Base de Conhecimento

A single, modest VPS can comfortably host dozens of low-traffic static sites — personal projects, client sites, documentation sites — each on its own domain, using Nginx virtual hosts.

Directory Structure

/var/www/
├── site1.com/html/
├── site2.com/html/
├── site3.com/html/

Step 1 — Create Directories for Each Site

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/site1.com/html
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/site2.com/html
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www

Step 2 — Create a Server Block Per Domain

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/site1.com

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name site1.com www.site1.com;
    root /var/www/site1.com/html;
    index index.html;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
}

Repeat for each additional domain, with its own file and unique server_name/root.

Step 3 — Enable All Sites

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/site1.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/site2.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx

Step 4 — Point Each Domain's DNS to the VPS

Add an A record for each domain, pointing to the same VPS IP — see How to Point a Domain to Your VPS (A/AAAA Records).

Step 5 — Add SSL for All Domains at Once

sudo certbot --nginx -d site1.com -d www.site1.com -d site2.com -d www.site2.com -d site3.com -d www.site3.com

Certbot detects the corresponding server block for each domain automatically and configures SSL for each.

Automating New Site Creation

sudo nano /usr/local/bin/new-static-site.sh

#!/bin/bash
DOMAIN=$1
mkdir -p /var/www/$DOMAIN/html
echo "<h1>$DOMAIN</h1>" > /var/www/$DOMAIN/html/index.html

cat > /etc/nginx/sites-available/$DOMAIN <<EOF
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name $DOMAIN www.$DOMAIN;
    root /var/www/$DOMAIN/html;
    index index.html;
    location / {
        try_files \$uri \$uri/ =404;
    }
}
EOF

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/$DOMAIN /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
nginx -t && systemctl reload nginx
echo "Site $DOMAIN created. Point DNS, then run: certbot --nginx -d $DOMAIN -d www.$DOMAIN"

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/new-static-site.sh
sudo new-static-site.sh newsite.com

Isolating Resource Usage Between Sites

Static sites are lightweight enough that resource isolation between them is rarely necessary — unlike dynamic applications, there's no per-site process consuming CPU/RAM continuously.

Monitoring Disk Usage Per Site

du -sh /var/www/*/

Deploying Updates to Individual Sites

rsync -avz --delete ./site1-dist/ deploy@YOUR_SERVER_IP:/var/www/site1.com/html/

See How to Set Up Automatic Static Site Deployment from Git to automate this per site.

Common Errors

Wrong site loads for a domain — verify server_name exactly matches the intended domain in each server block, and that DNS actually points to this server.

SSL certificate request fails for one domain — confirm that specific domain's DNS is correctly configured before including it in the Certbot command; a single failing domain can affect the whole multi-domain request.

Best Practices

• Keep a consistent directory structure across all hosted sites for easier management
• Automate new site setup with a script to reduce manual errors
• Monitor overall disk usage as the number of hosted sites grows

Continue Reading

• How to Host a Static Website on a VPS with Nginx
• Nginx Virtual Hosts: Hosting Multiple Websites
• How to Install Let's Encrypt SSL with Certbot (Nginx & Apache)

Browse more articles in Static Site Hosting & Frontend Deployment.