5 ways to collect feedback with a Google site

Learn in this tutorial five ways to collect information via a Google site.

Image: Andy Wolber / TechRepublic

A Google site is an efficient way to share content. Once a site has been created, access can be shared with collaborators, after which text, images, videos, maps or files can be inserted from Google Drive. At the end of 2019, Google added the option to insert foldable text, which works well for frequently asked questions or other support / help pages.

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Google Sites can also help you collect information. With the following tools, a visitor to your site can contact, provide feedback and provide information or questions; however, to enable each of these, you need editing or administrator access.

A Google form, a shared sheet or document and an embedded third-party app survey are added in the same way. On a site page, click Insert (top right) and select Forms, Documents, Slides, or Spreadsheets (Figure A). Click / tap on the form, document or sheet that you want to insert and the item will be displayed on your page. You can click on any dot (on the sides or corners around the form) and drag it to resize.

SEE: Google Cloud Platform: a guide for insiders (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

After your changes, click the Publish button for your site to make them available via the Internet.

Figure A

Enter the type of item you want to add on your Google site. Most feedback is collected with Forms, but Documents, Slides or Spreadsheets can also help to get input.

1. How to add a Google form

A Google form can collect different types of data, including text, uploaded files, dates, times, rankings (linear scale or grids) and answers to multiple choice questions, check boxes or drop-down questions.

To prepare a form for your site, go to form.google.com and click the plus button (+) (bottom right) to create a new form, or select and view an existing form to check or it collects the information you need. Edit your form and when you are done go back to your Google site and insert your form as described above.

2. Add a shared document, sheet or slide

A page on a Google site provides access to files that are shared via Google Drive. To share a Google document, sheet, or slide, click Share and adjust the permissions for other people to view, comment, or edit. With editing rights, people can add text to a Google document, enter cells in a Google spreadsheet, or add content in Google slides.

3. How to close a survey or survey

Third-party polls or surveys can be embedded in your Google site, as long as the tool you choose offers an embed code. Search the support or help pages for your favorite survey or survey app – with the term Embed – to see if it supports this feature. For example, SurveyMonkey not only explains how to embed a survey on a help page, but also offers a blog post with step-by-step instructions.

SEE: Embed content from the internet in your Google site (TechRepublic)

4. How to type an email address

If you type an email address in a text box on a Google site, the system changes to a mailto: link, so when a person clicks this link in Chrome on the desktop, a new email opens in Gmail.

The process works similar to the steps above: Click Insert, select Text Box, type a properly formatted e-mail address in your text, and publish the site. If your site is available to everyone, the email address is public.

5. How to enable a contact form

For sites created by people in organizations that use G Suite, at the end of 2019, Google added the option to enable a contact form for a Google site. Once enabled, a visitor who is logged into a Google account can click / tap the i with a circle around it (in the bottom left corner of a Google site) and select Contact. The form displays two fields: Subject and Message (Figure B). After the visitor has filled in the fields and clicked Send, the system sends the message via e-mail to the owner of the Google site.

Figure B

If you click on the circled i button and select Contact, a contact form is displayed to send feedback to site owners.

To enable the Contact Form feature, site owners or editors click the three-dot vertical menu (in the upper right corner), select Site Information Settings and move the slider next to Show Contact Form right to turn it on. Click Save and then Publish to make your change available to site visitors (Figure C). A G Suite blog post offers more information.

Figure C

Contact forms can be enabled on a Google site.

Your thoughts?

If you use Google Sites, which of these feedback methods do you use? If you use several, how do you choose? Have you established organizational guidelines to help people use Sites and / or feedback on Sites? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter (@awolber).

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