On today’s post I want to take just a quick break from the normal WordPress discussions and write about GitHub Pages.

I’ve known about GitHub pages for some time but never actually used it. The reason I’ve really not had a use for it has been because of my use of WordPress. A site hosted on GitHub pages has to be static HTML, CSS, and JS so WordPress could not run on it.?

If you’ve never heard of GitHub pages its a way to host a static website on GitHub. When setting the site up, the project name has to be your-username.github.io and you need an index.html file. After you first set the project up it can take around 5 minutes before the site shows up.?

One cool thing about GitHub Pages is you can run a Jekyll site on it. Just don’t push up your _site folder if you’re developing local, GitHub will handle the compiling based off of your _config.yml file.?

If you want to use a custom URL on your site you absolutely can. Just add your domain to the projects settings and point your Domain to the GitHub IP address and you’re set. You also can get SSL for free on your site just by checking a checkbox in the settings.

If you have a static site, and you want it hosted for free GitHub pages is an awesome way to go.?