How to deploy a website to Netlify

Why deploying to Netlify is a great first step

Building a website on your own computer is one thing. Making it available on the internet is a completely different feeling.

Netlify makes this step much easier than traditional hosting. You do not need to set up servers, upload files manually, or deal with complex configuration. Once everything is connected, Netlify takes care of deployments for you.

In this guide, we will take a very simple project and deploy it to Netlify so anyone can access it online.

What you need before deploying

Before starting, make sure you have:

• A Netlify account
• A GitHub account
• A GitHub repository with a simple website (for example, an HTML file)

The site does not need to be fancy. The goal here is to understand the deployment process, not to build a perfect website.

Importing your project into Netlify

Once you are logged in to the Netlify dashboard, look for the option to create a new site.

Choose Import from Git, then select GitHub as your provider.

Netlify will ask for permission to access your GitHub repositories. This is required so Netlify can read your code and deploy it automatically.

When prompted, allow access. To keep things simple, you can allow access to all repositories, especially if this is a personal account.

Selecting a GitHub repository

After authorization, Netlify shows a list of your GitHub repositories.

Pick the repository that contains your website. If you only have one, this part is very easy.

Once selected, Netlify moves you to the deployment settings screen.

Deploying the site

For a simple HTML project, you usually do not need to change any settings.

Just click Deploy site.

Netlify immediately starts building and deploying your project. You will see a progress screen that shows what Netlify is doing behind the scenes.

After a few seconds, the deploy finishes successfully.

Your site is live on the internet

Once the deployment is complete, Netlify gives your site a live URL that ends with .netlify.app.

For example:

https://your-site-name.netlify.app

If you open this link in your browser, you should see your website live on the internet.

At this point, your site is publicly accessible and anyone with the link can visit it.

Automatic deployments from GitHub

This is where Netlify really shines.

Now that your GitHub repository is connected, you do not need to redeploy manually anymore.

Every time you:

• Change a file
• Commit the change
• Push it to GitHub

Netlify automatically detects the update and deploys a new version of your site.

Trying an update

To see this in action:

1. Open your project in your code editor
2. Change some text in your HTML file
3. Commit the change
4. Push it to GitHub

Within a few seconds, Netlify starts a new deploy. When it finishes, refresh your site and you will see the updated content live.

No extra steps required.

About custom domains

Netlify gives you a free .netlify.app domain by default. This is perfect for learning, demos, and personal projects.

If you are working on a serious project, you can later connect a custom domain like mygreatsite.com. Netlify supports this and makes the setup fairly straightforward.

You do not need to do this right away.

Conclusion

Deploying a site to Netlify is much easier than traditional hosting, especially for beginners.

To recap:

• Connect your GitHub repository to Netlify
• Click deploy
• Get a live URL in seconds
• Enjoy automatic deployments on every push

Once this setup is done, publishing updates becomes effortless. You focus on writing code, and Netlify handles the rest. This workflow alone is a big productivity boost and one of the main reasons developers love Netlify.