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The most frequently asked questions about new Google Sites answered.
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These are the FAQs for new Google Sites. If you have questions about classic Google Sites see our Classic Google Sites FAQ.
Also see our new Google Sites How Tos
Social Sharing
Google Sites Q&A Video
New Google Sites FAQs
How to map a web address (add a custom domain) to new Google Sites?
Google Sites made with a Gmail or personal Google Account
For full instructions on how to use a custom URL with a new Google Site made with a Gmail or personal Google Account see Assign Custom URL Domain Web Address (Personal).
Google Sites made with a Google Workspace Account
We have full instructions on how to map a web address to a Google Site in Google Workspace - see Map Domain Web Address Google Workspace. This includes if you use a legacy Google Apps Free account then you need to follow these instructions too.
Why does my site ask people to sign in or appear as 404 not found?
Check the Published site's sharing settings are set to public
If you want visitors to access your site without signing in, or you do not want your custom domain URL redirecting to the sites.google URL, then the General access Published site's sharing settings are not set to public - here's how to resolve:
Open your new Google Site for editing
Use the Share with others button
Scroll to General access and find the Published site drop-down list
For the Published site choose the Public option
Use the Done button and Google sites will notify Access updated and the public can now access the site without login and the custom domain URL will not redirect.
For full instructions on access permissions see: Sharing and Publishing - new Google Sites
How to share a new Google Site with a group with view only permission?
New Google Sites offers separate permissions for sharing the draft of the site for editing and permissions for viewing the published site. For more information on publishing see Publishing and Sharing - new Google Sites
If you want to make a site that's private to a select group of viewers then set the published site's visibility to Specific people and then add the group or individuals with the View Published site permission.
How to migrate from classic Google Sites to new Google Sites?
Google has begun the roll-out of the conversion tool. For the most up-to-date information on how to use the migration tool and the timeline for deprecation see: Migrate Classic to New Google Sites
How to upload files to new Google Sites?
New Google Sites does not offer an upload or file hosting facility other than for images. To make a file available from new Google Sites you need to:
Upload to Google Drive;
Share appropriately (e.g. with a group, anyone with the link or publicly);
Link to the file or embed the file in the site.
If you want to make multiple files available, or recreate a File cabinet page in new Google Sites then upload the files to an appropriately-shared Google Drive folder and then embed the folder.
For full instructions and a video demo see Upload Files - new Google Sites.
How to add a site search to new Google Sites?
New Google Sites now offers site search. It available on all new Google Sites in the top-right corner of the site via the Magnifying Glass icon. There are no configuration options available and you cannot disable the search options.
For full instructions and a video demo see: Search Site - new Google Sites
Notes
Search results include pages hidden from navigation
Search results always use the sites.google.com URL even if your site uses a mapped domain web address
How to add a private area to new Google Sites or allow specific users to edit specific pages (page-level permissions)?
New Google Sites does not offer page-level permissions so you can only add editors to the entire site not individual pages. You can make separate sites with separate permissions and then add the link of the sites with differing permissions. To see how to set the permissions to the published site see Publish Sites and to see how to add links to the navigation see Add Links to Navigation - New Google Sites.
How to find a new Google Site?
You should be able to see it at either https://sites.google.com/new or in your Google Drive (if you cannot see it in Drive do this search type:site). Make sure you're signed in with the same account that you created the site with and check your web browser's browsing history to see if you can get back to the site from it listed there.
If you're trying to find a single location that lists all of your published sites then this is not something that new Google Sites offers - see: Compare classic to new Sites
How do I recover deleted Google Sites?
Open your Trash/Bin folder in Google Drive
Select the delete site and use the Restore button (or right-click to open the context menu and Restore)
The site will appear back in My Drive where you stored it (if you cannot find it search in Google Drive for type:site to see all of your new Google Sites)
How do I add a table to new Google Sites?
New Google Sites does not offer tables at the moment but you can make nice looking tables in Google Drawings and then add to your site using the From Drive option in the Insert panel, see an example table from Google Drawings below. If you're more adventurous and want to add your own HTML code to add a table you can do that also - see: Insert HTML Tables - new Google Sites.
Be aware that since this is an embedded item the table itself will not linearise as the site responds to different device screen sizes and will not get indexed in search, but when viewing on a mobile device (or a size that makes the table too small to read) Google Sites provides a link in the top right corner of the drawing to the full version so users can zoom in and out etc.
Sharing, Permissions and Visibility
1 You can use the Publishing option to get a similar feature
2 You can only publish the whole site, not individual pages, and you can only publish to the primary domain, not any secondary domains.
3 You can only have one owner of a site and domain admins are not automatically owners of sites
4 If you use Google Workspace you can publish the site internally then share with the view permission externally via a Google Drive folder and the external viewers can see the published site.
5 Team Drives are only available to Google Workspace Business and Enterprise customers.
∢ Google has announced that the following features will become available for new Google Sites:
Restrict access to published sites
More granular access to different sections of sites
see An update on the classic Google Sites deprecation timeline for the exact wording.
How do I sign in to my new Google Site to edit it?
If you visit your site's published address, while you are signed in to an editor account, you will see a pencil icon in the bottom right corner. If you cannot see the pencil icon you are not signed in to the correct account or multiple accounts.
Alternatively you can use the techniques mentioned above in How do I find my Google Site? to find your site.
How do I copy a new Google Site or a page, or make a template?
New Google Sites offers the Duplicate site feature and we offer full instructions on how to do so see: Copy Site - New Google Sites.
How do you edit a new Google Site offline or on a mobile?
New Google Sites does not offer a mobile app for editing nor does it off offline editing in new Google Sites.
New Google Site Search results appear as "no results match your search" - how do I fix that?
We have suffered this issue to and here are the steps we took to fix the issue:
Unpublish the site (this is only temporary)
Wait 10 minutes (if you do not wait 10 minutes it can stop your images working on your site - yes we had this issue too)
Publish the site again
That's it! If you still have the issue and you use Google Workspace Basic/Business or for Education you can contact Google Support to get direct support from Google.
How can I build a site map with new Google sites?
The new version of Google Sites does not offer an XML sitemap nor any way to host an externally created XML sitemap. A website does not need to add a sitemap for Google Search to index all of its pages: Google Search Console only uses an XML sitemap to help find pages that you want indexed that aren't linked from anywhere else; if all of your pages are linked from the navigation or from other pages Google Search will find them and an XML sitemap will not improve anything.
How can I insert an Organization Chart or a Directory in new Google Sites?
We have developed a third-party Google Apps Script that uses your user information in Google Workspace to create instant org charts and a searchable directory that you can embed in your public website or private intranet or a Google Site.
Search by name, email or skills
Find your teammates by department, team, project or job title search
Summary of work anniversaries and birthdays of your colleagues and coworkers over the next 14 days
Automatic organisational charts and organigrams to see where people fit in the structure
If you use Google Workspace and want a searchable directory and instant org charts for your intranet or Google Site then Steegle People for Google Workspace could be for you. For more information and Pricing see:
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