How to Start Your Own Hugo Website

April 9, 2017

Introduction

As a programmer with experience in Java, C#, and JavaScript, you likely appreciate the power of efficient tools. Hugo is a static site generator that can help you build and deploy websites quickly and easily. In this guide, we’ll walk through the steps of setting up your own Hugo website.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, ensure you have the following:

Hugo Installed: Download and install Hugo for your operating system from the official website: https://gohugo.io/
A Text Editor: A code editor like VIM will be helpful for editing your site’s content and configuration files.

Step-by-Step Guide

Create a New Site Open your terminal and navigate to your desired project directory. Then, run the following command to create a new Hugo site:
```
hugo new site my-new-site
```
Replace my-new-site with your desired site name. This will create a new directory with the same name, containing the basic structure for your Hugo site.
Add a Theme Hugo themes provide pre-designed layouts and styles for your website. To add a theme:
- Find a Theme: Explore the vast collection of Hugo themes available on https://themes.gohugo.io/. Choose a theme that suits your style and needs.
- Download and Install: Download the chosen theme and extract it into the themes directory of your site.
Configure Your Site Edit the config.toml file in your site’s root directory to customize your site’s settings. You can configure various aspects like the site’s title, author, base URL, and more. Here’s a basic example:
```
baseURL = "https://example.com/"
languageCode = "en-us"
title = "My New Hugo Site"
theme = "your-theme-name"
```
Create Content Hugo uses Markdown files to create content. To add a new post, create a new Markdown file in the content/posts directory. For example, to create a post titled “My First Post,” create a file named my-first-post.md with the following content:
```
---
title: "My First Post"
date: 2023-11-26T13:13:13Z
draft: false
---

This is my first post.
```
Start the Development Server To view your site locally, start the development server:
```
hugo server
```
This will start a local server, and you can access your site at http://localhost:1313.
Build and Deploy Your Site To build your site for deployment, run:
```
hugo
```
This will generate static HTML files in the public directory. You can deploy these files to any static hosting provider like Netlify, Vercel, or GitHub Pages.

Conclusion

With Hugo, you can create stunning, fast, and SEO-friendly websites without the complexities of server-side programming. By following these steps and leveraging the power of Hugo, you can have your own website up and running in no time.