Most secure websites today are SSL certified. An SSL certification develops customer trust which in turn makes visitors stay longer on your website.
If your website has provisions for logins, data transfer, card transactions, and stores other user-sensitive information, obtaining an SSL certificate is a must. As a business, you would not want to lose competition over a certificate.
Here’s how you can obtain an SSL certificate for your WordPress website.
Eligibility
This isn’t going to be a long list. As long as you are a legitimate website owner, things will work pretty smooth for you. Give or take – the following are the criteria you should adhere/comply with before applying for an SSL certification:
- A registered domain if you are looking for a public SSL certification
- Eligible hosting plan –
There are several plans for dedicated server hosting and other hosting that are not eligible to apply for an SSL certificate. So, do check with your hosting company whether you can install an SSL certificate with your hosting Plan.
Secure vs. Unsecure Connection – Difference
Take a look at what an SSL certificate will make your website look like.
Figure 1 – How a secure connection is displayed
This definitely looks better than this.
Figure 2 – An unsecure connection
Thus, with a secure connection, visitors are likely to stay longer and will not shy away from making transactions.
For a more detailed insight into why you need SSL certificates click here.
Obtaining an SSL certificate
Step 1: Log on to a website providing SSL certificate, you can choose from the list of options on our website.
In this tutorial, we will obtain the same from Cloudfare.
This is the Cloudfare homepage.
Step 2: Sign Up & Add your site
Signup on Cloudfare and fill in your email id and the password you want.
The following screen will come next.
Type in your domain and click add site.
Step 3: Select the free plan & generate new nameservers
The next screen will prompt you to select a plan. Choose the free one.
After you click on the confirm a plan, click “Continue” on the next screen.
What pops up next will look something like this.
For security reasons we have masked the nameservers with ‘#’ symbols.
Note: Do not close Cloudfare. We will need to tweak a few more settings later.
Step 4: Add name servers to your domain
To do this login to your domain provider’s website.
You can alternatively click on ‘I need help changing my nameservers” to know your domain provider.
Since we have a GoDaddy server, we logged in to our GoDaddy account.
Once you login to your GoDaddy account, scroll down to the icon from where you can change nameservers.
Click DNS and in the next screen scroll down to Nameservers.
A new screen will pop up as soon as you click change.
You can now proceed with the change in nameservers and click “save”.
Step 5: Install the Cloudfare plugin to your WordPress
Login to your WordPress and click on plugins.
Now you need to search for “Cloudfare flexible SSL” in the plugin search box.
In the below screen you can see the plugin listed.
Install the plugin by clicking on “Install Now”.
Once installed, the “Install Now” button will quickly change to “activate”. Click it.
You are now done with WordPress.
Step 6: Enable SSL in Cloudfare.
Get back to your Cloudfare where you last left. You probably left it here
You will be moved to the Cloudfare dashboard.
Click on “crypto” and scroll down to “Always use HTTPS”.
Turn it on.
Done. By now a lock icon has probably appeared in your website’s address bar.
Hurray. Your site is now secured with HTTPS. Plus, you have an SSL certificate.
