This page shows examples and tips for
using buckets to host a static website.


## Specialty pages


 Index pages


An index page (also called a webserver directory index)
is a file served to visitors when they request a URL that doesn't have an
associated file. When you assign a
MainPageSuffix property,
Cloud Storage looks for a file with that name whose prefix matches the
URL the visitor requested

For example, say you set the
MainPageSuffix of your static website to

index.html. Additionally, say you have no file named
directory in your
bucket
www.example.com. In this situation, if a user requests the URL

httpwww.example.com/directory, Cloud Storage attempts to serve the file

www.example.com/directory/index.html. If that file also doesn't exist,
Cloud Storage returns an error page

The
MainPageSuffix also controls the file served when users request the top
level site. Continuing the above example, if a user requests

httpwww.example.com, Cloud Storage attempts to serve the file

www.example.com/index.html

When attempting to access a URL with a trailing slash, such as

httpwww.example.com/dir/, see Troubleshooting

 Error page


The error page is the file returned to visitors of your static site who
request a URL that does not correspond to an existing file. If you have
assigned a
MainPageSuffix, Cloud Storage only returns the error page if
there is neither a file with the requested name nor an applicable index page

When returning an error page, the http response code is
404. The property that
controls which file acts as the error page is
NotFoundPage. If you don't
set
NotFoundPage, users receive a generic error page

## Website configuration examples


 Three-object bucket


Suppose a bucket named
www.example.com has been configured as a website
with the following settings and files:
- 

MainPageSuffix= "index.html" 

NotFoundPage= "404.html" 

- The bucket contains threeshared objects: "index.html", "404.html", and "dir/index.html". 

The following table shows the content served for selected URLs:


|URL Requested
||Content Served
||HTTP response code
|
|httpwww.example.com 
|

httpwww.example.com/

httpwww.example.com/index.html
|The object "index.htmln||200
|
|httpwww.example.com/hello
||The object "404.htmln||404
|
|httpwww.example.com/dir/index.html
||The object "dir/index.htmln||200
|
|httpwww.example.com/dir
||The object "dir/index.htmln||301
|
|httpwww.example.com/dir/
||The object "dir/index.html", assuming no zero-byte object exists for /dir/
||200
|

|A zero byte empty object, if it exists for /dir/. See the Troubleshooting topic for removing this zero byte object.
||301
|
 Two-object bucket


Suppose a bucket named
www.example.com has been configured as a website
with the following settings and files:
- 

MainPageSuffix= "main.html" 

NotFoundPage= "404.html" 

- The bucket contains twoshared objects: "main.html" and "404.html". 

The following table shows the content served for selected URLs:


|URL Requested
||Content Served
||HTTP response code
|
|httpwww.example.com 
|

httpwww.example.com/
|The object "main.htmln||200
|
|httpwww.example.com/index.html
||The object "404.htmln||404
|
If an object is sharedyou can also
view that object with the URL:

httpstorage.googleapis.com/


BUCKET_NAME/ OBJECT_NAME
For example, the URL for an
index.html object would be:

httpstorage.googleapis.com/www.example.com/index.html


For more information about working withaccessible data, see
Accessing Public Data.


## Tips for working with a bucket configured as a website


The following are some tips to keep in mind when using a
bucket to host a static website.


 Add subdomains


Suppose you also want to serve content at
test.example.com, from a different
bucket than the one that serves content at
www.example.com. To do so:
- 

Create a new bucket to serve your additional content.

If you followed the tutorial at Hosting a static website to serve your
content over HTTPS, edit your load balancer in the
Cloud console as follows:




- 

- For
Backend configuration, create a new backend bucket
test-bucket
by selecting the new bucket you created. 

- For
Host and path rules, add a new rule as follows:


Hosts Paths Backends
test.example.com /* test-bucket


For


Frontend configuration, add a new Frontend IP and port with the
same values as your first configuration, with the following exceptions:


- 

- For
IP address, create and reserve a new IP address. 

- For
Certificate, create a new SSL certificate for
test.example.com. 

- For
- For
After you update the load balancer, add a new
Arecord to your domain
registration service using the IP address of the new frontend configuration:


NAME TYPE DATA
test A
IP_ADDRESS
 

 API behavior


The
MainPageSuffix and
NotFoundPage website configurations are only used
for requests that come to Cloud Storage through a

CNAME or
A redirect. For example, a request to
www.example.com
shows the index page, but an equivalent request to

storage.googleapis.com/www.example.com does not

Thus, API behavior for requests to Cloud Storage domains, such as

storage.googleapis.com/www.example.com, is preserved. For example, you
can continue to list objects in the
www.example.com bucket as you would
for any other bucket. In the case of the

www.example.com bucket, the object
listing you receive includes
404.html and
index.html

 Host static assets for a dynamic website


You can use Cloud Storage to host static assets for a dynamic website that is
hosted, for example, in Google App Engine or in
Google Compute Engine. Some benefits of hosting your static assets,
like images or JavaScript files, in a bucket include:


- 

Cloud Storage behaves like a Content Delivery
Network (CDN) becausereadable objects are cached in
the Cloud Storage network by default.

Bandwidth charges for accessing content typically cost less with Cloud Storage.

The load on your web servers is lessened when serving the static content from
Cloud Storage.

When hosting static assets for a dynamic website, you do not need to create
DNS records and point to a bucket or load balancer as you do for a
static website. For example, you could have a bucket named

www_example_com_assets with appropriate assets configured as shared
publicly and then access those assets using the Cloud Storage domain.
For example, suppose you have the JavaScript file
library.js in the bucket

www_example_com_assets that is sharedthen you can access it as

httpstorage.googleapis.com/www_example_com_assets/library.js

 Set cache parameters


You can control how or if your website assets are cached by configuring the

Cache-Control metadata. Generally, only set cache control metadata
for objects that are accessible to all anonymous users, which is a requirement
for any object served from a Cloud Storage bucket as part of a static
website

Cloud Storage applies a cache control setting of 3600 seconds to objects that are
accessible to all anonymous users, unless you specify explicit cache control
settings. See Viewing and Editing Metadata for instructions for setting
object metadata, such as
Cache-Control

You can also use Cloud CDN to cache external HTTP(S) load balanced content
close to your users, which often reduces serving costs. For more information, see
Caching.


 Monitor your charges


If you are serving assets from a bucket configured as a static website or
serving static assets from a bucket for a dynamic website hosted outside of
Cloud Storage, you should monitor the charges to your project containing the
bucket. Serving content incurs Cloud Storage costs for storing the
content, using the network, and performing retrieval operations. For details,
see the Cloud Storage Pricing page.


You may also incur networking charges if you use HTTP(S) Load Balancing to set up
HTTPS. See Network Pricing for more details.



The simple pricing example on the pricing examples page can
be used as an approximation for the use case of a low-traffic, static website.
Note, however, that the example does not account for charges associated with
HTTP(S) Load Balancing, which can often be the largest charge for static website
hosting. You can use the Pricing
Calculator to generate a cost estimate based on your projected usage.





If you are a current Google Cloud user, you can get a detailed breakdown of
your project costs on the billing page.


 Troubleshooting


See Troubleshooting for common issues associated with using a bucket
configured to serve static website content.


## What's next


- 

- Learn about other web serving options on Google Cloud. 

- Try other Google Cloud tutorials that use Cloud Storage. 

## 
 Try it for yourself

 

 
 
 


 If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how
 Cloud Storage performs in real-world
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