diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 5d464772e3..911ea7f9a1 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -16,8 +16,7 @@ fsfe.org/search/index.js
 fsfe.org/tags/tagged-*.en.xhtml
 fsfe.org/tags/.tags.??.xml
 # Local build stuff
-output/*
-!output/README.md
+output
 
 ## Status dir stuff
 status.fsfe.org/*/data*/*
diff --git a/build.sh b/build.sh
index b60d82995a..35f8a45294 100755
--- a/build.sh
+++ b/build.sh
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ while [ "$#" -gt 0 ]; do
         ;;
     esac
 done
+mkdir -p ./output
 ./build/build_main.sh "$command" ./output/final --statusdir ./output/final/status.fsfe.org/fsfe.org/data
 if [[ "$serve" ]]; then
     python3 ./serve-websites.py
diff --git a/output/README.md b/output/README.md
deleted file mode 100644
index e9346f5fac..0000000000
--- a/output/README.md
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-# Output
-
-This folder contains the output of the build script when called with default args.