diff --git a/lib/prepare/resolveOptions.js b/lib/prepare/resolveOptions.js
index 76fa2fcc78..540876c039 100644
--- a/lib/prepare/resolveOptions.js
+++ b/lib/prepare/resolveOptions.js
@@ -106,7 +106,13 @@ module.exports = async function resolveOptions (sourceDir) {
   const markdown = createMarkdown(siteConfig)
 
   // resolve pageFiles
-  const pageFiles = sort(await globby(['**/*.md', '!.vuepress', '!node_modules'], { cwd: sourceDir }))
+  const files = ['**/*.md', '!.vuepress', '!node_modules']
+  if (siteConfig.dest) {
+    // exclude dest folder from pageFiles
+    const outDirRelative = path.relative(sourceDir, outDir)
+    files.push('!' + outDirRelative)
+  }
+  const pageFiles = sort(await globby(files, { cwd: sourceDir }))
 
   // resolve lastUpdated
   const shouldResolveLastUpdated = (