Google Sites has one peculiarity: the address your visitors see is not the one our script reads. Unless each page is given a name, every visit opens a brand-new discussion, and your comments seem to vanish from one visit to the next.
The fix comes down to one rule: one page, one name, one code. Your GraphComment dashboard walks you through it page by page and checks for you that each installation really works.
Allow about five minutes for your first page, two for the following ones.
Before you start
You must be the owner or an administrator of the site in GraphComment. Moderators cannot open this page: ask the site owner to do the installation.
Do not use the "Universal code" on Google Sites. It carries no page name, and it is what causes discussions to multiply.
Keep two browser tabs open: your GraphComment dashboard and the Google Sites editor. You will go back and forth a few times.
Open the Google Sites guide
Sign in to your dashboard: https://graphcomment.com/admin/
In the left-hand column, click your site.
Open the Setup tab at the top of the page.
In the list of platforms, choose Google Sites, right below WordPress.
You are now on the guide. It shows the list of your pages and five steps.
Step 1 — Give the page a stable address in Google Sites
First, you need to customise the address of your page in Google Sites.
Go to the PAGES tab, then Properties on your page:
Then ADVANCED OPTIONS, and choose a custom path of your liking:
The page then keeps the same address even if you change its title later.
Back in GraphComment, tick "I have set a custom path for this page", then click Next step.
Step 2 — Name the page
In the Name of this page field, type a short, recognisable name, for example home, contact or daily-menu. You will see this name in your moderation queue.
Right below, GraphComment shows the identifier used in the code. It is your name, cleaned up: lowercase, without accents or spaces.
Two rules to remember:
A different name for every page. Two pages with the same name share the same discussion.
If the name is already used by another page of your site, GraphComment tells you in red and asks you to pick a different one. The check runs as you type.
Step 3 — Copy the code
The code shown is specific to this page: it carries the name you just chose. Click Copy the code, tick "I have copied the code", then move on to the next step.
This code automatically follows your site's settings (how your visitors sign in, display mode, consent). There is nothing to edit by hand.
Step 4 — Paste the code into Google Sites, publish, then open the page
In the Google Sites editor:
Open the page and go to the spot where the comments should appear.
In the Insert menu, choose Embed, then the Embed code tab.
Paste the code, confirm, and adjust the height of the block if needed.
Click Publish.
Open the published page in your browser. Publishing is not enough: the installation can only be detected once the page has actually been loaded.
Go back to GraphComment. The screen says "Waiting for the first load of this page…" and updates on its own. As soon as the page has been loaded, it shows "This page is installed".
Important. Paste the code into an Embed block placed on the page itself. Do not put it in a header or footer shared by the whole site: all your pages would then share a single discussion.
Step 5 — Move on to your next page
Each page of your site needs its own name and its own code. Click Add a page: the guide starts again from step 1 with an empty field.
You do not have to wait for a page to be detected before preparing the next one. The status of each page shows up in the list of your pages.
Keeping track of your pages
At the top of the guide, the Your pages block lists the pages you have already named, most recent first, with their status:
Detected, with the date it was last loaded: the installation works.
Waiting for its first load: the code has not been seen yet. Open the published page in your browser.
Named in this browser: you chose the name, but the page has never been opened with its code yet.
If you have many pages, use the search by name or the See all my pages button.
Does a page already have comments?
Naming a page gives it a new identifier. The discussion it had until now would no longer be found, and the page would look empty.
If the page has already received comments, attach the existing discussion first:
In your dashboard, open Moderation, then the Pages tab.
Find the discussion of that page. Discussions created by Google Sites without a page name are flagged there.
Click the UID pencil of that discussion and type the name you are going to give the page.
Then install the page with that same name, following the steps above.
Your comments stay attached to the page.
Still nothing after two minutes?
The guide keeps checking in the background. The most common causes:
The page has never been opened since it was published. Open it once in your browser.
The code is in the wrong place. It must be in an Embed block on that page, not in a header or footer shared by the whole site.
The page is not published. In Google Sites, a change only goes live after you click Publish.
The name typed in GraphComment is not the one in the code you pasted. If you changed the name after copying the code, copy the code again and replace it in Google Sites.
If the check has stopped, click Check again.
Still stuck? Write to us with the address of your page and the name you gave it: we will check on our side.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to reinstall if I change the title of my page in Google Sites? No. The name given in GraphComment is independent of the title. As long as the code stays on the page, the discussion does not change.
Can I use the same code on several pages? No. The same code means the same name, hence the same discussion on all those pages. Generate one code per page.
My older pages, installed with the universal code, show empty discussions. What should I do? Install each page with the Google Sites guide. For those that already had comments, first follow the section "Does a page already have comments?".
I cannot see the "Google Sites" entry in the Setup tab. It is reserved for the owner and the administrators of the site. Also check that you are on a GraphComment site, not on a GraphDebate forum.