This post explains how to fork, deploy, and customize the site. It also covers where to edit content, how to add images, and how to publish new posts.

Updates

  1. Apr 12, 2026

    • Updated versioning.
    • Updated the footer layout.
    • Added site-wide font switching.
    • To change the website font, open _data/site.yml and set appearance.font to one of these options: times, ubuntu, or roboto.
    • Added editable menu labels.
    • To rename the menu items, open _data/site.yml and edit the values under navigation, such as home, about, research, publications, blog, and cv.

  2. Apr 10, 2026

    • Update versioning has been added to the website.

1) Fork the repository

  1. Click Fork on GitHub to copy the template into your account.
  2. Open your forked repo.

Direct link to the repository:

https://github.com/Aaronkhodami/Academic-web-with-blog

2) Configure GitHub Pages

  1. Go to Settings -> Pages.
  2. Source: Deploy from a branch.
  3. Branch: main (or master), folder / (root).
  4. Save and wait 1-3 minutes for the site to build.

Set the URL and base URL

Open these files and edit the values:

  • _config.yml
  • _data/site.yml

If your site is a project site (username.github.io/repo), use:

url: https://YOUR_USERNAME.github.io
baseurl: /YOUR_REPO

If your site is a user/org site (username.github.io), use:

url: https://YOUR_USERNAME.github.io
baseurl: ""

Commit and push. GitHub Pages will rebuild automatically.

3) Update site identity

Edit _data/site.yml to replace the placeholder info:

  • title and description
  • author.name, author.title, author.bio
  • social links
  • cv file path

Profile photo

  1. Add your photo to assets/images/.
  2. In _data/site.yml, set:
author:
	photo: your-photo.jpg

This image appears on the homepage and About page.

4) Update pages

Edit these Markdown files:

  • Home: index.md
  • About: about.md
  • Research: research.md
  • Publications: publications.md

5) Add and edit blog posts

Posts live in _posts/ and must follow the naming format:

YYYY-MM-DD-title.md

Each post has front matter at the top:

---
layout: post
title: "Your Post Title"
date: 2026-02-10 10:00:00 +0100
categories: updates
tags: [News, Lab]
excerpt: "Short summary shown in the blog list."
---

6) How the blog list works

The blog list page lives at blog.md. It loops through site.posts and renders each post card. When you add a new file in _posts/, it will automatically appear in the blog list.

If you want to change the blog layout or card design, edit blog.md.

7) How tags work

Tags come from each post’s front matter:

tags: [News, Lab, Publication]

On the blog page, clicking a tag appends ?tag=YourTag to the URL. The blog page reads that parameter and shows only posts that include the tag.

If you want a post to appear under multiple topics, add more tags to its list.

8) SEO (search and social sharing)

The template uses jekyll-seo-tag and jekyll-feed (enabled in _config.yml). SEO data comes from the site and page front matter.

To improve SEO and sharing previews:

  • Set title and description in _config.yml and _data/site.yml.
  • Ensure each page has a clear title.
  • For posts or pages, add a custom image in the front matter if needed:
image: /assets/images/your-share-image.jpg

The default layout will use this image for social previews when available. If no image is provided, it falls back to the profile photo from _data/site.yml.

9) Update publications

Edit _data/publications.yml to add or update entries. Each item supports:

  • title, type, authors, journal, abstract
  • doi (optional)
  • pdf (local file or external link)

10) Update research interests

Edit _data/interests.yml to change the cards on the homepage.

11) Add images

Place images in assets/images/ and reference them like this:

![Alt text](/assets/images/your-image.jpg)

For your profile image, place the file in assets/images/ and set author.photo in _data/site.yml.

12) Update technical skills (tools)

The Technical Skills section is driven by _data/about.yml:

tools:
	- Python
	- R
	- MATLAB

Add tool icons (custom)

You can use any image file (PNG, JPG, or SVG).

  1. Upload icon files to assets/images/.
  2. Edit _data/icons.yml to map tool names to icon files. Example:
python: python.png
matlab: matlab.svg
r: r.png
  1. Make sure the tool name in _data/about.yml matches the key (case-insensitive).

The template lowercases the tool name to find the icon key. If no icon is found, it tries toolname.png automatically.

13) Add education entries and logos

Education entries live in _data/about.yml:

education:
	- degree: Ph.D. in [Field]
		university: "[University Name]"
		logo: "university_logo.png"
		url: "https://university.edu"
		year: "[Year]"
		details: |
			Dissertation: "[Your dissertation title here]"<br>
			Advisors: [Advisor names]
  1. Upload the logo file to assets/images/.
  2. Set logo to the file name (for example, university_logo.png).

The logo will appear next to the university name on the About page.

14) Add experience entries and logos

Experience entries are also in _data/about.yml:

experience:
	- position: "Current Position"