Getting Started with Hugo: Build Your Static Blog

从安装到部署GitHub Pages的完整指南

Hugo is a fast and flexible static site generator that makes building websites fun again. In this post, I’ll share my experience of setting up this blog with Hugo and deploying it to GitHub Pages.

Why Hugo?

When I decided to start a blog, I evaluated several options:

WordPress: Powerful but requires database and hosting
Jekyll: Good, but slow build times for large sites
Hugo: Blazing fast, single binary, no dependencies

Hugo won me over with its speed - it can build this entire site in under 100ms!

Installation

Installing Hugo is straightforward:

# On macOS with Homebrew
brew install hugo

# Verify installation
hugo version

Creating Your First Site

# Create a new site
hugo new site my-blog

# Add a theme (using cleanwhite theme)
cd my-blog
git submodule add https://github.com/zhaohuabing/hugo-theme-cleanwhite themes/hugo-theme-cleanwhite

Writing Your First Post

# Create a new post
hugo new posts/my-first-post.md

Edit the markdown file with your content. Remember to add a cover image:

Building and Deployment

Build your site:

hugo --minify

The generated files will be in the public/ directory, ready for deployment.

GitHub Pages Deployment

The easiest way to deploy is using GitHub Actions:

Push your Hugo site to GitHub
Enable GitHub Pages in repository settings
Add the GitHub Actions workflow file
Push changes - automatic deployment!

Tips and Tricks

Organization

Keep your images in static/img/
Use tags and categories for better content organization
Create _index.md files for section pages

Performance

Always use --minify flag for production builds
Optimize images before adding them
Enable caching headers on your server

Content

Use  to create summary/excerpt on homepage
Add meaningful tags for better discoverability
Write compelling descriptions for SEO

Conclusion

Hugo makes blogging simple and fast. This entire blog was built with Hugo, and I’m happy with the results. The combination of Hugo + GitHub Pages provides a free, fast, and reliable hosting solution.

Have questions? Feel free to reach out or leave a comment below!

Happy blogging! 🚀