A static site is already an object. HTML, images, and one sitemap. A domain is a name you attach to that object. A name first and no object is a shop with only a sign. An object with a name that drifts sends a guest through another door.
This is not one vendor’s click path. It writes the points that drift again and again on the floor when a folder becomes an address.
The folder is the path
On static hosting the path rule is simple. /journal/ganghwa-workshop/ is a folder and an index.html. Leave a file as ganghwa-workshop.html and promise a slash address, and you get a 404.
- An address that will use a trailing slash is made as a folder
- One piece of writing is that folder’s index.html
- Image paths are set once, from the deploy root
If an image that opened on a relative path locally breaks on the domain, the base folder has almost always changed. The fix is the href, not the domain.
Two layers of a name
A domain is a DNS name and a certificate name. Match only one and the browser warns, or it goes to another host.
- Decide which is canonical, apex or www
- Check that a 301 attaches to the canonical
- Check that the certificate covers that canonical
With no canonical, the sitemap and the share cards point at two houses. On a small-batch site, two houses are a split, not management.
The sitemap is a stock ledger
An address on the sitemap is a promise. Same as writing an object you do not have on the ledger. We match the ledger before deploy.
- Leave only pages that exist
- Put in real pages that were missing
- Delete paths you decided not to build, such as a standalone about or contact
Leave a 404 on the sitemap and a search engine keeps visiting an empty shelf. If there is no plan to make the page, deleting the address is process.
Cache and the first visit
When the domain opens we wait once more, then look at a normal window and a private window together. Old HTML mixed with a new image is not a failed deploy. The cache is holding two versions.
On a small-batch deploy we close by putting a version on the filename, or by seeing one sentence of the HTML we just uploaded on the live address. The feeling of “it’s up” is not inspection.
The closing list
When domain work ends we leave five lines.
- Canonical host
- Commit or file count of the folder we deployed
- Sitemap URL
- The 200 list we checked, the 404 list we checked
- Files the next deploy will not touch — often the home index
With those five, the next small batch does not fight the name again from the start. A static site getting a domain is making the folder, the ledger, and the sign point at the same object.