How to Create and Host a Landing Page for Free + Bonus Design Templates

Launching a SaaS or creating your personal landing page? Dreamt of having your own sleek page without spending money and hours coding? 🚀Here is how you can Build and Deploy a Landing Page Over a Weekend for $0 with Free Hosting🛠️

Step 1 - 🎨 Template Selection

Start by picking a free NextJS or Gatsby template from startuplanding.redq.io. RedQ has a pretty neat collection of completely free and open-source templates. Go ahead and clone the template to your local from GitHub.

Step 2 - 🖌️ Designing Assets

The template has decent design assets, however, if you are feeling creative then you can design your assets for free by going to https://new.express.adobe.com. You can then go ahead and export these assets and import them into your project according to your requirements.

Step 3 - 🔄 Make It Yours

Time to dive in a tad. Dive into the content of the website, remove the sample text, add your own text, refactor a bit, and voila! Inject your brand essence into the template, and use ChatGPT for the content. It’s all about making it resonate with your vibe and your brand identity.

Step 4 - 📊 Google Analytics Integration

Who visited? What clicked? Get all the intel with the integrated Google Analytics. Navigate to Google Analytics and register for a free account to get your tag ID/Key. Now, pop your key in the config file of the project and you're good to go.

Step 5 - 🚀 Deployment on Netlify for Free

Deploying your static landing page is a breeze with Netlify, especially when you leverage the power of GitHub for a smooth CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) process. Here’s a step-by-step guide to get your landing page live, for free, using Netlify and GitHub

A. Set Up Your GitHub Repository

Create a New Repository: Navigate to GitHub and create a new repository to store your landing page files. Ensure the repository is public to utilize Netlify’s free hosting.
Push Your Project: Upload your landing page files to the repository, ensuring your main HTML file is named index.html for proper rendering.

B. Integrate GitHub with Netlify

Create a Netlify Account: If you haven’t already, sign up for a free account on Netlify.
Link GitHub to Netlify: Navigate to the "Sites" tab in your Netlify dashboard and click on the "New site from Git" button. Select GitHub as your Git provider and authenticate Netlify to access your GitHub account.

C. Deploy Your Landing Page

Select Your Repository: Choose the repository containing your landing page from the list and configure the build settings if necessary (for most static sites, the default settings will suffice).
Configure Domain: Choose a Netlify subdomain or connect your custom domain under the "Domain settings" section. It is important to have a custom domain to make the website authentic. You can get domains for less than 10 bucks at Hostinger.
Deploy: Click on the "Deploy site" button and Netlify will begin the deployment process, fetching the latest code from your GitHub repository and publishing it to the web.
SSL Certificate: Netlify automatically provisions an SSL certificate for secure HTTPS access to your landing page.

D. Continuous Deployment

Automated Updates: With GitHub linked, Netlify automatically redeploys your site whenever you push changes to your repository, ensuring your landing page is always up-to-date.
Rollbacks: If an update introduces issues, Netlify allows you to easily roll back to a previous stable version of your landing page.

E. Test and Optimize

Verify Deployment: Ensure your landing page is live and accessible by visiting the domain you configured.
Optimize Performance: Utilize Netlify’s performance analytics or other SEO tools to analyze and optimize your landing page for speed and user experience.

Step 6 - 🌐 Custom Domain

Your landing page needs its own spot on the web. Think of a custom domain like your online street address - easy, memorable, and all yours! For less than the price of a lunch out, you can snag a domain from places like Hostinger. It’s not just a name; it’s your brand’s first hello, making your page easy to find. It is important to have a custom domain in order for it to be easily accessible, rank better on Google, and build trust with your website visitors.