Goal
Get a real site of your own live, free, with the least possible friction.
Audience
Everyone. This is the course default for your portfolio site.
Process
Sign in with your Maricopa or personal Google account, pick a layout, add your projects, publish as Restricted.
Why it is the course default
Google Sites is free forever, supports a custom domain for free, and you can have it live in under an hour. Free hosting and a free custom domain is a rare pairing on this list. It is also the tool you already know from your web courses.
The catch: a plain site looks plain.
The templates are simple and the type choices are limited. You are a designer. A hiring manager who opens your portfolio is looking at a work sample whether you meant it that way or not.
So do not leave it plain. Set a custom theme with your own fonts and colors, add your logo, use your own imagery, and if you want more, code your own sections with AI and place them on the page with Embed code.
Which Google account to use
Moving your portfolio site to a personal Google account is optional.
Why switch: your Maricopa account may close after you leave, and Maricopa settings may stop people outside the district from opening your site. A personal account keeps the site and lets you share it with anyone you choose.
You do not have to: if you are not job hunting yet, or you do not want anyone else to see your work, keep it in your Maricopa account.
Either way, publish as Restricted: only the people you invite (your instructor, an employer) can see it. They sign in with the Google account for the email you invite. Sharing with an employer outside Maricopa works most reliably from a personal account.
How to move it: follow Take Your Work With You in Module 8. Copy the site from your personal account if Maricopa allows it, or rebuild it from the content in your Drive folder.
Gemini stays on your Maricopa account either way.
Publish as Restricted
Restricted is the default: only people you add can see the site. Add your instructor’s email. When you apply for a job, add the employer’s email. You may switch to Public whenever you choose. If you see an option for Maricopa, it limits viewing to people with Maricopa accounts. If you make the site public, you can tick “Request public search engines to not display my site” in Publish settings. Google says this is a request, not a guarantee (Publish and share your site).
Buy your domain, point it here, and re-point it later if you ever move. Nobody clicking your résumé link ever has to know it moved.
Set it up
- Go to sites.google.com and sign in with the Google account you chose (see Which Google account to use).
- Click Blank or pick a template.
- Set a custom theme under Themes: your fonts, your colors, your logo.
- Name your site and give it a clear headline: your name and what you do.
- Add a page for each project. Use the Insert panel to add images, text, and embedded video.
- Embed your walkthrough videos. Google Sites embeds YouTube natively, and it is one of the things it does best.
- Add an About page and a way to contact you.
- Preview on mobile using the preview button. It handles this automatically, which is nice.
- Add alt text to every image: select it, choose More, then Add alt text (Google’s accessibility help).
- Click Publish at the top right, type a short web address, and choose Publish. You get a free
sites.google.com/view/yournameaddress. - Choose Share. Next to Published site, choose Restricted, so only people you add can see it. Add your instructor’s email. When you apply for a job, add the employer’s email.
- Optional: connect a custom domain in Settings, under Custom domains. It is free to connect. You just have to own the domain.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Free forever, and free custom domain. That pairing is rare.
- You already have a Google account, and you know the tool from class.
- Easiest builder on this page, by a wide margin.
- Custom themes for your fonts, colors, logo, and favicon.
- Room to grow: add coded sections with Embed code when you want more control.
- Nothing to cancel, so nothing to lapse.
- Excellent at embedding video.
- Good, automatic mobile layouts.
Cons
- A plain site looks plain. The design work is up to you.
- Layouts come from section templates.
- Typography is limited to the Sites font library unless you add code.
- A site on a school account can disappear when the account does.
Resources
- sites.google.com
- Use a custom domain with Google Sites
- Add files, videos and website content · includes Embed code
- Code your own sections with AI · still free, more designed, more work
Platforms change their plans and their menus constantly. If a step here does not match what you see on screen, tell me and I will fix the page.