diff --git a/lib/publish-gh-pages.js b/lib/publish-gh-pages.js
index e1b4ffd399..32afd71ff0 100755
--- a/lib/publish-gh-pages.js
+++ b/lib/publish-gh-pages.js
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
  */
 
 const shell = require('shelljs');
+const path = require('path');
 
 if (!shell.which('git')) {
   shell.echo('Sorry, this script requires git');
@@ -32,6 +33,8 @@ const USE_SSH = process.env.USE_SSH;
 // github.io indicates organization repos that deploy via master. All others use gh-pages.
 const DEPLOYMENT_BRANCH =
   PROJECT_NAME.indexOf('.github.io') !== -1 ? 'master' : 'gh-pages';
+const PROJECT_PATH =
+  PROJECT_NAME.indexOf('.github.io') !== -1 ? '' : PROJECT_NAME;
 
 if (!ORGANIZATION_NAME) {
   shell.echo(
@@ -68,7 +71,7 @@ if (CURRENT_BRANCH === DEPLOYMENT_BRANCH) {
   shell.exit(1);
 }
 
-if (shell.exec(`node ${__dirname}/build-files.js`).code) {
+if (shell.exec(`node ${path.join(__dirname, "build-files.js")}`).code) {
   shell.echo('Error: generating html failed');
   shell.exit(1);
 }
@@ -108,11 +111,15 @@ shell.exec('git rm -rf .');
 shell.cd('../..');
 
 shell.cp(
-  '-R',
-  `build/${PROJECT_NAME}/*`,
-  `build/${PROJECT_NAME}-${DEPLOYMENT_BRANCH}/`
+  "-R",
+  // in github.io case, project is deployed to root. need to not recursively
+  // copy the deployment-branch to be. 
+  // The !(...) represents the same thing as "everything but this"
+  // Copies everything in /build except the directory after the !.
+  path.join("build", PROJECT_PATH, `!(${PROJECT_NAME}-${DEPLOYMENT_BRANCH})`),
+  path.join("build", `${PROJECT_NAME}-${DEPLOYMENT_BRANCH}`)
 );
-shell.cd(`build/${PROJECT_NAME}-${DEPLOYMENT_BRANCH}`);
+shell.cd(path.join("build", `${PROJECT_NAME}-${DEPLOYMENT_BRANCH}`));
 
 const currentCommit = shell.exec('git rev-parse HEAD').stdout.trim();
 
@@ -128,9 +135,7 @@ if (shell.exec(`git push origin ${DEPLOYMENT_BRANCH}`).code !== 0) {
   shell.exit(1);
 } else {
   shell.echo(
-    `Website is live at: https://${ORGANIZATION_NAME}.github.io/${
-      PROJECT_NAME
-    }/`
+    `Website is live at: https://${ORGANIZATION_NAME}.github.io/${PROJECT_PATH}`
   );
   shell.exit(0);
 }