What’s changing
We’re adding three features in new Google Sites (
sites.google.com/new):
- Site templates - Quickly and easily create high-quality sites optimized for common uses.
- Announcement banners - Highlight important information to make sure site visitors see time-sensitive updates.
- Access for Family Link accounts - Enable users with Google Accounts managed by Family Link to view and edit sites.
See more details below, or see our Cloud Blog to post to see
how Sites can support remote work and learning.
Who’s impacted
- Templates and announcement banners: All site owners and editors.
- Access for Family Link accounts: Site editors and viewers with Family Link accounts.
Why it matters
We hope these new features make it easier to create and use sites, especially as our customers deal with the impact of COVID-19. For example, announcement banners can help businesses quickly communicate important information to customers. Using templates to create high-quality sites without requiring design or coding skills can help educational institutions and businesses enable remote learning and workings. Overall, we hope the enhancements make Sites a more useful tool to share information across dispersed audiences.
See our Cloud Blog to post to learn more about
how Sites can support remote work and learning.
Additional details
Site templates For this launch, we’ve built 10 templates for common site uses, available in
16 languages. With one click, you can start a site suited for a specific purpose with a professional look and feel. Then, you can customize the site to make it your own. Examples of sites that templates will make it easier to create include:
- Help centers: Help users learn how to use new tools and resources, for example tools to enable a remote workforce or remote learning for students.
- Project sites: Help colleagues or classmates collaborate on a project remotely.
- Class or team sites: Have a centralized place for team resources and information.
- Club sites: Enable students to continue club activities while remote learning.
- Small business sites: Keep customers informed about your business, like your restaurant or design services, while they’re social distancing.
We’re building more templates and working to make templates available in more languages. You’ll see more templates for common business sites added to the available options in the next several weeks. Use our Help Center to find more information about
using templates in Google Sites.
Announcement banners Created based on customer feedback, announcement banners help site owners communicate timely, important messages to visitors. They display information in a banner at the top of the site, grabbing viewers’ attention when they land on the page. Ways that customers can use banners include:
- A business administrator at a large company can add a banner to an employee resource site to highlight newly added pages and information in the larger site.
- A small business owner can add a banner to alert customers of changing operating hours or business practices.
- A teacher can add a banner to a class site to notify students that a new assignment has been posted.
Use the Help Center to learn more about
how to add an announcement banner to a site.
Access for accounts managed with Family Link Until now, users with
personal Google Accounts managed with Family Link have not been able to view or edit sites. To help increase access to valuable resources, we’ve made it possible for Google Accounts managed with Family Link to view public sites, and view and edit sites that are shared with them.
While personal Google accounts managed by Family Link can now access Sites, students with G Suite for Education accounts should continue to use their school accounts to log in and complete schoolwork in Sites and other G Suite services.
Important note: This only applies to sites created with new Sites. Personal accounts managed by Family Link will still not be able to view or edit sites managed with classic Sites. Use our Help Center to learn more about
using Google Sites with Accounts managed with Family Link.
Getting started
Admins: These features will be ON by default. There are no admin controls for them.
End users: These features will be ON by default. Visit the Help Center to learn more about how to
create a website from a template or
add an announcement banner to a site. Note that parents can use Family Link to
restrict websites or permissions if their child is using Chrome on an Android device or a Chromebook, and may have to
allow their child to see your site.
Rollout pace
Site templates: Announcement banners: Access for Family Link accounts:- Already available to all users.
Availability
- Available to all G Suite customers
Resources
Roadmap
