New Google Sites Templates for 2023

So, it might have been several years since I've made a new post on this blog, but that doesn't mean that I've stopped working on Google Sites. This month specifically I have poured hours into designing premium Google Sites templates that go above and beyond the standard offering of Free Google Sites templates. I've enjoyed crafting these themes, utilizing all the new tools available to me on the platform. 

Here are some quick screenshots, but if you want to explore the full templates, come on over to my website. 

Future of Google Sites - 9 New Updates

Here are some of the key take aways from the Google Next 2019 Session on Google Sites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XpTDj7UXPI

1. Site Migration - We can expect incremental improvement to the migration tool as new features become available.
2. Image Carousel / Slideshow - It seems like they are poised to release this feature, which many have clamored for. It is an in-page gadget and looks to be paginated with buttons. We didn't see arrows or the settings menu.
3. Cloud Search - Presumably coming soon, this search bar was added in the content area, but can go anywhere on the site. It searches Drive, Sites, and even Gmail!
4. Use Cases - The Google Sites team will focus most on intranets and corporate team sites. It should be optimized for enterprise.
5. New Dashboards - We saw both a sneak peak of the unified Sites dashboard and an admin dashboard for Classic Sites usage, which will help them evaluate which Sites to migrate.
6. Style Customization - Text customization, better branding options, collapsible text and the aforementioned carousel. We will get more control on New Sites soon.
7. Template Gallery - Seeded with a few examples from the Sites team, this gallery will also allow you to publish templates for your domain.
8. Better Collaboration - Informed publishing, site revision and page revision history. Also editor commenting. Sites will become more like Google Docs in this capacity.
9. Freshness - Certain provisions for denoting the freshness and how current content is with a Site Badge with contact option.

Google Next 2019 Breakout Session - Future of Google Sites

Looking forward to this session:

Websites are a vital tool for sharing information within and across teams. We’ve spent the past 6 months talking to customers and determining what comes next for Google Sites. Join us as we give an inside look into how we plan to meet our most demanding customer needs with exciting new features. Whether you have never built a site before, you’re an experienced classic Sites user, or you’re Sites’ biggest fan - you’ll walk away with a better understanding of how Sites can be useful to your organization now and in the future.

Updated Google Sites Roadmap - 5 Things You Need to Know

This post is a little belated, but nonetheless important. The updated Google Sites roadmap presented on the G Suite Updates blog presents 5 items we need to discuss. Let's dive in.

https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2019/01/google-sites-improvements-new-roadmap.html

1. Classic Google Sites will go down - This action is slated for late 2021.

2. Enterprise Features coming soon - The slow pace of Google Sites upgrades and feature roll-outs has been a concern. However, all your old favorites and some new plug-ins will likely come our way. The Table of Contents gadget has already been rolled out as promised.

https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2019/02/table-of-contents-sites.html

3. More Design Control - A big complaint was the simplicity of New Sites. This is being addressed and fine-tuning your Google Sites theme will be forthcoming.

4. Better Back End Support - The infrastructure to build large intranets is being improved, edit and publishing help, including back up support.

5. It's Time to Get Started - Get a jump on your project now. Become familiar with New Google Sites and start migrating the smaller team sites now.

Google Sites Specialist Produced Intranet Concept Sample

As a Google Sites specialist it is important to hone your skills once and while. Designing a sample Google Sites, like this intranet concept, allows us to freely express our creativity. So enjoy this sample and contact us if you need a Google Sites specialist for your next project.

More samples available on our website

New Google Plus Communities Integration

For the first time you can actually embed a Google + environment, stream with posting capability into a website. They have made it super easy to do in the New Google Sites using the Embed URL tool. Before, it seemed that Google was intent on having most Google + content locked down in the platform with no export options. The security around Communities in particular seemed to be an obstacle.

Anyways, now things are different. Sites and Google Plus have a new relationship and interaction within intranets is much better because of it. Check out the post from Google and their Support Documentation:

Embed Google+ streams in the new Google Sites for more engagement

July 30, 2018

We’re making it easier to embed Google+ streams in the new Google Sites. This feature is a top request from users who want to create more interactive and engaging sites. The launch will help you:

• Increase the social aspect of sites. Users can see all the posts, photos, comments, and other content that they’d see with the full G+ experience. 
• Enable free-flowing communication. Users can add comments, +1s, and more to the G+ content directly from the site. 
• Keep content fresh. Users can avoid duplicate content management by having G+ updates appear automatically in sites. 

How embedded G+ streams work 

You can embed many types of G+ post streams in your Google Sites pages. Specifically, you can embed a top-level community page, a community category page, a collection page, a search results page, or a G+ profile. Formatting of the G+ embed will automatically adjust to the width you set. Once it’s embedded, users can interact with posts just as they can on the full G+ experience. 

Permissions to see and interact with the stream are determined by whether users can see the content in G+. So if you embed from a private G+ community, only members of that community will be able to see the content on the site.

See our Help Center for more details on how to embed G+ streams in Google Sites.

Add a Google+ stream

You can add a Google+ community, collection, or profile stream to your site.

1. On your computer, open Google+.
2. Go to the Google+ page of the stream you want to add to your site.
3. Copy the URL of the Google+ page.
4. Open a site in new Google Sites.
5. At the right, click Embed.
6. Paste the URL of the stream.
7. Click Insert.
8. At the top right, click Publish.

Note: You can add a top-level community stream or specific community category streams to your site

NEW Convert your site to the new Google Sites

This statement, followed by "Try it now" is appearing for some Google Sites users.

The Classic Google Sites to New Google Sites conversion tool is far from perfect. If you need help converting your site and having it appear as a beautiful, on brand, cohesive intranet solution, contact us.

Also, just a sidebar here, there is the new ability to add URLs to the Google Sites navigation. So your navigation can point, not only to internal pages within the site, but to other websites, or other Google Sites with different permissions. This is a nice solution for page-level permissions as it is currently lacking from New Sites.

Thanks!