Many small business owners need a website and keep postponing because they think it requires money, a developer and time.
Google Sites is a free tool that lets you build a simple, respectable site in an hour with no technical knowledge. It will not compete with a professionally built site, but it solves the fundamental problem: having an official place on the internet.
What is Google Sites?
A tool among Google's other tools like Docs and Sheets. You open it with an ordinary Gmail account, and build pages by dragging and dropping.
Everything happens in the browser, the site is hosted on Google's servers, and it needs no hosting and no maintenance.
Its advantages
- Completely free. No hosting cost and no subscription.
- Very easy. No code, and the interface works like any Google tool.
- Automatically responsive. It displays properly on a phone with no effort.
- Integrates with Google tools. Insert forms, maps, videos and sheets with one click.
- Secure and fast. On Google's infrastructure, so no worry about downtime or hacking.
And its limits
You need to know the tool's limits before relying on it. Design control is limited, search optimisation options are fewer than on specialist platforms, there is no full e-commerce, and the templates are limited.
So it is excellent as a brochure site, a landing page or an internal site, and unsuitable for a large store or a heavy content site.
Who is it right for?
- A small business needing an official presence quickly at zero cost.
- A local service needing a page with details, address and contact.
- Someone starting out who wants to test an idea before spending on a full site.
- A project or event needing a temporary page.
Prepare your content before you start
The biggest reason people stop halfway is starting the design with no content. Prepare first:
- The business name and a description in two sentences.
- The services or products with names and prices if you will show them.
- Real photos of your work or your premises.
- Contact details, address and opening hours.
- Customer testimonials if you have any.
Once that is ready, building the site itself takes very little time.
The build steps
- Go to sites.google.com with a Google account.
- Click a blank site or choose a ready template.
- Enter the site name and the home page name.
- Add elements from the menu on the right: text, images, boxes, dividers.
- Add new pages from the pages tab (about us, services, contact).
The interface works by dragging: you pick an element, place it, and resize it with the cursor.
Ordering the home page
Your most important page. The order that works:
- Right at the top: who you are and what you do in one clear line.
- Directly below: a button or a contact method.
- Then: the services or products in brief.
- Then: proof — photos of work or customer testimonials.
- At the end: contact details, address and a map.
A visitor has to understand what you do in under ten seconds. If they need to read a paragraph to work it out, reorder it.
Common mistakes
- Long text. Nobody reads. Cut to the minimum.
- Stock images from the internet. They reduce trust. Photos of your real work are far stronger.
- Missing or outdated contact details. The worst possible mistake, because it wastes all your effort.
- Forgetting mobile. Check the layout on a phone before publishing, because most visitors will arrive on one.
The pages you actually need
Do not overcomplicate the site. Four pages are enough for any small business:
- Home: who you are, what you do, and how to get in touch.
- Services or products: brief detail and prices where possible.
- About us: a short story, real photos, and the team if you have one. This page builds more trust than people expect.
- Contact: a form, a number, an address, a map and hours.
Any page beyond that needs a reason. A site with ten pages, half of them empty, looks abandoned.
Prices: do you publish them or not?
A question that comes up often. The rule I use: if your prices are fixed and clear, publish them — it saves your time and the customer's and filters out unsuitable enquiries.
If prices vary by project, publish a range or a starting point: "services start from X." Complete vagueness stops many people getting in touch at all, for fear they cannot afford you.
In short
Google Sites is a practical, free solution for any business needing an official presence quickly. Know its limits, prepare your content first, build a clear home page, and check the layout on a phone.
This is part one — part two covers customising the look and publishing the site.
This is part of the courses series — which also includes the six-part TikTok marketing and advertising course.