To get started with creating your own website, first, click on the link below. This will take you to a new website called Google Sites. Once there, click on the big plus sign to begin, and follow the tutorial to learn how to make your own website.

If you don't already have a Google account, you will be asked to create one. After you create your account, you can choose a template that suits your needs.

If you need help, there are tutorial videos linked below that you can watch. You can also contact the people who made this website if you experience problems or wish to provide feedback. It is also a good idea to learn how to search at Google and on YouTube for answers to any questions you may have. There is a lesson below which teaches about that.

Remember to keep your account secure by not sharing your password or displaying it where others can see it. Also, make sure to write down your login details in a safe place, like a book, and make a backup copy just in case.

If you have any trouble following the instructions, you can contact the creators of this site for help. And don't worry if you make a mistake - you can always start over and make changes to your website at any time!

Clicking the link below will open a new tab. You can then move between the two tabs as you proceed. sites.Google.com/new

The only financial cost involved in having your own unique website with Google SItes is the cost of a domain name, and even that is not essential, as you can for example, obtain a tiny URL to link to your website, or simply link to your website from another site, such as a school website using your Google Sites page address. 

A domain name is only a signpost that directs visitors to your site, although having an easily remembered and relevant domain name can be of value. We have even seen Google Sites pages ranked high on the search engine result pages without the sites in question having a unique domain name (only an account address), although that is somewhat unusual.

If you do decide to have a unique domain name attached to your website, we strongly recommend registering the name through Google Domains, who now accept a wide range of domain name extension URL's such as .au domain names.

if you do however wish to have advanced features displayed within your Google Sites pages, then you may need to investigate having a paid Google Cloud account in which to develop the applications you wish to display. Although, for the vast majority of small business and community organisations or personal websites, the basic Google SItes application is more than adequate.

Click below to learn more about
Logging in to your Google Sites Account

Click below to learn about
Google Sites Examples

Advanced Google Sites

Click below to view
Google sites articles

New Google Sites just got better

Google Website Design Tips

Google Sites vs Google Business Profile

Click the link below to learn about
Using Google Workspace

More about Google Workspace

Google Workspace YouTube channel

Note that there are some charges associated with the use of Google Workspace. If you choose to open a Workspace account, be certain to check what you will be charged, and check that only the services you wish to use are turned on.

The Gimp is one of the most popular
free image editing applications available.
Click below to learn more
https://www.gimp.org

Note that for security purposes
you should ideally only download
install files from the website shown
in the section below and not
from any mirror sites.

Click the link below to install Gimp onto
Mac, Windows, Chromebook, or Linux
https://www.wikihow.com/Install-GIMP

Follow the instructions for your system
to download and install The Gimp
onto your computer.

Click here to view Gimp tutorials
that teach how to create drawings
and edit photographs
for use on your website.

You can if you wish also run the
Gimp online
through a browser window.

This site teaches you how to create
the best simple websites

when only the best is good enough

best free simple website builder

best hosting for simple websites

best simple ecommerce websites

best simple website designs

best simple website examples

cool simple website designs

best website security

best low-cost domain names

The Google Sites application is capable of far more than is described in this introductory page, and we strongly suggest that you research the Google Sites Help Pages to learn more.

To research a free drawing application
visit the website at https://inkscape.org/
or/and click the link below
Free drawing applications

Click the link below to learn more about
Free drawing applications
from YouTube tutorial videos

Click the link below to learn how to
create drawings of realistic
looking objects for your website,
How to draw anything

Similar search terms will display
a range of different tutorials,
and then browsing through
the resulting tutorial videos will
help you to learn how to draw.

Also, click the website link below
Drawing on the right side of the  brain

Click below to learn how to
Search the web for anything

Learn about
How Search Works

Click below to learn about
Website Writing Skills

Creative Writing Skills

More about writing and promoting

Grammar and spelling checkers

Writing Website Privacy Policy

it is important to note that you can create a business, organisation, or private website with Google Sites for free, and Google will provide you with a free account address, although not a unique Website URL.

It is not essential to have a Google Workspace account in order to have a Google Sites account, although having a Workspace account can be of value if you wish to store accessible files such as PDF files that are associated with your Google Sites account.

If you want to add a unique URL to your website, you will ideally register a domain name either through Google  Domains or through another domain name registrar so that the site displays in the browser window as the site address.

For various technical reasons, it is usually best to register and link your domain name to your site using the DNS system. A domain name is a signpost to help visitors easily remember the location of your site, so choose your name well as you ideally want it to be relevant to the subject of your website, and you also want it to be easily remembered and easy to type.

Click here to learn more about
Google's services
________________________________________
Click the link below to visit the
ICANN website page
Registrant Educational  Materials
(ICANN is the top authority for domain names)

Click below to visit the ICANN Lookup page to check if the domain name you wish to register is available
Domain Name Search
If a search at the site returns a 'Not found in the Registry'  response, it usually indicates that the domain name is not registered and so should ideally be available for you to register. A different response may either indicate that the domain is already registered, or indicate that ICANN is not the appropriate authority.

Click the link below to learn more about
ICANN and IANA
Click below to
Learn Even More

Important
Use only the secure ICANN Domain Name Search window linked to above (or the IANA domain name search feature, or an alternative and appropriate top-level domain name organization) such as Verisign to check that the desired name is available.

Once you have confirmed the availability of a domain name, (no registration already exists) register it immediately with your chosen registrar. Avoid searching for the name again at other online locations before registering it, as doing so could possibly result in the name being registered by a registrar or by someone else seeking to charge you an increased registration fee. Hackers and scammers are everywhere.

Setting up a domain name can sometimes be challenging the first time you do it, although viewing relevant videos on YouTube does help.
Contact us via the email displayed at the bottom of this page if you get stuck, and we will try to assist.

We have our domain names registered with several different registrars because we checked different ones out over the years, and remain satisfied with the services provided by the ones linked below.

Always check that the registrar you choose is authorised to register the country-level domain name you wish to secure, as restrictions exist relating to certain country domain name extensions such as .au
Click here to learn more

Note: When you register and then set up a domain name DNS, apparently only one record (either the A or the CNAME record) can display the www. prefix. Otherwise, a conflict may be created and the DNS will then not work correctly.
Also, the version of the domain name without the www. should. or can be redirected to the version with the www, or the other way around, so that both versions will then display correctly in the browser address line when your website displays in a browser, although these guidelines may vary between different registrars.

If you find the above directions to be confusing, ask your registrar's help desk staff to set your domain name up for you. They will probably ask for specific information relating to where your website is hosted, and Google Sites should provide that information to you when you make selections within your Google Sites account relating to linking a domain name.
________________________________________

The domain name for this site http://www.gsites.live is registered with http://www.name,com*, which has registered domain names since 1995, and is an excellent registrar who we use and recommend.

It is now also possible to register many domain names directly with Google domains, including many country-level domain names at https://domains.google*, and we highly recommend them as excellent registrars.

You can if you wish move any registered domain to a different registrar following a mandatory 60-day holding period.

Click the link below to learn about
Transferring a domain name to
Google Domains

Click the link below to learn more.
Google  Domains Support

Other registrars can also be used to register domain names if you believe that doing so is appropriate for you.

Click the link below to view
alternative registrar's websites.
Domain name registrars

Before selecting a registrar, always
conduct an online search using
the following format
'The registrars name reviews'
On the search results page,
skip past the adverts to view
the real reviews pages.

Click the link below if you experience 
Domain Name Issues

Click the link below if you are being
scammed in relation to a domain name
or in relation to other items.
International Consumer Protection

Click below to learn more about
Domain Names

Note that multiple domain name extensions such as .live and .online etc are now available. Note however that annual registration renewal prices vary. A registrar may for example, only charge you $9 to initially register a domain name for the first year, although when the domain name is due for renewal for a second or third year etc, the fees may be significantly higher, possibly $44, or even more in some instances.

Domain Names are also known as URL's

Verify Domain Name at Google new sites

*Please note that we are affiliated with some of the above registrars and may receive small commissions for referring clients to their websites 

More YouTube tutorial videos
from Google

Click the link below to access
webmaster help tutorials at
Google Search Central

How to write code for websites

Learn to write more code

Writing even more HTML code

Google Sites Hacks

Anchor links in Google sites

Uploading a HTML and CSS files

Universal Academy

Website editors other than Google Sites exist, and some are designed with advanced features for online shopping etc that may possibly not be easily installed and managed directly through Google Sites, although could possibly be hosted in your Google Drive and linked to through a sub-domain

Click below to learn about

Alternative Website Editing Applications

Click below to learn about
Promoting Your Website at YouTube
Note: lots of different advice is offered in the videos and only you can identify the advice that is most relevant to you

Click the links below to learn about
Search Engine Optimisation

SEO tools

Semrush

Learn how to promote your website
through the Search Engines

Copyright law is different for each country, although most counties abide by the Berne convention.
The following link connects to the official US government copyright site.
About US Copyright

Click below to find your country's official copyright information website.
Copyright in your country
Note: If the official government copyright site for your country does not display near the top of the search results page, conduct a manual search to help identify the relevant website.

Click below to view videos about
Trademarks

Click below to learn about
Trademark law in your country

The Book Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug is a brilliant book about Interface Design and usability testing.

Also
Nielsen Norman Group
are the Experts in interface design and usability testing

We highly recommend the use of the Google Chrome browser on all major platforms to help avoid issues that may be experienced when using various other browsers. 

In the videos linked to below, different individuals describe their favourite and least favourite browsers.
Browser Wars

Also, you can if you wish
Create your own Browser

Alternative web browsers

More  about alternative browsers
Brave
Tor
Opera
Chrome Incognito

Clearing browser memory

Click the link below to learn about
Making the best YouTube videos
also
How to make brilliant videos
and
Special Effects in Your Videos
plus
AI Improved Videos

Click to learn about
How to Search on YouTube

Click below to learn about
Google Sites online stores

Click below to learn about
Google Sites eCommerce

Click the link below to learn about
Voice Typing
which is also often referred to as
Speech to Text

Click below to learn about
Search  Engines

Also, learn how to create your own
Search Engine

Click the link below to learn about
Artificial Intelligence

Click below to learn even more
Open AI

ChatGPT

AI chatbot 'ChatGPT' interview

Sam Altman talks about AI

Click below to learn about using
Google Translate

Click below to access advanced
information for website developers
Schema.org

Click below to learn about
Google Search News

Click below to learn how to
Protect your PDF Files

Click the links below to learn about submitting your site to the Google search engine.

The only way to  Submit your Website to Google
is via the URL Inspection Tool or by submitting a Sitemap, and you can carry out both of these activities yourself. Although, Google has become pretty good at finding new websites so long as the site is linked to from a popular
social networking or other popular and already indexed site.

Always ensure that all the publicly available pages on your website can be accessed and indexed by search engines.
Learn more

Note
If a site already displays in the Google search engine, then it has already been indexed.

A recently released  operating system from Google (2023) is Chrome OS flex, flex is more than a browser, as it is an entire operating
system that can completely replace Windows or Linux Ubuntu etc, and will even run on Macs. You can even run the system off a
USB stick to try it out, or you can fully install the app onto your computer with relative ease. It will even give some old laptop
computers from as far back as 2008 a completely new lease of life, and it is claimed to be very secure.

Click below to learn more about
Chrome OS flex

Learn even more about
Installing Chrome OS Flex

Google Support Installation Guide for
ChromeOS Flex

Click below to access the Chrome OS Flex
Install page

Click below to learn about  installing
Chrome OS Flex on 2009-2015 Macs

Click below to learn about
Opencore for Mac's
to help rejuvenate older Mac computers

With Google sites, hosting is already provided. However, once your site grows beyond the ability of Google sites to provide the services you require, you may need to consider securing alternative hosting services. Although, for the vast majority of websites this may never be an issue.

Click the link below to learn more
About Hosting

Click below to learn about
Google Meet Online Conferencing

Click below for business talk
Tech Society

Startups

Talks at Google

Universal Academy

Google Cloud Tutorials
Videos    Websites

Note that charges apply to the use of Google Cloud. If you do open an account check that only the specific services you require are turned on.

Global Tech Advocates

Australia Tech Advocates

Google Adsense

More about Adsense

Advanced Features

Google Workspace For Education

Embed Code Into Google Sites

Learn more about Gmail and
Google Workspace accounts

Advanced Tips for Google Sites

Dead Link Checker

Google Support

Google Sites Experts
Steegle

Export from Google Sites

Earning Income with websites

Affiliate websites with CHATgpt

SEO Keywords