Solving PayPal & Ko-fi Integration While Hosting on GitHub with Custom Domain and Setting Up SEO — A Complete Guide

Introduction:
Launching my personal website ayushhardeniya.site came with several exciting tasks and equally frustrating roadblocks. From integrating Ko-fi for support payments, configuring PayPal for Indian users, hosting on GitHub Pages using a custom domain, to getting indexed properly by Google Search - I faced real issues, dug into each, and here’s a human-first, complete technical + non-technical guide to help you avoid the same potholes.

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🌐 Step 1: Hosting GitHub Repository on Custom Domain

Problem:

I had an existing GitHub Page live at ayushHardeniya.github.io but wanted my site to show up at https://ayushhardeniya.site.

Solution:

1. Bought domain from a registrar (mine was BigRock).

2. Went to GitHub Repo > Settings > Pages.

3. Added ayushhardeniya.site in the Custom domain section.

4. Created a CNAME file in the root of my repo with this line:

ayushhardeniya.site

5. In domain DNS settings:

• Added A records pointing to GitHub IPs:

185.199.108.153
185.199.109.153
185.199.110.153
185.199.111.153

• Added a CNAME record pointing to ayushhardeniya.site

6. Waited until Enforce HTTPS became available.

📌 SEO Tip: Google loves HTTPS. Be sure to enable “Enforce HTTPS” in GitHub Pages once available. It might take some hours.

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📮 Step 2: Setting Up Zoho Mail for Custom Email

Problem:

Needed to use custom email IDs like connect@ayushhardeniya.site.

Solution:

1. Signed up on Zoho.

2. Added TXT record to verify domain.

3. Set MX records as given by Zoho.

4. Created user mailboxes.

💡 Now I have working professional email addresses under my own domain.

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☕ Step 3: Integrating Ko-fi Button & PayPal Payments

Problem:

Ko-fi kept showing errors:

"You cannot currently receive payments on your PayPal account..."

Detailed Fix:

🧩 Fixing PayPal Setup

1. Went to PayPal Business Setup.

2. Filled the form under Account Settings > Business Info:

Business Type: Individual
PAN: <My PAN Number>
Purpose Code: P0805 (Personal use/Design/IT Services)
Industry Type: Services
CC Statement Name: PAYPAL*AYUSH

3. Matched PayPal name EXACTLY with PAN.

4. Revisited KYC page: https://www.paypal.com/in/webapps/mpp/kyc

5. Used desktop browser - mobile submissions were buggy.

6. Cleared cache, logged out and in again.

📞 Optional but helpful: Contact PayPal support if stuck in loop.

🔄 Connecting with Ko-fi

• Back to Ko-fi Settings

• Clicked “Check if you're ready to go”

• Finally showed: ✅ Connected

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📄 Step 4: Setting Up Contact Form with Google Sheets Integration

Problem:

My site had a contact form, but it failed to submit or redirected with an error.

Solution:

Replaced it with a working Google Sheet-based form using formsubmit.co or [Google Apps Script]. Here's a sample:

<form action="https://formsubmit.co/your-email@example.com" method="POST">
  <input type="text" name="First Name" required>
  <input type="text" name="Last Name" required>
  <input type="email" name="Email" required>
  <textarea name="Message"></textarea>
  <button type="submit">Submit</button>
</form>

✅ Simple. No backend. Automatically sends to mail or Google Sheet if configured.

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📈 Step 5: Pushing to Google Search Console for SEO

1. Domain Verification

• Go to Google Search Console.

• Add new property > Choose domain method.

• Added TXT record in DNS:

TXT @ google-site-verification=xxxxxxxxxxx

• Verified successfully.

2. Sitemap Setup

• Added sitemap URL:

https://ayushhardeniya.site/sitemap.xml

✅ Suggestion- You can generate one using XML Sitemap Generator and add it to your repo.

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🔍 Step 6: Optimizing SEO (Meta Tags + Schema + OG)

Page Title:

<title>Ayush Hardeniya - Developer, Creator & Explorer</title>

Meta Description:

<meta name="description" content="Explore the world of Ayush Hardeniya - a passionate developer, reader, and creator sharing blogs, gallery, values, and more." />

Meta Open Graph:

<meta property="og:title" content="Ayush Hardeniya - Official Website">
<meta property="og:description" content="My journey as a developer, reader, explorer & more">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://ayushhardeniya.site/preview.png">

Canonical URL:

<link rel="canonical" href="https://ayushhardeniya.site/" />

Schema.org JSON-LD:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Person",
  "name": "Ayush Hardeniya",
  "url": "https://ayushhardeniya.site",
  "sameAs": [
    "https://github.com/AyushHardeniya",
    "https://twitter.com/ayushhardeniya"
  ],
  "image": "https://ayushhardeniya.site/profile.png",
  "jobTitle": "Developer & Creator"
}
</script>

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🧾 Final Thoughts

This blog is a real reflection of what I have faced and sorted accordingly and even a student/freelancer/early-stage creator faces when integrating modern tools together. From DNS misconfigurations to payment integration and SEO indexing - this guide covers it all, from my own experiences.

If you’re going through the same, just follow the steps - or hit me up on Twitter or my contact page.

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Author: Ayush Hardeniya
🌐 Website: https://ayushhardeniya.site
☕️ Buy Me A Coffee: https://ko-fi.com/ayushhardeniya

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