Rmarkdown websites better practices for the output_dir: _site or "."

It can occasionally take awhile for the site to first launch. I think it's reasonable for a free service, and subsequent updates will build much faster. One trick I've used in the past is to explicitly request the index.html page in the URL. This is sometimes available before the standard URL is.

Since your question has been answered, could you please choose a solution for the benefit of future readers of this thread?

FAQ: How do I mark a solution?