How to Deploy an Astro Site to Vercel with a Custom Domain

This is the exact process I followed to get blog.bennerdo.org live on Vercel in under 30 minutes.

Prerequisites

An Astro project pushed to GitHub
A Vercel account (free)
Access to your domain’s DNS settings

Step 1: Push Your Project to GitHub

git init
git add .
git commit -m "initial commit"
git branch -M main
git remote add origin https://github.com/yourusername/your-blog.git
git push -u origin main

Step 2: Import Project on Vercel

Go to vercel.com and sign in
Click Add New → Project
Import your GitHub repository
Vercel auto-detects Astro — no configuration needed
Click Deploy

Your site is now live at your-project.vercel.app.

Step 3: Add Your Custom Domain

In your Vercel project dashboard:

Go to Settings → Domains
Add blog.bennerdo.org
Vercel will show you a CNAME record to add

Step 4: Update Your DNS

In your domain registrar (e.g., Namecheap, Cloudflare, Google Domains):

Add this CNAME record:

Type	Host	Value	TTL
CNAME	blog	cname.vercel-dns.com	Auto

If your DNS is on Cloudflare, make sure to disable the proxy (grey cloud, not orange) for the CNAME to work correctly with Vercel’s SSL.

Step 5: Wait for DNS Propagation

DNS changes can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 48 hours. Vercel will automatically provision an SSL certificate once the domain resolves.

Check propagation status at dnschecker.org.

Step 6: Submit to Google Search Console

Once your domain is live:

Go to Google Search Console
Add your property (blog.bennerdo.org)
Verify via HTML meta tag or DNS record
Submit your sitemap: https://blog.bennerdo.org/sitemap-index.xml

Google will start crawling within 24–72 hours.

Bonus: Enable Vercel Analytics

In your Vercel dashboard, go to Analytics and enable it. It’s free and privacy-friendly — no cookies required.

That’s it. Your blog is live, indexed, and tracked.