How to Create a Technical Blog Using Jekyll and GitHub Pages

Many technical writers are comfortable writing documentation but hesitate when it comes to creating and hosting a personal blog. Not because they lack the skills—but because the tooling feels unfamiliar and unnecessarily complex.

This post is written from the perspective of a technical writer who has gone through that hesitation and learned that blogging does not need a heavy platform, a CMS, or ongoing maintenance.

Using Jekyll and GitHub Pages, you can build a clean, fast, and maintainable blog using the same principles you already apply to documentation: structure, version control, and clarity.

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Why Jekyll and GitHub Pages?

Before jumping into steps, it’s important to understand why this combination works so well for technical writers.

• Jekyll converts plain text (Markdown) into a static website
• GitHub Pages hosts that website for free
• No servers, databases, or dashboards to manage
• Your content lives in version control

If you are comfortable with Git and Markdown, you already know most of what you need.

Screenshot placeholder: Example of a simple Jekyll blog homepage

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Step 1: Install Prerequisites

You need three things on your local machine:

• Ruby
• Bundler
• Jekyll

On macOS or Linux, Ruby is often preinstalled. On Windows, installing Ruby using RubyInstaller is recommended.

gem install bundler jekyll

Once installed, verify:

jekyll -v

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Step 2: Create a New Jekyll Site

Create a new site using Jekyll’s default structure:

jekyll new my-blog
cd my-blog
bundle install

Start the local development server:

bundle exec jekyll serve

Open your browser and visit:

http://localhost:4000

Screenshot placeholder: Jekyll default site running locally

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Step 3: Understand the Jekyll Structure

At first glance, the folder structure may feel unfamiliar. The important parts are:

• _posts/ — where blog posts live
• _config.yml — site configuration
• _layouts/ — page layouts
• index.md — homepage content

A typical blog post file looks like this:

_posts/2026-01-01-my-first-post.md

And begins with front matter:

---
title: "My First Post"
date: 2026-01-01
layout: post
---

Everything after that is just Markdown.

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Step 4: Push the Blog to GitHub

Create a new GitHub repository named:

yourusername.github.io

This naming convention is important—it tells GitHub Pages to serve the site automatically.

Initialize Git and push:

git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial Jekyll blog"
git branch -M main
git remote add origin https://github.com/yourusername/yourusername.github.io.git
git push -u origin main

Screenshot placeholder: GitHub repository with Jekyll files

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Step 5: Enable GitHub Pages

In the GitHub repository:

1. Go to Settings → Pages
2. Select Branch: main
3. Select Folder: / (root)
4. Save

Within a minute or two, your blog will be live at:

https://yourusername.github.io

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Step 6 (Optional): Connect a Custom Domain

If you own a domain, you can point it to GitHub Pages.

At your domain registrar:

• Add four A records pointing to GitHub Pages IPs
• Add a CNAME record for www

185.199.108.153
185.199.109.153
185.199.110.153
185.199.111.153

In your repository root, add a file named CNAME:

yourdomain.com

Screenshot placeholder: DNS configuration at domain registrar

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What This Setup Gives You

• A fast, static site
• Full control over content and structure
• No vendor lock-in
• A writing workflow aligned with documentation practices

Most importantly, it removes friction. Writing becomes the primary task again.

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Final Thoughts

Technical writers already understand structure, clarity, and audience. Blogging with Jekyll simply applies those skills to a different medium.

You don’t need a complex platform to publish thoughtful work. You need a system that stays out of the way.

Jekyll and GitHub Pages do exactly that.

DraftRefine — Clear thinking. Refined writing.