How to install an SSL Certificate on your blog

Once your blog is up and running it’s very important that it is set up to work as HTTPS instead of HTTP. The reason for this being that Google will actually give you a ranking BOOST for having an SSL Certificate installed. Another reason to do it is that every modern web browser sees non-https sites as somewhat of a security risk and will show what you see below.

So the only way to avoid all this it to make sure your site prefix is HTTPS and not HTTP and to get that certificate installed!

Here’s an easy to follow guide for you to follow to fix it in a matter of minutes!

I am going to run through this as if your hosting company offers you cPanel for your hosting management. Some companies may offer a different control panel but it will just be a variation on what I show you below.

Once you’ve logged into cPanel look for the logo above, it will normally be found under your Security section. Previously you had to pay for an SSL Certificate on your site, however, LetsEncrypt is a perfectly good FREE solution and is available on 99% of hosting companies so there is no payment needed!

Once you’ve clicked through you will be given the chance to browse for available certificates and can select the LetsEncrypt one from there.

Once you click on Use Certificate you will find the rest of the previous page populates with what looks like gobbledygook but your Certificate is now applied to your domain!

From here we just need to make a small tweak in WordPress which we do via a very simple to use Addon and we are all sorted!

Login to WordPress and go to Plugins > Add New and search for ‘Really Simple SSL’

Once installed just activate the plugin and your entire blog will now be delivered as https.

We aren’t, however, all home and dry just yet. You may find on some of your pages that the padlock vanishes and this is because you are linking to unsecure content. It could be a picture of some kind or even a link to another website which you’ve put in as http:// etc.

There’s a fantastic website you can use called Why No Padlock? where you can submit the page and it will find out any unsecured parts you need to fix!