Advanced Skills

The advanced topics module raises awareness for a variety of topics. The intent here is to provide guidance and direction, however this module lacks the step-by-step detail provided in earlier modules. Some topics have detailed subpages.

World Wide Web

Domain Names

  • Can I use my own domain name for my Google Site rather than the URL Google provides?  YES!
  • Learn how to setup your Google Site and Domain Name records to they work together.
  • And if you don't have a domain name yet, learn how to select and purchase one.  View more details

SEO and Analytics - Getting Found and Measuring Traffic

  • What can I do so that my people find my website?  This is the world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
  • How much traffic does my site have and what are visitors doing at my site?  This is the purview of Analytics.  View more details

Google Sites - Advanced

These are advanced topics within Google Sites.

Style - Customize Themes

"Theme options are OK, but I'd like to customize the look of the site to be just the way I want it."

Learn how to customize Themes; this is Site's alternative to providing CSS.  View more details

HTML

You can view and edit a page's HTML.  "What are the main reasons that I would want to be dealing directly with HTML?"

  • Tables - performing advanced table layouts and formatting
  • Photo size - fine tuning adjustments
  • Debugging - when your page doesn't quite seem to be working the way you expected, reviewing the HTML can clear up glitches.

PayPal

PayPal can be added into a Google Site for some online purchases.  View more details. 

URL Redirection

Configure a Google Site page to redirect visitors to a different URL (either within or external to the site).  View more details.

Scripts

Google Sites doesn't provide users with direct access to JavaScript on webpages.  If you enter JavaScript into the HTML editor, Google Sites will remove the JavaScript when exiting HTML mode.

Google Sites provides two methods of scripting (using JavaScript):
  • Google Apps Scripts - a scripting environment, using JavaScript and including APIs to Google Services.  A Google Apps script may be added to a Site page via a link or inserted as an object.
  • Inserting an HTML Box - JavaScript and custom CSS can be implemented along with HTML in an HTML box.  Note the JavaScript is only within that box and can not interact with other HTML boxes or the rest of the site.
For more information… TBD

Page Level Permissions

Page Level Permissions - can be tricky to manage.  That's why it's often better to give an activity a separate activity site, than trying to grant them rights to a specific section of a main site.
  • Viewing a site
  • Editing a site
TBD - say more - subpage

Example - Team Collaboration Site

A team collaboration site is a great way to keep a team communicating.  Refer to the demo site in the examples section.

Refer to the Team Sites section to learn how to setup and operate team sites.

Multiple Editors managing a Site

When multiple are jointly editing a site there are some considerations that can help.

Site Permissions
  • Owner and Editor permission levels, The Owner can do everything, while an editor has a few limitations.  The Team Sites section provides a detailed breakdown of Owner Tasks and Editor Tasks.
  • Page-level permissions - the ability to edit the site can be set on a section or page-by-page granularity, allowing the owner to limit a person's ability to edit only areas of the site relevant to each person (beware - managing site level permission can get difficult if you try to get too granular).
Subscribe to changes - is available for each page or on a site-wide basis, will send email notification whenever editing occurs.

Copy Sites

When copying a site to create a new site, the new site may need some tuning.

Links - most links convert to reference the new site, but some don't and require manual adjustment.  Those requiring adjustment include:
  • Navigation/Menu links in Sidebar and Horizontal Menus - if you prepared Manual navigation menus and used the 'Add URL' command, those URLs will not be updated to the new site (menu items added using the 'Add page' command get converted properly). 
  • Other links referring to the site itself that were created using the 'by URL', rather than 'Pages' dialog box should be checked - often they convert, however I've experienced cases where they don't.

Blogging

Separate from Google Sites, Google operates Blogger.

Blogger provides full-featured, free hosted blogging capabilities via your Google Account.

If you have a minor blogging activity that you want within your site, then
  • Create a Blogger Site
  • Prepare a page on Google Site and embed a frame containing your Blogger Site.
  • The benefit, you get true blogging capabilities at your Google Site, e.g., www.mydomainname.com/blog
  • Drawback: the Google Site Search feature will not search the contents of the blog.
If blogging is a major part of your communication strategy and you have your own domain name.  Consider this approach:
  • Use Separate Blogger and Google Sites
  • Setup domain for the following:
    • www.mydomainname.com - Google Site
    • blog.mydomainname.com - Blogger
  • Include links in each to connect to the other.
Note your Google Site and your Blogger site are hosted separate entities. Google Search and other search engines will treat them as two separate locations when ranking and presenting search results.  Running separate blogger and websites can split your traffic and may result in search rankings that are lower than if all your content was published in one place.