I built and deployed this portfolio website to showcase my projects and experience as a data analyst and cloud enthusiast. The site is powered by Hugo (a fast static site generator) and hosted entirely on AWS. It features a professional contact form, clean layout, dark/light theme support, and fully automated deployment.

🚀 What I Did

🏗️ Site Setup with Hugo

  • Used the PaperMod theme for a clean and responsive design
  • Created pages for blog posts, project case studies, and an about page
  • Customized the config file for metadata, theme options, and menu items

🌐 AWS Hosting

  • S3 Buckets:
    • www.brianmwaura.com (main bucket with website files)
    • brianmwaura.com (redirect bucket)
    • brians-portfolio-site (legacy/test bucket)
  • Route 53:
    • Managed domain registration and DNS records
  • CloudFront:
    • Delivered content globally with HTTPS (SSL via ACM)
    • Handled root redirects and caching

🔁 GitHub Actions for CI/CD

  • Set up GitHub repo: Bnjenga1/hugo-portfolio
  • Created a workflow to:
    • Build site with Hugo
    • Upload public/ directory to S3
    • Invalidate CloudFront cache

📬 Contact Page + Email

  • Built a custom contact form using Formspree with JavaScript for UX improvements
  • Set up a professional email alias info@brianmwaura.com via Google Workspace
  • Ensured form styling adapts to both light and dark themes

📊 SEO, Analytics & Monitoring

  • Connected the site to Google Analytics 4
  • Submitted sitemap.xml to Google Search Console
  • Added Open Graph and meta tags for better sharing and visibility

🧰 Tools & Services Used

  • Static Generator: Hugo
  • Hosting: AWS S3 + CloudFront
  • CI/CD: GitHub Actions
  • Domain Management: Route 53
  • Email: Google Workspace + Formspree
  • Analytics: GA4 + Search Console

💡 Key Takeaways

  • Learned to configure static hosting and CDN on AWS
  • Set up secure and scalable infrastructure for a real-world personal project
  • Practiced debugging Hugo layouts and customizing themes
  • Automated deployments and version control with GitHub
  • Improved UX with clean forms, responsive design, and reliable email contact

🔗 Live Demo

👉 www.brianmwaura.com

If you’d like to build something similar, feel free to fork the repo or reach out via my contact page.