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For a static website, the simplest Google Cloud setup is a Cloud Storage bucket containing your HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, and error page. A custom domain can point to that content over HTTP, but custom-domain HTTPS requires an external Application Load Balancer with a Google-managed SSL certificate in front of the bucket. If your site runs server-side code, use a managed application service or virtual machine instead of a bucket.
This guide walks through project setup, file upload, index and 404 configuration, public or private access, HTTPS, DNS, testing, costs, and the point at which Cloud Storage is no longer the right hosting model.
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Which Google Cloud service should host your website?
Choose the service according to whether the site needs only browser-delivered files or also needs a server-side runtime.
| Service | Best fit | Operational control | Scaling and HTTPS considerations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud Storage | Static HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, fonts, and downloads | Lowest operational overhead; no operating system to patch | Use a bucket for the files; custom-domain HTTPS uses an external Application Load Balancer and certificate |
| App Engine standard | Managed web applications and static assets with an app.yaml configuration |
Google manages the runtime platform | Provides a project subdomain and supports custom-domain mapping |
| Compute Engine | Sites that need a virtual machine, operating-system access, or traditional server software | Highest control; you administer the VM, web server, updates, and firewall | You design the web-server and load-balancing arrangement |
| Cloud Run | Dynamic or containerized web applications | Deploy a container without managing the underlying servers | Suitable when the application needs code execution rather than file-only delivery |
| Google Kubernetes Engine | Containerized systems that require Kubernetes orchestration | Most orchestration control and operational complexity | Use when cluster-level scheduling, networking, or multi-service deployment is a requirement |
Cloud Storage is the direct path when every request can be answered by an existing file. A contact form that sends mail through a backend, a shopping cart, a database-backed login, PHP, Node.js server code, or another server-side process requires App Engine, Cloud Run, Compute Engine, GKE, or a separate backend.
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What do you need before creating the site?
- A Google Cloud project that you can administer.
- Billing enabled on that project. The documented static-site workflow uses billable storage and networking resources.
- A domain that you own or manage if you want a branded address.
- A finished site directory containing
index.html. Add404.htmlso unknown paths show a useful page. - For the HTTPS workflow, permission to enable the Compute Engine API and obtain Storage Admin and Compute Network Admin roles, or an administrator who can perform those actions.
- A decision about whether objects may be publicly readable or whether the bucket must remain private behind load balancing and, optionally, Cloud CDN.
Keep the project ID, bucket name, chosen bucket location, and the exact hostnames you intend to use (for example, the root domain and www) in a deployment note. Bucket names are globally scoped, so a name already used elsewhere cannot be reused.
How do you create the project and enable billing?
- Open the Google Cloud Console and create a project, or select an existing project dedicated to the website.
- Attach an active billing account. Without billing, the load-balancing portion of the HTTPS design cannot be used.
- For an HTTPS deployment, enable the Compute Engine API in APIs & Services → Library.
- Ask an administrator to grant the deployment identity Storage Admin and Compute Network Admin roles if your account does not already have them. Use narrower custom roles in a production organization when your security policy requires least privilege.
- Install and authenticate the Google Cloud CLI if you prefer commands, then select the project:
gcloud auth login
gcloud config set project PROJECT_IDReplace PROJECT_ID with the actual project identifier. Console users can complete the rest of the procedure without running these commands.
How do you prepare and upload website files?
Place all browser-delivered assets under one local directory. Confirm that links use the correct case, that referenced files are present, and that the homepage is named exactly index.html.
Create the Cloud Storage bucket
- In Cloud Storage → Buckets, select Create.
- Choose a globally unique bucket name. A bucket name does not have to match your domain.
- Select a location suited to your users and organizational requirements. The documented workflow does not prescribe one universal location.
- Choose the access-control model. Uniform bucket-level access is generally easier to administer; do not disable public-access protections unless you have deliberately chosen public hosting.
- Create the bucket.
With the CLI, the equivalent creation command is:
gcloud storage buckets create gs://BUCKET_NAME --location=LOCATIONReplace both capitalized values before running the command.
Upload the site
In the console, open the bucket and select Upload files or Upload folder. Preserve the directory structure so relative links continue to work.
To upload a local site directory with the CLI:
gcloud storage cp --recursive ./site/* gs://BUCKET_NAMERun the command from the directory that contains the site folder, or change the path to your actual build output directory. Upload a new copy whenever you publish a release; a build system can run the same command after generating production assets.
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How do you set the homepage and 404 page?
Cloud Storage needs an explicit main-page suffix and error-page name to behave like a website rather than a file store.
- Open the bucket’s Configuration tab.
- Set Main page or MainPageSuffix to
index.html. - Set Error page or NotFoundPage to
404.html. - Save the changes, then verify that both files exist at the bucket’s top level.
The CLI form is:
gcloud storage buckets update gs://BUCKET_NAME
--web-main-page-suffix=index.html
--web-error-page=404.htmlA missing or incorrectly capitalized filename is a common reason the root address displays an XML listing, a generic error, or a blank response instead of the homepage.
Should the bucket be public or private?
Public hosting is the shortest path for a straightforward static site, but every object granted to allUsers is readable from the public internet. Never store passwords, private documents, API keys, customer exports, or other confidential material in a publicly readable bucket.
Public bucket
For the basic tutorial, grant unauthenticated users the Storage Object Viewer permission at the bucket level, then verify that public-access-prevention settings do not block the change. Make only the website bucket public; keep unrelated storage in separate private buckets.
Private bucket behind a load balancer
A private bucket can sit behind Cloud Load Balancing, with the load-balancer path serving the website and the bucket remaining inaccessible as a standalone public object store. Cloud CDN can be added when caching at the edge is useful. This design reduces direct bucket exposure but adds configuration and billable networking components, so test permissions before switching traffic.
How do you serve the site over a custom domain with HTTPS?
Cloud Storage does not provide custom-domain HTTPS by itself. Google Cloud’s documented design places an external Application Load Balancer in front of the bucket, attaches a Google-managed certificate to the HTTPS frontend, and sends requests to a backend bucket.
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“Cloud Storage doesn’t support custom domains with HTTPS on its own, so you also need to set up an SSL certificate attached to an HTTPS load balancer to serve your website through HTTPS.” — Google Cloud Documentation, “Host a static website”
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1. Reserve a global external IP address
In VPC network → IP addresses, reserve a global, external IPv4 address. Record the address; it is the value your DNS A record will use. A regional address is not interchangeable with the global address required by this external frontend.
2. Create the backend bucket
In Network services → Load balancing, start an external Application Load Balancer and choose a backend bucket. Select the Cloud Storage bucket that contains the site. Enable Cloud CDN only if its caching behavior and additional charges fit the project.
3. Configure the URL map and frontend
Use the bucket as the default backend and create an HTTPS frontend on port 443. Associate the reserved global IP address with that frontend. If you also want HTTP, create an HTTP frontend that redirects to HTTPS rather than serving a second independent copy of the site.
4. Create a Google-managed certificate
Create the certificate with every hostname you plan to serve, such as the root domain and www. Google documents a limit of 100 domains per certificate. The certificate remains unusable until both its certificate status and its domain status become active.
5. Attach the certificate and finish the load balancer
Select the managed certificate in the HTTPS target proxy or the corresponding console field, complete the forwarding rule, and wait for the configuration to propagate. The load balancer’s frontend IP is the only address that should be published in DNS.
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How do you connect the domain to Google Cloud?
At the DNS provider that controls your domain, create an A record for each hostname that should resolve to the site.
| Hostname | Record type | Value | When to create it |
|---|---|---|---|
Root domain, such as example.com |
A | Reserved global load-balancer IP | If visitors should reach the site without a subdomain |
www |
A | The same load-balancer IP | If the site should answer at www.example.com |
Do not point the record at the bucket name or an individual object. If your DNS provider offers an alias or flattening feature for the root, use the provider’s documented equivalent only when it ultimately resolves to the load-balancer address. Keep any old conflicting A or AAAA records in mind; they can send some visitors to a previous host.
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How long does HTTPS activation take, and how do you verify it?
Google says a managed certificate may take up to 60–90 minutes to provision. During that period, the site can resolve to the correct IP while the certificate still reports provisioning.
- Check that every hostname in the certificate has the intended A record and no conflicting record.
- In the load-balancer or certificate view, wait for both certificate status and domain status to show active.
- Open the root URL over HTTPS in a private browser window.
- Request a known static asset, such as
/styles.css, and confirm a successful response. - Request a deliberately missing path and confirm that
404.htmlis returned. - Inspect browser developer tools for mixed-content warnings. Change any hard-coded HTTP asset URLs to HTTPS or relative URLs.
Test from more than one network if the DNS change was recent. Resolvers can retain old answers until the previous record’s time-to-live expires.
What are the common failure modes?
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
The root URL shows an object list or does not load index.html |
Main-page suffix is missing, points to another filename, or the file is not at the bucket root | Set MainPageSuffix to index.html and verify the object path and capitalization |
| Unknown paths show a generic error | No error-page setting, or 404.html was not uploaded |
Upload the file at the expected location and set NotFoundPage to 404.html |
| Objects return permission denied | The bucket is private, public-access prevention blocks the intended policy, or the load-balancer backend cannot read it | Choose public access deliberately, or correct the private backend permissions instead of making unrelated buckets public |
| HTTPS certificate remains pending | DNS does not point every certificate hostname to the load balancer, or provisioning is still in progress | Correct the A records, remove conflicts, and allow the documented provisioning window to pass |
| The domain resolves but displays an old website | Another A/AAAA record or cached DNS answer is still being used | Inspect authoritative DNS, remove obsolete records, and retest after TTL expiry |
| CSS or images fail while HTML loads | Incorrect relative path, case mismatch, or an asset omitted from the upload | Compare the requested URL with the bucket object name and re-upload the complete build output |
| HTTPS loads but browsers report insecure content | HTML or scripts reference http:// resources |
Use HTTPS URLs or root-relative paths and rebuild the site |
What does Google Cloud website hosting cost?
There is no single flat hosting price for this design. The official static-site tutorial uses billable Cloud Storage and Cloud Load Balancing components. Your bill can also include network egress, data retrieval, load-balancer processing, and optional Cloud CDN charges.
- Storage charges depend on the amount and class of data stored.
- Network and retrieval charges depend on where visitors are located, how much they download, and whether data is retrieved from a storage class with retrieval pricing.
- Load-balancer charges apply even when the files themselves are small.
- Cloud CDN can change both performance and the cost profile because cached and uncached traffic are accounted for differently.
- A managed certificate does not remove the networking charges of the HTTPS frontend.
Use Google Cloud’s Pricing Calculator with your expected stored gigabytes, monthly requests, egress volume, and load-balancer configuration. Set a budget alert, review billing reports after the first traffic period, and delete unused resources when a test deployment ends.
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How do you keep a Google Cloud website secure and maintainable?
- Keep secrets and private data outside the public website bucket.
- Separate production, staging, and unrelated files into different buckets or projects.
- Use a private bucket and controlled backend when public object access is not acceptable.
- Build the site locally or in CI, then upload only the generated production directory.
- Check the bucket, load balancer, certificate, DNS records, and billing status after each major change.
- Retain a small test object and a deliberate missing path so future deployments can verify both normal and error behavior.
- When retiring the site, remove the load balancer, reserved IP, certificate, bucket, and project resources that are no longer needed. Leaving any one of these active can continue to incur charges.
When should you move beyond Cloud Storage?
Move to a runtime service when the request must execute code or maintain state. Cloud Run is a practical fit for a containerized application; App Engine standard provides a managed application environment with an app.yaml; Compute Engine gives you operating-system and web-server control; and GKE is intended for Kubernetes-based orchestration.
You can keep the static frontend in Cloud Storage while placing APIs, authentication, payments, or other dynamic features on one of those services. Define the API hostname and access policy separately, and do not expose credentials in JavaScript shipped to browsers.
What should you check before going live?
- The selected project has billing enabled and the required APIs and roles are in place.
index.htmland404.htmlare uploaded with the correct case.- Main-page and error-page settings are saved.
- The chosen public or private access model matches the data in the bucket.
- The global external IP belongs to the intended load balancer.
- Every production hostname has an A record to that IP.
- The managed certificate and domain statuses are active.
- HTTPS, a real asset, a missing path, mobile layout, and browser console output have all been tested.
- Budget alerts and a cleanup plan are configured.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a Cloud Storage website run PHP, Node.js, or Python code?
No. A bucket returns stored objects and does not execute server-side programs. Keep the static files in Cloud Storage and place code that handles forms, sessions, or APIs on a runtime such as Cloud Run, App Engine, Compute Engine, or GKE.
Do I need to move my domain’s DNS hosting into Google Cloud?
No. You can leave DNS with your registrar or another DNS provider. You only need authority to create the required records that resolve your chosen hostnames to the load balancer’s external IP.
What happens if I publish a file with the wrong capitalization?
Cloud Storage object paths are case-sensitive, so a link to /Images/logo.png will not find an object stored as images/logo.png. Match URL case to object names or rename the files during your build.
Can I use the same bucket for staging and production?
It is safer to separate them. Distinct buckets or projects prevent a test upload, access-policy change, or accidental deletion from altering the live site and make billing and permissions easier to audit.
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