How we set up our GitHub Pages site
From empty repo to live site — what we did and what we learned.
Why GitHub Pages?
GitHub Pages is a natural fit for a portfolio site: it's free, tied directly to your source code, and deploying is as simple as pushing a commit. For a front-end-only site there's no better option to start with.
Step 1 — Create the repository
The key is naming the repository <username>.github.io. GitHub
automatically serves the main branch of that repo at
https://<username>.github.io.
We created IremiTwins/iremitwins.github.io and ticked "Initialize with a README" to get started immediately.
Step 2 — Add a CNAME file for the custom domain
To use iremitwins.com instead of the default
iremitwins.github.io URL, we added a file called CNAME
to the root of the repository containing just one line:
iremitwins.com
Then we updated our DNS registrar to point the domain at GitHub's servers using
the recommended A records (or a CNAME record for
www).
Step 3 — Build the site with vanilla HTML/CSS/JS
We deliberately kept things dependency-free. No build step means:
- Zero configuration overhead
- Instant deploys on every push
- Fast page loads — no framework JavaScript to ship
- Easy to understand and maintain
Step 4 — Enable HTTPS
Once DNS propagated, we ticked "Enforce HTTPS" in the repository's Pages settings. GitHub provisions a Let's Encrypt certificate automatically — nothing else to do.
That's it!
The whole setup took less than an hour. If you want to do the same, the GitHub Pages documentation is comprehensive and easy to follow.