URLs and Links

...I'll show you how you can set up a test environment with multiple accounts to check and make sure, your 'share' and 'publish' settings are as you want them to be. Additionally, I have discovered some hidden features which I haven't noticed being documented anywhere else which I will attach at the end of this tutorial.

So I hope you find this useful and learn something new.

⚠ Requirements / Preparations
You need a free personal Google account (Gmail) OR a Google Workspace account (your domain) with Sites service turned on and users allowed to access the service to design websites with Google's homepage building tool.

Illustrated Quick Start Guide: https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/9310491?hl=en 

Classic Google Sites is deprecated and websites built on the old platform aren't viewable anymore. Google created a draft on the new platform for you. As owner of a Site you will find it in your new dashboard, but the classic dashboard is still available for migration purposes.

⚠ Classic Sites were able to have multiple owners. New Google Sites can only have one owner!

Quote Perjury: "...when an automatic migration is done ... ownership of the migrated New Sites site will have been allocated to one of the previous owners. The fact that you are not seeing the migrated Site using the account you are using suggests that the other account was given ownership. You need to use that account to access the migrated Site."

Google Sites is integrated in the Google Drive and Docs ecosystem and therefore has a lot in common with their URL structure. More about this now.

The Google Sites editor opens your website with a URL like this (no real file/link, just an example):

https://sites.google.com/d/1ab-cDe-FGHijKI23MNoPq_rSTuvW-XyZ/p/1ABcdEF2G3H4iJkLMn5op-q6rst7UVWX/edit
https://sites.google.com/d/The-Document-ID/p/The-Page-ID/modus

A Google Drive image file shared to open in the Drive viewer:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ab-cDe-FGHijKI23MNoPq_rSTuvW-XyZ/view?usp=sharing

A Google Sheets file shared to open in the Docs editor:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ab-cDe-FGHijKI23MNoPq_rSTuvW-XyZ/edit?usp=sharing

You cannot only open your Google Sites via the dashboard like described above, but also right from your Google Drive. Select 'Sites' from the 'Type' drop down menu to search for its document / 'meta' file. You can alternatively type in the search bar type:site

The search result has a specific URL in general you can bookmark in your browser as well:

Logged in to single account:

https://drive.google.com/drive/search?q=type:site

First user (multiple):

https://drive.google.com/drive/search?q=type:site&authuser=0
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/search?q=type:site

Second user (multiple):

https://drive.google.com/drive/search?q=type:site&authuser=1
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/search?q=type:site

The following becomes handy, if you want to check the share and publish settings of your Google Site.
Let's say you have created a Google Site with your second account!

1. Open your Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/?authuser=1

2. Create a folder in Google Drive

3. Move the Google Site's meta file into this folder

4. Share this folder with your first account with viewing rights (with: 'General access' is 'Restricted' = Only people with access can open with the link)

5. Double click your Google Site file in the folder

The editor opens up with an URL like this:

https://sites.google.com/d/1ab-cDe-FGHijKI23MNoPq_rSTuvW-XyZ/p/1ABcdEF2G3H4iJkLMn5op-q6rst7UVWX/edit?authuser=1

↳ The above sample link then opens the Site in the Google Sites editor with the owner (second) account which has editing rights.

Change the authuser parameter to 0, so you use the first/main account:

https://sites.google.com/d/1ab-cDe-FGHijKI23MNoPq_rSTuvW-XyZ/p/1ABcdEF2G3H4iJkLMn5op-q6rst7UVWX/edit?authuser=0

• If the Google Site is published to the web (blue button with drop down menu attached):
  ↳ The above link then redirects you to your published Google Sites URL and shows the live website:

https://sites.google.com/view/example-name

• If the Google Site is not published to the web (blue button):
  ↳ The above link then redirects you to your 'preview' Google Sites URL and shows the unpublished draft:

https://sites.google.com/u/0/d/1ab-cDe-FGHijKI23MNoPq_rSTuvW-XyZ/preview

⚠ If you have done this test setup, but get a 403 error for the above URL as response, you might have changed permissions in the Google Sites editor in the meantime. This will overwrite the share settings for the Google Drive folder for this specific Google Sites document. To solve this issue move the Google Sites document/meta file out of the folder and move it back in. The 403 error should be gone.

In the case you have already published your Google Site, you can open the Google Sites editor via the published URL as well

🠚 Open this URL in your browser:
https://sites.google.com/view/example-name?authuser=1

⚠ You will see a 'pencil' button in the bottom right corner to enter the editing mode

https://sites.google.com/view/example-name?authuser=0

⚠ You won't see a pencil with the mentioned share settings.

Note: If you see a pencil, that means you have granted editor rights to this account!

🠚 Open the published URL in an incognito window:

https://sites.google.com/view/example-name

⚠ If you see a Google branded 404 error page:
The Google Site does not exist -> which means in our case it is currently not published to the web at all

⚠ If you see a Google sign-in page:
The Google Site is not published with the share setting: Public = 'Anyone on the web can find and view' but Restricted = 'Only people with access can open with the link' like it should be according to our Test Setup.

References

• https://www.labnol.org/internet/direct-links-for-google-drive/28356/#google-drive-url-tricks

• https://www.labnol.org/google-drive-image-hosting-220515

• https://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/130654/all-google-docs-url-parameters-functions-commands

🠚 Please remember what I wrote earlier:

Following the Stackexchange discussion I have tried these links:
https://sites.google.com/create?authuser=1
https://sites.google.com/u/1/create

Both worked ✔

🠚 https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2021/06/custom-templates-for-new-google-sites.html

https://sites.google.com/d/1ab-cDe-FGHijKI23MNoPq_rSTuvW-XyZ/template/preview

💾 Alternatively make a copy of your Site via the ⋮ menu in the Google Sites editor:
https://support.google.com/sites/answer/98081?hl=en#:~:text=Make%20a%20copy%20of%20your%20entire%20site

The way which is recommended to export Google Sites content is via Google Takeout.

🠚 Create a Google Takeout if you need an HTML export with the necessary files for the whole project
Learn how to do this here: https://www.steegle.com/google-sites/how-to/export-with-takeout

While experimenting with the links discussed above I stumbled upon an URL which creates a plain text export file you can open in any text editor.

🠚 You need to be signed in to the owner/editor account, so in my test setup I need to use /u/1/ in the URL for the correct account. Attaching 'authuser=1' didn't work.
https://sites.google.com/u/1/d/1ab-cDe-FGHijKI23MNoPq_rSTuvW-XyZ/export?format=txt

🠚 It will also export the hidden 'Lorem Ipsum' page