With Google's free service “Google Sites,” you can publish a website at no cost. You simply sign in with a Google account, choose a template, add text and images, and publish. However, it falls short when it comes to a custom address (domain) or a structure that performs well in search, so if your goal is attracting customers, you need to decide in advance when you will switch to a paid approach.
Google offers two free entry points
If you want to build a free website with Google, the tool to use is “Google Sites.” The other option, “Google Business Profile,” is not a website itself but a system for listing your business information in Search and Maps.
Google Sites is a website creation service that anyone with a Google account can use. Choose a template, arrange blocks, and your page is complete. No server contract is required.
Google Business Profile is a free system that displays your business name, address, opening hours, photos and reviews in Google Search results and on Maps. It used to include a feature that automatically generated a simple website from the profile information, but Google discontinued that feature in March 2024 (according to Google Business Profile Help). Today, the profile is used to point visitors to the URL of your own website.
In other words, the realistic way to have a free website using Google alone is Google Sites. From here on, the explanation assumes you are using Google Sites.
Steps for building a website with Google Sites
You can get all the way to publishing with Google Sites in one to two hours.
- Sign in with your Google account and open Google Sites
- Choose “Blank” or a template
- Enter the site name at the top of the page
- Arrange elements such as headings, text, images, a map and contact details
- Use the menu at the top right to add pages (Company Profile, Services, Access, etc.)
- Use “Preview” to check how it looks on a smartphone
- Click “Publish” and decide on the published address
The published address takes the form of a name you choose appended to Google's domain. Choosing a clear name that includes your company name makes it easier to read when printed on business cards or flyers.
To receive inquiries, you can create a Google Form and embed it in the page. Responses are collected automatically in a Google Sheets spreadsheet, and you can set up notification emails from the same screen.
The situations where free is enough are clear
A free Google Sites website is a good fit when the people who will visit are already decided and you just need somewhere to put the information.
- A business-card-style page showing your company overview and contact details to clients and customers
- A limited-time page publicising an event or class for just one month
- A page collecting documents and announcements for internal staff or organisation members
- A prototype page for giving shape to an idea before launching a new business
What these have in common is that you don't need strangers to find you through search. For showing information to people who have been referred to you, it does the job perfectly well at no cost.
Five things you can't do because it's free
With Google Sites, the following five points become obstacles. For a website aimed at attracting customers, these are what separate success from failure.
1. Running the site on your own company domain takes extra work
Google Sites does let you assign a custom domain you have obtained yourself, but the cost of acquiring the domain is separate. If you use it for free, the address sits under Google's shared domain. If the address on your business card isn't your company's own domain, it makes a weaker impression on clients.
2. You can't make the detailed settings needed to be found in search
To build a site that ranks highly in search, you need to get the title and description of each page, the heading hierarchy, the URL structure, structured data and more in order. Google Sites doesn't provide screens for specifying these in detail. As a result, even with the same content, your pages are less likely to appear in search than a website built with a dedicated system.
3. It isn't built to manage dozens of articles
A customer-attracting website grows by adding column articles and news after launch. Google Sites requires you to add pages by hand, and it has no feature for listing articles in date or category order. The more articles you add, the harder management becomes.
4. Design freedom is limited
Because you combine elements within the limits of a template, you can't build a detailed design tailored to your company's brand. Your site tends to end up looking similar to other sites using the same template.
5. You can't add functions such as booking, payments or memberships
Features such as booking reception, online shops and member pages are not included as standard in Google Sites. You have to compensate by embedding external services, which increases the effort needed to keep the look consistent and to manage everything.
When to switch from free to paid
The time to move to a paid approach is when any of the following applies.
| Situation | Decision |
|---|---|
| You want to win inquiries from people who don't know you | You need a structure that performs well in search, so switch to paid |
| You want to publish several articles a month | Switch to a system that can manage articles |
| Clients and job seekers will judge you as a company | Get a custom domain and a proper design in place |
| You want to build in booking or an online shop | Switch to a system that lets you add functions |
| You only want to list contact details as a business card substitute | Staying free is enough |
The content you create in Google Sites can be exported as text and images and moved to a new website. Starting for free and rebuilding once it no longer meets your needs is not wasted effort. The text you have written can be used as a draft as it is.
Points to watch when building for free
Check the visibility settings
A Google Sites site you have just started building is set so that only you can see it. Unless you set the viewers to “Anyone” on the publish screen, people won't be able to open it even if you give them the address. After publishing, open it in a browser where you are not signed in and check that it displays.
Don't build it with a personal Google account
If you build your company website with a personal account, you won't be able to update it when that member of staff leaves. Create it with an account managed by the company and make sure the login details can be handed over to several people.
Don't leave outdated information in place
Pages built for free tend to stop being updated. Outdated opening hours or prices make visitors distrust you. Set a day once a month to check that the information is up to date.
How much does it cost to switch to a paid approach?
Moving to a paid approach lets you handle search optimisation and add functions, but it comes at a cost. According to research by Web Kanji, the typical cost when a small or medium-sized company commissions a website is an average of 1,044,000 yen and a median of 573,000 yen.
Merci Ltd. offers site-factory, which lets you get started at a low cost. From 30,000 yen initial cost and from 7,000 yen per month (excluding tax), AI leads the production and a human checks the result before publication. Because you only need to answer questions to produce a draft of your text, it also suits people who have been spending time writing copy with free tools.
If you want to build everything from strategic planning and design, we also offer made-to-order production led by our creators. The initial cost starts at 250,000 yen (for around 5 pages), with a monthly fee from 3,000 yen.
FAQ
There is no charge for using Google Sites itself. However, if you use a custom domain, the cost of acquiring and renewing that domain is separate.
They can appear, but the settings available for tuning a site to rank highly in search are limited. It's realistic to expect it to appear only when someone searches for your company name or the site name.
Yes, you can. You export the text and images and put them into the new website. The design and the layout of the elements can't be carried over, so you will need to rebuild those when you move.
A profile is a system for conveying business information, not a place to explain your strengths or your approach to pricing in detail. In industries where customers compare before choosing, the basic approach is to list your website address on the profile so that people can read the full explanation there.
Compare the differences between free and paid at a glance
Whether to start with a free tool or commission a website depends on what you expect from it. If you're unsure, compare the differences between AI-led site-factory and creator-led made-to-order production side by side. We'll suggest the approach that suits your current concerns.
