Domain Setup

Domain Setup

Canonical domain: belindawanglab.com

The simplest setup is:

  1. Publish this site to a GitHub repository.
  2. Turn on GitHub Pages for that repository.
  3. Add belindawanglab.com as the custom domain in GitHub Pages settings.
  4. Add DNS records for belindawanglab.com and www.belindawanglab.com at the domain provider.
  5. Turn on Enforce HTTPS in GitHub Pages after GitHub finishes the DNS check.

Use the lab-owned GitHub account/organization BelindaWangLab, and create this repository:

BelindaWangLab.github.io

That would give the site a clean fallback URL:

https://belindawanglab.github.io

GitHub Pages will also work with belindawanglab.com; the DNS target for www should be the owner Pages domain, not the repository path.

GitHub Pages Settings

After the repository exists on GitHub:

  1. Go to the repository on GitHub.
  2. Open Settings.
  3. Open Pages.
  4. Under Build and deployment, choose GitHub Actions.
  5. Save.
  6. Under Custom domain, enter belindawanglab.com.
  7. Save and wait for DNS checks.
  8. Turn on Enforce HTTPS when GitHub makes the checkbox available.

This folder includes .github/workflows/pages.yml, so GitHub Actions will build and deploy the Jekyll site when changes are pushed to main. The CNAME file in this folder records the intended domain, but the repository Pages setting is still the authoritative place to set the custom domain.

DNS Records For GitHub Pages

At your DNS provider, create these records for the apex/root domain:

Type Name Value
A @ 185.199.108.153
A @ 185.199.109.153
A @ 185.199.110.153
A @ 185.199.111.153
AAAA @ 2606:50c0:8000::153
AAAA @ 2606:50c0:8001::153
AAAA @ 2606:50c0:8002::153
AAAA @ 2606:50c0:8003::153

Also create this record for www:

Type Name Value
CNAME www belindawanglab.github.io

This assumes the repository is BelindaWangLab/BelindaWangLab.github.io.

Do not create wildcard records such as *.belindawanglab.com.

Verify

After DNS has had time to update, run:

dig belindawanglab.com +noall +answer -t A
dig belindawanglab.com +noall +answer -t AAAA
dig www.belindawanglab.com +nostats +nocomments +nocmd

The apex records should point to the GitHub Pages IP addresses above, and www.belindawanglab.com should point to the GitHub Pages domain.