Nowadays, it is unthinkable that your website does not have an SSL certificate, because it offers many advantages, the most important of which is security. Here are some of the most important conveniences:
A secure connection between the browser and the server that processes the request to the website
SEO benefits - search engines favor websites that have such a certificate
If you process personal data or payments, you are required by the GDPR to have such a certificate.
To take advantage of the SSL certificate, you need to activate it for your WordPress website. In this article, we will give you a short step-by-step guide on how to activate SSL in WordpPress quickly and easily.
Obtaining an SSL Certificate
Before we continue with the actual configuration, you need SSL. You can basically achieve this in the following two ways:
Free - Many hosting providers provide their customers, including us at Hosting Jump, with a free certificate from Let's Encrypt. At Hosting Jump - SSL, the free certificate is included with all shared hosting plans and managed services. From the customer's point of view, no further action is required. As soon as the domain name itself correctly points to your hosting account, the system automatically issues an SSL certificate and then renews it.
Paid - You can also purchase paid SSL. The advantage of this is that it is valid for a period of 1 year. There are also special certifications ( EV ) that are required by organizations. There is no free equivalent for these special certificates.
At Hosting Jump we offer Sectigo SSLs as they have proven to be a reliable provider over the years.
How to Enable SSL in WordPress
Once you have obtained an SSL certificate via one of the options listed, you can proceed with the actual activation of SSL in WordPress. Here are the steps to follow:
- Enable https connection
Now that we have SSL, you can also enable the secure https protocol to secure the users' connection to the website. There are two options for this action - installing it via the WordPress admin panel or using an additional plugin.
Manual SSL configuration
Manual configuration is carried out via the WordPress administration panel:
Access the menu in the admin panel -> Settings -> General. Next, you need to change the values in the fields “WordPress Address (URL)” and Site Address (URL)".
We also attach an image for better illustration:
As you can see in the picture, we have set the “protocol "https".
IMPORTANT!!! In some cases this is not sufficient and certain resources will continue to be loaded via the "http" protocol, resulting in so-called mixed content. In this case, we recommend that you also add the following code to your website's .htaccess file:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www. [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(?:www.)?(.+)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^ https://%1%{REQUEST_URI} [L,NE,R=301]
Use an SSL Plugin
In this material, we will use the “Really Simple SSL” plugin.
Install and Activate SSL with the Really Simple SSL Plugin
To do this, it must first be installed via the WordPress admin panel -> Plugins -> Add new plugin. Enter “Really Simple SSL" in the search field, install and activate the plugin:
After activating the plugin, a popup appears with the initial settings. You only need to activate SSL redirect ( 301 ) and the correction for mixed content. Everything else we have as options is not the subject of this thread. If you close the initial popup, you can access the plugin from the admin panel -> Settings -> SSL & Security. Then select the Settings -> SSL tab. The first two options need to be set, namely:
Redirect method -> 301 PHP Redirect
Mixed Content Fixer - Active
How to Check SSL Activation
After you have performed the above actions, you can also perform an additional check to ensure that everything is working correctly. You can use the following options for this purpose:
- Via your browser
Open your website and first check whether it contains any errors. In the bar for writing the website, there is a button in front of the name (domain) of your website. Once you have pressed it, you should see that your website is secure.
If your check shows "SSL certificate pending", wait until the deployment is complete to make sure everything is enabled and working successfully.
- Via external verification
You can use a website like https://www.sslshopper.com/ssl-checker.html for this purpose
When checking, all fields must be marked green, which means that everything is working correctly.
Need Help With SSLs? Hosting Jump Is at Your Service
Do you need an SSL certificate? At Hosting Jump we provide you with a free SSL certificate.
At Hosting Jump we offer a free SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt for each of our hosting accounts. If you want to further increase the security level of your website, we offer you a choice of different plans when purchasing an SSL certificate: https://www.hostingjump.com/ssl-certificates
Conclusion
By opting for SSL or Secure Socket Layer, you ensure an encrypted connection between the hosting server where the website is located and the visitor's browser, providing a higher level of security for your data. This mechanism protects all credit card numbers and personal data. It is particularly important that websites and online stores that work with this type of data guarantee their users security and peace of mind when choosing their website.
In conclusion, we can say that configuring a secure ( https ) connection using SSL is a mandatory step for every single website today and should not be neglected under any circumstances.
