Why Hugo?

After evaluating several options for building my professional portfolio site, I chose Hugo for several compelling reasons:

• Speed: Hugo is incredibly fast, building sites in milliseconds
• Flexibility: Complete control over design and structure
• Markdown: Write content in simple, portable markdown format
• No Database: Static files are secure and easy to deploy
• Go Templates: Powerful templating system for customization

Setting Up the Project

Setting up Hugo was straightforward. Here’s what I did:

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# Install Hugo
brew install hugo

# Create a new site
hugo new site my-portfolio

# Initialize git repository
cd my-portfolio
git init

Creating the Structure

I organized my content into three main sections:

1. About: Professional background and skills
2. Blog: Articles and insights from my journey
3. Projects: Portfolio of tools and applications I’ve built

Key Features Implemented

Custom Theme

Instead of using a pre-built theme, I created a custom theme that:

• Reflects my professional branding
• Uses my color palette (navy blue and cyan)
• Provides a clean, focused reading experience
• Works perfectly on mobile devices

Search Functionality

I integrated Fuse.js for client-side search, allowing visitors to quickly find content across posts and projects without any backend infrastructure.

Syntax Highlighting

For technical content, proper code display is essential. Hugo’s built-in Chroma syntax highlighter provides beautiful code blocks:

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def secure_function(user_input):
    # Always validate and sanitize input
    sanitized = sanitize_input(user_input)
    return process_safely(sanitized)

Deployment

Deploying a Hugo site is simple since it generates static files. Options include:

• GitHub Pages
• Netlify
• Vercel
• AWS S3 + CloudFront
• Any web server

Lessons Learned

Building this site taught me:

• The power of static site generators
• Importance of good information architecture
• Value of owning your content and platform
• How to balance aesthetics with functionality

Next Steps

I plan to continue developing this site by:

• Adding more detailed project case studies
• Creating tutorial series on security topics
• Implementing RSS feeds for easy subscription
• Adding comments functionality for community engagement

Conclusion

Hugo has proven to be an excellent choice for my professional portfolio. It gives me complete control, excellent performance, and a sustainable way to share my work and insights with the community.

If you’re considering building your own portfolio or blog, I highly recommend giving Hugo a try!