layout: page title: Getting Started subtitle: Build your Beautiful Jekyll site —

Build your website in 3 steps

There are a few different ways to build a website using Beautiful Jekyll, and this document will go through the simplest one: using a fork on GitHub. For most people (including myself!), this easy method is the recommended one.

Even if you choose to use one of the advanced installation methods, I still suggest you read through the easy method first.

The easy way (recommended!)

Getting started is literally as easy as 1-2-3 :smile:

Scroll down to see the steps involved, but here is a 30-second video just as a reference as you work through the steps. If you don’t already have a GitHub account, you’ll need to sign up.

Installation steps

1. Fork this project

Click on the Fork button at the top right corner of this page. Forking means that you’re copying this entire project and all its files into your account. Do not click on the Create fork button on the next page yet.

2. Rename the repository to `YOURUSERNAME.github.io`

You’ll see the word “repository” used a lot in GitHub - it simply means “project”. Under Repository name you should see the name beautiful-jekyll, this is where you need to rename your project to YOURUSERNAME.github.io (replace YOURUSERNAME with your GitHub user name). It’s important to use this exact name so that GitHub will recognize it and automatically create a website for this project.

Tip: If you want to use a different URL for your website, check out the FAQ

3. Customize your website settings

Edit the _config.yml file to change any settings you want. To edit the file, first click on it to view the file, and on the next page click on the pencil icon to edit it (watch the video tutorial above if you’re confused). The settings in the file are self-explanatory and there are comments inside the file to help you understand what each setting does. Any line that begins with a hashtag (#) is a comment, and the other lines are actual settings. After changing the settings, click the green Commit changes button to save these edits.

Note: In the video above, only one setting in the _config.yml file is edited, but you should go through the rest of the settings as well.

4. Congratulations! You have a website!

If you named your project correctly and made an edit to the config file, your website should be ready in a minute or two at https://YOURUSERNAME.github.io. Every time you make a change to any file, your website will get rebuilt and should be updated in about a minute or so. Your website will be initialized with several sample blog posts and a couple other pages.

The harder way (for advanced users)

The instructions above explain how to use Beautiful Jekyll in the easiest way: by forking on GitHub. There are more advanced installation methods that include either using GitHub Pages with remote themes, or using Ruby gems. They provide you with more control, but are only intended for advanced users.

Note: Beautiful Jekyll was primarily designed to be used as a GitHub theme, so you will not get any support if you use this theme via Ruby gems.