How to Host a Site on GitHub Pages and Static Website Building

Hosting a site on GitHub Pages is a great way to share your project with the world. GitHub Pages is free and easy to use, with no need to worry about server maintenance or upgrades.

To get started, create a new repository on GitHub and navigate to the repository's settings. From there, click on the "GitHub Pages" tab and select the branch you want to use for your site.

GitHub Pages uses Jekyll, a static site generator, to build and deploy your site. Jekyll is a popular choice for building static sites because it's fast, flexible, and easy to use.

To host a site on GitHub, you'll need to create a GitHub account if you don't already have one.

GitHub offers a free plan that includes unlimited public repositories, making it a great option for individuals and small projects.

Start by navigating to the GitHub homepage and clicking on the "Sign up" button.

GitHub's free plan is a great way to get started, but keep in mind that it comes with some limitations, including limited access to GitHub's advanced features.

Before you begin, make sure you have a valid email address and a strong password.

GitHub's sign-up process is quick and easy, and you can have your account up and running in just a few minutes.

To host a site on GitHub, you'll need to create a repository and start building your site manually. This involves getting all your HTML/CSS/JS files yourself and committing them to your repo.

You can download a zip file with minimal website files to get started. Unzip the files into your repository, then add and commit them. This will give you a basic setup to work with.

Remember to create a gh-pages branch for your initial files, as GitHub will only look for this branch to publish your site. Don't commit to the master branch, as GitHub won't care and will try to publish almost every repository.

You can choose to deploy your website from either the master or gh-pages branch, but for now, let's stick with the default options. To do this, navigate to your repository settings and click on the "Pages" option in the sidebar.

Manual creation of a GitHub Pages site requires some extra effort, but it's doable. You can start by creating a repository on GitHub and cloning it locally.

You'll need to use your own URL to execute the clone command, and it's a good idea to use a unique and descriptive name for your repository, like "my-cool-website". This name will be part of your website's URL.

To create a GitHub Pages site manually, you'll need to create a gh-pages branch in your repository. You can do this by creating a new branch and committing your initial files to it.

You can download a zip file with minimal website files from GitHub, unzip them into your repository, and then add and commit them to the gh-pages branch. Remember to push your changes to GitHub, but make sure to push to the gh-pages branch, not the master branch.

Here's a simple checklist to help you create a GitHub Pages site manually:

By following these steps, you can create a GitHub Pages site manually and have a fully functional website hosted on GitHub.

To bypass Jekyll, you need to create a .nojekyll file in the static folder. This will tell GitHub Pages not to use Jekyll.

Jekyll is a default setting for GitHub Pages, but we're building our website using SvelteKit, so we don't want it to happen. To prevent this, we need to create a specific file.

The .nojekyll file is a requirement to bypass Jekyll, and it's a straightforward step. Just create the file in the static folder, and GitHub Pages will know to use SvelteKit instead.

For more information about this, you can check out GitHub's documentation on static site generators.

You can start with a simple static website, but things can get fancier with Jekyll.

Jekyll is a great choice for building a dynamic website, especially if you use GitHub, which has native Jekyll support.

To get the most out of Jekyll, you'll need a Ruby setup and the jekyll gem installed.

Maciakl has provided a simple Jekyll template you can use to get started, but be sure to switch to the gh-pages branch in their repository.

The Automatic Page Generator is a fantastic tool that makes it easy to get started with building your site. You can use it to create a blank repository for GitHub Pages.

To get started, simply create a new repository with any name you like - we'll use "github-for-cats" as an example. Then, head to the Settings tab to access the generator.

The generator will build just the front page for you, but you can get a lot done here. After the first time, it gets much quicker at publishing.

Note that you might need to wait a while for the first time, but it's worth it!

Jekyll is a powerful tool for building dynamic websites. GitHub has native Jekyll support, which allows you to write pages in Markdown with simple templating and support for blog posts.

You'll need a Ruby setup to get the most out of Jekyll, and at least the jekyll gem installed. Maciakl has provided a simple Jekyll template to get you started.

Be sure to switch to the gh-pages branch when using this template, as the repository is using the master branch.

Building a static website is a great way to start, and you can use a static website generator like Jekyll to make it happen. Jekyll is a popular choice, especially since GitHub has native Jekyll support, allowing you to write pages in Markdown with simple templating and support for blog posts.

You can use a template to get started, like the one provided by Maciakl. Just be sure to switch to the gh-pages branch, as their repository uses master. A static website is composed entirely of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, with no database or server-side code.

For hosting, GitHub Pages is a great option, allowing you to host a website directly from your GitHub repository. Your site will be hosted under your own GitHub subdomain, and GitHub will handle publishing and serving the site. All you need to do is push to the gh-pages branch, and GitHub will take care of the rest.

If you're using SvelteKit, you'll need to use the SvelteKit static adapter to host your site on GitHub Pages. This involves installing the adapter and replacing the @sveltejs/adapter-auto with @sveltejs/adapter-static in your svelte.config.js file.

Building a static website can be a great option if you're looking for a simple and cost-effective solution. You can use a static website generator like Jekyll, which I found to be exactly what I needed.

If you're new to static website generators, you might be wondering what options are available. Let's take a look at some alternatives to Jekyll, such as Hugo, which is presented as the world's fastest framework for building websites.

Another alternative is MkDocs, a static website generator geared towards building project documentation. If you're looking for a more comprehensive solution, you might want to consider using a software as a service (SaaS) like Medium or Hashnode, which are geared towards tech blogs.

Here are some alternatives to Jekyll:

If you're looking for a hosting solution, you can consider options like AWS S3, GitHub Pages, or Digital Ocean Apps. Digital Ocean Apps, in particular, has a Global CDN included, which caches images in different parts of the globe automatically.