Getting Started with Jekyll and GitHub Pages

Getting Started with Jekyll and GitHub Pages

Jekyll is a powerful static site generator that’s perfect for creating blogs, documentation sites, and portfolios. When combined with GitHub Pages, you get free hosting for your static websites.

What is Jekyll?

Jekyll is a static site generator written in Ruby. It takes your content written in Markdown, Liquid templates, HTML, and CSS, and builds a complete static website that you can serve on any web server.

Key Features:

• Markdown Support: Write your content in Markdown for easy formatting
• Liquid Templating: Use Liquid templating engine for dynamic content
• Plugin System: Extend functionality with plugins
• GitHub Pages Integration: Deploy automatically to GitHub Pages
• Themes: Use beautiful pre-built themes like Chirpy

Setting Up Your First Jekyll Site

Prerequisites

1. Ruby (version 2.5 or higher)
2. Bundler gem
3. Git for version control

Installation Steps

# Install Jekyll and Bundler
gem install jekyll bundler

# Create a new Jekyll site
jekyll new my-awesome-blog

# Navigate to your site directory
cd my-awesome-blog

# Build and serve your site locally
bundle exec jekyll serve

Choosing a Theme

While Jekyll comes with a default theme called “minima”, there are many beautiful themes available:

• Chirpy: Clean, responsive theme perfect for technical blogs
• Minimal Mistakes: Feature-rich theme with lots of customization options
• Beautiful Jekyll: Simple and elegant theme
• Academic: Perfect for researchers and academics

Writing Your First Post

Jekyll posts are written in Markdown and stored in the _posts directory. The filename must follow this format: YYYY-MM-DD-title.md

Front Matter

Every post starts with YAML front matter:

---
layout: post
title: "Your Post Title"
date: 2025-07-26 10:00:00 +0000
categories: [Category1, Category2]
tags: [tag1, tag2, tag3]
---

Content

After the front matter, write your content in Markdown:

# Your Main Heading

This is a paragraph with **bold text** and *italic text*.

## Subheading

- List item 1
- List item 2
- List item 3

### Code Examples

```javascript
function helloWorld() {
    console.log("Hello, World!");
}

Deploying to GitHub Pages

1. Create a repository named username.github.io
2. Push your Jekyll site to the repository
3. Enable GitHub Pages in repository settings
4. Your site will be available at https://username.github.io

Tips for Success

1. Write Regularly: Consistency is key to building an audience
2. Use Categories and Tags: Organize your content for better navigation
3. Optimize for SEO: Use descriptive titles and meta descriptions
4. Add Images: Visual content makes posts more engaging
5. Enable Comments: Use Disqus or other commenting systems for engagement

Conclusion

Jekyll combined with GitHub Pages provides a powerful, free platform for blogging and creating websites. With its Markdown support, theme system, and automatic deployment, it’s an excellent choice for developers and content creators.

Start your Jekyll journey today and share your knowledge with the world!