otherwise, make sure to change it to the domain you'd like to use.
Important: Below these 2 boxes, you'll see a tick box labelled "Redirect root domain (example.com) to this site". This means that example.com will redirect to www.example.com (or whatever subdomain you chose to use). If this is going to be your primary website you will want to leave this box ticked, but if it's a secondary website on the same domain you should untick it.
See this video for a detailed tutorial.
Publishing Your Site
Click the "Publish" button at the top right of the editor.
You will be asked to give your site a sites.google.com/view address. You need to complete this whether you use a custom domain or not.
Click the publish button in the dialog box to confirm.
Making Your Site Public
Click the person icon 👤+ at the top of the editor.
Under "General access", ensure that "Published site" is set to "Public" rather than "Restricted".
Click the save button in the dialog box to confirm.
Connecting a Second Site to Your Domain (Optional)
If you'd like to create another Google Site, you can follow the same steps again. But rather than using "www" as the subdomain as mentioned in Step 3, choose something else like "support" or "info".
Important: Ensure you untick the "Redirect root domain (example.com) to this site" box so that traffic from your primary website won't be affected.
See this video for a detailed tutorial.
Additional Resources
Domains
If you use Google Workspace, follow these steps.
If you use a domain registrar other than Google Domains, follow these steps.
Google Sites
Google Sites beginners guide:
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me, create a post in the Google Sites group on Facebook, or ask a question in the Official Sites Community.
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