project portfolio site

Step 6: Going Live

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Full Lesson Reference

Deploy your portfolio and optionally add a custom domain.

Build for Production

terminal
Build the site for production.
Make sure there are no errors.

Choose Your Host

Vercel, Netlify, or GitHub Pages all work well for portfolios.

terminal
Help me deploy this to [Vercel/Netlify].
Walk me through the steps.

Deploy

Follow Claude's guidance to:

  1. Connect your repository (or upload files)
  2. Configure build settings
  3. Deploy

You'll get a URL like yourname.vercel.app.

Test the Live Site

Visit your deployed URL and test:

  • All pages load
  • Images display
  • Navigation works
  • Mobile experience is good

Fix any issues that only appear in production.

Custom Domain (Optional)

If you have a domain:

terminal
Help me connect my custom domain [yourdomain.com]
to this deployment.

This typically involves:

  1. Adding the domain in your host's settings
  2. Updating DNS records at your registrar
  3. Waiting for propagation (can take up to 48 hours)

SSL Certificate

Most hosts automatically provide SSL (https).

Make sure HTTPS is working and HTTP redirects to HTTPS.

Checkpoint

  • Site built without errors
  • Deployed to hosting service
  • Public URL works
  • Custom domain connected (if applicable)
  • HTTPS enabled

What You Learned

  • Building for production
  • Deployment workflows
  • Custom domain setup
  • SSL and security basics

Congratulations

Your portfolio is live on the internet. Share it.

Maintaining Your Portfolio

  • Add new projects as you complete them
  • Update your bio as things change
  • Check periodically that everything still works

The code is yours — you can update it anytime.

Ideas for Extending

  • Add a blog section
  • Include testimonials
  • Add a dark mode toggle
  • Animate project card entrances
  • Add filtering by project type

Exercises

  1. Send the production build prompt and resolve any errors before deploying; then deploy to Vercel or Netlify and confirm your public URL loads.
  2. Run the live-site test checklist on your deployed URL (pages, images, navigation, mobile) and fix anything that only appears in production.
  3. If you own a domain, connect it and verify HTTPS works with HTTP redirecting to HTTPS; if not, pick one idea from "Ideas for Extending" and prompt Claude to add it.