Organically | Web Creative with Organic Potential

GitHub Pages Deployment Guide

Organically Website - Production Launch

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✅ Pre-Deployment Checklist

• _config.yml created (Jekyll configuration)
• CNAME file created (custom domain setup)
• robots.txt created (SEO crawler instructions)
• All changes committed to git
• GitHub repository created
• Code pushed to GitHub
• GitHub Pages enabled
• DNS configured in GoDaddy

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📤 Step 1: Push to GitHub

Create Repository on GitHub

1. Go to https://github.com/new
2. Repository name: orga or organically-website (your choice)
3. Visibility: Public (required for free GitHub Pages)
4. DO NOT initialize with README (you already have files)
5. Click Create repository

Push Your Code

# Navigate to your project directory
cd "/mnt/c/dev/orga website"

# Check current git status
git status

# Add all files for GitHub Pages
git add _config.yml CNAME robots.txt

# Check what's being committed
git status

# Commit the new configuration files
git commit -m "Add GitHub Pages configuration

- Add Jekyll config with pretty URLs
- Add CNAME for custom domain (organicallyseo.com)
- Add robots.txt for SEO

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>"

# Add your GitHub repository as remote (replace YOUR-USERNAME)
git remote add origin https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/REPO-NAME.git

# Or if remote already exists, update it:
# git remote set-url origin https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/REPO-NAME.git

# Push to GitHub
git push -u origin main

# If your branch is named 'master' instead of 'main':
# git push -u origin master

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🚀 Step 2: Enable GitHub Pages

1. Go to your repository on GitHub
2. Click Settings (top right)
3. Scroll down to Pages (left sidebar under “Code and automation”)
4. Under Source:
   • Select: Deploy from a branch
   • Branch: main (or master)
   • Folder: / (root)
5. Click Save

GitHub will start building your site (takes 1-3 minutes)

Check Build Status

• Go to Actions tab in your repository
• You’ll see a “pages build and deployment” workflow
• Wait for green checkmark ✓
• Your site will be live at: https://YOUR-USERNAME.github.io/REPO-NAME/

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🌐 Step 3: Configure Custom Domain (Optional - Do After GitHub Pages Works)

In GitHub Repository Settings:

1. Go to Settings → Pages
2. Under Custom domain:
   • Enter: organicallyseo.com
   • Click Save
3. Wait 1-2 minutes, then check the box:
   • ✅ Enforce HTTPS (recommended)

Note: This won’t work until you configure DNS in GoDaddy (Step 4)

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🔧 Step 4: Configure GoDaddy DNS

See DNS-CONFIGURATION.md for detailed instructions.

Quick Summary:

• Add 4 A records pointing to GitHub Pages IPs
• Add CNAME record for www subdomain
• Wait 24-48 hours for DNS propagation (usually faster)

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🧪 Testing Your Deployment

Test Pretty URLs

Once live, verify these URLs work WITHOUT .html:

✅ https://organicallyseo.com/
✅ https://organicallyseo.com/seo
✅ https://organicallyseo.com/web-design
✅ https://organicallyseo.com/branding
✅ https://organicallyseo.com/blog
✅ https://organicallyseo.com/what-is-seo

Verify Hidden Pages Are Excluded

These should return 404:

❌ https://organicallyseo.com/components/debug-3d.html
❌ https://organicallyseo.com/detail_blog.html
❌ https://organicallyseo.com/form.html

Check robots.txt

✅ https://organicallyseo.com/robots.txt

Check Auto-Generated Sitemap

✅ https://organicallyseo.com/sitemap.xml
(This is auto-generated by Jekyll - you don't need to create it)

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🐛 Troubleshooting

Site Not Building

Check Actions Tab:

• Go to repository → Actions
• Look for red X on build
• Click to see error details

Common Issues:

• Jekyll syntax error in _config.yml
• Missing files referenced in includes
• Unsupported Jekyll plugins

Solution:

# Test Jekyll locally (optional)
gem install bundler jekyll
bundle exec jekyll serve

# Then fix any errors before pushing

Pretty URLs Not Working

Verify _config.yml has:

permalink: pretty

Clear browser cache (Ctrl+Shift+R or Cmd+Shift+R)

Custom Domain Not Working

Check:

1. DNS propagation: https://dnschecker.org (search: organicallyseo.com)
2. CNAME file exists in repo root
3. GitHub Pages settings show your custom domain
4. HTTPS is enabled (may take 24hrs for certificate)

Old .html URLs Still Working

This is normal and good! GitHub Pages will serve both:

• organicallyseo.com/seo (pretty URL)
• organicallyseo.com/seo.html (still works for backwards compatibility)

To redirect .html to clean URLs, you’d need to add Jekyll redirect plugin (more advanced).

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📊 Post-Launch Checklist

• Test all main pages load correctly
• Verify mobile responsiveness
• Check all images load
• Test contact forms work
• Submit sitemap to Google Search Console
• Update Google Analytics (if domain changed)
• Test page load speed (PageSpeed Insights)
• Verify SSL certificate is active (https://)

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🔄 Making Updates After Launch

# Make your changes to HTML/CSS files

# Commit changes
git add .
git commit -m "Update homepage hero section"

# Push to GitHub (triggers automatic rebuild)
git push origin main

# GitHub Pages will rebuild in 1-3 minutes

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📞 Need Help?

GitHub Pages Docs: https://docs.github.com/pages Jekyll Docs: https://jekyllrb.com/docs/

Common Commands:

# Check git status
git status

# View recent commits
git log --oneline -5

# View remote URL
git remote -v

# Force rebuild GitHub Pages (if stuck)
# Make a small change and push, or:
git commit --allow-empty -m "Trigger rebuild"
git push origin main

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Last Updated: 2025-11-07 Status: Ready for deployment