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I do get asked a few interesting questions...
Thanks for dropping by!
Hi, thanks for visiting my website. Hopefully you'll have found some useful inspiration or a template to meet your need. I do get asked a few questions by folks downloading my templates, so I've added a few of the more common ones here.
About I Make Templates
Why did you start this website?
A friend asked me to create a website using Google Sites, and I realised the templates available were .... meh. I worked out how to create a custom template and then figured other people might find a use for it too, so I decided to share it. Then I made another one, and another, and so on. That's where all this started. 🙂
You could say I run a Google Sites cartel, in a good way, all designed to help others learn how to use it:
GoogleSites.Dev for custom development
I wrote the SEO Guide for Google Sites
I convert popular WordPress themes to Google Sites
How many templates have been downloaded?
At last count over 76,000 templates have been downloaded. That's since August 2024.
What's the difference between a template and a theme?
The difference between a Google Sites template and a Google Sites theme lies in their scope and purpose:
Google Sites Template: A Google Sites template is a pre-designed structure or layout that includes multiple pages with placeholders for content, images, and other elements. Templates provide a ready-made framework for building a website and typically offer a range of page layouts and designs. They can be customised to suit specific needs and preferences, allowing users to add their own content, change colors, fonts, and styles, and rearrange the page elements as desired. Templates are more comprehensive and often come with a larger number of pre-made pages, making them suitable for building complete websites with multiple sections and functionalities.
Google Sites Theme: A Google Sites theme, on the other hand, focuses on the visual appearance and styling aspects of a website. A theme primarily determines the overall look and feel of a Google Sites website, including colour schemes, fonts, backgrounds, and other stylistic elements. It provides a consistent visual identity throughout the website and allows users to create a cohesive design. Themes are generally applied to an entire site, affecting its global appearance, rather than individual pages. While a theme may provide some default page layouts or styles, it is typically not as comprehensive or detailed as a template in terms of page structure and content organisation.
Effectively, a Google Sites template offers a complete framework and structure for building websites, including multiple pre-designed pages, whereas a Google Sites theme focuses on the visual styling and consistency of the website's appearance. Templates provide a more extensive and customisation solution, while themes primarily address the visual styling aspects of the site.
Which ones are the most popular?
Free templates get downloaded far more than premium ones, obvs. In order of downloads the top three free template downloads are (as of November 2025):
What's with the names?
They're all fictional cops. I don't know why I went with that. I created my first template whilst watching Bosch and it just went from there.
Have you been doing this for long?
Ages. Got a ZX81 for Christmas one year and I guess that started it all. I've worked in tech since the 90's and have done pretty much every IT related role since. Fast forward 30-ish years 😱 and I'm now an Enterprise Architect at a firm you'll have heard of working on some super interesting gigs 🤐
Do you make one-off, custom templates?
Yes I do. My side hustle is WordPress & Squarespace development and I've been creating websites for years. If you have a design in mind, want some tweaks to one of my templates or fancy something completely new then get in touch. My rates are reasonable and I'm happy to work with you to get the result you want. Read more about my Design Services.
Getting started
Which template is best for me/ my business?
My templates are meant to be as flexible as possible, so if you run a cafe and you like a business template, there's absolutely no reason why you can't use that instead. Google Sites is editable, so you can change fonts and colours to suit your particlar need. I can help you do this.
How do I download a template?
Find the template you like, go to my shop and click to download. You'll land in a folder where you right-click and select 'make a copy' to download a copy of the whole website template to your Google drive.
Don't send a share request, I ignore them. (They go into a special folder in my email marked 'ignore these').
Can you help me set up my Google Sites website?
I can, but why not try and learn yourself? There's a great Google Sites forum on Reddit where you can ask questions. Need help more quickly? No problem, check my Design Services or head on to my dedicated Google Sites developer website at GoogleSites.Dev.
I've downloaded a template. Now what?
Build your website! There's loads of really great tutorials on Youtube and the official Google Sites community pages.
Building your website
Will my booking system work with your template?
If you use a restaurant booking system like:
Opentable
Tock
Resy
Or an appointment booking system like:
Optix
Mysight
These will integrate with Google Sites and my templates. My templates use only standard Google Sites functionality, so if your business system can be embedded into a web page, it can be used with Google Sites. Still not sure? Give me a shout and let's work it out together.
How do I hook up my custom domain to Google Sites?
Easily the most oft-asked question about Google Sites. See my post on how to connect your custom domain to Google Sites.
How do I apply Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to Google Sites?
That's easier than you think and relies on good quality, useful content. Read about Google Sites SEO in my blog or go straight to the Internet's only Google Sites SEO Guide.
Google Sites
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