How to Publish Your Jekyll Site

In this article, we’ll show you how to publish your Jekyll site. There are many different ways to do this. The process can even be automated (and we’ll show how to do that later).

Automating the publishing process is a popular option because otherwise you will be manually uploading files to your site every time something changes. But, a manual file upload is the simplest way to publish the site initially, so that’s how we’ll be proceeding here.

How to Publish Your Jekyll Site via FTP

FTP (file transfer protocol) will likely be the simplest way to upload your site. Follow along with the steps below to see how to do it. You will need FTP account or cPanel access.

1. Log into your server via FTP
2. Navigate to your site directory (_site) on your local computer
3. Upload the contents of the _site directory (remember this location can be customized) to the server side

Now you should be able to visit your domain to see your published site. You can may need to clear your browser cache.

How to Publish Your Jekyll Site via cPanel File Manager

The file manager within cPanel lets you view and edit the files on your cPanel account. You can also upload files. Check out our full guide on how to use the cPanel file manager.

1. Log into cPanel
2. Open the file manager
3. Open your public_html directory
4. Click the Upload button from the top toolbar
5. Open the _site folder for your Jekyll site on your computer
6. Drag files from your _site folder and drop them into the area labelled Drop files here to start uploading

The file upload process will begin as the files are dropped in.

Final Thoughts

As your files are being uploaded, you may have noticed this process is a little cumbersome. Everytime you make changes to your site or add a new post or page you will need to upload files again. In some cases you’ll be able to upload single files or folders. But, in most cases, it’ll be easier to upload everything.

In the next article, we’re going to see how you can automate this upload process. We’ll see how you can run a few basic commands from your terminal and automatically update your site. This way, you won’t need to log into so many different places.