Setting up custom domain for Google Sites Site AND Blogger Blog

The last couple days I've been experimenting and testing even more. Since I've gotten used to Blogger and had finished importing my blog posts from visualartgitfs.com which was on Self-hosted Wordpress to visualartgifts.blogspot.com and due to the fact that my first Google Site was getting complicated (no javascript on G.S.!), I took a break from that site yesterday and today to finish moving my visual art site.

If you remember my previous posts on the topic, I didn't know what to do since my site had many more than the 10 page limit in Blogger. I had changed a few to posts and linked them to a page, but that didn't feel right.  It finally came to me. I'd make my pages into a Google Site.
Everything seemed to click since I didn't need javascript for my posts. It was just busy work. I still have to recreate the forms for visual artist interview and profiles which I can do in Google Docs, but other than that I was ready for the next challenge.

Setting up custom domains for Blogger and Google Sites was actually quite easy. Here's what I did.

1. In GoDaddy (where I had registered my domains but not hosted the site) I set the domain to parked.
2. After a minute or two I was able to go back in and edit the CNAME info.
3. I added a CNAME for "blog" and "ghs.google.com"
4. I changed the CNAME entry for "www" and used "ghs.google.com" again.
5. I went back to the domain settings in the domain manager and told it to forward to www.visualartgifts.com so I don't get an error if I type the domain without www.
6. I went to Blogger's Dashboard and went to Settings for the site and set the custom domain. I clicked on the option for advanced setting since I already have a domain and told it to use blog.visualartgifts.com
7. I went to my Google Site's Manage Site link and under Site Settings there's the option for Web Address.  There I told it to use www.visualartgifts.com.

FYI - I entered the data without quotes!

Then I had to be patient
At that point I just had to wait a while for the domain name server information to update until then I would see my old site hosted on HostGator.  You may still see the old site, but it has already updated for me. It usually takes around 24 hours for that information to update so don't panic if you make changes and it doesn't work.

My biggest doubt would be what would happen to internal and external links to both the Blogger blog which has been up for days and the Google Sites address. I had already added both to Google Webmasters and their Sitemaps so I know that some pages were already in the index.

Links still work
I am happy to report that my internal links and external links pointing to the old non-custom URL/domains all worked as before.  In fact if I go to the blogspot address for the blog, I get redirected to blog.visualartgifts.com but the same page.  If I click on a link to a blog page with the blogspot URL it takes me to the right page with the custom domain.

The Google Site pages load all the images with the "old" links to the uploads and in this case the pages load both ways. I'd rather have it redirect, but happy everything works as is!

Google Apps Email Integration is Separate
Finally if you use Google Apps for your domain you can use Gmail free using your own email address on your domain. It looks like you have a complete hosting account to the world, but you only pay for your domain name registration and renewals. Setting up Google Apps for email requires separate steps. They aren't related, but it requires editing your MX records. I'll write a post about that later.

In summary I went from:
http://visualartgifts.blogspot.com  to   http://blog.visualartgifts.com
and from
https://sites.google.com/site/visualartandartists/  to  http://www.visualartgifts.com
If I later decide I don't want the domain name, I can replace it with a different one or go back to the free host domain.

Sitemaps for Google Sites

One concern of mine in setting up a site on Google Sites is setting up a sitemap or an RSS feed. While I've only seen information on RSS Feeds for site "announcements", there is a sitemap already in place even though the information isn't on display in a Google Site management page.

To add a Sitemap to Google Webmasters, go through the normal steps for adding a domain. Select the option for metatag for verification. There is a place in the general settings to paste the code.

After your Google Site is verified add "/system/feeds/sitemap" to the field for the sitemap URL. Now you have your sitemap added for your Google Site. 
You'll probably have to wait a few days for the system to tell you how many URLs from your sitemap are in the index, but at least Google Webmaster will be aware of your pages for more complete crawling.


The full URL for your feed is your normal URL + the /system/feeds/sitemap
so you'd have one of the following depending on whether you set up your site from Google Sites via your Google account or Google Apps.

http://sites.google.com/site/YourSite/system/feeds/sitemap

http://sites.google.com/a/AppDomain/YourSite/system/feeds/sitemap




Google Sites First Impressions

I've been testing the use of Google Sites as an alternative for hosting for my English language learning site. If successful I'll cancel my hosting and move there, but right now it is a test to learn what can and can't be done with a free Google site.

First I read that affiliate links are not allowed however Google Adsense ads are permitted so that doesn't really bother me. I'm sure I'll get a few clicks on ads.

The next problem is that there is no ability to use PHP and mysql.  That doesn't really surprise me since since I can't think of any free site that would allow that.

The thing that surprised me the most is that Iframes and javascript are not allowed so I can't use my favorite javascript/fash combo audio players and game scripts unless I can figure out how to add them as Gadgets. That's still a little over my head right now.

As far as using audio files on a Google Sites website, I read about using the Google Reader flash embed code. I was surprised to see that it was accepted. Perhaps it allows scripts that are hosted by Google?

Anyway, at the moment I'm seeing if it will let me upload all my old-site audio files as attachments to later use with the Google Reader player. I suppose I could also store the files on Google Docs, but I want to try this way first.

As for the positive aspects, I like how it will automatically update a subpage list. When I select the option to add a subpage list, it asks me which page to show a subpage listing of. I can change the title of the list. As I add pages below the page I made the list for, the subpage list gets updated.

I really like that feature since one of the most annoying part of making a non-blog website is updating the page lists and menus.

If you are interested in Google Sites and other Google Apps services you might be interested in this book:

Add Google Analytics Tracking to Google Sites Website

If you have a Google Sites websites and you'd like to add website tracking to learn more about what pages are being visited and non-personal stats about your website visitors like the operating system, browser, or screen resolution ( to help you make your site more useable),  go to MORE ACTIONS menu and select MANAGE SITE. After the page loads select GENERAL (under Site Settings). There is a box to check and a field to post your Google Analytics ID.  Don't forget to click save!

Adding AdSense to your Google Site - Google Sites Help

I have yet to try it but I found this help page for how to add Adsense to a Google Site. It has a video and in text the basic steps to follow.

More Actions -- Manage site -- Monetize -- Monetize this site

Adding AdSense to your Google Site - Google Sites Help

Update:
I followed the instructions to add my existing Adsense account and the button to monetize didn't work. I modified the home page and the about me page and then the button worked so if you want to monetize your Google Sites site, be sure to edit the pages first!

New Test: Google Sites

On my quest to see if I can switch from self-hosted websites to free services like those on Google Apps, I'm adding to my test with a new site on Google Sites.  Since you can't have more than 10 pages on Google Blogger and I'm looking for a place to host English Quizzes and tests that are on my language learning site when I cancel my hosting acccount in a couple months I decided to start a site in Google Sites and see if it will let me do some of what I want.
I am sure it won't have any database access for php scripts to save scores, etc., but I am hoping that I'll be able to post javascript based quizzes and activites.  I'll be adding posts to this blog describing what I tried to do and what worked (or didn't).  If I find a work-around I'll post about that too. The URL for my test Google site is https://sites.google.com/site/learnandpracticeenglish/

So far I went to Google sites, choose a name, selected a template, a type of site (classroom), and filled in a captcha code.  It loaded a page with preloaded information so I'll start experimenting. :-)

It looks like redirects and affiliate links are not allowed, but Adsense is allowed (no surprise there really) so I'll probably first try to get Adsense set up on it.

Do you have a Google Site? What do you like and dislike about it?

I see there is a limit of 100 megabytes in Site storage I am curious if that is per site or for all sites under an account.

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