How to Create a Free Website with Google’s GNBO

Google launched their project GNBO to help Nigerian business get online. GNBO is an acronym which means Get Nigerian Business Online. You can now get your businesses online with Google, MTN and Ecobank. With this, you can get your business online today. It’s easy and it’s free! In this post, I will show you a simple and effective way to create and setup your own free website with Google’s GNBO. You will do yourself a lot more good if you pay attention to this and also carry out all what you will find here.

 
The Internet is fast becoming the first place customers go to find information on products and services they want to buy from businesses like yours. Google and friends have come together to help Get Nigerian Businesses Online. They are providing a fast, free and easy end-to-end solution and all the support you need for creating a professional looking website.

 
Here’s what you get:

Free easy-to-build and maintain, professional website
Free matching mobile website
Free gnbo.com.ng sub-domain
Free website hosting
And when you purchase a customised domain name, you get 10 Free email accounts (@yourdomain.com)

 
How to Create Yours

You will need a Google account to create yours. To sign up for a Google account, visit www.google.com/accounts. You can choose to register for a new Gmail account, or you can register using an existing email address from another email provider. And after you get a Google account, simply go to https://signup.gnbo.com.ng/signup to signup for your free website.

 
You will be asked to choose a desired web address, type it in the box provided, check availability and then click on ‘continue’ if the name you desire is available.

 
On the next page after you click on ‘continue’, you will see a form that you are required to fill. This is where you add all the information needed about your website. Make sure you fill them appropriately. After you are satisfied with all the information and you have ticked the appropriate boxes, click on ‘create website’.

 
You will be taken to another page where you will need to build your website. You have four steps to complete your website. These steps are;

 
Create your home page
Choose a theme
Add products and services
Publish your site

 
To get this done effectively, please follow the steps below;

 
Add a title or logo to the header

At the top of every page is a banner section called the header. Here you can choose to use text or banner. Edit it appropriately to fit your desire. To add a title, go to the pages tab, click the pencil icon on the header section at the top of any page, type the desired text, select text and use the font size dropdown to change the size of your title text. If you change the size or color of the text in the banner, it will retain those properties even when you change themes.

 
To add a logo, click ‘Add Image’, click on the image to bring up a slider that will let you resize the picture to an appropriate size.

 
An image can be set as the background of the header. Text or other images that you add to the banner by clicking the pencil icon on the Pages tab will appear on top of the Header Image. The header image will automatically be scaled to fit the width of the banner. If the image used is smaller than the header, it will be repeated. The banner’s height is determined by the text and images in the banner — a tall background image doesn’t make the banner appear tall.

 
To change the color or image of the header, go to the ‘Design’ tab, Click ‘Customize’ to expand the set of choices for customizing your theme. Click ‘Header Image’ to choose an image to be the background of the header. Click ‘Header’ background to choose a color for the header section. The color is only visible if there is no background image selected.

 
To remove a header background image, click the X in the top of the thumbnail image on Header Image.

 
The header image and header color customizations are related to the theme. If you select a different theme, the background image you chose doesn’t apply automatically to the new theme.

 
At this point, I need to let you know that the tutorials is getting longer. For more help on creating your free website with Google’s get Nigerian Business online, please go through the following;

 
Configuring your sidebar – https://www.google.com/support/businesssitebuilder/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1660706&topic=1645431

Configuring your menu – https://www.google.com/support/businesssitebuilder/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1660707&topic=1645431

Using columns and content – https://www.google.com/support/businesssitebuilder/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1660675&topic=1645431

 
You can also read more on Google’s Business Sitebuilder help page.

 
If you find this tutorial helpful, please consider subscribing with your email address, RSS, follow me on Twitter, become my friend on Facebook, become my friend on Linkedin and become my fan at www.facebook.com/jadesojiadegbulu so as to get more posts delivered to you as soon as they are made available here.