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Bruno Drugowick
Bruno Drugowick

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GitHub Pages and Google Domains together

Oh, that annoyed me more than it should. Yes, it's quite easy to make your custom domain point to your GitHub Pages project, but from the confusing GitHub documentation (too much freaking information) to the annoying first-page Google results, took me a while for everything to work properly.

Now I have my GitHub Pages project working fine over HTTPS with my custom domain on https://drugowick.dev or https://www.drugowick.dev.

So... assuming:

  • you already have a custom domain (mine is drugowick.dev)
  • you already have a GitHub Pages project (if you don't...

... here are the 3 simple steps to use your GitHub Pages project with your domain:

  1. On your GitHub Pages repository settings (https://github.com/<your-username>/<your-username>.github.io/settings) in the Custom domain field, put your custom domain including the www in the beginning, like so:
    GitHub Settings Custom Domain

  2. Check the box Enforce HTTPS (you may have to wait a little for this option to be available).

  3. Add the following Custom resource records to your Google Domains DNS configuration:
    Google Domains DNS Config

  • A set of A records pointing to GitHub's IPs. Here you can find the updated IP addresses that should be used.
  • A CNAME record pointing to <your-username>.github.io and with www on the Name field.

Wait a little bit again for everything to work. It will work!

Well... it works for me! =)

Thanks to:


Image from ann_designs por Pixabay

Top comments (7)

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maisak profile image
Anthony

Hi Bruno, thanks for the instructions, but how do you overcame NET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID error? This is because SSL cert is issued to github. I see that at your site the ssl is yours. Thanks in advance.

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brunodrugowick profile image
Bruno Drugowick

Hi, Anthony. Glad that I was helpful so far.

I actually didn't have to overcome any issue. Have you correctly named you repository in GitHub? For free accounts you can only have one GitHub Pages repository.

Also, after configuring the HTTPS option on GitHub and defining the CNAME on Google Domains, it takes a while to work.

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maisak profile image
Anthony

Woke up in the morning and it just works. Now, when I look at a cert it says issued to my own domain and issued by Let's Encrypt. Before it was a github cert. How is that working? I did nothing to get a letsencrypt cert. Is that a github's feature?

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brunodrugowick profile image
Bruno Drugowick

Glad that it worked!

AFAIK, yeah, it's a Github Pages feature.

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preshi profile image
Prasanth Perumalla • Edited

Hi I am receiving Issues in enabling HTTPS to my .dev website through github pages as you discussed. Any similar issues that you faced?

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brunodrugowick profile image
Bruno Drugowick

Hello!

There was no issues with this particular set of instructions, I only had to wait a few minutes before everything work as expected.

Is there any particular issue that you want to share or the thing just doesn't work at all?

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castiyeaux profile image
Andrea Castillo

Yes, thank you! This was my exact issue, along with Anthony's (NET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID). After about 20 minutes, the site loads with and without 'www'!
Thank you! 🙌🏽