migrate notion notes to jekyll knowledge base

Why Move from Notion to Jekyll Knowledge Base

Notion is excellent for quick note-taking and collaboration, but it’s not ideal for building a public, static, SEO-friendly knowledge base. Moving to Jekyll on GitHub Pages gives you:

• Full control over content structure and URL.
• Better SEO and performance with static site generation.
• Custom styling and advanced features like client-side search.
• Free hosting on GitHub Pages with version control.

Overview of the Migration Process

The main steps are:

1. Export your Notion pages as Markdown.
2. Prepare the exported Markdown for Jekyll compatibility.
3. Organize content into Jekyll collections or posts.
4. Add front matter and metadata.
5. Configure Jekyll layouts and templates.
6. Deploy to GitHub Pages.

Step 1 Export Markdown from Notion

Notion allows exporting pages as Markdown files:

• Open the Notion page or workspace.
• Go to Settings & Members > Export.
• Select Markdown & CSV format.
• Download and extract the ZIP file.

This will give you a folder structure with .md files and assets.

Step 2 Prepare Markdown for Jekyll

Notion’s export Markdown needs adjustments:

• Add YAML front matter to each Markdown file, e.g.,

---
title: "Your Page Title"
date: 2025-05-28
layout: doc
categories: [knowledge-base]
---

• Fix image paths to point to /assets/ or relative folders.
• Remove Notion-specific syntax or unsupported formatting.
• Convert Notion tables or embeds into static HTML if necessary.

Step 3 Organize Content Into Jekyll Collections

In _config.yml, define collections:

collections:
  docs:
    output: true
    permalink: /:collection/:path/

Place your Markdown files into _docs/ folder. This helps separate docs from posts.

Step 4 Create Jekyll Layouts

Create a layout template _layouts/doc.html to style your pages, including navigation, sidebar, and search box if needed.

Step 5 Deploy to GitHub Pages

• Push your repository to GitHub.
• Enable GitHub Pages from the repository settings.
• Use github-pages gem locally or GitHub Actions for automated builds.

Tips and Best Practices

• Keep Markdown files clean and consistent.
• Use meaningful permalinks for SEO.
• Integrate client-side search (like Lunr.js) for easy navigation.
• Automate the export-to-Jekyll conversion with scripts if you have many pages.
• Test locally with bundle exec jekyll serve before deploying.

Conclusion

Migrating from Notion to a Jekyll knowledge base unlocks new possibilities for public documentation with better performance, SEO, and custom features. Though the process requires some manual steps, it’s a great learning experience and offers long-term control over your content.

Next, you can enhance your knowledge base with interactive search, multilingual support, or feedback mechanisms—all still hosted for free on GitHub Pages.