Google sites (new) are built to be responsive. You must be referring to the sizing. Images (unless small) will stack side-by-side. Answer from AestheticallyDope on reddit.com
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Google Support
support.google.com › sites › thread › 210531774 › how-to-make-google-sites-mobile-friendly
How to make google sites mobile friendly? - Sites Community
Skip to main content · Sites Help · Sign in · Google Help · Help Center · Community · Sites · Terms of Service · Submit feedback · Send feedback on
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Google Sites
sites.google.com › site › horstwebdesign › mobile
Google Sites - Mobile Google Sites and Responsive Google Websites
One way is to use a professionally designed responsive template which is already developed for consistency across screen sizes. The other way is to contact a Google Sites developer who specializes in responsive websites.
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Kha Creation
khacreationusa.com › how-to-make-a-google-sites-mobile-friendly
How to Make a Google Sites Mobile-Friendly - Kha Creation
April 23, 2024 - Break up long paragraphs into shorter ones and use headings to make it easier for users to skim your content. After making the above changes, it’s crucial to test your website on different mobile devices to ensure that it is mobile-friendly.
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Google Support
support.google.com › sites › thread › 4378127 › how-do-i-get-my-new-google-site-more-mobile-friendly
How do I get my new google site more mobile friendly? - Sites Community
Skip to main content · Sites Help · Sign in · Google Help · Help Center · Community · Sites · Terms of Service · Submit feedback · Send feedback on
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YouTube
youtube.com › richard byrne
How to Make Your Google Sites Mobile Friendly - YouTube
How to make your Google Sites mobile-friendly. A quick way to make sure that you're accommodating as many visitors as possible.
Published   April 15, 2016
Views   25K
Top answer
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I think your negative impression is right. It doesn't implement the features you'd expect in responsive design.

The key to your question is that Google Sites don't use a viewport declaration (meta viewport in the head element). If you don't have that, then device browsers treat you as a legacy desktop-only website. They assume you'll break completely below ~830px, and set a page min-width accordingly. That doesn't sound much like responsive design to me.

Google Sites don't let you write your own CSS or HTML HEAD, so you can't implement a more responsive design yourself.

To be fair, you can choose to not set a fixed page width. Also navigations buttons will reflow on relatively narrow windows, if you're using the "horizontal navigation" feature. The latter isn't great design but at least it's degrading gracefully.

There is an option "Automatically adjust site to mobile phones" under Manage site -> General. However many people suggest it's better not to use it :). I tried enabling it on an old site, previewing the page, and selecting "preview in mobile". At least on Firefox on my original netbook (800px width), it was not responsive. It didn't expand to use the 800px screen properly.

As an aside, the line-wrapping (or absence of it) is a pre-existing issue with my site. You could blame this on me for not testing it :). However it illustrates a limitation of the WYSIWYG editor in Google Sites. It doesn't show, check for, or filter out the formatting that causes this problem.

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Mobile yes, responsive no.

I was messing with Google Sites today and you can make a site mobile friendly (I had to come here to get started!). I just used the "Blank Template" to mess around with.

You do need to activate (like others that have mentioned):

Options (gear icon) > Manage site > (scroll down to Mobile) Check.. Automatically adjust for mobile phones. Yeah, let's bury that option way down at the bottom!

Considering the whole mobile "push" Google implemented in the spring of 2015 this should be ON by default for any newly created Google Site.

Just selecting that option makes an OK (basic) mobile site. Not a responsive site. So on my iPhone it does scale photos correctly to fit the device and switches the main horizontal menu to the "hamburger" icon/menu. But collapsing the desktop browser window does not produce responsive results. https://sites.google.com/site/rwstws51/

As a test, I uploaded a way too large photo (2.5mb) to see what would happen. Running the site through Google PageSpeed Insights it did not display any "optimize photos" warning, so seems to serves up an optimized photo for phones and desktops.

I guess the basic theme is actually called "Ski." I tried out the "Legal Pad" theme and it was totally borked on mobile. I think due to the header and content area background images.

To me Google Sites is ideal if you are already heavy into Google's other products... drive, docs, Google+, webmastertools, analytics, etc... As it has links to add those types of items when editing. Or need a quick site for collaborating as you can easily set the site access like YouTube,Drive items.

Also, you are very limited as to what html you can added. Trying to add a script tag gets stripped out when attempting to save. So again depending on the use there are definitely other options out there.

Find elsewhere
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Google
developers.google.com › search central › documentation › mobile-first indexing best practices | google search central
Mobile-first Indexing Best Practices | Google Search Central | Documentation | Google for Developers
If you use a CMS, such as Wix or Blogger, you might need to find a new mobile-friendly theme for your site if you can't modify your existing theme. Try searching for the name of your CMS and "mobile friendly", for example, "wix mobile friendly". Make sure that Google can access and render your mobile page content and resources.
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Google Support
support.google.com › sites › thread › 6321520
How to make New Google Sites more mobile friendly? - Sites Community
Skip to main content · Sites Help · Sign in · Google Help · Help Center · Community · Sites · Terms of Service · Submit feedback · Send feedback on
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Google Support
support.google.com › sites › thread › 149476799 › how-to-design-mobile-first-in-google-sites
How to design mobile first in google sites? - Sites Community
Skip to main content · Sites Help · Sign in · Google Help · Help Center · Community · Sites · Terms of Service · Submit feedback · Send feedback on
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Vendasta
vendasta.com › blog › can you create and manage good mobile-optimized websites with google sites?
Can you create and manage good mobile-optimized websites with Google Sites?
March 27, 2023 - Google Sites’ platform offers very little customization and integration options, as you’re only limited to its in-house suite of tools. However you accomplish it, your clients need an optimized website to compete, as 79% of small business websites are mobile-friendly.
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Google
developers.google.com › search central › google search central blog › making websites mobile friendly
Making Websites Mobile Friendly | Google Search Central Blog | Google for Developers
As explained in our Mobile Sitemaps Help Center articles, you should include only mobile content URLs in Mobile Sitemaps, even if these URLs also return non-mobile content when accessed by a non-mobile User-agent.
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IDPLR
idplr.com › 102-videos › create-a-mobile-site-quickly-using-google-sites.html
Create A Mobile Site Quickly Using Google Sites | IDPLR
June 9, 2025 - Discover how to build responsive websites with Google Sites. This video guide teaches you to create mobile-friendly sites quickly and easily, perfect for any online presence.
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YouTube
youtube.com › watch
HELP! My Google Site looks AWFUL on mobile - YouTube
Hey There, I saw this post in a reddit titled, "HELP! My Google Site looks AWFUL on mobile". If you're having an issue with your Google Site layout it's impo...
Published   June 7, 2022
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Teachermade
freetech4teach.teachermade.com › 2016 › 04 › how-to-make-your-google-sites-mobile
How to Make Your Google Sites Mobile Friendly - Free Technology For Teachers
August 18, 2023 - All that said, if you’re accessing a Google Site on a mobile device you may have trouble navigating it unless the site administrator has made it mobile-friendly. In the video embedded below I demonstrate how quickly you can make your Google Site mobile-friendly.
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Google Support
support.google.com › google-ads › answer › 7323900
Optimize your website for mobile - Google Ads Help
If someone has hit a dead end in their research, make sure it’s easy for them to get back to the home page to start over. There are different approaches to making your website mobile-friendly, so when it comes to designing and implementing changes, you'll want to work with your web developer to find the right solution.
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The-web-design-company
the-web-design-company.co.uk › are-google-sites-mobile-friendly
Are Google Sites mobile friendly? - London Web Design & Development Company | The UK Web Design Company Ltd
February 28, 2024 - While Google Sites strives to be mobile-friendly, it’s always a good practice to preview and test your website on various mobile devices to ensure that it appears and functions as intended. Additionally, make sure to optimize your content and media for mobile viewing by using concise text, appropriately-sized images, and mobile-friendly formatting.
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CNET
cnet.com › culture › how to auto optimize google sites for mobile devices
How to auto optimize Google Sites for mobile devices - CNET
July 1, 2011 - Step 3: Check the box next to ... button. ... Preview the mobile view Step 1: From the main Google Site page, click the More actions button, then select Preview page as viewer....