Step 6 of 7 , Unit 11

Your Site is Live

This is the step you have been working toward. Open your URL and see your site on the internet. Then run through the checklist below to make sure everything is working exactly as it should.

Find your URL

Go back to your repository's Settings → Pages page. You should see a green banner that says "Your site is live at https://yourusername.github.io". Click that link, or type your URL directly into a new browser tab.

If you still see a yellow "in progress" banner, wait two more minutes and refresh the page. GitHub Pages can take up to 10 minutes on the first deploy.

yourusername.github.io

You should see your homepage load in the browser, the same site you built, now served from GitHub's servers. The design, images, and layout should look exactly the same as when you opened the file from your computer.

If you see a plain page that just says "404" or shows GitHub's own error page, that usually means your index.html is not at the root level of the repository. See the troubleshooting section below.

Run through the checklist

Click through your site the way a first-time visitor would. Go through each item below and confirm it is working:

Homepage loads with the correct design, dark background, correct fonts, your site title visible
Images and logos appear (if any are missing, a CSS or asset file path may be broken)
Navigation links work, click each one and confirm it goes to the right page
If you published the Federal Indian Policy Series: all 8 era unit links open the correct era site
Back navigation works, you can return from an era unit to the series homepage
The site looks correct on your phone, open the URL on your mobile browser and check layout, text size, and tap targets

Bookmark your URL

This URL is permanent as long as your GitHub account is active. Bookmark it in your browser, save it to your notes, and keep it somewhere you can find it easily. This is the link that goes on your resume, in internship applications, and anywhere you want people to see your work.

Share it

Send the URL to someone you trust, a teacher, a family member, a friend. Knowing that another person has seen your work on a real URL is a different feeling than seeing it on your own computer. You built this. It is on the internet. That is real.

Troubleshoot common issues

If something looks wrong, here are the most common problems and their fixes:

The page shows a 404 error

GitHub cannot find your index.html. Make sure you have a file literally named index.html (lowercase, no spaces) at the root of your repository, not inside any subfolder. Upload it to the root and wait 2-3 minutes.

Images or logos are missing

Your image files are probably uploaded but the file paths in your HTML do not match the folder structure in your repository. The path ../../assets/RF.logotype.png only works if your assets folder is two levels up from the HTML file, exactly as it is on your computer. Make sure your folder structure on GitHub matches your local structure exactly.

CSS styles are not loading, the site looks unstyled

Same issue as missing images. Check that your assets/css/main.css file was uploaded and that the relative path in your HTML's link tag points to it correctly. In your repository, navigate to the file to confirm it is there.

Navigation links give 404 errors

The relative paths in your nav links (like ../unit-11/index.html) are correct when all the files are in the same folder structure as on your computer. Make sure you uploaded the complete folder structure, not just the top-level index.html.

The site shows old content after an update

GitHub Pages can take a few minutes to reflect changes. Try a hard refresh in your browser: Ctrl + Shift + R on Windows/Linux, or Command + Shift + R on Mac. This clears the browser cache and loads the fresh version.

You are published

Your site is live on the internet. Anyone in the world with that URL can open your work. You did not just learn to code, you learned to publish.

Step 7 covers how to keep your site fresh as you add new work. That is the skill that makes GitHub valuable over the long term: not just getting published once, but being able to update your portfolio whenever you want.