diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 6439f58f5..bedf8e6a6 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -104,6 +104,7 @@ venv.bak/
 # mkdocs documentation
 /site
 /deploy
+.deploy-docs-workdir/
 
 # mypy
 .mypy_cache/
diff --git a/scripts/deploy-docs.sh b/scripts/deploy-docs.sh
index bbe4d9d38..2bbb7a067 100644
--- a/scripts/deploy-docs.sh
+++ b/scripts/deploy-docs.sh
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ VERSION_FULL="${1:?Usage: deploy-docs.sh VERSION_FULL}"
 VERSION_MINOR="${VERSION_FULL%.*}"
 REPO_ROOT="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/.." && pwd)"
 SITE_DIR="${2:-site}"
-DEPLOY_DIR="${3:-deploy}"
+DEPLOY_DIR="${3:-.deploy-docs-workdir}"
 
 cd "$REPO_ROOT"
 mkdir -p "$DEPLOY_DIR"