Google Sites glossary

The building blocks

Site

Your complete Google Sites project: its pages, navigation, theme and published address. Think of it as the container for everything visitors can see.

Page

A single destination inside your site, such as Home, About, Services or Contact. Each page can have its own content and place in the navigation.

Section

A horizontal block of content on a page. Sections help you group a headline, image, text and call to action into an easy-to-scan story.

Layout

A ready-made arrangement of text, images and buttons inside a section. Layouts save time, but you can still change the content and spacing around them.

Theme

The shared visual system for your site: fonts, colours and button styling. Set a theme early so new pages look related by default.

Navigation and addresses

Navigation

The menu visitors use to move between your most important pages. Keep it short; if everything is in the menu, nothing feels important.

Subpage

A page grouped underneath another page in the navigation. Use it for detail that supports a main topic, not to hide your best content.

Published URL

The public web address people can visit. Editing a site and publishing it are separate actions, so check that the version you changed is the version visitors can see.

Custom domain

A branded address, such as yourstudio.com, connected to a published site. It can make a small business or portfolio easier to remember and share.

Content and sharing

Embed

Content placed inside your page from another service, including Google Drive files, maps, calendars, forms, videos or an embed code snippet.

Button

A clear call to action that sends a visitor somewhere useful: a booking form, email address, product page or another page on your site.

Header

The top area of a page, often used for the page title and a large image. It gives a visitor context before they start scrolling.

Publishing permissions

The setting that controls who can view the published site. Confirm this before sharing a link, especially when a site is intended for customers rather than a private team.