Publishing on Vercel

Vercel is a platform that lets you quickly publish a website straight from Git. For a small studio or an early-stage company, it is a very good route for a landing site, especially if you do not need WordPress, complex databases or classic cPanel administration.

The process, in short

you create or already have a repository with the site;
you go to Vercel;
you connect your GitHub / Git provider account;
you authorize access to the repository;
you pick the project;
you configure the build settings, if needed;
you publish the site;
you connect the domain;
you confirm the site is live.

Vercel can look technical at first, but once it is set up the flow becomes very simple. Site changes can be made in code / Cursor / Git, and Vercel handles publishing automatically.

The steps, with images

Starting a new project in Vercel — Step 1, go to Vercel and start a new project.

Connecting the Git account in Vercel — Step 2, connect your GitHub / Git provider account.

Authorizing Vercel access to GitHub — Step 3, authorize Vercel's access to your Git account.

Choosing repositories Vercel can access — Step 4, choose which repositories Vercel can access.

Selecting the site repository to import — Step 5, select the site repository to import.

Vercel detecting the imported project — Step 6, Vercel detects the project and prepares the import.

Build settings in Vercel — Step 7, check the build settings, if needed.

Starting the deploy in Vercel — Step 8, start the deploy.

Deploy in progress — Step 9, the deploy runs and the site is published.

Temporary link provided by Vercel after deploy — Step 10, you get the temporary link from Vercel.

Project domain settings in Vercel — Step 11, open the project's domain settings.

Adding your own domain in Vercel — Step 12, add your own domain.

DNS / nameserver instructions shown by Vercel — Step 13, Vercel shows which nameservers / DNS records to set at your registrar.

Domain connected and site live on Vercel — Step 14, after DNS propagates, the domain is connected and the site is live.

Domain + Vercel

Once the site is published on Vercel, you get a temporary link from Vercel. For the site to be official, you need to connect your own domain. That means changing the domain's DNS settings and pointing it to Vercel (usually by moving nameservers or adding the required records).

This is where most confusion happens for someone without technical experience. The domain can be bought in one place, the hosting in another, the email in another, and the actual site can be on Vercel. All of these can work together, but they must be configured correctly through DNS. DNS propagation can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours.

Next step

Once the site is live on your domain, set up the business email and prepare the platform verifications and legal pages.