Building Fast Static Sites with Hugo

Hugo is a powerful static site generator that can build websites in milliseconds. It’s perfect for blogs, documentation sites, portfolios, and more.

Why Choose Hugo?

• Speed: Hugo is incredibly fast, building most sites in under a second
• Flexibility: Supports multiple content formats and custom layouts
• No Dependencies: Single binary with no external dependencies
• Active Community: Large ecosystem of themes and plugins

Getting Started

Installation is straightforward:

# macOS
brew install hugo

# Windows
choco install hugo

# Linux
sudo apt install hugo

Project Structure

A typical Hugo project looks like this:

my-site/
├── archetypes/
├── content/
├── data/
├── layouts/
├── static/
├── themes/
└── hugo.toml

Creating Content

Hugo uses Markdown for content:

---
title: "My First Post"
date: 2024-01-01
tags: ["hugo", "blog"]
---

# Welcome to my blog

This is my first post using Hugo!

Templates and Layouts

Hugo uses Go templates for layouts:

{{ define "main" }}
<article>
    <h1>{{ .Title }}</h1>
    <time>{{ .Date.Format "2006-01-02" }}</time>
    <div>{{ .Content }}</div>
</article>
{{ end }}

Deployment

Deploy to various platforms:

• Netlify: Connect your Git repository
• Vercel: Zero-config deployments
• GitHub Pages: Free hosting for public repos
• AWS S3: Scalable cloud hosting

Conclusion

Hugo makes it easy to create fast, maintainable static websites. Its speed and flexibility make it an excellent choice for modern web development.