How to Build a Portfolio for Technical Marketers using HTML, CSS, Jekyll, GitHub Pages, and Google Domains

25 March 2020

Initial Development Setup

Technologies used: GitHub, Git, Terminal, Text Editor, Jekyll, Ruby Gems

Google Domain Setup & DNS Server

Purchase your domain.
Setup DNS record for GitHub servers ```html Create an A record, point your apex domain to the IP addresses for GitHub Pages.

185.199.108.153 185.199.109.153 185.199.110.153 185.199.111.153

* Set a CNAME record on your domain provider

## Advanced Google Analytics Setup using Google Tag Manager to hit the ground running

* Create your Google Analytics account
* Create your Google Tag Manager account
* Install GTM container on your website
* Download Google Tag Assistant and enable on your browser
* Filter out localhost traffic on Google Analytics: 
```html
#How to exclude LocalHost traffic on Google Analytics: 
https://briefmetrics.com/articles/remove-localhost-from-referrers

Filter out your home and work IP Addresses / Wifi Networks ```html #How to exclude multiple IP Addresses using Regular Expressions, AKA RegEx

RegEx Tester Resource: https://regex101.com/

## SEO Setup

* Jekyll SEO Plug-In
* Update site-defaul social media images
* Update Title, Description, Feature Image for all pages, posts, projects, etc. Even your thank-you & 404 pages! 
* Create a Google Search Console account
* Link Google Search Console to Google Analytics using preferred verification method. GTM should be very easy if you have that setup already. 
* Generate a sitemap.xml file which lives at `domain.com/sitemap.xml`



## Helpful Git Commands

```html
#Check DNS Record for domain
$ dig EXAMPLE.COM +noall +answer

#Run website on local server
bundle exec jekyll serve --watch