Google Sites Publishing and Visibility Control

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you'll be able to:

• Publish your Google Site in just a few clicks
• Control who can view your site using visibility settings
• Change access permissions after your site goes live
• Troubleshoot common publishing issues

Introduction

Once you've built your Google Site, you'll want people to see it. But you might not want everyone to see it. This chapter covers how to publish your site and control exactly who gets access.

Google Sites gives you flexible options for sharing your work. You can make your site visible to your entire organisation, share it with specific people, or keep it completely private while you're still working on it.

Lessons

Lesson 1: Publishing Your Site

Publishing makes your site live on the internet. Here's how to do it:

Open your Google Sites project and look for the blue "Publish" button in the top right corner. Click it to open the publishing panel.

You'll see a field asking for your site's web address. Google Sites will suggest one based on your site's name, but you can change it. Keep it simple and relevant to your content.

Choose your visibility settings from the dropdown menu. You have three main options:

• Restricted (only people you choose can view)
• Your organisation (anyone in your Google Workspace domain)
• Public (anyone on the internet can find and view your site)

Click "Publish" to make your site live. You'll see a confirmation message with your site's web address.

Quick tip: Use the "Preview" button before publishing to check how your site looks on different devices. This saves you from discovering layout issues after going live.

Lesson 2: Setting Up Visibility Controls

Your visibility settings determine who can see your published site. Here's what each option means:

Restricted access lets you add specific people by email address. Type their email into the field and press Enter. They'll need to sign in with their Google account to view your site.

Organisation access makes your site visible to anyone in your Google Workspace domain. This works well for internal company sites or school projects.

Public access means anyone can find your site through search engines. Only choose this if you want your site to be completely open.

You can also set different permissions for different people. Some users can just view your site, while others can edit it if you give them editor access.

Lesson 3: Changing Visibility After Publishing

Your site's visibility isn't set in stone. You can adjust who has access whenever you need to.

Click the settings gear icon in the top right corner of your site editor. Select "Publish settings" from the menu.

This opens the same panel you saw when first publishing. Make your changes to the visibility options or add and remove specific users.

Click "Save" to apply your changes. The updates take effect immediately.

This is the bit most people miss: If you're removing someone's access, they might still have the site open in their browser. They'll lose access when they refresh the page or visit again later.

Practice

Try this exercise to get comfortable with visibility controls:

1. Create a test site with some basic content
2. Publish it with restricted access for just yourself
3. Change the settings to include one other person
4. Switch it back to restricted access for only you
5. Note how quickly the changes take effect

This practice helps you understand how the controls work before you need them on important projects.

FAQs

How quickly does my site go live after publishing?
Your site appears online immediately after clicking "Publish." There's no waiting period.

Can I unpublish my site if I change my mind?
Yes, you can unpublish by going to Publish settings and clicking "Unpublish." This makes your site private again.

What happens if someone bookmarks my site and I later restrict access?
They'll see an access denied message when they try to visit, even with the bookmark.

Can I see who has viewed my published site?
Google Sites doesn't provide detailed visitor analytics, but you can see basic view counts in some cases.

Why can't some people in my organisation see my site?
Check that your organisation allows Google Sites sharing. Some workplaces restrict this feature.

Jargon Buster

Domain: Your organisation's part of the internet, like yourcompany.com. Google Workspace uses this to control who counts as being in your organisation.

Publish settings: The control panel where you manage who can see your site and what web address it uses.

Restricted access: A privacy setting that limits your site to only people you specifically choose.

Web address: The link people use to visit your site, also called a URL.

Wrap-up

You now know how to publish your Google Site and control who sees it. These skills give you confidence to share your work when you're ready and keep it private when you're not.

Start with restricted access while you're building and testing your site. You can always open it up to more people later. Remember that changing visibility settings is quick and easy, so don't worry about getting it perfect the first time.

Your next step is to publish a test site and practice changing the visibility settings. This hands-on experience will make you comfortable with the process.

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