A lot of people like Google Sites. It's a free website hosting service -- and it makes building them easy, too.

It's a good idea, always, to keep your own digital archive of data you post on third-party website hosting services. With Google Sites, exporting data is easy. Here's how.

There are many tools that let you export your data from Google services like Google Sites. I use a couple in my example, here. To follow, make sure you have Java Runtime Environment installed.

Then download and launch the Google Sites Liberation Tool.

No installation is required. You just launch the tool. Then enter in the following values.

Host: sites.google.com

For the other options, here are my recommendations.

Domain: BLANK.

Webspace: The name of your Google Sites website.

Import/Export Revisions: Select the checkbox.

Username: Use the full Google account name you used to create the Google Sites website, which includes your @gmail.com address.

Password: Use your regular Google password here.

Choose Target Directory: Point this anywhere on your available storage space.

Click Export from Sites. This will display a progress window showing the system exporting your data to your local machine and designated directory.

Find your data in the Home folder. Click on it to find subfolders and files -- the complete collection of data from your Google Sites content and other data.

I like the Data Liberation Tool for challenges like the one I just described. There's more information about it at the Data Liberation site. Its makers say this is a noble cause.

If you liked this how to, check out my colleague Jeremy Lesniak's advice on how to take all of your Google Docs offline. Watch for my Google coverage in BYTE and email me anytime.

Based in Honolulu, Todd Ogasawara is a senior contributor at BYTE and a full-time IT pro for the State of Hawaii. He covers deep IT tech for BYTE. Follow him @ToddOgasawara or email at [email protected].