Deploy Your First Website with Nginx on Linux

13 Jul 2025 • Web, Linux • 6 min read

Introduction: What is a Web Server and Why Use Nginx?

When you type an address in your browser (like example.com), your browser sends an HTTP request to a server. The web server is the program that receives this request and sends back a response—usually an HTML page.

Nginx is a fast and lightweight web server, capable of handling a large number of concurrent connections. It is often used for:

Serving static websites
Acting as a reverse proxy
Load balancing
Hosting APIs

Goal of This Guide

We'll learn how to:

Install Nginx on a Linux server
Create a simple website
Understand its file structure
Set up a Virtual Host (custom site)

Installing Nginx

Debian / Ubuntu:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx

CentOS / Fedora / RHEL:

sudo dnf install nginx          # or 'yum install nginx' on CentOS 7
sudo systemctl enable nginx
sudo systemctl start nginx

Test the Service

Check that Nginx is running:

sudo systemctl status nginx

Then open your browser: http://SERVER_IP

You should see Nginx's default welcome page!

File Structure (Debian/Ubuntu)

/etc/nginx/nginx.conf: main configuration file
/etc/nginx/sites-available/: directory for available site configs
/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/: directory for enabled sites (symbolic links)
/var/www/html/: default folder for web content

On CentOS/RHEL, it's mostly managed in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf and /usr/share/nginx/html.

Create a Custom Site (Virtual Host)

1. Create the site directory:

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/my-site

2. Set file permissions:

sudo chown -R nginx:nginx /var/www/my-site

3. Create a basic HTML file:

echo "<h1>Welcome to my Nginx website</h1>" > /var/www/my-site/index.html

4. Create the site configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/my-site

Paste the following:

server {
    listen 80;                        # Listen on HTTP port
    server_name my-site.local;       # Domain or hostname

    root /var/www/my-site;           # Directory containing site files
    index index.html;                # Default file to serve

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;   # Show file if exists, else 404
    }
}

Explanation:

listen 80;: listen for HTTP requests on port 80
server_name: the domain or local name for your site
root: the path where Nginx will look for site files
index: the default page if no file is specified in the URL
location /: matches the root of the site
try_files: checks for file/directory; shows 404 if not found

5. Enable the site (Debian/Ubuntu only):

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/my-site /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

6. Reload Nginx:

sudo nginx -t     # Test configuration
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Bonus: Enable HTTPS with Let's Encrypt

If you own a real domain, you can easily secure it with Certbot:

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx

Conclusion

Congrats! You've now installed Nginx, set up a custom website, and understood the basics of how Nginx works. Next step? Try setting up a reverse proxy or host a dynamic web app.