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How to Create a Website With Google Sites and Connect it to a Custom Domain

Disclaimer: This article is intended for people who are new to creating websites and managing domains.

Step 1: Creating your Site.

Go to sites.google.com on a computer and click the multi-coloured "+" icon to create a new Google Site. If you've already created one, you can use that instead.

Step 2: Buying your Domain.

Go to domains.google.com and search for a domain(s) you'd like to buy. The prices start at £10 a year and they also come with email forwarding support and the ability to use subdomains, which means you can host more than one website from the same domain. Once you've found the domain you want to buy, add it to your basket and check out. Once you've bought the domain, you're ready to move on to the next step.

Step 3: Connecting your Site to your Domain.

Click the ⚙️ icon at the top of the Google Sites editor and then go to "Custom domains". Next, choose "Start setup" and then "Select a domain from Google Domains". Here you'll see 2 boxes. 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.

Below these 2 boxes, you'll see a checkbox 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 checked. But if it's a secondary website on the same domain, you should uncheck it.

See this video for a detailed tutorial.

Step 4a: Publishing your Site.

Next, you need to publish your website so it's viewable across the internet. First, click the "Publish" button at the top right of the editor and give your site a sites.google.com web address. This will be a secondary URL where your site can be viewed. Click "Publish" again to confirm.

Step 4b: Making your site public.

Click the 👤+ icon at the top of the editor and select "Links". Ensure that "Published site" is set to "Public" rather than "Restricted". Once step 4a has also been completed your site will be viewable on your custom domain in half an hour or so.

Step 5: 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". Untick the "Redirect root domain (example.com) to this site" box so that traffic from your primary website won't be affected.