Publishing a Site

Publishing a Google Site and using a custom URL.

A common source of confusion is the terminology around making a Google Site available at a custom URL. There are actually two processes.

Publishing makes the Site available on the internet at the sites.google.com... URL.
To make the Site appear at a custom URL you have to map the custom URL to the sites.google.com address.
 If it's not published at the sites.google.com address it won't appear anywhere!

So, you cannot publish your Site to your custom URL. What you can do is map your custom URL to the sites.google.com... URL so that to all intents and purposes it looks like it lives at your custom URL.

But your Site will not appear at your custom URL until it has been published to the sites.google.com... URL

You have to complete the publish process and make it visible at a sites.google.com... URL before you can make it appear on your custom URL by the mapping process.

Publish to the Web Dialogue

To Publish a Site to sites.google.com... you have to put a Site name in the box highlighted.

(Google have confused many users with the text in the box 'Web Address'. What is required there is a NAME for your Site consisting of lowercase letters, numbers and dashes which will create a web address of sites.google.com/view/NAME )

Only then will the 'Publish' button be active which must then be clicked to complete the Publish process