Starting a new blog using Hugo static site generator

What is Hugo static site generator?

Hugo is a popular open-source static site generator written in Go. A static site generator is a tool that allows you to create a static website consisting of static HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files, without the need for a database or server-side processing.

Unlike dynamic websites, which generate pages on the fly in response to user requests, static websites are pre-built and served as-is. This makes them faster, more secure, and easier to deploy and manage.

Hugo takes your content written in Markdown or other markup languages, along with a set of templates, and generates a complete static website with all the necessary files, including index.html, about.html, and blog posts. Hugo uses a system of templates and shortcodes to create a consistent look and feel across all pages of the website, while also allowing for flexibility and customization.

One of the advantages of Hugo is its speed. It is one of the fastest static site generators available, and can generate a website with thousands of pages in just a few seconds. It is also highly flexible and customizable, with a large number of themes and plugins available to help you create the website that you want.

Overall, Hugo is a powerful and user-friendly static site generator that allows developers and content creators to quickly and easily build fast, secure, and highly customizable websites.

How to start a blog using Hugo?

Starting a blog using Hugo involves several steps. Here’s a general overview of the process:

1. Download a text editor

To use Hugo, you will need a text editor to create and edit your blog posts and other Hugo files. The best editor to use with Hugo is VSCode as it has a built-in terminal, many themes to choose from, and lots of plugins to help you edit your blog’s source code.

2. Install Hugo

The next step is to download and install Hugo. You can download it from the official Hugo website. Make sure to select the appropriate version for your operating system. You will also need to install Git to use Hugo.

3. Choose a theme

Hugo comes with a variety of built-in themes to choose from. You can browse through the official Hugo themes directory and select a theme that suits your needs.

You will install the theme later after creating your Hugo site by following the themes installation guide.

4. Creating a new site

Once you have installed Hugo and chosen a theme, you can create a new site using the following command in your terminal:

hugo new site <your_site_name>

This command will create a new directory with your site name, which will contain all the files needed for your blog.

5. Add content

You can start adding content to your blog by creating a new post using the following command:

hugo new posts/<your_post_name>.md

This will create a new markdown file in the “content/posts” directory. You can then add your content to the file using any text editor.

6. Customize your site

You can customize your site by editing the config.toml file in the root directory of your site. This file contains various settings such as site title, description, and social media links.

Now that you have your Hugo site created, you can also install any Hugo theme you want, using the theme’s installation guide.

7. Preview your site

You can preview your site by running the following command in your terminal:

hugo server -D

This will start a local web server and generate your site. You can then view your site in your web browser at http://localhost:1313/.

Once you are satisfied with your site, you can publish it to a web server using any web hosting service. You can generate the files for your site using the following command:

hugo

This will generate the files for your site in the public directory. You can then upload these files to your web server using any FTP client or web hosting service.

How to publish your Hugo site?

There are many ways and services you can use to publish your Hugo website. One way is to use Github and Cloudflare Pages which are completely free and very straightforward to use.

Create a repository to Github

To store your Hugo blog, you will need to create a code repository. For this, the best way to create a repository is using Github.

To create your first Github repository and push code from your local machine, you can follow these steps:

1. Create a Github account

If you haven’t already, sign up for a Github account on the Github website.

2. Create a new repository

Once you are logged in to your Github account, click on the “New repository” button on the homepage. Give your repository a name, a brief description, and choose whether it should be public or private.

3. Set up your local repository

On your local machine, navigate to the directory where you have your Hugo project located. Then, open the terminal and run the following commands:

git init
git remote add origin <repository_url>

Replace <repository_url> with the URL of your Github repository.

Add your code: Add your project files to the repository using the following command:

git add .

This will stage all the changes to your files to be committed.

Commit your changes: Commit your changes using the following command:

git commit -m "Initial commit"

Replace “Initial commit” with a meaningful commit message.

4. Push your code to Github

Push your code to Github using the following command:

git push -u origin master

This will push your code to the “main” branch of your Github repository.

5. Verify your code

Once the push is complete, go to your Github repository page and verify that your code has been pushed successfully.

Congratulations! You have now created your first Github repository and pushed code from your local machine.

Create Cloudflare Pages project

Now that you have your Hugo site built and the code pushed to Github, it is time to publish it. Publishing a Hugo website to Cloudflare Pages involves several steps. Here’s a general overview of the process:

1. Sign up for a Cloudflare Pages account

The first step is to sign up for a Cloudflare Pages account. You can sign up for a free account on the Cloudflare Pages website.

2. Create a new project

Once you have signed up for an account, you can create a new project by clicking on the “New Project” button. You will need to connect your GitHub account and select the repository that contains your Hugo website.

3. Configure your build settings

After you have selected your repository, you will need to configure your build settings. You will need to set your build command to “hugo” and your publish directory to “public”. You can also add any environment variables or other build settings that your website requires.

4. Build and deploy your website

Once you have configured your build settings, you can build and deploy your website by clicking on the “Deploy Site” button. Cloudflare Pages will automatically build your website using Hugo and deploy it to a global network of servers, ensuring fast and reliable performance.

5. Set up custom domains and SSL

Finally, you can set up custom domains and SSL for your website using Cloudflare Pages. You can add your custom domain to your project settings and Cloudflare Pages will automatically generate an SSL certificate for your domain, ensuring that your website is secure and trusted.

That’s it! With these steps, you should be able to publish your Hugo website to Cloudflare Pages and take advantage of its fast and reliable global network. Good luck!

How to publish new blog posts using Hugo?

Now that you have everything set up from building your Hugo site, pushing code to Github, and connecting your Github repository to Cloudflare Pages, all that is left to do is to start publishing content.

To publish new content on your already published Hugo site, all you need to do is create and edit your markdown files and push changes to your Github repository. Cloudflare Pages will automatically detect any changes you have made to your repository and build and publish new versions of your blog for you.