Getting Started With Hugo

Braincite

- 2 minutes read - 338 words

Hugo is a fast and flexible static site generator that’s perfect for blogs, documentation sites, and portfolios. If you’re new to Hugo, this guide will help you understand the basics and get you up and running quickly.

What is Hugo?

Hugo is a static site generator written in Go that transforms your content (written in Markdown) into a complete HTML website. It’s incredibly fast, secure, and easy to deploy.

Key Benefits

  • Speed: Hugo builds sites in milliseconds, not seconds
  • Security: No database means no security vulnerabilities
  • Flexibility: Supports multiple content types and custom layouts
  • Deployment: Easy to deploy to CDNs and hosting platforms

Basic Concepts

Content Organization

Hugo organizes content into sections. Each folder in your content/ directory becomes a section:

  • content/posts/ → Posts section
  • content/projects/ → Projects section
  • content/about/ → About section

Front Matter

Every content file starts with front matter that contains metadata:

1
2
3
4
5
6

---
title: "My Post Title"
date: 2025-01-27T10:00:00-07:00
draft: false
tags: ["hugo", "tutorial"]
---

Templates and Themes

Hugo uses templates to define how your content is displayed. You can:

  • Use existing themes (like Ananke)
  • Customize theme templates
  • Create your own layouts

Essential Commands

Here are the most important Hugo commands you’ll use:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11

# Create a new site
hugo new site my-site

# Create new content
hugo new posts/my-post.md

# Start development server
hugo server

# Build for production
hugo

Tips for Success

  1. Start Simple: Begin with a basic theme and gradually customize
  2. Use Archetypes: Create templates for consistent front matter
  3. Organize Content: Use sections and taxonomies to structure your site
  4. Version Control: Keep your site in Git for easy deployment
  5. Deploy Continuously: Set up automatic deployments with Netlify or Vercel

Next Steps

Now that you understand the basics:

  1. Explore your theme’s documentation
  2. Create more content in different sections
  3. Customize your site’s appearance
  4. Set up analytics and SEO
  5. Add interactive features with shortcodes

Resources

Happy building with Hugo! 🚀