Customizing a newly created website via Google Apps

Question

I just purchased a domain through enom via Google Apps. I have no information for logging into the enom website. How do I actually start customizing the web site? Do I somehow do it through Google? Or do I do it through enom? If the latter, then how do I log in?

Answer 1

Customising your site

To use the site creation tools that come with Google Apps to build and customise a website, first enable Google Sites by following these steps:

1. Log in to the Google Apps administrator control panel.
2. Click the Organization & users tab.
3. Click Services.
4. In the Core Google Services section, click the link to add more services.
5. Under Sites, click Add it now.

To learn more about how to use Google Sites, visit the Google Sites help page.

Modifying your domain name

To access the account information for a domain purchased via Google Apps, Google asks you to click the "Advanced DNS Settings" link in your Google Apps control panel. (See the last paragraph of this page.) You should only need to modify your domain name if you're hosting your website somewhere else (i.e. not with Google Apps – see below).

The difference between Google Sites and "normal" website hosting

Note that purchasing a domain name from Google isn't the same thing as purchasing website hosting. Using Google Apps with your domain name allows you to use the Google Sites product to build a website, but it doesn't allow a web designer to upload their own custom designs.

You might find that Google Sites does everything you need it to, but if you run into limitations or you want to create a heavily customised website in the future using your own HTML files, you would need to purchase web hosting from a third-party and upload your website to their servers.