How to use Google Sites for remote work and learning

Access to critical information is more important than ever. As businesses shift to remote work setups and educational institutions roll out distance learning programmes, Google Sites can be a helpful tool for centralising and sharing important information across large, dispersed audiences. With Sites, it’s easy to create high-quality websites, without requiring design or programming skills.

Share the latest guidelines and policies with a remote workforce

Distributed employees need to quickly find up-to-date, accurate and authoritative information, whether it’s updated company policies, new travel guidelines or relevant HR resources. Google Sites makes it simple to build a single reference point for this critical information. You can also use the new announcement banner feature to draw attention to an important announcement, resource or action item at the top of a site.

Help employees and customers manage the remote work transition 

Internal sites can be used to provide employees with support and best practices as they shift to working remotely. The newly launched template gallery makes it even easier to build a customised help centre site. Just type “sites.google.com/new” into your browser and you’ll see a gallery of templates across the top of the page. Select the template labelled “Help Center,” and start adding content immediately. You can link to product tutorials and best practices for working remotely including tips on video-first meetings, real-time content collaboration and calendar coordination. You can also embed a form to capture support requests or post a schedule for IT office hours. On top of that, you can create an externally-facing help centre site for customers or partners to share FAQs, technical documentation or support-team contact information and hours.

Keep your distributed team on track

Teams and project leads can build internal sites to share their work, consolidate resources into a central hub, provide contact information and updated availability and state their team’s current priorities. They can also use Sites to share key information about upcoming virtual touchpoints, such as the agenda and livestream link for a company all-hands meeting. These sites can be team-focused to improve productivity among distributed colleagues or they can be shared broadly within an organisation, broadcasting information and updates to other teams. Choose the “Team” or “Project” template from the Sites template gallery to get started.

Facilitate distance learning 

Google Sites are frequently used to assist in remote learning and support communication between teachers, students, parents and educational institutions. Many K-12 and higher educational institutions have built sites to communicate the latest updates, FAQs and resources with their communities. For example, many schools and colleges have posted information about campus closures or financial, wellness and technology support for students. Educators also use Sites to share distance learning curricula and best practices. The “Class,” “Club” and “Student Portfolio” templates are helpful starting points. 

To build your Google Site, type “sites.google.com/new” into your browser, select a template from the template gallery and begin adding text and content. There are more useful tips at Google’s Learning Center.