Why I Chose Hugo for My 2-Core VPS: A Tale of Performance, SEO, and Occasional Despair
Let's linked LinkedIn

Introduction

Once upon a server, in the vast digital expanse, there was a tiny but mighty 2-core VPS equipped with 4 GB of RAM, tasked with the noble quest of serving web pages at lightning-fast speeds. This is the tale of how I, the valiant webmaster, embarked on a journey with Hugo—the static site generator, not the guy from the next cube over—and conquered the wild realms of performance and SEO, all while navigating through a maze of challenges that tested my resolve (and sanity).

Why Hugo? Because Speed and SEO Wait for No One

In the world of web development, speed is king, and SEO is the king’s hand. On my trusty 2-core VPS, every millisecond counts, and Hugo promised to be the knight in shining armor. Hugo, with its lightning-fast build times, serves content faster than I can say “PageSpeed Insights.” Here’s why I fell head over heels for Hugo:

• Blazing Fast Builds: Hugo takes your content and turns it into a static website faster than I can brew my morning coffee. On a VPS that sometimes seems to run on hamster wheels, this is a game-changer.
• SEO Ready: Hugo’s clean structure and speed are like catnip for search engines. With Hugo, I could almost hear Googlebot purring.

The Quest Full of Trials

Despite the promises of endless glory, the path was fraught with perils. Here are the challenges I encountered and the battles I fought:

Setting Up Hugo on the VPS

Setting up Hugo on my VPS was supposed to be a walk in the park. But, as fate would have it, it was more like a walk in a park filled with syntax errors and permission denials. From wrestling with Nginx configurations to deciphering cryptic error messages about missing modules, the setup process tested my patience and my command line skills.

How I Overcame It:

• Persistence and Google-Fu: Armed with an unwavering resolve and multiple browser tabs, I dove into forums, Stack Overflow, and the official Hugo documentation.
• Permission Settings: After several Permission denied messages, I learned the sacred art of chmod and chown, allowing my humble user to place files where they belonged.

Configuring Nginx

Ah, Nginx—my old frenemy! Configuring Nginx to serve my Hugo site was like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. I needed to set up SSL, redirect HTTP to HTTPS without looping endlessly, and ensure that my index.html was recognized over the default Nginx page.

How I Overcame It:

• Certbot to the Rescue: For SSL, I summoned Certbot, which handled much of the heavy lifting.
• Trial and Error: After several misconfigurations that led to more 502 errors than I care to admit, I finally nailed the correct server block settings.

The Saga of Missing Posts

After deploying the site, I faced a baffling challenge: my posts were nowhere to be found. It was as if they had vanished into the digital ether.

How I Overcame It:

• Front Matter Check: Ensured all posts had draft: false in their front matter. Draft posts do not get published.
• Rebuilding with Drafts: I used hugo -D to include drafts in the build process, just to be sure nothing was missing.
• Correct Deployment: Verified that the public directory contained all generated posts and deployed again using rsync.
• Permission Tweaks: Ensured correct ownership and permissions on the server with sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html and sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html.

Nginx Configuration Woes

The Nginx configuration errors were a final hurdle, with conflicting server names causing warnings.

How I Overcame It:

• Simplifying Server Blocks: Cleaned up the Nginx configuration to avoid conflicts, ensuring a single server block for rinji.id and www.rinji.id.
• Testing and Reloading: Used sudo nginx -t to test configurations and sudo systemctl reload nginx to apply changes.

Lessons Learned and Wisdom Gained

Through trials and errors, the journey with Hugo taught me more than just about static site generation. It was a masterclass in patience, resilience, and the importance of having a good sense of humor when your server decides to become a diva.

Conclusion

Choosing Hugo for my small yet sturdy VPS has been a saga of both despair and triumph. In the end, the performance and SEO benefits—coupled with my newly acquired troubleshooting skills—made it all worthwhile. Now, my website zips along on its digital racetrack, and my SEO stats are looking up.

Remember, every 502 Bad Gateway error is just a step towards enlightenment. Or so I tell myself as I reboot the server for the umpteenth time.

Happy Hugo-ing!