Deploying a Static Site with Git

4 min read

Static sites are fast, secure, and cheap to run. You build them locally, then push the output to your server. This guide covers deploying to both shared hosting and VPS.

Prerequisites link

• A static site generator (Hugo, Astro, Jekyll, or plain HTML)
• Your site built locally (e.g., a dist/, public/, or _site/ folder)
• An FTP client (shared hosting) or SSH access (VPS)

On Shared Hosting link

Option A: Upload via File Manager link

1. Build your site locally
2. Zip the output folder
3. Log into cPanel → File Manager
4. Navigate to public_html/ (or your domain’s document root)
5. Upload the zip
6. Extract it
7. Make sure index.html is in the root, not inside a subfolder

Option B: FTP Upload link

Shared and WordPress hosting plans have no shell access, so there is no SSH or SFTP. Use FTP with TLS instead, in a client like FileZilla. Create an FTP account in cPanel > FTP Accounts first (or use your cPanel login):

Upload the contents of your build folder to public_html/.

On a VPS with Git (Recommended) link

This is the cleanest workflow: push to Git, and the server pulls and deploys automatically.

Step 1: Set Up the Server link

  # Install Git and Nginx
sudo apt install git nginx -y

# Create a web root
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/mysite
sudo chown $USER:$USER /var/www/mysite
  

Step 2: Create a Bare Git Repository link

  # This is the repository your local machine pushes to
mkdir -p ~/repos/mysite.git
cd ~/repos/mysite.git
git init --bare
  

Step 3: Add a Post-Receive Hook link

This hook automatically deploys your site whenever you push:

  nano ~/repos/mysite.git/hooks/post-receive
  

Add:

  #!/bin/bash
GIT_WORK_TREE=/var/www/mysite git checkout -f main
  

Make it executable:

  chmod +x ~/repos/mysite.git/hooks/post-receive
  

Step 4: Configure Nginx link

The hook checks out the whole repository, source included, so point Nginx at the build folder inside it. Use public for Hugo, dist for Astro, or _site for Jekyll:

  sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/mysite
  

  server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com;
    root /var/www/mysite/public;
    index index.html;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }

    # Cache static assets
    location ~* \.(css|js|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico|svg|woff2)$ {
        expires 30d;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
    }
}
  

  sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/mysite /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx
  

Step 5: Push from Your Local Machine link

On your local machine, add the server as a Git remote:

  cd your-project

# Build first
npm run build   # or hugo, or jekyll build

# Set up the remote
# Use the same user that created the bare repository in Step 2
git remote add deploy ssh://youruser@your-server-ip/home/youruser/repos/mysite.git

# Push
git push deploy main
  

Build-Then-Push Workflow link

For static site generators, the typical workflow is:

1. Edit content locally
2. Build: npm run build / hugo / jekyll build
3. Commit the output folder
4. Push: git push deploy main

  #!/bin/bash
npm run build && git add -A && git commit -m "deploy" && git push deploy main
  

Adding SSL link

After your site is live, add HTTPS:

  sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y
sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com
  

Certbot will auto-renew the certificate. Test it:

  sudo certbot renew --dry-run
  

Troubleshooting link

What to Do Next link

• Managing DNS Records: point your domain to the server
• SSL Certificates: HTTPS for your static site