diff --git a/.github/workflows/gh-pages.yml b/.github/workflows/gh-pages.yml
index e2100cd4b..9a555a9ab 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/gh-pages.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/gh-pages.yml
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ jobs:
 
     - name: Check out repo
       uses: actions/checkout@v2
+      with:
+        fetch-depth: 0
 
     - name: Fetch gh-pages branch
       run: git fetch --no-tags --prune --depth=1 origin refs/heads/gh-pages:refs/heads/gh-pages
diff --git a/scripts/github/update-gh-pages.sh b/scripts/github/update-gh-pages.sh
index 0a0811dec..cf74d1546 100755
--- a/scripts/github/update-gh-pages.sh
+++ b/scripts/github/update-gh-pages.sh
@@ -100,6 +100,20 @@ fi
 # Default to 'master' if no subdir was given and we couldn't parse
 # it
 site_subdir=${site_subdir:-master}
+
+# Check if this ref is for a released version
+if [ "$site_subdir" != "master" ]; then
+    _base_tag=`git describe --abbrev=0 || :`
+    case "$_base_tag" in
+        $site_subdir*)
+            ;;
+        *)
+            echo "Not a released version. Parsed release branch is $site_subdir but based on tag $_base_tag. Stopping here."
+            exit 0
+            ;;
+    esac
+fi
+
 echo "Updating site subdir: '$site_subdir'"
 
 export SITE_DESTDIR="_site/$site_subdir"