If you lack coding skills, you can still have a professional-looking website by using a website builder. Website builders like Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, GoDaddy, and Postach.io allow anyone to create a website with minimal effort.
Website builders vary in cost as well as add-on or premium features that allow the website to handle tasks such as eCommerce, online chat, and email lists. Additionally, website builders vary in their ease of use and level of customizability. You can find comparisons of the most popular website builders on sites such as The Best 10 Website Builders, Website Builder Expert, and Website Tool Tester.
Google Sites
Google has its own website builder called Google Sites. Unlike the other website builders, which anyone can sign up to use, Google Sites are only accessible to those who have a Google Workspace account (formerly G Suite).
Google Workspace accounts are used by businesses, educational institutions, and nonprofits. One of the benefits of a Google Workspace account is that it comes with a custom email address (e.g., @myorganization.com instead of a generic @gmail.com address).
A Google Workspace account gives you access to the full suite of Google tools.
Why Use Google Sites?
Google Sites offers several features that make it an attractive option for building a website, including:
- Cost: You can sign up for a Google Workspace starting at $6/month. For this price, you not only get a custom email address and the ability to build a website, but you also gain access to a variety of other services, including 100-participant video meetings and 30 GB of cloud storage per user. While there are some free website builder options such as the free basic option offered by Wix and Weebly, we are not aware of a comparable website builder that costs less than $100/year.
- Ease of Use: Google sites is the easiest, most intuitive website builder we've seen. Partly because the interface feels a little bit like using other tools such as Google Docs and Slides, it only takes a few minutes to learn how to do the basics such as add photos, text, and hyperlinks or extra pages to "build out" your site from a simple landing page.
- Ease of Problem Solving: Google Sites are easy to set up and manage, so you may not run into any obstacles when creating your site. However, if you do run into problems, Google provides easy-to-follow instructions.
- Attractive: Google Sites offers limited themes (themes establish the appearance of your website). However, the themes do allow some customization around fonts, colors and layout. With modest adjustments to one of their standard themes, you can create a website using Google Sites that matches your organization's branding. Additionally, all Google Sites have a responsive design, meaning they will look good on mobile phones and tablets as well as on desktops.
- Automatic Backup: When you create a Google Site, you access it through your Google Drive account. Your site is automatically backed up on Google Drive, so as you add content to your site, you don't have to worry about losing the changes. Another bonus of being connected to Google Drive is that it is very easy to access your website. To edit your site, all you need to do is click on the thumbnail image of your website in Google Drive.
- Features: With Google Sites, you get a number of features that can make your website more than just a basic landing page, such as the ability to add subpages and insert content like documents and PowerPoints directly from Google Drive. You can also embed content from other sources, such as YouTube. Additionally, each Google Site comes with a search function built in, allowing visitors to search across your site using keywords. If you want to customize the URL for your site, you can do that as well.
When you create subpages, you'll see them as a dropdown list from the main navigation menu
Are There Downsides to Using Google Sites?
There are no downsides associated with using Google Sites to create a website, other than possibly needing to register for a Google Workspace account. Of the website builders we’ve tried, Google Sites is the easiest, least expensive, and lowest risk way to create a website.