When you embark on the journey of managing a digital marketing blog, especially one built with Jekyll on GitHub Pages, you're not just creating content; you're engaging with a version control system. The choice of interface—whether it's GitHub Desktop's intuitive visual approach or the powerful command-line interface (CLI) of Git—often feels like a short-term decision for a specific task. However, looking through a long-term lens, this choice can significantly impact your technical growth, your career trajectory, and your adaptability in the ever-evolving landscape of web development and content management. This article will move beyond the immediate convenience or raw power, instead focusing on what each tool offers for your future. We'll explore how your initial choice might shape your understanding of Git, your problem-solving skills, and your ability to tackle more complex challenges down the line. It's about making an investment in your skillset, not...
Why static navigation becomes a problem in growing Jekyll sites When your Jekyll project has only 5–10 pages, using hardcoded navigation links in HTML or Markdown might seem fine. But once you have dozens or hundreds of documents—especially in multiple collections—maintaining navigation manually becomes tedious and error-prone. Broken links, inconsistent order, missing pages, or duplicated sidebars are common symptoms of poor navigation design. A scalable Jekyll repo needs **dynamic navigation**—driven by **data**, **metadata**, and **template logic**. What are the main goals of scalable navigation? Separate content from navigation structure Generate menus from structured YAML or front matter Avoid hardcoding links or page titles Allow content teams to update structure without touching layout code Step 1: Create a data file for primary navigation Use the _data/ folder to define the navigation tree: _data/navigation.yml - title:...
In solo projects, flexibility is easy—there’s no risk of file conflicts or content overwrites. But in a Jekyll project with dozens of contributors, writers, reviewers, designers, and developers, everything changes. Without proper structure, confusion arises: Which post is in draft? Who's editing what? Are translations synced? Is this file published? A scalable repo must support editorial control , workflow visibility , and development stability —all within a static site environment. What are the challenges of large-team Jekyll collaboration? Teams working together on Jekyll typically face: File conflicts when editing the same content Unclear status of posts (draft, scheduled, reviewed) No tracking of who created or last modified a post Risk of pushing broken layouts or incorrect front matter Difficulty testing changes before publishing How should you organize the folder structure to support teams? Start by introducing distinct directories for con...
Can Someone With Zero Coding Skills Really Build a Blog on GitHub? That was the exact question I asked myself one afternoon while scrolling through minimalist tech blogs. I wanted something simple, clean, fast, and free. But most blogging platforms I found were either too bloated or full of distractions. Then I stumbled upon something called GitHub Pages + Jekyll . At first, I hesitated. Isn’t GitHub for programmers? But curiosity won. I decided to give it one weekend. If I could get something online, even just a placeholder blog, I’d consider it a win. Day 1: Creating My GitHub Account Signing up was surprisingly easy. I went to github.com , chose a username, email, password, and clicked sign up. It felt just like making a Twitter account. No code, no command lines. GitHub greeted me with a dashboard I didn’t understand. Repositories? Forks? Commits? It felt like I had walked into a room full of engineers speaking another language. I almost closed...
Why Should You Care About Your GitHub Repository Name? When you create a website using GitHub Pages and Jekyll, the name of your repository is more than just a label. It becomes part of your website’s URL, metadata, and even search engine footprint. A well-chosen repository name not only strengthens your brand identity but also enhances your chances of ranking well in search engines. Ignoring this simple decision can lead to poor discoverability and a confusing user experience. What Happens If You Name It Incorrectly? Many beginners make the mistake of using vague, generic, or overly technical repository names. For example, naming a personal blog repo as my-blog or test-site doesn't help users—or search engines—understand what the site is about. Worse, if you change the name later, it can break URLs, destroy inbound links, and harm your SEO. How Does Repository Naming Affect Your Website URL? For GitHub Pages, the repository name often determines the URL...
What Does “Building a Website” Mean in Jekyll? As a beginner, you may hear the phrase "Jekyll builds your site" and not fully understand what that actually involves. It sounds technical, almost magical. You write text, then somehow it turns into a full blog with layout, styling, and navigation. But what happens in the middle? To make it easy to understand, let’s use a simple analogy: cooking in a kitchen. Think of Jekyll as Your Personal Static Website Chef Imagine you’re in a kitchen and you want to bake a cake. You start with ingredients (flour, sugar, eggs), follow a recipe, and then use an oven to bake it into something finished. That’s exactly how Jekyll works—except instead of cake, the result is a blog or website. So What Are the “Ingredients” in Jekyll? Your ingredients are all the raw content and settings in your project folder: _posts/ → blog articles written in Markdown _layouts/ → HTML templates like the shape of your cake pan ...
Can Jekyll Handle a Multilingual Blog with Pagination? Absolutely. With the right folder structure, data files, and some Ruby logic, you can build a multilingual blog in Jekyll that supports: Language-specific blog archives Paginated index pages per language Localized post permalinks RSS feeds for each language Recommended Folder Structure /_posts/en/ 2025-01-01-welcome.md 2025-01-02-second-post.md /_posts/id/ 2025-01-01-selamat-datang.md 2025-01-02-pos-kedua.md /blog/index.en.html /blog/index.id.html Step 1: Define a Collection per Language (Optional) Although you can organize by folders, if you prefer collections: # _config.yml collections: posts_en: output: true permalink: /en/:categories/:title/ posts_id: output: true permalink: /id/:categories/:title/ But the simpler way is just to use folder naming and set language in front matter: --- layout: post title: "Welcome to the Blog" lang: en permalin...