diff --git a/.github/workflows/jekyll-build.yml b/.github/workflows/jekyll-build.yml
index 6b512fb4..48bc9573 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/jekyll-build.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/jekyll-build.yml
@@ -220,7 +220,7 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Prepare Artifacts  # uploading artifacts may fail if not zipped due to very large quantity of files
         shell: bash
-        run: 7z a _site.zip ./_site/*
+        run: 7z a _site.zip ./_site/.
 
       - name: Upload artifact
         uses: actions/upload-artifact@bbbca2ddaa5d8feaa63e36b76fdaad77386f024f  # v7.0.0
@@ -253,7 +253,7 @@ jobs:
       # empty contents of gh-pages
       - name: Clean
         if: env.INPUT_CLEAN_GH_PAGES == 'true'
-        run: rm -f -r ./gh-pages/*
+        run: find ./gh-pages -mindepth 1 -not -path './gh-pages/.git*' -delete
 
       - name: Download artifact
         uses: actions/download-artifact@3e5f45b2cfb9172054b4087a40e8e0b5a5461e7c  # v8.0.1