In short. Hiding a Google Sites page removes it from navigation, while the published site's sharing setting controls who can view its direct link.
Definition: Hiding a Google Sites page from navigation removes it from the site menu. Google's documentation says people can still reach the page with a link, so navigation visibility and published-site viewing permissions are separate settings.
Key facts
- Google's page organization documentation says a hidden page does not appear in the menu, while people can still reach it with a link.
- Google's sharing documentation says a published site can restrict views to people added under “Share with people and groups,” or allow anyone to view it.
- Google's publishing documentation offers Restricted or Public for the Published site setting and says a restricted site can be shared with specific people and groups.
What does Hide from navigation change?
The setting changes the navigation tree of a published Google Site. In the Pages panel, the documented path is:
Pages > More > Hide from navigation
The page organization documentation says to publish the changes after selecting the setting. It also says that subpages are hidden with the page and that other sites and pages can link to it. The home page cannot be hidden. These details describe where a visitor finds the page through the site's own menu, while a direct URL remains a route to the page.
Google also documents custom paths for pages. A custom path gives a page a custom URL, and publishing a custom path or renaming a page creates a new URL. A direct link therefore needs to use the current published URL.
Which setting controls direct access?
The published-site sharing setting controls who can view a published Google Site. Google's “Publish & share your site” help says to open Share, find “Published site,” and select Restricted or Public. With Restricted selected, the site can be shared with specific people and groups as Published viewers. A direct link to a hidden page still follows that site-level permission.
Google's help for collaborators states the same distinction in access terms: “Published site: You can restrict views to people added under ‘Share with people and groups,’ or allow anyone to view it.” The link itself does not turn a restricted published site into a public one.
For a public published site, Hide from navigation is therefore a menu visibility choice. For a restricted published site, a permitted viewer can use the direct page link, while a person outside the allowed audience remains subject to the site's sharing rules.
What about search visibility?
Hide from navigation is described as a menu setting. Google's page organization documentation directs site owners who do not want a page to appear in search results to instructions for hiding the site. The separate publishing help says the search-engine option is a request, the site may still appear in public search engines, and the option is available only when the site is public on the web.
The documentation describes menu visibility, link access, site sharing, and search-engine settings separately. It does not describe Hide from navigation as a page-level crawler or index control.
Related terms
- noindex
- Does robots.txt Disallow prevent a URL from being indexed?
- Can Google index a page that requires login?
FAQ
Can you open a hidden Google Sites page from a direct link?
Yes, when the published-site sharing setting allows the viewer to access the site. Google explicitly says that people can still get to a hidden page with a link.
Does hiding a page remove it from search results?
Google's page organization help points to site-hiding instructions for pages that should not appear in search results. The publishing help describes search exclusion as a request for public sites and says the site may still appear in public search engines.
Does a hidden page become private?
No. Privacy comes from the Published site sharing setting. Google documents Restricted and Public choices, with restricted viewing available to people or groups granted access.
Sources
- Google Sites Help, “Add, delete and organise pages”, undated
- Google Sites Help, “Publish & share your site”, undated
- Google Sites Help, “Invite others to edit your site”, undated
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