# A static blog on shared cPanel hosting: Markdown, Node, and FTP deploys > How this blog works, entries in Markdown, a framework-free Node generator, an .htaccess for Apache, and a script that FTPs only the files that changed. All on ordinary cPanel hosting. - Source: https://blog.javierdelgado.com.ve/posts/static-blog-on-shared-cpanel-hosting-with-ftp/ - Author: Javier Delgado (https://javierdelgado.com.ve) - Published: 2026-09-10 - Category: Tools · Tags: cpanel, ftp, markdown, node, seo, hosting ## In summary - You don't need a "modern" service to publish a static blog; cPanel hosting with FTP works perfectly. - Posts are written in Markdown with a metadata header, and a Node script generates the full HTML. - An .htaccess file handles the 404 page, MIME types, caching, compression, and the HTTPS redirect. - Deploys compare hashes against a manifest stored on the server and only transfer what changed. - Every post is also published as clean Markdown and in llms.txt so AI assistants can cite it properly. This blog lives on **shared cPanel hosting**, the same kind of plan you get for a few dollars a month, with no Node on the server, no CI, nothing like Netlify or Vercel. Even so, publishing a static blog there is straightforward: the HTML is generated on my machine and uploaded over FTP. Here's how it's put together, in case you want to replicate it. ## Why static, and why cPanel A personal blog doesn't need a database or an admin panel. With HTML files: - There's nothing to patch or update on the server (no more "WordPress needs updating" warnings). - The page loads in milliseconds, because Apache only has to serve files. - The content lives in git, as plain text, editable with any editor. And cPanel, for all its age, has exactly what's needed: an Apache server that serves folders, supports `.htaccess`, and accepts FTP uploads. ## Writing: Markdown with front matter Each post is a file under `posts//` with a metadata header (front matter) and Markdown content: ```markdown --- title: Post title description: 140-160 character summary for Google and social. date: 2026-09-10 category: Tools tags: [cpanel, ftp] cover: /assets/img/my-cover.jpg keyPoints: - First key idea. - Second key idea. --- Content in **Markdown**… ``` The URL comes from the file name: `posts/en/2026-09-10-my-title.md` publishes at `/posts/my-title/`. If the file has `draft: true`, it isn't published. A command (`npm run new -- "Title"`) creates the file with the template ready to go. ## Generating: a framework-free Node script The generator is a single file, `build.js`, that does three things: reads the `.md` files, converts them to HTML with [marked](https://marked.js.org/), and inserts them into HTML templates with a minimal variable engine (`{{ title }}`, `{{#if}}`, `{{#each}}`). The output goes to `dist/`: ```text dist/ ├── index.html homepage (paginated at /page/2/, /page/3/…) ├── posts//index.html each post ├── posts/.md the same post as clean Markdown ├── category// category listings (categoria// in Spanish) ├── assets/ css, js, images ├── sitemap.xml · rss.xml · robots.txt · llms.txt · 404.html └── .htaccess Apache configuration ``` No Jekyll, Hugo, or Astro. I have nothing against them, but for a blog with a custom design (the same one as the portfolio) it was faster to write 500 lines of JavaScript than to learn each tool's templating conventions. And `npm run dev` spins up a local server that mimics Apache to preview the result before uploading. ## Configuring Apache: the .htaccess file This is where it differs from a modern CDN: on cPanel, everything is configured with an `.htaccess` file that the generator writes automatically into `dist/`. The essentials: ```apache Options -Indexes DirectoryIndex index.html AddType text/markdown .md ErrorDocument 404 /404.html RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on RewriteRule ^ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301] Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=31536000, immutable" Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=300, must-revalidate" AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/css text/javascript application/javascript ``` Clean URLs (`/posts/my-title/`) work on their own because every post is a folder with its own `index.html`. CSS and JS carry `?v=` in the URL, so they can be cached for a year without risking stale versions. ## Publishing: incremental FTP with a manifest Uploading all of `dist/` on every change is slow over FTP. Instead, the deploy script stores a `.deploy-manifest.json` file on the server with the SHA-1 hash of every uploaded file. On the next deploy: 1. It downloads the manifest and computes the hashes of `dist/`. 2. It uploads only new or modified files. 3. It deletes from the server files that were in the manifest and no longer exist (say, a deleted post). It never touches files it didn't upload itself. 4. It uploads the updated manifest. Fixing a typo in a post means uploading two files (the HTML and the `.md`) plus the feeds, not hundreds. The FTP client is the Node package [basic-ftp](https://github.com/patrickjuchli/basic-ftp), and the credentials live in a `.env` file that isn't versioned: ```bash npm run deploy:dry # connects and shows what it would upload, without touching anything npm run deploy # build + incremental upload ``` ## SEO and AI assistants Since the HTML is fully generated, it's easy to include everything search engines expect: canonical tags, Open Graph, JSON-LD structured data (`BlogPosting`, `BreadcrumbList`, an automatic `FAQPage` from the FAQ section), `sitemap.xml`, and RSS. And for AI assistants (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity), which send more and more traffic every year, the blog publishes: - `/llms.txt`, a site index in the [llmstxt.org](https://llmstxt.org) format. - `/llms-full.txt`, with the entire content in a single Markdown file. - Every post at `/posts/.md`, linked from the HTML with ``. - An "In summary" block at the top of every article with the key ideas. ## Frequently asked questions ### Does this work on a subdomain, or only at the root? Both. The generator has a configurable `basePath` per language: empty if a language lives at `blog.mydomain.com`, or `/es` if it lives at `blog.mydomain.com/es/`. All internal routes, the `.htaccess`, and the sitemap adjust automatically. ### What if the hosting doesn't support FTPS? The script works with plain FTP, explicit FTPS, or implicit FTPS; it's chosen with an environment variable. If the hosting's certificate doesn't match the server name, another variable lets you accept it anyway. ### How do I add images to a post? Copy them to `assets/img/` and reference them as `/assets/img/file.jpg`. Keep covers under about 250 KB. If you replace an image, use a new file name: images are cached for a month. ### Can I use this system with a different design? Yes. The templates live in `layout/` (header, footer, post card, post page) and the styles in a single framework-free CSS file. Changing the design means editing those files. ## Conclusion Shared hosting isn't a limit on having a fast, well-ranked, easy-to-maintain blog. Markdown for writing, a Node script for generating, `.htaccess` for configuring Apache, and incremental FTP for publishing: four small pieces that are easy to understand in full.