For those of you who've maybe looked into building a website, you know, navigated the complexities, or even just grappled with the hosting costs, which can be surprising. What if we told you there's a powerful, really elegant way to build and host truly beautiful websites completely for free.
Yeah it sounds almost too good to be true, right, Yeah, But today we're taking a deep dive into exactly that, this remarkably accessible world of free web development. Our mission really is to unpack how you can get a professional online presence up and running using two surprisingly powerful tools, public cms and GitHub pages.
Right, and we've been immersing ourselves in Brad Moore's book Designing Websites with pub Land GitHub Pages create, maintain, and host beautiful websites for free. It's a really comprehensive guide, a bit of a treasure trove, actually, and our goal for this deep dive is to distill the most impactful bits, the key insights, to give you the clarity and maybe the confidence to launch your own thing exactly.
Get ready for maybe some aha moments, because by the end of this you should not only understand the core concepts, but also grasp the practical steps, you know, the how to to get your site live and all without breaking the bank or getting lost in technical jargon.
Okay, so when we talk about building websites, I think many of us our minds immediately jump to those complex, dynamic, database driven sites, right, the ones constantly fetching content. So what exactly is a static website and why should that simplicity? Why should it genuinely interest you?
Well, the real revelation about stack sites, I think, isn't just their speed or security. Those are huge, it's how they fundamentally simplify the whole web infrastructure for you. I mean, imagine building a solid online presence without constantly worrying about server updates or database breaches or tricky backend debugging.
Yeah, that alone sounds appealing, right.
A static site is kind of like a maybe a published book or a sculpture. Once it's made, it's fixed, it stays the same until you decide to create and publish a new version. Dynamic sites, on the other hand, and they're more like a live TV show, maybe with a server constantly assembling new scenes behind the curtains based on every interaction.
Okay, so it's not constantly rebuilding itself with every single user click. That sounds inherently more robust, definitely more efficient to manage. But are their trade offs? What about interactivity? Can they still feel modern?
You've hit on a key benefit there. Static sites load incredibly fast, lightning fast sometimes, and they are significantly more secure, precisely because there's no back end database for hackers to target or exploit. And as for interactivity, that's where JavaScript comes in. Modern static sites, you know, boosted with JavaScript, can still deliver really dynamic like experiences, animations, interactive forms,
all that stuff. The core content is static, sure, but the user experience can be anything but static.
That distinction is really important. I think so for you the listener, this approach means your site is essentially always on, accessible twenty four to seven. It offers high visibility, and you have complete control over your content. It's pretty ideal for small businesses, organizations, maybe individuals just looking to share ideas or offerings.
Exactly, or fostering community through blogs, newsletters, contact forms. It really does democratize powerful web development, makes it accessible.
Okay, so now we understand the elegant simplicity maybe of static sites. The obvious next question is how do you actually build one? And that's where, as you said, the magic of public CMS and get up pages comes in allowing us to get online for free.
Right, So our first star here is public cms. Think of it like your personal website factory, but it runs right on your desktop. It's a fantastic choice for pretty much anyone, individuals, small businesses who wants to secure, fast and really easy to maintain website without needing deep coding skills.
Ye, how does it actually work? Then?
Well? Publici works by compiling all your content, your text, images, themes into fixed s HTML files right there on your computer. And it's available pretty widely. Runs on Windows, macOS, both Intel and the newer Apple chips, and several Linux versions too, so it's very accessible. Plus, and this is a big deal for many, it has built in tools for GDPR and CCPA compliance that gives you significant peace of mind on the data privacy front.
Okay, so publy I builds the site files on my computer. Then what where do they actually live online so people can see them?
Ah? That's role number two for gethub pages. It's essentially a free cloud based hosting service specifically designed for these static website files. What's really brilliant about it is you don't need to get bogged down in complex web hosting stuff, you know, configurations or even domain name setups right at the start. GitHub handles all that for you initially, so it simplifies that whole back end process massively. So the
workflow simplified looks like this. Number One, you create and manage your site locally on your computer using public CMS. Number two, Public compiles it and then pushes transfers those site files up to GitHub Pages, which acts as your remote server. And number three, finally, your website content gets delivered from GitHub page straight to the end user in their web browser. Honestly, seeing what you've created come alive online for the first time. It's genuinely thrilling.
That does sound incredibly empowering taking control like that. So what sort of practical tools and maybe smart habits will you need to set yourself up for success here?
Okay, beyond your computer itself, you'll probably want a free image viewer, something like earfun View for Windows or Nomacs form Echos is great for basic image browsing, maybe some simple resizing, and obviously a good web browser like crime is essential. But the most and I mean most indispensable habit, and I speak from a painful experience here is write everything down.
Oh yes, the forgotten password nightmare.
Exactly. We've all been there right staring at a log in screen, just racking our brains for that password. But for your website's ecosystem, PUBLICI, GitHub, maybe your domain resure later. A forgotten credential isn't just annoying, it can literally halt your entire operation. So the simple habit, this little notebook, it becomes your digital safety net. It prevents hours of lockout, frustrum. Trust me on this one.
A very small investment for potentially huge savings in time and stress. Okay, that notebook is key. What about creating and managing those critical passwords themselves? Any best practices?
Oh, definitely excellent question. When you're creating passwords, first rule, ditch the personal info, no names, pet names, birthday is none of that. Instead, try embracing the power of multiple short, unrelated words. Like four or five short words strung together. It can be way stronger and surprisingly easier to remember than just a random jumble of characters like x U seven seven tags on fee right.
The correct hor's battery stable.
Idea exactly that concept. Yeah, though don't use that specific one. Obviously capitalize maybe one or two of the words include a number, but maybe not a significant date. Avoid spaces usually. Special characters can add strength, sure, but they aren't always necessary unless a site forces you. But the single most crucial rule, do not reuse passwords ever across different systems.
That's the big one.
It is for ultimate security and just convenience. Really consider it. Using a dedicated password safe something like keypass is a good free option.
Okay.
So for the initial setup to actually get started building your site, you'll need a dedicated email address. A new outlook dot com address is often recommended. It adds a layer of security and looks a bit more professional for your website operations. And of course you need a GitHub account, and within GitHub you'll create what's called a repository. Think of it just as a dedicated project folder online for all your website's files.
Okay, foundational setup is clear, email, GitHub account, password safety, net. Let's move on to the fun part, making the site actually look stunning and adding compelling content. How does public handle that?
Right? Publicy really does shine here, especially with visual customization. It uses themes to control the whole look and feel of your site. Public itself offers I think it's twenty nine official themes now. Thirteen are free, sixteen are premium, and the great thing is they're all kept up to date by the developers, so they stay compassed with new Pubblelie releases.
That's good to know. How do you get and use a theme?
It's a pretty simple three step process actually. First you find and get a theme you like from the public Marketplace online, Second, you install it globally within the public CMS application on your computer, and then third you activate it locally specifically for the website project you're working on. And here's a crucial tip one I really can't stress enough. Always back up your site before you activate a new theme. Why's that because some theme changes, especially if they alter
content structures, can be irreversible. You really don't want to lose hours of work just trying out a new look. A quick backup saves potential tears.
Okay, noted? Why is warning? So once you have a theme in place, how do you start making it your own? You know, stamp your personal brand on it.
Yeah, you can easily apply a custom image as your website logo. That's usually step one. Then there's the hero section. You know that big graphic and text block off you right at the.
Top mm hmm, the main banner area exactly.
That's perfect for making an immediate visual impact, and you can customize that heavily. You also get full control over adjusting the primary colors and the fonts used across the site. For example, Railway is a popular clean choice for body text, while maybe merriwether Sands works nicely for headings. Pubbly is also pretty smart. It caches Google fonts locally, which helps your site load faster. And don't forget the little things like the faby con that tiny icon that shows up
in the browser tab next to your site name. It's a small detail, but it adds that professional polish right.
What about personalizing the author's presence, say if it's a blog or a portfolio site, and how do you structure the navigation?
The men use Absolutely in Public's author settings, you can really flesh things out. Add your bio in the description field like the example Bobby's bio in the source, upload an avatar image, even add a featured image specifically for your author page, and always always remember to add a keyword rich SEO meta description for that author page. It helps search engines understand who you are and what your profile is about.
Okay SEO even for the author page. Good tip and.
Menus menucreation is super easy. You can build your main navigation menu and add individual menu items effortlessly. Public supports different kinds of links too. You can link to your homepage obviously, or to lists of posts with specific tags. You can add external links, like for a contact dust page that goes to an email address or another site. A quick tip on external links, it's generally best practice to make them open in a new browser tab, and you might want to add a no follow attribute.
What does no follow do?
It basically tell search engines, hey, don't pass any of my website's ranking authority or link juice to this external site. It's a way to manage your site's SEO reputation, especially if you link out a lot internal links. Though links to other pages or posts within your own site, those should usually open in the same window for a smoother user experience, and rearranging menu items is just simple drag and drop.
Very intuitive, that sounds flexible and as you start creating more content, say blog, post or articles. How do you keep it all organized? For yourself and for visitors?
Tags are definitely your best friend here. They're vital for categorizing everything. You might have tags like news, musings, tutorials, whatever fits your content. You create the tags, and you can even add featured images and specific meta descriptions for the tag pages themselves, which again gives you another little boost for your site's SEO.
Okay, so tags help organize. Now actually adding the content, the posts and pages, what's that experience like?
In Pobolheim, Publa offers a couple of main editors. There's the ys wag editor that stands for what you see is what you get. It feels a lot like using a classic word processor, you know, with a toolbar for bold, italics, lists, et cetera. You format as you type. Then there's the block editor. This one's a bit different. You build your content by assembling predefined blocks. A block for text, a block for an image, a block for a heading. It's
kind of like building with digital legos. It offers maybe more structured control.
Interesting. Is there another option?
Yes? For purely static content like a terms and conditions page or a privacy policy. The markdown editor is also available. Markdown uses really simple symbols, like a hash sign hashtag for a header or double asterisks text for bold. It's very clean and distraction free, and Pabla even includes a little view help cheat sheet if you're new to it. Now,
here's a critical point to remember about the editors. Once you create a post or a page using one editor, say the Block editor, you must always edit that specific piece of content using the same editor.
Ah. You can't switch back and forth between wysiweigi and Block on the same post exactly.
Trying to switch can seriously mess up the formatting and structure. So pick one editor for a piece of content and stick with it.
Good to know. Okay, within those editors, what are the fundamental building blocks when you're actually crafting your posts and pages.
Well, you'll start with a compelling title, obviously than your main body text. The source actually uses some fun chat GPT generated lorem ipsum examples like lunar lasagna just as placeholder.
Text viaser lasagna.
Huh yeah. You can easily embed images, of course, and here adding alternative text or alt text for every image is crucial, not just for accessibility, for visually impaired users using screen readers, but also for SEO search engines, read that alt text right describe the image precisely. You can also create bulleted lists. Numbered lists adds stylish block quotes for highlighting text, and obviously link to other internal pages
or external resources seamlessly. And I'll see it again. Because it's important, always, always add a short, keyword focused meta description for every single post and page.
Even though Google says it's not a direct ranking factor anymore.
Even so, think of it as your sales pitch in the search results. It might not directly boost your rank, but it heavily influences whether someone actually clicks on your link versus someone else's, so it's crucial for click through rates. You can also customize your homepage quite nicely. You can set any existing page you've created as your site's main homepage, and you can even optionally put your blog into a subfolder like your side dot com forth loss blog by
using something called a post's prefix. This lets you create a kind of hybrid site, maybe a main business site with an attached blog.
Okay, that covers the core content, but what about adding more dynamic features, things like say an image gallery or a contact form seems tricky for a static site, and also, how do we keep things compliant with all the privacy regulations floating around?
Yeah, Public makes adding those kinds of interactive elements surprisingly straightforward. Actually. For image galleries, it has built in support using a popular library kind of photoswipe, it's really easy. You just add multiple images to a page and you can customize their layout, maybe use the wide option to make them span the content area, and add descriptive captions below each image.
Just a small note, the specific gallery options and how they look can vary slightly depending on the public theme you're using.
Right, themes can influence features. Okay, gallery sound easy enough, but a contact form that's crucial for so many sites. How does that work without a back end server on a static site to process the submission.
That's a great question, and you're right. Static sites inherently can't process form data themselves, so that's where third party services come into play. You'll need a service like jotform, which was the one demonstrated in the source material. They offer free plans, which are often enough to get started. These services essentially handle the form submissions for you. The way it works is you build your form on their platform, and they give you a little snippet of JavaScript.
Code, and you put that code into PUBLICII.
Exactly, you embed that JavaScript snippet directly into a public page using its HTML editor view. It sounds technical, but it's usually just copy and paste. But and this is vital, you absolutely must test those form submissions thoroughly after setting it up. Send a test message, make sure you receive it and sure the whole process works as expected.
Makes sense? Test test test? What about comments on blog posts?
Same idea, Pretty much the same principle. Yeah, for comments, you typically use other third party plugins or services like comment or cousins were mentioned as examples. The general process is similar. You download and install the comments plug in globally within public First, then you usually need to register an account with the external comment service provider to get a unique ID for your site. Finally, you activate and configure that plug in locally within public CMS, putting in
your unique ID. One crucial thing about comments, Though they are disabled by default in public CMS, you have to explicitly turn them on, either in your main theme settings or on a purpose or per page basis. If you only want comments on specific content.
Suck good default setting for privacy. Okay, speaking of privacy, what about the really important legal stuff like privacy policies, terms and conditions cookie banners, especially with GDPR and CCPA rules.
Yeah, you absolutely need to address that. It's really best practice for every website, static or dynamic, to have a comprehensive privacy policy and probably terms and conditions too. The policy needs to be transparent. It should clearly outline what personal information you collect, maybe through forms, cookies, tracking scripts, how you use it and if you share it with
any third parties. It also needs to detail how you protect that data, what rights users have regarding their data, like accessing it, correcting it, deleting it, and how you comply with laws like GDPR and CCPA. The source material actually provides a starting point, a file called privacy dot airtf, which can be a really helpful template to adapt.
That's useful in cookie banners. Does Publy help with that?
It does? Public CMS integrates a cookie banner featured directly into its privacy settings. Now it's interesting the official public themes themselves generally don't generate cookies, but as we just discussed, third party plugins for things like comments or analytics often do use cookies, so you can enable a basic cookie banner in publicy just to inform users. You can customize the message the example given with something like this website
uses limited cookies for basic functionality. These are not optional. Third party providers may use cookies as well. You can choose how it's displayed as a dismissable banner, just a little badge, or maybe open by clicking a custom link in your footter. And speaking of the futter, you can easily modify your footter menus in public to add a direct link to your privacy policy page, making it readily accessible for visitors.
Okay, so we've built the site, added content, galleries, forms, handley compliance bits. We're almost there, But what about making it truly professional? The GitHub dot io address is functional, but maybe not ideal for business or brand. What does it all mean when you want an online presence that's easy for people to remember and really reflects your identity.
Yeah, this is where we talk about moving beyond that free GitHub pages url, you know, the https dot your username dot GitHub refo kind of thing. While functional, something like my cool brand dot com or space dash b dot net from the source example just feels different. A custom domain provides that immediate sense of professionalism, credibility, and it's just infinitely easier for people to remember and share.
So how does that work? What are domains?
Well, domain names are essentially unique digital addresses, your unique property online. They typically end in what are called TLDs or top level domains. You know, dot com, dot org, dot net are the most common ones. To find an available one, it's smart to use a reliable whois lookup tool I can the main governing body has one. This helps you check availability and avoid potentially predatory registrars. Then you register your chosen domain name with a reputable domain registrar.
Squarespace was used as the example in the source, but there are many others like name Cheap, go Daddy, Google Domains, et cetera. A good registrarer typically offers crucial features like auto renewal so you don't accidentally lose your domain, whis privacy which hides your personal contact information from public view, domain lock to prevent unauthorized transfers, and often they bundle in SSL certificates for secure HTTPS dot connections.
Okay, so you register your domain name, you own my cool brand dot com. Now how does the Internet actually know that my cool brand dot com should point to the website files sitting on GitHub Pages. AH.
That brings us to the magic of DNS, the Domain name system. The classic analogy is that DNS is like the Internet's phone book. It translates the human friendly domain names we type into browsers like Google dot Com into the numerical IP addresses that computers actually use to find servers and resources on the Internet.
Got it, So you need to update this phone book entry for your domain Precisely.
Configuring this involves two main steps. First, you go into your GitHub pages settings for your repository and tell it what your custom domain name is. Second, you need to log into your domain registrar where you bought the domain and configure its DNS records. This usually means deleting any default DNS entries the registrar might have put there. Then you'll add specific records provided by GitHub. Typically this involves
adding four A records. These point the main domain like space, dash b, dot net directly to four specific IP addresses that GitHub Pages uses. The source gives examples like one eighty five point one, nine, nine point one oh eight point one, five, three.
And three others okay four A records.
And usually you also add a CNA means record. This is typically used for the WWW version of your domain, like www, dot space, dash dash b dot net, and you point it to your main domain name, eg. Space dash b dot net. One important thing to remember is DNS changes aren't always instantaneous. They need to propagate across the Internet's phone books, which can take anywhere from a few minutes to in rare cases, up to forty eight or even seventy two hours. Usually it's much faster, though.
Patience is needed. Then, what are the final steps?
Right after you've configured DNS and waited a bit for propagation, Rigorously test your new custom domain in your browser. See if it loads your GitHub page's site. If you happen to see old content or maybe an error, try clearing your browser cash first. Sometimes your browser holds onto the
old DNS information. Once it's working, the very final step is to go back into your public CMS settings, specifically the server settings, update the URL there to reflect your new custom domain, and then synchronize your website one last time to make sure all internal links use the new domain.
Fantastic, So now we've got the foundation, the the interactivity, the compliance, and the professional custom domain. The site is live and looking good, but how do you add that extra layer of polish, you know, make your site really pop and engage visitors from the very first second they arrive. Let's talk about some maybe advanced styling techniques.
Yeah, this is where you can really start to differentiate your site and add some wow factor. And the key here is often custom CSS. Public CMS allows you to add your own custom CSS rules directly within its interface. This is powerful because it lets you override the default styles provided by your theme or even add completely new styles without ever needing to touch the themes underlying HTML files directly. It keeps things clean and upgrade safe.
Okay, custom CSS. What's a cool example of what you can do with it?
Well, one really neat trick shun in the source material uses the standard HTML details and summary tags. These tags, built right into HTML five, allow you to create interactive FAQ sections. You put your question in the summary tag and the answer inside the main details tag. By default, the browser makes the summary clickable to reveal or hide the answer.
Oh like those little drop down faqus you see.
Everywhere exactly, But you can take that basic functionality and use custom CSS to make it look really polished and beautiful. You can add padding, nice background colors, subtle box shadows to the FAQ list items and the revealed detail sections. You can change the little arrow icons style how it looks when you hover over a question. Really make it fit your site's design. It's a simple HTML structure made elegant with CSS.
It's a great practical example. What about guiding users getting them to take a specific action like signing up for a newsletter or clicking a buy now button?
Ah? Yes, the call to action or CTA. This is where styling simple text links to look like prominent buttons really shines. You can use custom CSS to transform a standard link into something that visually screams click me. This often involves targeting a link based on its title attribute
in the HTML. For instance, if you have a link like an h ref title book now book your CONSULTATIONA, you can write CSS that specifically targets the title book now and apply styles to make it look like a button, background color, padding, rounded corners, hover effects, et cetera.
So you target the title attribute clever.
Yeah, it's a clean way to do it, and the broader implication here, The really important takeaway for you, the listener, is thinking about where you place these CTAs. You want to put your most important call to action buttons above the fold. That means in the top part of your homepage, the area that's immediately visible when someone lands on your
site before they start scrolling. That's prime real estate. You can reliably expect visitors to look there, so use it strategically to capture their attention immediately and guide them towards the action you want them to take.
Excellent advice. Okay, wow, we've really covered a lot of ground here. We've taken you on quite a journey, I think, from understanding the surprising benefits and simplicity static websites, through the hands on setup with Publi and GitHub, deep into customization with themes and content.
Adding interactive features like galleries and forms, making sure things are compliant with privacy rules.
Right, and finally launching a truly professional looking site using your own custom domain name. And the most remarkable part. All of this is achievable using completely free tools like publized CMS and GitHub pages. It really is quite something to build and host a quality website for free in today's digital world.
It really is, and if you've followed along with the steep dive, hopefully you've seen firsthand just how accessible and frankly powerful modern web development can be now, even if you don't want to or need to, master complex coding languages. So the question to leave you with is this, What new idea, what project, what passion could you bring to life online with these tools? Now that the barrier to entry, the costs, the complexity is virtually gone, think about it.
The world is definitely waiting for your story, your unique contribution,