Custom Domain & SEO

Your site is live. It works. But the URL is your-username.github.io/my-bakery-website. That's fine for showing friends, but if this is a real business, you want goldencrust.com or yourbusiness.com. A custom domain makes you look legit.

The domain costs about $12/year. That's the only cost in this entire setup. Everything else — hosting, SSL certificate, deployment — stays free.

We're also going to set up basic SEO so Google can find you. No black magic, just the fundamentals that actually matter.

Why Get a Custom Domain

Three reasons:

1. Professionalism. goldencrust.com vs jsmith42.github.io/my-bakery-website — which one do you trust more?
2. Branding. People remember short, clean URLs. You can put it on business cards, signs, menus.
3. It's yours. If you ever move away from GitHub Pages (unlikely, but still), your domain goes with you. The URL never changes for your customers.

Where to Buy a Domain

I've used a few registrars. Here's my honest take:

• Cloudflare Registrar (cloudflare.com) — my top pick. They charge wholesale prices (no markup) and their DNS is fast. A .com is usually around $10–11/year.
• Namecheap (namecheap.com) — solid option, been around forever. Good prices, easy to use.
• Porkbun (porkbun.com) — cheap, clean interface, no upselling BS.

Avoid GoDaddy. Their prices look good the first year then spike, and they upsell you on everything.

Step 1: Go to your chosen registrar, search for your domain, and buy it. Pick a .com if it's available. If not, .ca, .co, or .shop work fine depending on your business. The registration process is straightforward — pick your domain, pay, done.

Connecting Your Domain to GitHub Pages

Now we link your new domain to your GitHub Pages site. There are two sides to this: telling GitHub about your domain, and telling your domain where to point.

Step 2: Tell GitHub About Your Domain

1. Go to your GitHub repository
2. Click Settings → Pages
3. Under "Custom domain", type your domain (e.g., goldencrust.com)
4. Click Save

GitHub will automatically create a file called CNAME in your repository with your domain name in it. You might see a warning that says "DNS check in progress" — that's normal. We haven't set up the DNS yet.

Step 3: Set Up DNS at Your Registrar

Now go to your domain registrar's website and find the DNS settings for your domain. This is usually under "DNS Management," "DNS Records," or "Advanced DNS."

You need to add these records:

A Records — these point your domain to GitHub's servers. Add four of them:

The @ means "the root domain" (e.g., goldencrust.com without any prefix).

CNAME Record — this makes the www version work too:

Replace YOUR-USERNAME with your actual GitHub username. Don't include the repository name here — just username.github.io.

Step 4: Wait for DNS Propagation

DNS changes don't happen instantly. The internet needs time to spread the word about where your domain now points. This can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 24 hours. Usually it's under an hour.

You can check if it's working by just visiting your domain in the browser. If you see your site — you're done. If you see a "can't reach this site" error, give it more time.

To check propagation status, you can use dnschecker.org — type in your domain and see if the records have updated globally.

Step 5: Enable HTTPS

Once DNS has propagated (you'll see a green checkmark next to your custom domain in GitHub Pages settings), do this:

1. Go back to Settings → Pages in your GitHub repository
2. Check the box that says "Enforce HTTPS"

If the checkbox is greyed out, DNS hasn't fully propagated yet. Wait a bit and try again.

HTTPS gives you the lock icon in the browser. It means your site is secure. GitHub provides the SSL certificate for free — you don't have to do anything except check that box.

Your site is now live at https://goldencrust.com. Professional URL, secure connection, free hosting. Not bad for $12/year.

SEO Basics: Getting Found on Google

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) sounds complex. Agencies charge thousands for it. But for a small business website, the basics take 10 minutes and Claude does the work.

Meta Tags

Tell Claude:

Add proper meta title and description tags to all pages. The bakery is called Golden Crust Bakery, located in Montreal. Use relevant keywords naturally.

Claude will add <title> tags and <meta name="description"> tags to each page. These are what show up in Google search results — the blue link text and the description underneath.

Open Graph Tags

You already set up the OG image in Module 6. Make sure all pages have the full set:

Add Open Graph tags for social media sharing to all pages, including og:title, og:description, og:image, and og:url

Robots.txt

Add a robots.txt file that allows all search engines to crawl the site

This file tells search engine bots they're welcome to index your site. Without it, they'll still probably crawl you, but it's good practice.

Sitemap

Create a sitemap.xml file that lists all pages on the site

A sitemap is like a table of contents for Google. It tells search engines exactly what pages exist and helps them index your site faster.

Structured Data (JSON-LD)

This is the one most people skip, but it's incredibly powerful for local businesses:

Add structured data using JSON-LD for a local business. Include the business name, address, phone number, opening hours, and type of business. The bakery is at 123 Rue Saint-Laurent, Montreal, QC, open Monday to Saturday 7am to 6pm, phone 514-555-0123

Structured data helps Google understand your business and can get you those nice rich results in search — with your hours, phone number, and address showing right in the search results.

Submit to Google Search Console

Last step: tell Google your site exists.

1. Go to search.google.com/search-console
2. Click Add Property
3. Choose URL prefix and enter your domain (e.g., https://goldencrust.com)
4. Verify ownership — Google gives you a few options. The easiest is downloading an HTML verification file and adding it to your repo, or adding a DNS TXT record
5. Once verified, go to Sitemaps in the left sidebar
6. Submit your sitemap URL: https://goldencrust.com/sitemap.xml

Google will start crawling and indexing your site within a few days. It won't be on page one of Google instantly — that takes time and depends on many factors. But you've laid all the right groundwork.

What You've Got Now

Let's take stock. You now have:

• A professional website built with AI
• Free hosting on GitHub Pages
• A custom domain with SSL (the lock icon)
• Proper SEO meta tags, structured data, and a sitemap
• Social sharing previews that look great

Total monthly cost: $0. Total annual cost: about $12 for the domain.

Compare that to the $180–$540/year people pay for Squarespace or Wix, or the $2,000+ they pay a developer. You did this yourself.

Next up: how to make changes and keep your site updated going forward. Because a website isn't something you build once and forget about — it should grow with your business.