Are you a small business owner? Are you looking a get a website made for your business?
Do you know that you can make your business website yourself without knowing anything about web development or web designing.
Then this article is for you.
All you need to have is a google or gmail account.
We all know how important a website is for a business. If you have a small business and your budget is low you can go for a website builder. With the rising demand for online presence Website builder tools are becoming popular.
What is a website builder?
A website builder is a do-it-yourself tool for a website or you can call it website maker. They offer a drag and drop user interface for creating website.
You can make a website without hiring a web developer or coding.
Website builder is a tool for people with no coding experience.
There are free as well as paid website builders.
What kind of websites can you make with a website builder tool?
You can make any kind of website with website builder tool. Business Website, Blog website, e-commerce website, portfolio website, event website, personal website, membership website, non-profit website, informational website, online forum, community website, Startup website, consultation website, booking website, school website, petition website, hobby website, interactive website, travel website, directory website, landing page website, news and magazine website, subscription website, kid-friendly website.
How many website builders are there?
There are two types of website builders. Online website builder and Offline website builder.
Offline website builders are software that you can download and install on your computer for making a website.
Some offline website builders are Wappler, Nicepage.com, Mobirise, Template Toaster, etc
Online website builders are web based and allow you to create a website directly on the web server.
Some online website builder tools are Google Workspace, GoDaddy, WordPress.com, Hubspot CMS Hub, Host Gator, Wix, Weebly, GetResponse, Squarespace, Canva, etc
Why Website Builders are bad?
- Websites have limited customization because of the predefined templates
- Website may have slow site speed if we use website builder. This gives user a bad experience.
- Websites may not look unique because many others may be using the given same template.
- Websites may not be fully responsive if developed using website builder.
- Most DIY Website builders do not allow to verify ownership with Google Web Master tools. So they may not be crawled and indexed by google.
- Website builders have poor SEO performance. Many website builders do not option to add sitemap.xml or robots.txt. This makes the search engine optimization poor.
Who can use website builders?
Website builders can be used by small business owners who have less budget and who want to test the benefits of having a website for business.
It can be used by freelancers for showing their portfolios.
It can be used by students for learning website designing.
It can be used by families for making personal websites.
What is the best and free website builder for your small business?
Let us know more about Google’s Website builder which is completely free. It is also called google sites.
To access it type www.sites.google.com in the browser. If you are not logged in you need to enter google account username and password. The opening screen gives you different templates to choose for creating a website.
There are default templates to create small business website, education website, personal website, work website. Once you select the template the user interface is self explanatory. You can add content and images
Templates are predefined designs with elements, layout, typography and placeholder content. They are also called themes.
After choosing a template you add content to the template simply double clicking on the placeholder.
You can delete the given images and upload new images which suits your business.
You can change existing page names, menus or create new pages .All the customization can be done as you visualized your website.
You can start by selecting a blank site. Once it is opened it’s right side shows tabs to select theme, pages, insert options.
Themes tab shows different themes given by google. You can also upload an existing theme or create a custom theme.
For creating a custom theme you have to give Name for the theme, Add Logo, Add Banner image, Preset Colors, Custom colors, Select Font for titles and headings, font for body text.
Pages tab gives option to add new page. The page can be either a sub page to an existing page or a full page.
Insert tab gives option to add text boxes, images, content blocks, table of contents, image carousel, buttons, divider, spacer, social links, placeholder, youtube video, calendars, slides, forms, charts, etc.
Settings options include navigation type, brand images, viewer tools, custom domains, analytics, announcement bar.
If the “Mode” in “Navigation Type” is set to “Top” then menu items are displayed on the top bar. If is set to “side” menu is displayed to the left side.
Settings in Google Sites
Brand Images section have options to upload logo and favicon images.
Viewer Tool if set displays the last edited time on the website.
Custom domain helps to link domain name to the website.
Analytics option lets to connect Google analytics account to the website. Analytics helps to track user demographics, location, behaviour on the website.
Announcement Banner can help you set banner for homepage or every page. You can display a custom message. This can be enabled or disabled.
The top bar have button to publish the website. Once it is published it can be visible anywhere on the internet.
You can add users to the website from top bar. The access is either editor access or published Viewer. Users can be added by using their google email ids
You can also check preview of website in tabs, mobile, desktops, etc. You have option to share the link to website.
Google sites also has versions history. You can roll back your website to previous version if you want.
I hope the above article gave an clear idea of google’s website builder aka google sites. Don’t wait. Follow the article and make one website and be a proud website owner.