Google Sites is a simple, drag-and-drop website builder included free in Google Workspace, and it's one of the more underrated tools available to teachers. You can use it to build a class resource hub, a student portfolio, a digital choice board, an event site, or a shared team resource page, all without spending anything or needing web design experience.

I'm not sure everyone's heard of this one, but I think it's one of the most underrated tools sitting inside Google Workspace: Google Sites.

What is Google Sites?

Google Sites is a simple drag-and-drop website builder, included as part of Google Workspace. You can build your own website without needing coding knowledge or web design experience.

Website creation can get genuinely complicated. I've built and managed my own website, so I know how challenging it can be even with modern tools. Google Sites strips a lot of that complexity away, which makes it a genuinely good entry point if web design is something you'd like to explore, or something you'd like your students to try.

I think that's actually the appeal for a lot of teachers who'd otherwise avoid web design entirely. You don't need to understand hosting, domains, or code. You drag a block onto the page, add your content, and move on. That low barrier to entry is exactly why it's worth a proper look.

How can I use Google Sites as a resource hub?

Set it up as a central location for your lessons, resources, videos, and anything else your students need to access regularly.

You could do the same thing through Google Classroom, and often that's the better fit. But if Google Classroom isn't available to you, or it hasn't worked well in your context for whatever reason, Google Sites is a genuinely solid alternative worth trying.

The structure is entirely up to you. You could organise it by topic, by week, or by resource type, whatever actually matches how your students navigate and find things. Once it's set up, updating it is as simple as editing any other document.

Can Google Sites work for events, not just everyday teaching?

Yes, and I've used it exactly this way. At a previous school, I coordinated a regional study day for HSC English, and I built the entire event site using Google Sites. Students and teachers could see the program, check out the presenters, and find details on how the day was structured.

Because it was built on Google Sites, it didn't cost a single cent. For an event with a limited or non-existent budget, that's a genuinely useful feature, not just a nice bonus.

Events like that often get delayed or scrapped entirely because there's no budget for the supporting materials, let alone a proper website. Being able to put something genuinely professional-looking in front of students and presenters, without needing sign-off on a spend, removed one entire barrier from getting that day off the ground.

What about using Google Sites for a choice board?

I've actually shown this exact idea before, in one of the Innovative EdTech episodes on my YouTube channel.

If you already use choice boards, whether through Google Slides, Canva, PowerPoint, or even Word, it's worth considering a digital choice board built in Google Sites instead. It's genuinely doable, and it opens up a slightly different structure than the usual slide-based versions.

Want to see exactly how that choice board was built? Check out the Innovative EdTech episode on Google Sites for the full walkthrough.

Can students use Google Sites for their own work?

Definitely, and portfolios are one of the strongest uses I've seen for this.

Have students build their own Google Sites website to collect and showcase their work over a term, a unit, or an entire school year. They design the structure themselves, decide what best represents their learning, and build something that's genuinely theirs, rather than just filling in a template you've handed them.

That ownership piece matters more than it might seem. A portfolio students have actually designed themselves tends to get more genuine engagement than one built entirely inside a template with the boxes already drawn for them. It becomes something they're proud to show, rather than a task they're simply completing.

Is Google Sites useful beyond the classroom too?

Yes. It works just as well as a shared resource hub for a team, holding documents, policies, handbooks, and anything else your colleagues need regular access to in one central place.

It's also worth mentioning that early in the Evolve EdTech days, before the move to Tristan Heron, our own business website was actually built on Google Sites. We didn't have the budget for a more elaborate setup at the time, so Google Sites did the job properly until we were ready to move on.

I don't think enough people realise how capable it actually is for something like that. It's easy to assume a tool built for classroom resource hubs couldn't also carry an entire small business's web presence, but it genuinely can, at least as a starting point while you work out what you actually need long term.

Is Google Sites worth the time to actually learn?

I think so, genuinely. It's simple enough to pick up over a school holiday break, and versatile enough that once you start finding uses for it, you tend to keep finding more.

You're really only limited by your imagination here. Resource hubs, event pages, choice boards, student portfolios, team hubs, if you can picture it, there's a good chance you can build it in Google Sites.

If you've never opened it before, I'd genuinely recommend setting aside half an hour, just to click around and see what's possible. There's no cost to trying, and no risk in experimenting, since you can always delete a site and start again if the first attempt doesn't work out the way you'd hoped.

If you want to see a full, practical walkthrough of Google Sites in action, check out the Innovative EdTech episode covering it. We go through the build step by step, live.

Tristan