diff --git a/doc/make.jl b/doc/make.jl
index c39539b41176e..5f5986497c922 100644
--- a/doc/make.jl
+++ b/doc/make.jl
@@ -339,7 +339,10 @@ struct BuildBotConfig <: Documenter.DeployConfig end
 Documenter.authentication_method(::BuildBotConfig) = Documenter.HTTPS
 Documenter.authenticated_repo_url(::BuildBotConfig) = "https://github.com/JuliaLang/docs.julialang.org.git"
 function Documenter.deploy_folder(::BuildBotConfig; devurl, repo, branch, kwargs...)
-    haskey(ENV, "DOCUMENTER_KEY") || return Documenter.DeployDecision(; all_ok=false)
+    if !haskey(ENV, "DOCUMENTER_KEY")
+        @info "Unable to deploy the documentation: DOCUMENTER_KEY missing"
+        return Documenter.DeployDecision(; all_ok=false)
+    end
     if Base.GIT_VERSION_INFO.tagged_commit
         # Strip extra pre-release info (1.5.0-rc2.0 -> 1.5.0-rc2)
         ver = VersionNumber(VERSION.major, VERSION.minor, VERSION.patch,
@@ -349,6 +352,11 @@ function Documenter.deploy_folder(::BuildBotConfig; devurl, repo, branch, kwargs
     elseif Base.GIT_VERSION_INFO.branch == "master"
         return Documenter.DeployDecision(; all_ok=true, repo, branch, subfolder=devurl)
     end
+    @info """
+    Unable to deploy the documentation: invalid GIT_VERSION_INFO
+    GIT_VERSION_INFO.tagged_commit: $(Base.GIT_VERSION_INFO.tagged_commit)
+    GIT_VERSION_INFO.branch: $(Base.GIT_VERSION_INFO.branch)
+    """
     return Documenter.DeployDecision(; all_ok=false)
 end
 
@@ -376,12 +384,16 @@ function Documenter.Writers.HTMLWriter.expand_versions(dir::String, v::Versions)
     return Documenter.Writers.HTMLWriter.expand_versions(dir, v.versions)
 end
 
-deploydocs(
-    repo = "github.com/JuliaLang/docs.julialang.org.git",
-    deploy_config = BuildBotConfig(),
-    target = joinpath(buildroot, "doc", "_build", "html", "en"),
-    dirname = "en",
-    devurl = devurl,
-    versions = Versions(["v#.#", devurl => devurl]),
-    archive = get(ENV, "DOCUMENTER_ARCHIVE", nothing),
-)
+if "deploy" in ARGS
+    deploydocs(
+        repo = "github.com/JuliaLang/docs.julialang.org.git",
+        deploy_config = BuildBotConfig(),
+        target = joinpath(buildroot, "doc", "_build", "html", "en"),
+        dirname = "en",
+        devurl = devurl,
+        versions = Versions(["v#.#", devurl => devurl]),
+        archive = get(ENV, "DOCUMENTER_ARCHIVE", nothing),
+    )
+else
+    @info "Skipping deployment ('deploy' not passed)"
+end